Engineering the Past: The Martin & Associates Collection

Map of portion of Lot 5 on Rancho Calleguas, showing the Adolfo Camarillo Ranch House

“The built environment touches all aspects of our lives, encompassing the buildings we live in, the distribution systems that provide us with water and electricity, and the roads, bridges, and transportation systems we use to get from place to place.”

United States Environmental Protection Agency

Between 1920 and 1930, Ventura County’s population increased by 91%, from 28,724 to 54,976. The infrastructure and housing needs of the county soared too. To meet the new demand, the county needed civil engineers. Civil engineers contribute to safe roads, bridges, dams, airports, sewage systems, pipelines, electricity structures, buildings, housing, and more.

Beginning in late 2022, the Museum of Ventura County launched a yearlong project to catalog the records of one of the county’s longest-serving civil engineering firms. These never-before-seen records include maps, drawings, and documents of residential, commercial, and government land and buildings. They tell the story of the growth and development of Ventura County from the 1920s-2013, when the population grew from 28,724 to 838,136 – growth of 2817%!

To browse the online collection, Click Here

Funding for this project was provided in part by a National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC) Access to Historical Records Grant (RH-103424) awarded to the Museum of Ventura County. Funding also provided by the County of Ventura and private donors.