{"id":3928,"date":"2007-09-16T01:09:48","date_gmt":"2007-09-16T01:09:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogschapman.wpenginepowered.com\/huell-howser-archives\/2009\/01\/14\/lopez-hill-house-californias-gold-11015\/"},"modified":"2026-08-10T21:36:39","modified_gmt":"2026-08-10T21:36:39","slug":"lopez-hill-house-californias-gold-11015","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.chapman.edu\/huell-howser-archives\/2007\/09\/16\/lopez-hill-house-californias-gold-11015\/","title":{"rendered":"Lopez-Hill House &#8211; California&#039;s Gold (11015)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: left;\">J.J. Lopez, the longtime manager of the Tejon Ranch who helped shape Kern County&#8217;s history, built his Victorian-style home in Bakersfield in 1909. In the 1960s, the home was occupied by Arlin and Lavern Hill, who migrated from Oklahoma after the devastating effects of the Dust Bowl. Now, this long-overlooked California landmark has finally been renovated and preserved thanks to local fundraising efforts. Huell meets the descendants of the Lopez and Hill families, who share their story of how their house was moved to its permanent location at the Kern County Museum in Bakersfield.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">Kern County Museum<br \/>\n3801 Chester Avenue<br \/>\nBakersfield, CA 93301<br \/>\n(661) 852-5000<br \/>\nwww.kcmuseum.org<\/p>\n<div style=\"text-align: left;\"><em>Note: This episode was released across Public Broadcasting Service&#8217;s (PBS) affiliated stations in California, but not necessarily on the same day for each station. The date shown represents the earliest, approximate airdate for this episode.<br \/>\n<\/em><\/div>\n<div>&nbsp;<\/div>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Embedded Media titled: GOLD11015_lopez_upd\" src=\"https:\/\/video.chapman.edu\/V\/Video?v=9895750&amp;node=43363988&amp;a=103299936&amp;preload=false\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>J.J. Lopez, the longtime manager of the Tejon Ranch who helped shape Kern County&#8217;s history, built his Victorian-style home in [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":99,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"custom_author_name":"","chapman_pin_hero_slider":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[3650,3651,1134,2996,3652,3653,3654,3001],"class_list":["post-3928","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-californias-gold","tag-3650","tag-arlin-hill","tag-bakersfield","tag-j-j-lopez","tag-kern-county-museum","tag-lavern-hill","tag-oklahoma","tag-tejon-ranch"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Huell Howser Archives at Chapman University | Chapman Blogs<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.chapman.edu\/huell-howser-archives\/2007\/09\/16\/lopez-hill-house-californias-gold-11015\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Lopez-Hill House - California&#039;s Gold (11015) - Huell Howser Archives at Chapman University\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"J.J. Lopez, the longtime manager of the Tejon Ranch who helped shape Kern County&#8217;s history, built his Victorian-style home in [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/blogs.chapman.edu\/huell-howser-archives\/2007\/09\/16\/lopez-hill-house-californias-gold-11015\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Huell Howser Archives at Chapman University\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2007-09-16T01:09:48+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-08-10T21:36:39+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Daniel Noah\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Daniel Noah\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.chapman.edu\\\/huell-howser-archives\\\/2007\\\/09\\\/16\\\/lopez-hill-house-californias-gold-11015\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.chapman.edu\\\/huell-howser-archives\\\/2007\\\/09\\\/16\\\/lopez-hill-house-californias-gold-11015\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Daniel Noah\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.chapman.edu\\\/huell-howser-archives\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/84804bc05fcfde0aefdcd474b118e699\"},\"headline\":\"Lopez-Hill House &#8211; California&#039;s Gold (11015)\",\"datePublished\":\"2007-09-16T01:09:48+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-08-10T21:36:39+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.chapman.edu\\\/huell-howser-archives\\\/2007\\\/09\\\/16\\\/lopez-hill-house-californias-gold-11015\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":149,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.chapman.edu\\\/huell-howser-archives\\\/#organization\"},\"keywords\":[\"1909\",\"Arlin Hill\",\"Bakersfield\",\"J.J. 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