The Street Seen: California Heritage Museum
The Street Seen: California Heritage Museum
2612 Main Street @ Ocean Park
The Roy Jones House formerly located at the corner of Ocean Avenue and Washington Avenue, is moved in 1977 to its present location where it and the Trask - Kyte house form Heritage Square on the south west corner of Main St and Ocean Park Blvd.
The California Heritage Museum is located in the First Roy Jones House.1 The house was built in 1894 for Roy Jones (1869 – 1947)2 - the son of Senator John Percival Jones (1829 - 1912) and his first wife Hannah Cornelia Conger Jones (1836 - 1871).
Originally located at 1007 Ocean Ave, one of Sumner P. Hunt's earliest surviving buildings, the house is designed in a style in transition from the elaborate Victorian Queen Anne Revival to the simpler American Colonial or Georgian Revival style. The house was sold to retired Utah hotelman Gustavus Sinclair Holmes (1857 – 1935) in 1903. Homes lived in it until the mid-1930s. Later, the residence was converted into a rooming house and allowed to deteriorate. It was saved from demolition and relocated to its current site in 1977, and designated as a City Landmark in 1979. Photographs of the Jones family and the moving of the house to Main St are among the museum’s permanent exhibits.
Today it houses a museum of American fine arts and crafts with exhibitions that promote the history and cultures of the people that comprise our California community.
In front of the museum is a bronze bust of Senator John Percival Jones and on a rock, a bronze plaque memorial to four Masons involved in the early history of Ocean Park.
The adjacent Victorian building was also saved from demolition and moved from Ocean Avenue in 1977. Both buildings are City-owned on City land. The California Heritage Museum, a not-for-profit 501 (c) (3) organization, leases the property from the City.
The Second Roy Jones house, built in 1907, was the first property on Adelaide Drive. The house was designed by his brother-in-law and noted architect Robert Farquhar.
Roy Jones (1869 – 1947)
Son of Senator John Percival Jones. Founder and officer of the Bank of Santa Monica. Jones worked on the City Charter and was influential in the early economic and political development of the City. R.F. Jones and Roy Jones formed Santa Monica Land Company. Jones helped organize the Ramina Corporation developer in northern and southern California. Married Pauline Williamson in NYC 1893. Son Gregory Jones (1894 – 1978) and daughter Dorothy Jones Reynold Boden (1895 – 1985).