Arroyo Seco Historic Parkway - Route 110
Lummis House, CA

The Lummis House was the home of Charles Lummis, noted scholar, author, intellectual, and father of the Arroyo Culture. The Lummis House and Museum offers tours and educational workshops on the Arts and Crafts movement.

Lummis built this small home over a period of twelve years around the end of the nineteenth century. The house is constructed out of concrete and native materials such as Arroyo boulders, providing an excellent glimpse of what many early California homes were like. The gardens are used to showcase the native plant materials of Southern California, a hallmark of Arts and Crafts appreciation of local materials and resources. The house also features personal items, original furnishings, and an interpretive native California landscape.

In addition to educating about the Arts and Crafts movement, the Lummis house reveals insights into the story of Lummis himself. Lummis was a Harvard graduate devoted to poetry. But, Lummis was also an adventurist, and once walked all the way to California from Ohio, recording his observations as pieces for the LA Times. Lummis became a tireless promoter of the bounties of Southern California; he also began the Landmarks Club of Southern California and the Southwest Museum.