It is operated as a house museum by the Historical Society of Centinela Valley, and it is one of the 43 surviving adobes within Los Angeles County, California.

In the early 1830s, Ygnacio Machado, son of one of the "leather jacket soldiers" who escorted the original settlers of Los Angeles, began cultivating a portion of the rancho.

When a drought led to the death of 22,000 head of his sheep, Freeman turned to growing barley, and he eventually was producing a million barrels a year.

[6] Freeman amassed a fortune farming barley, olives, lemons, limes, and almonds on the ranch and named his expansive land holding Inglewood, after his birthplace in Ontario.

[1] In 1887, the California Central Railway laid tracks to Redondo Beach, and Freeman sold off 11,000 acres (45 km2) in small parcels as a settlement that became the city of Inglewood.

Preservation-minded citizens raised money to purchase the property in 1950 and deeded it to City of Inglewood, which still maintains the adobe through the Parks and Recreation Department.

In a 2001 profile of the museum in 2001, the Los Angeles Times wrote:"The long, low, white stucco adobe with its porch and shingle roof looks as if it is sitting right in the middle of the 19th Century.

It's really a kind of time warp: the telltale sign of a modern metropolis on one side and the oldest home in the Centinela Valley on the other-still serene, still peaceful amid lawns, shrubs and shade trees.

Items on display in the research center include Freeman's library, safe, and furniture, as well as articles and photos about the history of Centinela Valley.