Rancho Olompali was home to three generations of Burdells from 1866 to 1943. For the following five years, the new owner, Court Harrington, used the property to raise purebred beef. In 1948, the building was converted to a religious retreat when the property was acquired by the University of San Francisco (USF) for $150,000. USF sold the property in 1964 to a San Francisco Bay Area investment group which operated the short-lived Olompali Swim Club. In 1966, the Grateful Dead rented the main buildings, and rock music icons such as Janis Joplin and Grace Slick were frequent visitors. The following year, the main ranch buildings were leased to Don McCoy, a businessman turned hippie, for use as the Chosen Family Commune. The barns and adjacent buildings were leased to the C-Bar-N Ranch, which operated a horse-riding stable there until 1981. Public outcry defeated an attempt to purchase Rancho Olompali for a proposed condominium and mobile home development, and conservation efforts resulted in its becoming a State Historic Park in 1977.