Home > California > Pacific Palisades > Will Rogers Ranch, 14253 Sunset Boulevard, Pacific Palisades, Los Angeles County, CA
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Item Title
Will Rogers Ranch, 14253 Sunset Boulevard, Pacific Palisades, Los Angeles County, CA
Location14253 Sunset Boulevard,
Pacific Palisades, CA
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Created/Published
Documentation compiled after 1933.
Notes
Survey number HABS CA-2273
Building/structure dates:
191 initial construction
Significance: Will Rogers purchased the site of his last home in 1921, in an undeveloped area of the Santa Monica Mountains, with a view of the Pacific Ocean and enough acreage for Will to indulge his love of riding. Initial development of the property was carried out by civil engineer Lee Adamson, Will's brother-in-law. It was Will himself, however, who oversaw all such projects on the ranch. A polo field was laid out first, and a barn for the polo ponies followed. By 1924, construction was completed on a one-story house that contained a large living room, a kitchen, bedrooms and screened in porch that served as the family's weekend retreat. A two-story structure nearby housed a garage and chauffeur's quarters below, while two bedrooms and a living room on the second floor accommodated guests. When it was discovered that their home in Beverly Hills had become termite-ridden, the Rogers decided to move permanently to the ranch. In 1930, F. Kenneth Reese, working for architect Asa Hudson, designed a two-story addition to the house to proved bedrooms for the family and servants' quarters. Many of the doors and windows from the Beverly Hills home were incorporated into this addition, which was inspired by photographs of a Montana ranch house that Will had liked. Work on the ranch grounds and buildings never stopped during Will's lifetime. In 1933, Will had the roof of the south wing living room raised and bedrooms added for guests. Later, in the north wing their son Jim's room was moved to a new second story bedroom to make way for a panelled library. Even in 1935, the year of Will's death, Will's study was being enlarged and a sun room for Mrs. Rogers added off the master bedroom. North of the main house stands the horse barn, consisting of two wings of stalls which were moved from Jay Wooden's ranch in the San Fernando Valley, connected to a large central rotunda. In keeping with the understated architecture Will preferred on the property, he decided that he wanted the rotunda lowered, quipping that, "It looks too much like the Capitol dome, and I sure don't want my horses mixed up in politics." Using a concept Will knew from his boyhood in Oklahoma, bolts were moved to different holes in levers as workmen braced the rotunda roof while carpenters cut the supporting posts all around the outside and then slowly removed a row of windows, lowering the roof to its present height. These changes and other made up until Will's death, reflect the ranch's evolution and the life of the Rogers family.
Related Names
Adamson, Lee
Reese, Frederick Ken
Hudson, W. Asa
Collection
Historic American Buildings Survey (Library of Congress)
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