Title supplied by cataloger. Piru is a census-designated small town situated near the base of the Piru Mountains, where Piru Creek empties into the Santa Clara River, at the upper end of the Santa Clara Valley. The Tataviam Indians originally inhabited this area, which they named for the tule reeds growing along Piru Creek that they used to weave baskets. Originally pronounced "Peeroo", the accent was changed by train conductors who would shout "Pieroo" when coming into town. David Caleb Cook, a publisher of religious books from Illinois, was attracted to this area after reading Helen Jackson Hunt's "Ramona" and came to this valley with the idea of establishing a "Second Garden of Eden". Cook purchased Rancho Temescal from the Del Valle family in 1887, which was a 14,000-acre portion of Rancho Camulos, and proceeded to establish his idyllic town. He planted over 900 acres of fruits identified with the Biblical garden - apricots, dates, figs, grapes, olives and pomegranates. Prior to this, entrepreneurs in the region had begun extracting oil from the ground as early as the mid 1800s. This unrefined oil was a thick, sticky substance called asphaltum that was used to surface roads and seal roofs. By the 1880s, almost all of the State's oil production came from this region. Cook eventually sold his property to the Piru Oil and Land Company and returned to his publishing business in Illinois. The town of Piru grew little by little, but unfortunately never became the "Second Garden of Eden" Cook had hoped for. Adding insult to injury, on March 12, 1928, the St. Francis Dam broke, sending a torrent of water through the Santa Clara River Valley, causing the deaths of 400 people, many in Piru. As of the 2000 census, population was 1,196. David C. Cook was a strict Methodist and a devoutly religious publisher of Methodist Sunday School tracts in Elgin, Ill. In 1887, soon after his arrival to Piru, Cook provided for construction of Piru Methodist Church. The church, which still stands on the north side of Center Street and the corner of Park, just west of Main, was built in a classic Carpenter Gothic style. It contains a rare pip organ (visible behind the pulpit), possibly the oldest pipe organ in California, said to have been built between 1860-1865 by William Johnson in Westfield, Mass. and shipped around Cape Horn. The original address of Piru Methodist Church was listed as 227 Center Street; the current address is listed as 3875 Center Street. It is Ventura County Historical Landmark #51. Photograph dated: August 1980.
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Image
Format
1 photographic print :b&w ;21 x 26 cm. Photographic prints
Piru Methodist Church (Ventura County, Calif.) Organ (Musical instrument)--California--Ventura County Architecture, Domestic--California--Ventura County Architecture, Gothic--California--Ventura County Church architecture--California--Ventura County Methodist church buildings--California--Ventura County Church buildings--California--Ventura County Johnson, William Cook, David C.(David Caleb),1850-1927 Ventura County (Calif.)
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