Went to visit the Banning Museum in Wilmington, CA this afternoon. Wilmington is an unimpressive area of land to the west of long beach, and north of terminal island and San Pedro. It’s mostly refineries and industrial shipping. Not pretty. 

Phineas Banning was instrumental in the Port of Los Angeles. He got the rail service extended to the coast, and constructed the breakwater that made establishing a port much easier. Until that time, ships had to anchor a ways off, then row onto shore and load slowly from there. You can read about the process in Richard Henry Dana’s Two Years Before the Mast, where he describes in minute detail what San Pedro was like in the mid 1830’s. Banning arrived in LA in 1851, just after CA was admitted as a state in 1850.

It’s one of these local historical places that is easy to overlook when you live in a place, but decided to go see it. Unfortunately, we were not allowed to take pictures inside the house, which was really a bummer. But here are few photos from outside, the visitors’ center, and one inside the barn featuring some of his carriages. He had a stage coach line that he used for delivering products from the port inland.