Phillips Mansion

The Phillips Mansion was built in 1875 by Louis Phillips (c. 1830 - 1900). Phillips was born Louis Galefsky to a Jewish family in Prussia (now Kempen, Poland) and moved to California in the early 1850s, changing his name to Phillips. He moved to Spadra (now part of Pomona) in 1862 and began engaging in sheep herding and cattle raising. In 1864, he purchased of the old Rancho San Jose for $30,000. The Times noted that Phillips was worth "not a dollar less than $3,000,000" and stated that, in addition to his land holdings in Los Angeles, he had a ranch that produced wool, honey and wheat. ==Architecture of the house==

The Phillips Mansion was built in 1875 at a cost of over $20,000. It was built with ceilings and six fireplaces. Another writer noted that it "looks as if it had been lifted bodily from the tree-lined street of a midwestern county seat," the "kind of house the banker of such a town would build for himself." The interior of the mansion is finished in cherry and maple wood that was hauled by horse and wagon from San Pedro. • The first home fitted with gas lighting; ==History==

Rancho San Jose The property on which the Phillips Mansion was built is part of the 22,000 acre Rancho San Jose land grant awarded in 1837 by Gov. Juan B. Alvarado to Ricardo Vejar and Ygnacio Palomares. Phillips was one of the local land promoters (along with Garey, Holt and Towne) who laid out the town of Pomona in the summer of 1875. The new community was named after the goddess of fruit trees. Phillips also became postmaster for the Spadra area, At that time, the property consisted of the house and with of frontage on Pomona Boulevard. At that time, the property consisted of the house and of citrus, and the Los Angeles Times reported that the home had never been remodeled. At that time, the Historical Society of Pomona Valley, led by Fred W. Sharp, began a campaign to save the old mansion. Title to the mansion was later transferred to the City of Pomona, In 1981, a time capsule containing handmade bricks and squared nails from the Phillips Mansion was buried at the entrance to a master-planned community called "Phillips Ranch." The community consists of 3,000 new single-family homes and was built on the site of Louis Phillips' ranch. The Phillips Mansion was damaged in the February 1990 Upland earthquake and the June 1991 Sierra Madre earthquake. The earthquakes caused the mansion's chimney to topple and resulted in cracks throughout the structure. The house was reopened on a limited basis for tours in October 1991, though visitors were required to wear hard hats. but the Mansion is now open for events and tours. ==See also==