Union Oil Company Building

No state plaque stands; the bronze on the building is the city of Santa Paula's gift to the company for its fiftieth birthday in 1940. Union Oil was founded in this office in October 1890 and kept a field office here after its headquarters moved to Los Angeles in 1900; the building has housed an oil museum since 1950. The company the city congratulated went on to own Platform A, the rig off Santa Barbara whose blowout in January 1969 fouled the coast and helped launch the modern environmental movement.

What the plaque says

Birthplace of Union Oil Company of California Founded October 17, 1890 Presented by the City of Santa Paula, California to Union Oil Company of California In commemoration of the Company's 50 Years of Service to the West August Twenty-Four, Nineteen Hundred Forty

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Mentryville and Pico Canyon — 26 mi
  A company town in a canyon, and a mile and a half further up the road, the well that started the California oil industry.
• Leonis Adobe — 28 mi
  Miguel Leonis left his estate to relatives in France and called Espíritu Chijulla his housekeeper; she spent sixteen years proving in court that she was his wife.

More markers nearby

• Portolá Expedition — 0.5 mi
• Sycamore Tree — 4.3 mi
• Olivas Adobe — 13 mi
• San Buenaventura Mission Aqueduct — 13 mi