The Ranch House at Rancho Los Alamitos Historic Ranch and Gardens is a place for all time. Between 1804 and 1833, in the Spanish or Mexican era, the Nieto family built a four-room adobe on the hilltop in what is now Long Beach, California for their vaqueros and help. The adobe-core ranch house evolved over two centuries. Beginning in 1842, owner Abel Stearns brought his New England traditions to the adobe, adding wood floors and siding, gabled roofs and a north wing bunk house. When John and Susan Bixby moved to the site in 1878, they transformed the adobe’s crumbling remains into a Victorian home. Fred and Florence Bixby expanded the Ranch House again in the early 20th century, extending the south wing, adding a front porch and second floor, and decorating in the regional style of the time. Filled with southwestern motifs and art, native baskets, as well as impressionist art and collectible glass, the Ranch House evokes a sense of place where others have come before.