Wealthy New Englander Frederick Rindge, familiar to us for his vast land holdings in Malibu, came to California in 1892 looking for a ‘farm near the ocean under the lee of the mountains, a trout brook, wild trees, a lake, good soil and excellent climate.’ He could have been describing the splendid 588 acres of scrub and riparian forest in the Santa Monica Mountains in Calabasas just north of Malibu. For 80 years, this serene stretch of the mountains that lies in the valley between Las Virgenes Canyon and Mulholland Highway has belonged to an assortment of wealthy entrepreneurs, Hollywood tycoons, monastic religious groups, and now the people of Los Angeles County. Through a remarkable display of government leadership and public and private fundraising, which raised the $35 million asking price, the parkland will be soon be open for all to enjoy. (See acquisition details, page 1.) The present owners, Soka University, agreed to sell the property to the state, bringing to an end the decades-old effort to acquire it. The property’s natural and physical beauty accounts for its rich cultural history, beginning with the Chumash, who established a major settlement 7,000 years ago. There at the turn of the 19th century, Edward Stokes filed a patent under the Homestead Act of 1860, for 160 acres of land and built his adobe. In 1925, the property changed hands when disposable razor tycoon King Gillette bought the ranch and immediately commissioned architect Wallace Neff to build a mansion. Neff was known for his spectacular Mediterranean Revival residences built for elite clients, and for creating what he called ‘California houses’ based on European traditions adapted to the unique climate and landscape of Southern California. Using adobe brick dredged from mud on the property, Neff built Gillette a 25-room, two-story ‘ranch house’ for a half-million dollars. Gillette landscaped it with hundreds of varieties of scrubs, flowers and trees that he had collected on his foreign travels. Gillette died in 1932 at 77, after losing most of his fortune in the 1929 stock market collapse. Three years later, MGM movie director Clarence Brown bought the property, to which he added an airplane strip to accommodate his Hollywood friends who would fly in to attend his elaborate parties, a la William Randolph Hearst. The runway remained on the property until the early 1950s. The land was sold in 1952 to the Congregation of Sons of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, who then transferred title to the Dominican Seminary. In 1954, the Claretian Theological Seminary acquired the property and in 1972 they leased it to Thomas Aquinas College. Six years later they sold the property to the Church Universal and Triumphant, a religious group headed by Elizabeth Clare ‘Guru Ma’ Prophet, who renamed it Camelot. The CUT sect was one of the most flamboyant ‘survivalist’ cults in the last half of the century, basing its theology on a combination of channeled revelations from the Ascended Masters, reincarnation, karma, and convoluted interpretations of the gospel. In 1981, the church purchased the 13,000 acre Forbes ranch in Montana to build ‘New Jerusalem,’ and in 1986 sold the California headquarters to Soka University of America. Soka will remain as lessors for three years while they relocate their operations to their campus in Aliso Viejo in Orange County. That period will also offer ample time for planning activities under the new ownership; ‘This property is unusual because so much of it is so flat,’ says Steve Harris, Mountains Restoration Trust executive director. ‘This makes this property, centrally located with the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area, the largest single ownership of relatively flat land’with less than 5 percent grade.’ Rorie Skei, chief deputy director of the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy, estimates that about 100 acres out of the 588 total are flat. While this chronology follows the history of the developed portions of the property, it says nothing of the natural and biological history. Among naturalists, this property is the focal point of the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area. The ranch’s oak ringed meadows, valley oak savannah, coastal sage scrub, chaparral, and 1.5 miles of blue-line streams make it a haven for wildlife and a crossroads of habitat linkages in the Santa Monica Mountains. The Monarch butterfly, coastal western whiptail, San Diego horned lizard and Cooper’s hawk are among the eight sensitive wildlife species found on the site. One can imagine hiking, nature walks and other interpretive amenities, but the ultimate uses of the ranch house and dormitories is a story unfolding. For Skei, the events of the last six months have been like a dream. ‘Last year, the purchase of the Ahmanson Ranch was something we dreamed of and thought would never come about. And now this. We are just so thrilled that Soka became a willing seller. For so long we looked with envy at this beautiful park.’
This page is available to subscribers. Click here to sign in or get access.
