View down slope towards beach houses in the Rancho Malibu la Costa development, Malibu, circa 1927

Description

-118.644511, Rancho Topanga Malibu Sequit was a 13,316-acre Spanish land grant given by Spanish Governor José Joaquín de Arrillaga in 1804 to José Bartolomé Tapia.
In 1892 Frederick Hastings Rindge and May Knight Rindge, purchased the rancho. In 1926, the Marblehead Land Company, formed by May Knight Rindge, made a $6 million deal with Harold G. Ferguson to develop the La Costa area (between Las Flores Canyon and Carbon Canyon), but that deal fell apart when Ferguson was sentenced to jail for securities fraud in 1931. Ferguson laid out the development with street names as they remain today: Rambla Vista, Paseo Serra, etc. It took until the mid 1930's for development of the area to begin in earnest., View facing east towards house construction site in the Rancho Malibu la Costa development, with the beach and beach houses visible along the Pacific Coast Highway beyond. A sign on the slope side of the highway reads: "Rancho la Costa, Ferguson..." The last building visible in the far distance on the left is the Las Flores Inn at the intersection of the Pacific Coast Highway and Las Flores Canyon Road., 34.039617, Access to this collection is generously supported by Arcadia funds.