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The King and Queen of Malibu: The True Story of the Battle for Paradise
"A true story of the battle for paradise…men and women fighting for a slice of earth like no other." ― New York Times Book Review Frederick and May Rindge, the unlikely couple whose love story propelled Malibu’s transformation from an untamed ranch in the middle of nowhere to a paradise seeded with movie stars, are at the heart of this story of American grit and determinism. He was a Harvard-trained confidant of presidents; she was a poor Midwestern farmer’s daughter raised to be suspicious of the seasons. Yet the bond between them would shape history. The newly married couple reached Los Angeles in 1887 when it was still a frontier, and within a few years Frederick, the only heir to an immense Boston fortune, became one of the wealthiest men in the state. After his sudden death in 1905, May spent the next thirty years fighting off some of the most powerful men in the country―as well as fissures within her own family―to preserve Malibu as her private kingdom. Her struggle, one of the longest over land in California history, would culminate in a landmark Supreme Court decision and lead to the creation of the Pacific Coast Highway. The King and Queen of Malibu traces the path of one family as the country around them swept off the last vestiges of the Civil War and moved into what we would recognize as the modern age. The story of Malibu ranges from the halls of Harvard to the Old West in New Mexico to the beginnings of San Francisco’s counter culture amid the Gilded Age, and culminates in the glamour of early Hollywood―all during the brief sliver of history in which the advent of railroads and the automobile traversed a beckoning American frontier and anything seemed possible. 8 pages of illustrations; map
272 pages, Paperback
First published March 2, 2016
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852 people want to read
About the author
David K. Randall
10 books90 followersDavid K. Randall is a senior reporter at Reuters and has also written for Forbes, the New York Times, and New York magazine. He is an adjunct professor of journalism at New York University and lives in Brooklyn, New York.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 95 reviews
May 12, 2019
My nonfiction reading year rolls on. As the year enters its second trimester, I have noticed a tendency to stay in my comfort zone- biographies/memoirs, sports, American history. Slowly, I am trying to branch out, but I am always finding historical events that I had no knowledge of just waiting to be uncovered. The King and Queen Of Malibu is one of those snippets and I picked this up from my library based on the title. Who wouldn’t want to read about a couple dubbed as royalty of one of the glitziest beaches in the United States? Yet, I was in for a surprise as David K. Randall writes about an ambitious yet stubborn couple whose actions lead to the formation of the iconic Pacific Coast Highway. While not the lifestyles of the rich and famous, the jacket description was enough to make me read on.
Frederick Hastings Rindge, born in 1863 and later a college classmate of Theodore Roosevelt, was the soul heir of the Rindge Brahmins of Boston. All of his siblings succumbed to either childhood diabetes or a genetic heart condition generations before medicine had discovered treatment or a cure for either. Rindge ailed from the same conditions yet through his own and his parents perseverance managed to reach adulthood. Inheriting a fortune worth hundreds of millions of dollars today, Rindge was both determined to make his body much like his famous classmate and was persistent in making a name for himself separate from his wealthy father. Traveling south than west as a young man determined to beat back disease from his body, Frederick Rindge eventually arrived in California, which in the 1880s was still sparsely populated and known as the land of opportunity. With his new wife May, the Rindges decided on underdeveloped Los Angeles, dubbed the city of dreams, and Frederick Rindge was determined to become the leader of this fledgling city.
Upon the Rindge’s arrival in 1887, Los Angeles was still a sleepy village. Electricity, automobiles, and the glitz and glamor of Hollywood movie stars would not arrive until decades later. Yet, Frederick Rindge had a vision and the money to transform this southwest paradise into a sprawling metropolis. Reaching out to the most influential people of the city, Rindge set up law offices, insurance companies, and constructed his Rindge Building in the downtown area. He then saw potential and constructed a mansion for his growing family in a neighborhood he dubbed as West Adams, listing the editor of the newspaper and railroad men as neighbors. Rindge, however, had beat disease by living in the fresh air. His vision for Los Angeles rivaled New York City, and Rindge desired a country home for his family, away from the hustle and bustle and demands of the city. Rindge would find such a place in Malibu, an outpost that in the 1880s was only reachable by rowboat or horseback. Purchasing a ranch, Rindge constructed a seaside mansion for his family in Malibu and established the getaway he had been looking for.
Randall writes of Frederick Rindge as a man of vision and May as a stubborn lady stuck in the past. Frederick Rindge could see the potential in Malibu as far back as the 1890s. His parents owned a seaside home in Marblehead, Massachusetts, and Americans pined for beach front properties and vacations from the time that society transitioned from rural to urban and holding down a 40 hour work week. The beach made for a irresistible getaway for working families. By the 1890s, Santa Monica was incorporated and Santa Barbara up the coast already had a reputation as a getaway for the rich; however, there was no railroad or transportation linking Santa Barbara to Los Angeles, a growing metropolis urging migrants to come and escape the winter seasons of the north. New residents poured into Los Angeles, and May Rindge was determined to keep Malibu unsullied for herself. With the advent of early automobiles in the early 1900s, however, the urge for motorists to drive to the beach and set up cottages became irresistible. May Rindge was in for the long haul.
Frederick Rindge succumbed to diabetes in 1915 at age forty eight, leaving behind a fortune in the hundreds of millions. May Rindge took over the family fortune and business interests during an era when the vast majority of women were content as housewives. Not May Rindge. It is in these latter chapters that Randall attempts to insert too much history into a small portion of text, which made these sections a laundry list of events rather than a micro history. Rindge engaged in a series of legal battles culminating in a 1923 Supreme Court case that opened Malibu to all citizens due to public domain. Rather than focusing on this case and the subsequent ramifications, Randall gives few details about the proceedings leading to the case and then spends only a chapter describing how Malibu changed over the last twenty five years of May Rindge’s life. He goes on to contrast Frederick’s potential vision of a modern Malibu with May’s insistence that the beach town remain stuck in the past. Neither vision came to pass with Malibu going to the public as a haven for movie stars and other wealthy celebrities. With all of this information crammed into the last third of the book, however, a book with a title filled with potential ended up falling short of expectations.
Frederick and May Rindge were pioneers of modern Los Angeles yet today little remains of their fortune or descendants. I have driven on the Pacific Coast Highway once on a family vacation to California thirty years ago. Even as a ten year old, these memories stand out because the scenery was breathtaking. David Randall was able to interview remaining members of the Rindge family as part of his research for this book. I did find their story captivating as I knew little of Los Angeles before it became the metropolis it is today. Yet, by inserting too many anecdotes into a short book, Randall downgraded a book that had the potential to be a top micro-history book of its publishing year.
3+ stars
Frederick Hastings Rindge, born in 1863 and later a college classmate of Theodore Roosevelt, was the soul heir of the Rindge Brahmins of Boston. All of his siblings succumbed to either childhood diabetes or a genetic heart condition generations before medicine had discovered treatment or a cure for either. Rindge ailed from the same conditions yet through his own and his parents perseverance managed to reach adulthood. Inheriting a fortune worth hundreds of millions of dollars today, Rindge was both determined to make his body much like his famous classmate and was persistent in making a name for himself separate from his wealthy father. Traveling south than west as a young man determined to beat back disease from his body, Frederick Rindge eventually arrived in California, which in the 1880s was still sparsely populated and known as the land of opportunity. With his new wife May, the Rindges decided on underdeveloped Los Angeles, dubbed the city of dreams, and Frederick Rindge was determined to become the leader of this fledgling city.
Upon the Rindge’s arrival in 1887, Los Angeles was still a sleepy village. Electricity, automobiles, and the glitz and glamor of Hollywood movie stars would not arrive until decades later. Yet, Frederick Rindge had a vision and the money to transform this southwest paradise into a sprawling metropolis. Reaching out to the most influential people of the city, Rindge set up law offices, insurance companies, and constructed his Rindge Building in the downtown area. He then saw potential and constructed a mansion for his growing family in a neighborhood he dubbed as West Adams, listing the editor of the newspaper and railroad men as neighbors. Rindge, however, had beat disease by living in the fresh air. His vision for Los Angeles rivaled New York City, and Rindge desired a country home for his family, away from the hustle and bustle and demands of the city. Rindge would find such a place in Malibu, an outpost that in the 1880s was only reachable by rowboat or horseback. Purchasing a ranch, Rindge constructed a seaside mansion for his family in Malibu and established the getaway he had been looking for.
Randall writes of Frederick Rindge as a man of vision and May as a stubborn lady stuck in the past. Frederick Rindge could see the potential in Malibu as far back as the 1890s. His parents owned a seaside home in Marblehead, Massachusetts, and Americans pined for beach front properties and vacations from the time that society transitioned from rural to urban and holding down a 40 hour work week. The beach made for a irresistible getaway for working families. By the 1890s, Santa Monica was incorporated and Santa Barbara up the coast already had a reputation as a getaway for the rich; however, there was no railroad or transportation linking Santa Barbara to Los Angeles, a growing metropolis urging migrants to come and escape the winter seasons of the north. New residents poured into Los Angeles, and May Rindge was determined to keep Malibu unsullied for herself. With the advent of early automobiles in the early 1900s, however, the urge for motorists to drive to the beach and set up cottages became irresistible. May Rindge was in for the long haul.
Frederick Rindge succumbed to diabetes in 1915 at age forty eight, leaving behind a fortune in the hundreds of millions. May Rindge took over the family fortune and business interests during an era when the vast majority of women were content as housewives. Not May Rindge. It is in these latter chapters that Randall attempts to insert too much history into a small portion of text, which made these sections a laundry list of events rather than a micro history. Rindge engaged in a series of legal battles culminating in a 1923 Supreme Court case that opened Malibu to all citizens due to public domain. Rather than focusing on this case and the subsequent ramifications, Randall gives few details about the proceedings leading to the case and then spends only a chapter describing how Malibu changed over the last twenty five years of May Rindge’s life. He goes on to contrast Frederick’s potential vision of a modern Malibu with May’s insistence that the beach town remain stuck in the past. Neither vision came to pass with Malibu going to the public as a haven for movie stars and other wealthy celebrities. With all of this information crammed into the last third of the book, however, a book with a title filled with potential ended up falling short of expectations.
Frederick and May Rindge were pioneers of modern Los Angeles yet today little remains of their fortune or descendants. I have driven on the Pacific Coast Highway once on a family vacation to California thirty years ago. Even as a ten year old, these memories stand out because the scenery was breathtaking. David Randall was able to interview remaining members of the Rindge family as part of his research for this book. I did find their story captivating as I knew little of Los Angeles before it became the metropolis it is today. Yet, by inserting too many anecdotes into a short book, Randall downgraded a book that had the potential to be a top micro-history book of its publishing year.
3+ stars
June 4, 2023
This book covers about seventy years of a very wealthy family who bought all of a part of California and popularised it for the elete. Very interesting read.
May 16, 2016
Truly a fascinating read. Growing up in the area of Malibu I had no idea of the history surrounding one of my favorite places to be.
This book may not be for everyone especially, those not familiar with the area, but I believe anyone from here would enjoy the history of it.
This book may not be for everyone especially, those not familiar with the area, but I believe anyone from here would enjoy the history of it.
May 23, 2016
Really interesting read on the history of Malibu and LA west side. Having lived there as a transplant, I had no frame of reference and no historical knowledge of what had taken place there before what it looks like now.
This book brings to life the husband and wife duo that helped keep Malibu the pristine environment it is today. While the husband contributed to the growth of LA, the wife is a fascinating badass woman who accomplished so much in her lifetime. The fact that she did what she did, forming corporations and fighting the government and anyone who challenged her family's land, in the time in history that she did when women had so little standing in business, is just icing on the cake. A great read!
This book brings to life the husband and wife duo that helped keep Malibu the pristine environment it is today. While the husband contributed to the growth of LA, the wife is a fascinating badass woman who accomplished so much in her lifetime. The fact that she did what she did, forming corporations and fighting the government and anyone who challenged her family's land, in the time in history that she did when women had so little standing in business, is just icing on the cake. A great read!
April 9, 2019
Like all places in the world, Malibu in California was once an undeveloped, uninhabited place. And like all such beautiful places, Malibu was acquired by a rich man, who was sickly and died early, was succeeded by his widow of humble beginnings but who inherited his wealth and who tried to keep Malibu private or off-limits to the public. With her battery of well-paid lawyers she was only able to delay the inevitable march of progress. She failed to keep Malibu for herself and her family. This is where the State was able to use, successfully, the argument that Malibu has to be opened up for all because the public has the right “to have access to beauty.”
April 23, 2016
I enjoyed it a lot since I like reading about history of places I have been or know a bit about. It has some info on other parts of the country also and about the people during the start up of Southern California.
June 15, 2019
Surprisingly interesting
I normally don't go for this type of book, loaded with history and facts. However, Randall kept me intrigued from start to finish. I am also inspired by Frederick Rindge's ideas on living a balanced life.
I normally don't go for this type of book, loaded with history and facts. However, Randall kept me intrigued from start to finish. I am also inspired by Frederick Rindge's ideas on living a balanced life.
August 19, 2019
"California Shall Be Ours As Long As the Stars Remain."
I really enjoyed this piece of American history! It was well written and I was interested throughout the entire book. It was fascinating to hear about the formation of what we now know of as L.A. and other prominent coastal California cities to as far north as San Francisco that coined themselves, "The Paris of the west." I hadn't heard of the original battle for Malibu. I'd heard about the continued battle for the number of feet of beach by the rich, even billionaire Malibu homeowners today. But I didn't realize this was a continuation of a long fought battle. I really couldn't think of any way to review this book without sharing some crucial facts. I wish there was a way for me to post some of the photos in the book as they add even more life to the story.
The King and Queen of Malibu" The True Story of the Battle for Paradise", is a nonfiction story of the settling of the old west, California. "... fewer than ten thousand men and women lived in the six counties that then made up Southern California..." " ... this California was unsettled. We all continually wear arms, each wears both a bowie knife and pistol..." " Over the course of 1850 and 1851, the murder rate in the city of Los Angelos spiked to 124 deaths per 10,000 inhabitants" the highest recorded in American history. "Hunting other men turned into a sport itself."
This was the California that Frederick and May Ringe landed in when they moved from the eastern U.S.. Henry inherited a vast amount of property and money from his Dad’s business in Boston. Despite being rich he wasn't a physically well man, having recurring boughts of debilitating illness a result of Rheumatic Fever. He had been a prisoner in his home until he left for Harvard. Due to his imprisonment he had extreme wanderlust. He traveled extensively but after he married May he decided to move west to California and make his own fortune. He was a key figure in the development of Southern California, particularly L.A.
This nonfiction tells the tale of Frederick Ringe and the Ringe empire, of May Ringe, the story of California in the mid to late 1800's, and the Frederick and May's love story and fight to keep their haven, Malibu, pure and undeveloped. Despite his wealth, Henry remained a very sick man, eventually dieing in a diabetic coma- there were no treatments for diabetes at the time. He was proud of his involvement in the development of Los Angelos, but he wanted to escape the city when he discovered the barren, rocky, hilly, rough territory of Malibu, said by Scottish immigrant who introduced people to Yosemite, and became the number one naturalist in America, "ruggedly, thornily savage." The Chumash Indians named it Maliwu, meaning lost. After the Mexican-American war ended in 1841 the Republic of California was won by America and Malibu, part of the RoC, was called Rancho Cucamonga.
In 1892 Frederick purchased 100+ thousand acres of the then called Malibu Rancho. There was only a rocky path, and the route along the beach was only passable at low tide. They permanently moved to Malibu Rancho after their huge three story Victorian mansion was finished in 1893. But the peace they found in Malibu was short lived. Other settlers were staking claims in the hills of Malibu and the easiest access to their land was across the Ringe's land. The number of people in the Malibu hills was increasing so Frederick paid the settlers to build a road along the ocean, which washed out the next year, so he paid them to build another. * The Pacific Coast Highway along the Malibu coast still faces rock slides, congestion and accidents that cost California millions of dollars annually to keep the road clear. "If there weren't a highway there we probably wouldn't build one."
Ringe eventually became annoyed with people trapsing across his land and the battle for his peace and the prevention of developing Malibu began. Frederick and May wanted to keep Malibu natural. They didn't want roads to every settlers land, especially because they had to go through his land. He installed gates to keep the settlers out, but this caused extreme animosity and violence and eventually the gates were removed. There was retaliation by the settlers, the killing and maming of cattle, stealing his lands resources, and May believed that the wildfire that burned down their home was started by a settler who wanted revenge.
After Frederick's death, May fought for almost the rest of her life to hold on to the land, and keep it as undeveloped and as natural as possible. She lost almost the entire Ringe fortune, she lost her relationships with their three children who thought her mad that she only thought about fighting for Malibu. May also felt she had to fight for the right for a woman to run a business and handle her own affairs. Ringe descendants still own some of the acreage. Today, "In an echo of Frederick and May Ringe's fight to keep paradise to themselves, those who have more recently purchased homes in Malibu have gone to great lengths to close off access to its coastline. " It's still inhabited by the mega rich. I wonder if Malibu will ever be a true place of peace and not of power and contention?
I really enjoyed this piece of American history! It was well written and I was interested throughout the entire book. It was fascinating to hear about the formation of what we now know of as L.A. and other prominent coastal California cities to as far north as San Francisco that coined themselves, "The Paris of the west." I hadn't heard of the original battle for Malibu. I'd heard about the continued battle for the number of feet of beach by the rich, even billionaire Malibu homeowners today. But I didn't realize this was a continuation of a long fought battle. I really couldn't think of any way to review this book without sharing some crucial facts. I wish there was a way for me to post some of the photos in the book as they add even more life to the story.
The King and Queen of Malibu" The True Story of the Battle for Paradise", is a nonfiction story of the settling of the old west, California. "... fewer than ten thousand men and women lived in the six counties that then made up Southern California..." " ... this California was unsettled. We all continually wear arms, each wears both a bowie knife and pistol..." " Over the course of 1850 and 1851, the murder rate in the city of Los Angelos spiked to 124 deaths per 10,000 inhabitants" the highest recorded in American history. "Hunting other men turned into a sport itself."
This was the California that Frederick and May Ringe landed in when they moved from the eastern U.S.. Henry inherited a vast amount of property and money from his Dad’s business in Boston. Despite being rich he wasn't a physically well man, having recurring boughts of debilitating illness a result of Rheumatic Fever. He had been a prisoner in his home until he left for Harvard. Due to his imprisonment he had extreme wanderlust. He traveled extensively but after he married May he decided to move west to California and make his own fortune. He was a key figure in the development of Southern California, particularly L.A.
This nonfiction tells the tale of Frederick Ringe and the Ringe empire, of May Ringe, the story of California in the mid to late 1800's, and the Frederick and May's love story and fight to keep their haven, Malibu, pure and undeveloped. Despite his wealth, Henry remained a very sick man, eventually dieing in a diabetic coma- there were no treatments for diabetes at the time. He was proud of his involvement in the development of Los Angelos, but he wanted to escape the city when he discovered the barren, rocky, hilly, rough territory of Malibu, said by Scottish immigrant who introduced people to Yosemite, and became the number one naturalist in America, "ruggedly, thornily savage." The Chumash Indians named it Maliwu, meaning lost. After the Mexican-American war ended in 1841 the Republic of California was won by America and Malibu, part of the RoC, was called Rancho Cucamonga.
In 1892 Frederick purchased 100+ thousand acres of the then called Malibu Rancho. There was only a rocky path, and the route along the beach was only passable at low tide. They permanently moved to Malibu Rancho after their huge three story Victorian mansion was finished in 1893. But the peace they found in Malibu was short lived. Other settlers were staking claims in the hills of Malibu and the easiest access to their land was across the Ringe's land. The number of people in the Malibu hills was increasing so Frederick paid the settlers to build a road along the ocean, which washed out the next year, so he paid them to build another. * The Pacific Coast Highway along the Malibu coast still faces rock slides, congestion and accidents that cost California millions of dollars annually to keep the road clear. "If there weren't a highway there we probably wouldn't build one."
Ringe eventually became annoyed with people trapsing across his land and the battle for his peace and the prevention of developing Malibu began. Frederick and May wanted to keep Malibu natural. They didn't want roads to every settlers land, especially because they had to go through his land. He installed gates to keep the settlers out, but this caused extreme animosity and violence and eventually the gates were removed. There was retaliation by the settlers, the killing and maming of cattle, stealing his lands resources, and May believed that the wildfire that burned down their home was started by a settler who wanted revenge.
After Frederick's death, May fought for almost the rest of her life to hold on to the land, and keep it as undeveloped and as natural as possible. She lost almost the entire Ringe fortune, she lost her relationships with their three children who thought her mad that she only thought about fighting for Malibu. May also felt she had to fight for the right for a woman to run a business and handle her own affairs. Ringe descendants still own some of the acreage. Today, "In an echo of Frederick and May Ringe's fight to keep paradise to themselves, those who have more recently purchased homes in Malibu have gone to great lengths to close off access to its coastline. " It's still inhabited by the mega rich. I wonder if Malibu will ever be a true place of peace and not of power and contention?
October 3, 2021
One of the best micro-history books that I've read in quite some time.
It is a well written story about a family (the Rindges) and a place (Malibu) that were inextricably tied together.
It is also suspenseful largely as I knew none of this history.
5 stars. Bravo. Well done.
It is a well written story about a family (the Rindges) and a place (Malibu) that were inextricably tied together.
It is also suspenseful largely as I knew none of this history.
5 stars. Bravo. Well done.
April 26, 2022
I lived in SoCal for 11 years and knew almost none of this history. Quite interesting
January 4, 2020
A wonderfully written story and account of one woman’s struggle to preserve Malibu’s integrity of beauty. From May Rindge’s position of eminent domain to the ever present stench of American politics and money to Supreme Court arguments, May fights for what she believes is critically and aesthetically paramount while the majority rule her as difficult and unreasonable. Was she motivated by the desire to leave Malibu untouched or was she greedy and egotistical? One cannot come away without asking the question of why and how did Americans turn an entire nation’s landscape into a hodgepodge of painful eyesores and ‘roadside attractions.’
November 6, 2024
I loved this book as it was well-written (in the style of Eric Larsen) and it was personal to me; I grew up near Malibu and spent all of my non-college life in that area. History of which I had no idea was carefully and dramatically explained. If one has no or little connection to the area, the book may not be as interesting.
May 10, 2016
If you have any interest in what Los Angeles might have been like in the late 1800's, you will enjoy this book. It's a fascinating story with some unusual characters. Be prepared for a history lesson as this is not historic fiction.
April 13, 2016
Fascinating story about how the Los Angeles basin was developed and about the fight to preserve Malibu as the private estate of one of the area's biggest developers, the Rindges.
November 2, 2024
I read this to get a historical perspective on Malibu and LA, since I did not grow up here. It was a thoroughly researched book, well written and anything but boring. I find the origins of LA from sparsely populated Rancho to major city within a span of 50 years fascinating and this is the story of Frederick Rindge,a wealthy heir and his young wife May leaving the East Coast to make their mark in California. And they did. (May set up the famous Malibu Tiles factory on her beachfront property) The story includes context with social, political and economic events of the times. I recommend it to all Angelinos, native or not.
November 8, 2024
DNF. Made it to page 107. Just couldn’t enmesh myself in the further struggles. I know the outcome. The progress of man and the unkindness of them. Doesn’t mean it’s not worth reading.
Well researched & written with relatable US history as part of the scenarios. Just not for me.
Well researched & written with relatable US history as part of the scenarios. Just not for me.
October 23, 2017
Interesting book that tells a story mostly forgotten. Fun to read if you are familiar with Southern California. At times the book was a little slow with unnecessary commentary
August 4, 2016
Having had a recent girl's getaway weekend in Malibu, I picked this one up to fill in some of the backstory. Actually wished I had read it before traveling there...a bit like reading James Michener's Hawaii before traveling to the islands or Edmund Rutherford's London. This book gave me great insight into the area I'd grown up enjoying, including what I'd always wondered was the origin of the historic Adamson House on the coast by the pier. The whole genesis was quite surprising and provided a backdrop for understanding why there is a bit of a hippie/healing culture in the hills there and how the Serra Retreat got that prime location. I personally love the human story behind the things we often take for granted.
June 2, 2022
I learned a new phrase via this book - "micro-history" or the history of a micro-space and time, namely the late 1800's and early 1900's in Malibu, but also up and down the CA coastline. This is a fascinating look into the SoCal development and how many things got started, including Los Angeles, Walt Disney, Henry Ford and, of course, the city and coastline of Malibu. Wonderfully detailed, I really enjoyed learning so much about the area's history. The book was quite good, as was the audio version I listened to, but I felt it was a little slow in parts and could have used a bit more focus on story organization to hold the reader's attention through so many years and different events and people. Strong 4-stars.
December 20, 2017
This is clearly a 5 star for anyone who is a longtime resident of the West Side... for others it may be less interesting (though now that I live in Florida and drive on Flagler street... maybe the reach is more geographically broad)...
Fascinating story - my grandfather built one of the first houses in Point Dume in the 50s so I especially was intrigued how all this came to be. All the big names are here including Huntington and Abbot Kinney but I had not known the story much before the Adamson house... so I devoured this in a single day.
Fascinating story - my grandfather built one of the first houses in Point Dume in the 50s so I especially was intrigued how all this came to be. All the big names are here including Huntington and Abbot Kinney but I had not known the story much before the Adamson house... so I devoured this in a single day.
March 5, 2017
I'm a bit torn on this book. The story itself is fascinating as a piece of local history, but the writing is not particularly compelling. I also wish there was more information available on the construction of the Adamson House itself, the stunning last vestige of the Rindge family land holdings in Malibu. This book opens a window on this period in Los Angeles history and helps us understand some of the fierce personalities that shaped the city's development.
September 4, 2018
I found this account of the Rindge family and the history of Malibu fascinating. It was interesting and fun to read, not too dense, and full of interesting people. Growing up in Southern California, I was familiar with many of the places and names in the book, but I don't think that is a prerequisite for enjoying it.
(My only minor complaint is there are a few jumps back and forth in the timeline that I found briefly confusing.)
(My only minor complaint is there are a few jumps back and forth in the timeline that I found briefly confusing.)
January 22, 2020
So much history about the development of Los Angeles in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and the fight to preserve the beauty of Malibu by one family at all costs.
If you are an Angeleno, or a fan of Los Angeles, this is a must read.
If you are an Angeleno, or a fan of Los Angeles, this is a must read.
May 5, 2017
wow - excellent history of a time and place I had NO knowledge of ... as a native Californian ... northern version.
The Rindge name ... the photos of the aging mansions ... wow ...
The Rindge name ... the photos of the aging mansions ... wow ...
September 10, 2017
A beautifully researched book about one family's fight to hold on the the hills of Malibu, preserving one of the must beautiful spots on earth. Excellent read.
November 13, 2021
Mr. Randall’s book is a true story of the battle for paradise, but you could also call it a tragedy of the uncommon — men and women fighting for a slice of earth like no other. And that uncommonness extends all the way up the chain of antagonists to the 19th-century figure who set the battle in motion.
Born to wealth in Cambridge, Mass., Frederick Rindge was the only one of his parents’ six children to survive to adulthood. (He barely survived, and rheumatic fever stalked him for the rest of his days.) His reward was an estate worth about $140 million in today’s dollars and a mystical sense of economic and spiritual mission that sent him back to the West, where he had originally gone as a child for the fresh air.
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Disembarking at Los Angeles in 1887, he and his wife found a lawless frontier town whose chief features were sunshine and a staggering murder rate. But his optimistic nature also found “a blank slate, ready to be filled in,” and he wasted no time building one of Southern California’s first great business empires.
His habit of thinking big extended even to vacation homes. So it was that, in 1892, he bought a former Spanish rancho roughly half the size of Manhattan (for the bargain price of $10 an acre). Just getting there required a day’s ride on horseback from Santa Monica and more than a passing familiarity with tide tables, but the ranch’s very inaccessibility brought with it immaculate, empty beaches and the promise of eternal privacy.
How illusory that promise was became apparent within a few years, as homesteaders in neighboring canyons began clamoring for a right of way along his family’s beach. Mr. Rindge responded by reinforcing his gates, but that didn’t stop the Los Angeles County government from making noises about a beach road, carved out of Rindge land. With his
Born to wealth in Cambridge, Mass., Frederick Rindge was the only one of his parents’ six children to survive to adulthood. (He barely survived, and rheumatic fever stalked him for the rest of his days.) His reward was an estate worth about $140 million in today’s dollars and a mystical sense of economic and spiritual mission that sent him back to the West, where he had originally gone as a child for the fresh air.
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Disembarking at Los Angeles in 1887, he and his wife found a lawless frontier town whose chief features were sunshine and a staggering murder rate. But his optimistic nature also found “a blank slate, ready to be filled in,” and he wasted no time building one of Southern California’s first great business empires.
His habit of thinking big extended even to vacation homes. So it was that, in 1892, he bought a former Spanish rancho roughly half the size of Manhattan (for the bargain price of $10 an acre). Just getting there required a day’s ride on horseback from Santa Monica and more than a passing familiarity with tide tables, but the ranch’s very inaccessibility brought with it immaculate, empty beaches and the promise of eternal privacy.
How illusory that promise was became apparent within a few years, as homesteaders in neighboring canyons began clamoring for a right of way along his family’s beach. Mr. Rindge responded by reinforcing his gates, but that didn’t stop the Los Angeles County government from making noises about a beach road, carved out of Rindge land. With his
March 16, 2019
Thoroughly enjoyable history of a few families in the Malibu area in the 1800s.
These are the families who made a little money ( sometimes a lot of money ), then ran roughshod over everyone else. These are the type whose histories are kept, not because they are paragons of good character -for not one seems to be that- but because they wreaked such havoc in other people's lives that people want to keep thier memory just to mock it in revenge.
I feel as if the author has unlocked family skeletons of these long-dead people, and all thier feuds. Honestly, I expected the drama to end well. It doesn't. The "queen" of Malibu is so ornery, her own offspring sue her, then she dies.
The author tried to make her sympathetic by saying something about preserving the raw land. These were not ecologists; they preserved raw land because they wanted no one else near.
It's the ultimate gated community when you are locking out your own neighbors from reaching thier homes.
I listened to this on Overdrive. I might purchase the physical book. It's that well told.
These are the families who made a little money ( sometimes a lot of money ), then ran roughshod over everyone else. These are the type whose histories are kept, not because they are paragons of good character -for not one seems to be that- but because they wreaked such havoc in other people's lives that people want to keep thier memory just to mock it in revenge.
I feel as if the author has unlocked family skeletons of these long-dead people, and all thier feuds. Honestly, I expected the drama to end well. It doesn't. The "queen" of Malibu is so ornery, her own offspring sue her, then she dies.
The author tried to make her sympathetic by saying something about preserving the raw land. These were not ecologists; they preserved raw land because they wanted no one else near.
It's the ultimate gated community when you are locking out your own neighbors from reaching thier homes.
I listened to this on Overdrive. I might purchase the physical book. It's that well told.
May 7, 2023
It took a while to read this, but because of personal interruptions, not because of the writing or the story. This was a well-researched and excellent telling of the settling of southern California through the Rindge family. It's so unlike many of the western movement stories often seen and heard, perhaps because of the singularity of the terrain, mountains, and juxtaposition with the Pacific Ocean, but maybe it's just a unique scene altogether. It began with them accessing wilderness via early railroads and then traveling outward and/or downward; then came settlements; then towns; then cars; then a stand against staggeringly crowded modernization. At first they sought to entice people to come to establish some kind of law and commerce and civilized living. But they came in overwhelming droves. This story is of a struggle to maintain the beauty and vastness of the area along with some form of privacy while everyone seemed to want to pile in and build and take it away.
February 3, 2025
SoCal’s Fascinating Yet Largely Forgotten History
I had just finished Randall’s well-written book about Bubonic Plague in San Francisco when I saw this one. I went to university and now live in NorCal, but I was born and raised at the beach in Los Angeles County 30 miles south of Malibu. This book seemed personal, and all the more so when I realized I had never heard of the Rindge family.
As I read, it became clear that while I didn’t know the name, I grew up with things their family created or at least touched, and the conflict between great wealth and protection of the natural environment rages even now. And frankly, money usually wins.
This is a good book for those who care about such issues. But it feels like a must-read for someone whose home region is nearby. I enjoyed this book and learned a lot about a cultural I lived but didn’t really know.
I had just finished Randall’s well-written book about Bubonic Plague in San Francisco when I saw this one. I went to university and now live in NorCal, but I was born and raised at the beach in Los Angeles County 30 miles south of Malibu. This book seemed personal, and all the more so when I realized I had never heard of the Rindge family.
As I read, it became clear that while I didn’t know the name, I grew up with things their family created or at least touched, and the conflict between great wealth and protection of the natural environment rages even now. And frankly, money usually wins.
This is a good book for those who care about such issues. But it feels like a must-read for someone whose home region is nearby. I enjoyed this book and learned a lot about a cultural I lived but didn’t really know.
September 8, 2025
I really enjoyed learning about the beginnings of Malibu and other tidbits in this historical narrative. This book focuses on the Rindge family's impact on the area. It was so interesting to learn about Frederick and May Ringde. Their names are certainly not familiar in the way other early Angelos' are (like Huntington, Mulholland, etc.), but their passion for preserving the beauty of Malibu has had a true and lasting impact on the region. For bonus good measure, Frederick Rindge also had an outsized impact on Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Within the Malibu-centric sections, it was neat to read about the Rindges' interactions with homesteader Marion Decker, the namesake of Decker Canyon, whose nearby road I am NOT trying to drive.
This book is engaging, easy to read, and well worth the time for locals.
Within the Malibu-centric sections, it was neat to read about the Rindges' interactions with homesteader Marion Decker, the namesake of Decker Canyon, whose nearby road I am NOT trying to drive.
This book is engaging, easy to read, and well worth the time for locals.
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