Children Visit Unearthed Ruins of Historic Adobe

A group of schoolchildren got a real-life history lesson Thursday as they visited archeologists who have unearth a portion of a historic adobe’s foundation at Campo de Cahuenga.

The ruins are beneath a parking lot next to a Metropolitan Transportation Authority Red Line subway station that is being built on Lankershim Boulevard across from Universal Studios.

Historians hired by the MTA believe the adobe is where an 1847 peace agreement was signed ending the Mexican-American War in California.

So far, archeologists have uncovered the original rocks used in the foundation, pottery shards and nails, MTA officials said. The exposed remains will be documented before the site is covered over. There are no city funds or plans to permanently display the adobe foundation.

About 80 children from the East Valley YMCA in Van Nuys and Burbank Boulevard Elementary School in North Hollywood were invited to the site Thursday by transportation officials and historical preservationists.

The young visitors listened to historical presentations about Los Angeles’ earliest settlers. Speakers inspired Octavia Johnson, 12, to think about researching her roots.

“I’m going to ask my mother about our family history,” she said. “And maybe go to the library.”

Research has confirmed that the adobe was the site where Mexican Gen. Andres Pico and American Lt. Col. John C. Fremont signed the accord ending the U.S. conquest of California on Jan. 13, 1847.

For years, the structure was known as the Don Tomas Feliz Adobe and was believed to date to 1845. Archeologists, however, say new information indicates that the adobe is older than that.