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A Short History of Yucca Cottage Oliver, Grace
1973 Letter written to Shelton Gordon regarding
BY MUSEUM CURATOR, PEGGY RONNING
Grace Oliver's acquisition and operation of the Antelope
Valley Indian Museum. August 15, 1973. Document on
The kitchen of Yucca Cottage was constructed file at Antelope Valley Indian Museum, Lancaster,
by the museum's first owner Howard Arden California.
Edwards. It appears in photographs of the
museum complex dating to the 1930s, and it Excerpt from the Museum Docent
may be one of the cottages or outbuildings Chants newsletter, August 1987
listed on Edwards' final proof testimony for his
homestead claim in 1933. This April [1987], a Minnesota couple, Russ and
Clarice Olsen, walked onto the museum
grounds (someone had obligingly left the gate
unlocked). Jack [Atkinson, the museum
caretaker] spotted them and was ready to send
them on their way until he heard this story:
In April, 1954, Clarice had driven out to the
Antelope Valley from Minnesota in her old
Kaiser [automobile] to be married to the young
Russ at Edwards Air Force Base where he was
stationed. They were housed in a very hot
Quonset hut! As the: summer drew nearer, not
· suffe~ing-in sileAG:et ClaFice-scanned the "for
rent" ads and eventually found an interesting
Yucca Cottage in the 19.30s
one to discuss with Russ. The ad described a
(Photo courtesy of Elaine Fetterman) cottage on private grounds in the desert, with
a pool for $75 per month, contact Grace
In 1944, the museum's second owner, Grace Oliver!
Oliver, hired Gordon Gain to renovate Yucca
and Joshua Cottages and construct four new Russ agreed; Clarice phoned; they moved and
cottages in the museum complex. Gordon Gain lived in Yucca (Docent) Cottage for three
added the sitting room, bedroom, and months that summer. They sunned on the
bathroom to Yucca Cottage. The Gain family buttes, splashed in the pool and had a terrific
lived at the museum from 1944 to 1946 during three-month honeymoon at Grace's oasis in the
the construction. shadow of the present AVIM!
In November 1944, Oliver hired museum Jack loved their story and took them through
founder H. A. Edwards to paint the cottages the museum - changed but still unchanged in
and the murals on the exterior of the museum. many ways, so the Olsens remarked. They had
Edwards was in residence at Joshua Cottage enjoyed Grace's stories and remembered Joe
(Casa de la Rosa) from November 1944 through Oliver driving a tractor on the property and
the end of December 1945 to comptete the doing handyman kind of work.
painting. Therefore, Yucca Cottage was
probably completed in 1945. The Olsens had almost given up finding that
honeymoon cottage until a kind librarian in
References: Littlerock gave them a map to the AVIM. We' re
Gain-Martin, Lorraine glad Sam [Jack's ferocious guard dog] wasn't
2009 Memories from the Mid-1940s. Unpublished loose! Thanks for the story, Jack!
manuscript on file at Antelope Valley Indian Museum,
Lancaster, California.
