Maybe a beach house wasn’t where you expected to learn of California’s Chumash Indians, through displays stacked up in the spotlighted interiors of a car garage. But that’s precisely what you’re in for when visiting the Adamson House and Malibu Lagoon Museum. For the longest time, the site was really just the Adamson House, a stunning villa from the 30s caught between Surfrider and Malibu Lagoon State Beach.

With no claimant past the 70s, the house took to telling a tale of Malibu’s roots instead, uncovering the story of the Chumash who once number in tens of thousands along the Californian Coast. To Malibu’s newcomers, it serves up Malibu’s icons in an unexpected perspective such as Malibu highway’s legal tussle with the court and the glazed pottery it was once famous for. But don’t just stop at the villa’s garage. Wander through the bedrooms and the kitchens, flagstone front garden and landscaped walkways. The rooms and corridors speak of a close-knit family exuding warmth, their lingering presence still apparent in the layout of the furniture. Each space has a different tiled masterpiece to boast of, an ode to the Moorish and Spanish styles of architecture. Climbing up to the wide patio, take a lungful of the clear ocean air, simply admiring the atmosphere and intricate wonder of the location.