Leonis Adobe Museum - Calabasas, California

Bardi B.

Today 04/06/25 we visited museum and a traditional house built with brick. The most impressive part was how cool it felt inside, even though the temperature outside was very high. It was a great experience, and I highly recommend this place to anyone who wants to visit. Its open only Saturday or Sundays certain hours.

Carlo N.

The Leonis Adobe House (est 1844) is a historic adobe museum and one of the oldest surviving pvt residences in the SF Valley. Admission is free, however, they accept donation of $5 bucks. We were greeted by one of the docent staff. Our female docent, Molly, gave a tour of the house. She was informative and affable.

The story begins with Miguel Leonis, a French immigrant, who refashioned the house into the two-story dwelling with wraparound exterior balcony. He shared it with his Chumash/Tongva Native American wife, Espiritu, and their daughter, Marcelina. He was illiterate albeit naturally gifted in business that eventually became a landowner. He owned 18,000 acres of land across So Cal.

The museum is only open on Weekends. They have free parking lot. Overall, I had a very good experience and learned a lot from the docent. I highly recommend you visit.

Stacey C.

I went as a chaperone with my kid’s class and it was very educational and interactive! There were lots of stations where the kids got to be hands on and experience a little bit of the chores that the kids used to be responsible for on the ranch. Shoutout to Hillary for being an excellent guide

Victoria L.

This place has an awful staff! If your school is planning a field trip to this place, please stay away and save your kids from tears and bad experience in general! The staff is VERY RUDE to kids! Kids were looking forward to this field trip but some ended up crying! The tour guide was consistently rude and impatient calling some kids names such as “lazy”, and “big mouth.” I always wanted to visit this cute museum but after what my daughter experienced today, will definitely pass.

Weshoyot A.

Beautifully kept grounds with docents both knowledgeable and eager to answer questions. The front part housing items belonging to the family are well displayed and kept for with nicely done and informative signage. The house tour was excellent and the rooms have been well kept and curated. The docent who led my tour was knowledgeable about the family, the history of the land and house and was able to answer my numerous questions. (I have done much research into those who lived in the house, their lives and the history associated with the families and the era, so I came with more specific questions and was happy to have the docent engage with my interests) . It is wonderful for a history buff, someone interested in early CA history or even city history. I could also see the broader museum very engaging for kids and young adults as there are numerous areas to explore and live animals which are kept very well. Overall I would recomend and plan to return with my family. I would also recomend the content available on YouTube, where the museums historian goes into great detail on items available to see when you visit.

Michael M.

Had a great visit here. Grounds are well-maintained and have plenty of interesting artifacts. Super friendly docents are happy to show you around and share their knowledge. A great snapshot of how Basque immigration intersected with the Native original caretakers of this land. Pro tip: parking is free, but the guy sitting at the street entrance won't tell you that. In fact, he will be happy to take a tip for himself out of your change if you hand him a twenty. Driver beware.

Brianna K.

I was very unhappy with how the guides at this museum treated my students. In particular, there was one group guide that excluded students from participating in all the activities. On top of that she was rude to the students by calling them names such as “big mouth” and “lazy”. I would sure hope that in the future, this guide will be more aware of the words and impact she is having on how she educates and guides students.

Nadia S.

My child came here for her school trip. She attends a gifted school and all the kids are great kids. During the trip, the guide at the museum called out two of the 4th grade girls for talking. Rather than asking them not to talk or to wait to have conversation she pointedly humiliated and shamed them publicly by calling them out in front of everyone and saying they were lazy and not good kids. She made the two girls cry.
I get it if kids are being disrespectful and it’s frustrating but publicly shaming a child in front of their class is no way to handle the situation. There are much more enriching and fun places these kids can visit and we plan to lobby our school to not go back next year.