Adobe Tree Planting to Honor Volunteer

The San Fernando City Council has approved plans for a tree planting to honor to Lopez Adobe volunteer curator Carolyn Riggs, who died in February.

The effort was brought before the council by Ed Montan, director of the San Fernando Recreation and Community Services Department, who said one of the local historian’s last wishes was to see a pine tree planted in front of the adobe and lighted during the Christmas season.

Riggs was a member of both the San Fernando Historical Site and Preservation Commission and the San Fernando Valley Historical Society.

“I don’t know what motivated her to do what she did,” Montan said, “but Riggs was definitely motivated to preserve California history.”

During her time as curator, Riggs compiled a collection of the late pioneer resident and historian Ethelwynne Fraisher’s photographs and negatives of early California days.

The two-story adobe was built in the 1880s by Valentin Lopez for his sister Catalina and her husband, Geronimo. Valentin was major-domo of the San Fernando Mission and an early settler of the Valley.

In 1997 the structure was reopened to the public after $200,000 worth of repairs to damage from the 1994 Northridge quake. Much of that work was supervised by Riggs. Jim Gulbranson will be appointed the adobe’s new volunteer curator at next week’s City Council meeting.

Riggs, 91, had been a volunteer at the Lopez Adobe for 30 years.

A commemorative plaque will also be erected. No date has been set for the memorial.