Ventura County Landmark No. 36: Union Oil Company Building (aka Oil Museum)
Historical Background
This office building was the first headquarters of Union Oil Company. Built in 1890, it is built primarily in the Queen Anne style with Italianate influences. Unocal opened a small museum in the building in 1950. In 1990, the company, in observance of its centennial anniversary, spent $2.5 million to restore the building and enlarge the museum. The building has ten fireplaces, no two alike, and three walk-in vaults.
For over 130 years, the former Union Oil Company of California headquarters has been a major historic building that not only defines the town’s aesthetics but also serves as a cultural and economic anchor to businesses of all types in downtown Santa Paula (City of Santa Paula, 2023). During the property’s period of significance, Ventura County’s petroleum and associated industries were one of the primary sources of employment in the county; only agriculture was as important to the economic development of the county during this time (Kung, 2022).
California Oil Museum
Since 1993, Union Oil Company of California has leased its former headquarters and adjacent properties to the City of Santa Paula to operate the California Oil Museum (City of Santa Paula, 2023). The City has been responsible for facility repairs and maintenance while the museum was run by the California Oil Museum Foundation, a small nonprofit organization dedicated to sharing the historical importance of the pioneering petroleum industry and its impact on the initial development of the region (City of Santa Paula, 2023).
The California Oil Museum tells the story of the rich history of the industries that created wealth, work, and prosperity for generations of Californians (California Oil Museum, n. d.). The museum highlights the inner workings of the state’s pioneering petroleum industry through interactive displays, videos, working models, games, photographs, restored gas station memorabilia, and an authentic turn-of-the-century cable-tool drilling rig (California Oil Museum, n. d.)
Visitors can stroll through time to see how Native Americans used natural oil seeps, the first steps of what would become California’s oil boom, watch a miniature drilling rig bore into the earth, and explore the memorable brands of gas marketed to early California drivers (California Oil Museum, n. d.) Housed in the original Union Oil Company building, the museum offers docent-led tours of the upstairs where restored offices from the 1890’s provide visitors with a personal, hands-on experience of the early California oil business. Visitors can enjoy one of the largest displays of vintage gas pumps and petroliana in California (California Oil Museum, n. d.)
As a result of financial hardships caused by the pandemic, the California Oil Museum Foundation closed the museum in September 2021. Chevron, through its affiliate Union Oil Company of California, has offered to donate the former headquarters of Union Oil Company of California to the City of Santa Paula (City of Santa Paula, 2023). The donation would include buildings and a parking lot currently used by the California Oil Museum located near the corner of Main Street and 10th Street, a $2 million grant to enable the City to perform deferred maintenance, and select memorabilia displayed in the museum (City of Santa Paula, 2023).
Additional Reading
References
California Oil Museum (n. d.). “About the Museum.” https://www.caoilmuseum.org/about.
City of Santa Paula (2023). “Union Oil Building.” https://spcity.org/707/Union-Oil-Building.
Kung, Laura Taylor and Shannon Davis, M.A., RPH (October 2022). Phase I Historic Resources Report for the Edgington Oxnard Refinery, Oxnard, Ventura County, California.
Date Designated: December 1977
Location: 1003 East Main Street, Santa Paula
Photos:
