House with a View

A luxurious home with magnificent views stood at this site, and these walls and terraces are all that remain of the residence built in 1940 for Lathrop and Helen Hooper Brown. The Browns decorated the house with art by Degas, Dufy and Gauguin. They left the ranch for Florida in 1956 and never returned. Lathrop died there in 1956 at age 76. In 1961, Helen gave Saddle Rock Ranch to the people of California as a State Park and specified that it be named in memory of her friend, Julia Pfeiffer Burns, “a true pioneer.” The State was unable to use the house for a “public purpose,” and it was demolished in 1966 to comply with the requirements of Mrs. Brown’s gift deed.

California · United States