About the Maloofs
Their Home, Sam's Furniture, and the Foundation
Who were Sam and Alfreda?
Sam grew up in Chino CA, the child of struggling immigrant parents from the Middle East, and became one of America's best-known furniture makers.
Alfreda and Sam met and married after Sam served in WWII. She gave up her art career to manage Sam's business, and more importantly, kept encouraging him to continue when the business was making little progress. Alfreda also included Sam in her lifelong friendships with the Pueblo Indians she worked with in the 1930s,
Click HERE to learn their story and how their home became a unique architectural landmark.
Click HERE for Sam's curriculum vitae.
The Foundation
The 210 freeway threatened the Maloof home, which was on the National Register of Historic Places. To preserve the home, a foundation was formed which continues to preserve the home and make it open to the public. Learn about the Foundation and its many activities and programs HERE.
Click HERE for videos about the Maloof Teen program.
Click HERE for videos about the site's relationship to the native Tongva people.
The site
The Maloof Foundation campus is set at the base of the San Gabriel mountains in the Alta Loma neighborhood of Rancho Cucamonga, just two miles off the 210 freeway.
It contains Sam and Alfreda's historic home (open for public tours), Sam's workshop (still a working woodshop), the Jacob's Education Center holding art and craft exhibits, and the archive building housing parts of Sam and Alfreda's collection. All set in five and a half acres of native and other Mediterranean zone water-wise gardens.
Sam and Alfreda's historic home
The Maloofs started with an 800 square foot shoebox of a stucco home. Then Sam gradually added on, added features, added artistic touches, and created perhaps his single most ambitious and beautiful project of all.
Recognized by the National Register of Historic Places and by the Los Angeles chapter of the American Institute of Architects, their home is a stunning work of art.
Click HERE for a 360 virtual tour.
Click HERE to see the changing floor plan and features as the home grew from 1951 to 2000.