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Item Title
Rancho Santa Fe, Rancho Santa Fe, San Diego County, CA
Location
Rancho%252525252525252525252525252525252525252BSanta%252525252525252525252525252525252525252BFe, CA
Find maps of Rancho%252525252525252525252525252525252525252BSanta%252525252525252525252525252525252525252BFe, CA
Created/Published
Documentation compiled after 1933.
Notes
Survey number HABS CA-2315
Unprocessed field note material exists for this structure (N66).
Building/structure dates:
1920 initial construction
Significance: In the 1920s, the Santa Fe Land Improvement Company, a subsidiary of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway, developed Rancho Santa Fe as a community of "gentlemen's ranches" in the hills north of San Diego. Winding roads joining small farms contrast with the formal, axial commercial core. Here architect Lilian Rice designed buildings in the Spanish Revival style, a style that became standard for buildings in the community. Rancho Santa Fe's unified architectural design, creative landscape plan, and origin as a design-controlled community contribute to its important role in the history of community development. / Rancho Santa Fe, in North San Diego County, was planned in the 1920s as a community of Spanish Revival style buildings with a formal commercial and residential core. Between 1832 and 1845 the Mexican government deeded land totaling 8824.71 acres - and including today's Rancho Santa Fe - to Juan Maria Osuna, first alcalde (mayor) of San Diego. Called Rancho San Dieguito, this land grant was confirmed by the American government in 1870. Two adobe structures built and occupied by Osuna and his family are still extant in 1991. After Osuna's death, his heirs gradually sold off the land; in 1906, all but 374 acres of the original Rancho grant were acquired by the Santa Fe Land Improvement Company, a subsidiary of the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railway. The land was used to grow eucalyptus trees, imported from Australia for use as railroad ties. By 1914, over 3000 acres had been planted with eucalyptus, but the next year the project was abandoned when it was discovered that eucalyptus wood was not suitable for this intended purpose. The Santa Fe Land Improvement Company, under the direction of Vice President W.E. Hodges, then turned its attention to developing the land for horticultural and residential use. By 1918, the Lake Hodges Dam had been built on the San Dieguito River, thus making water available for irrigation and domestic use. L.G. Sinnard was hired to survey the land, plan the roads and lay out a preliminary subdivision. His proposals, made in report of September 1921, included a small "civic center," which would provide "efficient community service," linked to the surrounding orchards and residential lots by a system of curved, winding roads that followed the natural terrain. Restrictions would be placed on the minimum cost and design of buildings, as well as the "proper maintenance of orchard plantings and improvements," to ensure that an elite community of ranches and estates would be established. In 1922, Rancho San Dieguito was renamed Rancho Santa Fe, and the development of Sinnard's plan began. Lilian Rice, of the San Diego firm of Requa and Jackson, and one of the first female graduates of the University of California, Berkeley School of Architecture, was hired as the resident architect. She conceived the civic center as a compact, mixed-use commercial and residential area, with a formalized, axial plan featuring a main, landscaped boulevard (Paseo Delicias) and a major terminating focal point (La Morada). Rice's imaginative and exclusive use of the Spanish Revival style provided an architectural link to California's history as a Spanish colony and Rancho Santa Fe's as a Mexican land grant. Several commercial and residential structures designed by Rice still stand in the civic center. In 1927, the residents of Rancho Santa Fe enacted a protective covenant, which perpetuated the architectural and horticultural restrictions of the Santa Fe Land Improvement Company, to be enforced by the Rancho Santa Fe Association and Art Jury. Still in effect today, the covenant has ensured the harmonious appearance of the community.
Related Names
Sinnard, L. G.
Rice, Lilian Jenette
Farber, Lauren, Historian
Collection
Historic American Buildings Survey (Library of Congress)
Contents
Photograph caption(s):
1. AERIAL VIEW OF RANCHES. PASEO DELICIAS IN FOREGROUND.
2. AERIAL VIEW OF RANCHES, CLOSER. PASEO DELICIAS IN FOREGROUND.
3. ORCHARDS. CAPTION READS 'TAKEN FROM C. H. BRISTOL HOME, LOOKING NORTH TOWARD VILLAGE.'
4. VIA DEL ALBA AT INTERSECTION OF LOS ARBOLES, 1923.
5. HOUSE. CAPTION NOTES 'ENTRANCE DESIGNED BY LILIAN J. RICE. PRESENT OWNER - KIRK B. O'FERRALL.'
6. DETAIL OF ENTRANCE. CAPTION NOTES 'T. L. CAROTHERS RESIDENCE.'
7. GARDEN ENTRANCE. UNIDENTIFIED.
8. COURTYARD WALL AND WINDOW. UNIDENTIFIED.
9. ENTRANCE GATES. UNIDENTIFIED.
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