The History behind
Ladera Ranch_ A Deep Dive! Part 1

The hillside community of Ladera, founded in 1946, has a fascinating history with its beginnings as a Spanish Land Grant farm and ranch, then a cooperative housing experiment, and now a thriving and independent unincorporated community. Located in San Mateo County, California, it now has 535 homes.

Ladera Lore, written by Hallis Friend and Nancy Lund in 1974, describes the unique and fascinating history of the community we now know as Ladera. We appreciate their willingness to allow us to reprint excerpts from it here.

A Brief History Before The Spaniards Arrived

For centuries the hills that are now Ladera were quiet. If there were any inhabitants, they were tribelets of the Ohlones Indians – the Wemelento and Akahawi. They lived mainly on seeds and small game and stayed away from the redwood groves for fear of supernatural and evil little people.

In those years Ladera was a foothill woodland of grasses, valley or white oak, blue oak, and, in the upper hills, the California live oak. The rock beneath Ladera is principally sandstone from the Miocene period. The uppermost area is underlain by sandstone and shale from the earlier Eocene and Paleocene epochs (called Ladera Sandstone). This is separated from the formation below by a fault.

Land Grants Courtesy Of The Spaniards

When the Spanish came and established the mission at Santa Clara and the pueblo of San Jose, logging was begun in the area. As early as 1785 logs were cut into beams and dragged south by oxen. By 1800 the area was part of Mission Santa Clara lands and inhabited by wild animals (including grizzly bears) and by Indians who had avoided mission life and remained unfriendly. Probably the earliest settlers in the vicinity were Rafael Soto and his family who arrived in 1827 and stayed about 8 years. Soto later built the port of Palo Alto and the Embarcadero Road and transported lumber between his docks and the Corte Madera Rancho.

The first recorded deeded ownership of the land to become Ladera was in 1833. Then, the Mexican governor of California, Jose Figueroa, granted one square league (4,438 acres) to Maximo Martinez and Domingo Peralta. This grant, one of eighteen in San Mateo County, was called “el Rancho de Corte de Madera,” or “Rancho cañada del Corte Madera.” In English, Corte Madera means short timber choppings, or the lumber cutting, even lumber clearing, thus roughly translating to “Ranch of the Valley of the Cut Wood,” The record shows more lands were granted in 1836 and 1839, and on May 1, 1844, Governor Micheltorena granted even more, until the whole Corte Madera grant equaled 22,980 acres, from Alameda de las Pulgas to Skyline.

Statehood Years As A Part Of The California State

Domingo Peralta’s parents were the owners of Rancho San Antonio, today the sites of Alameda, Oakland, Piedmont, and Berkeley. He sold his rights to Martinez, Cipriano Thurn, and H. W. Carpentier. At any rate, the Corte Madera grant was confirmed by the newly-controlling United States government to Maximo Martinez on September 10, 1855, patented on July 14, 1858, and recorded on December 21, 1858, in the amount of 13,316 acres. Ladera was a part of this grant, as well as the Westridge area of Portola Valley.

Martinez had a wooden house moved from San Jose to a spot near where Los Trancos Road now enters Alpine Road, likely at the current location of the Portola Valley Garage. He had been a soldier in San Francisco from 1819 until 1827 and was regidor at San Jose at the time of the first grant. He operated a stock ranch on his land from 1834 until his death at the age of 71 in 1863. He and his wife DanMana Padilla had seven children. Maximo Martinez could not write his name. Even then, there was little use of the Ladera land.

His son Nicholas was the next owner of the tract that contained Ladera. He had an Adobe home in what is now Westridge. This house was later used by William O’Brien Macdonough (whose descendants owned Ladera, until 1901).

The 260 acres that became Ladera were sold to Francis Scanlin in 1867. In 1868 a section of the Menlo Park-Santa Cruz Turnpike (opened now called Alpine Road) over portions of an old Ohlone trail. After Scanlin’s death, the land was sold in 1877 to Raffertys-Sarah, Patrick, Michael, Margaret, and Owen. They owned it until 1885 when Frank H. Burke bought it, and the land got its first real name – the Burke Ranch.

Frank H. Burke was born on June 12, 1848, in Wisconsin and came to California in 1851. His father was Martin J. Burke, the San Francisco chief of police from 1856 to 1865 and one of the founders of Madison and Burke. He had a large house and ranch called “La Siesta” (ever wonder why there is a Siesta Court in Ladera?). Trotters were bred and trained on the Burke Ranch, and Frank H. Burke was a well-known San Mateo County horseman until his death in December 1910.

The Burkes had no children and the 260 acres changed hands several times in the following years. In 1913 it was sold to George Greenwood who immediately sold it to Norwood Smith (who was to come into the Ladera story again years later) and William Cranston, real estate brokers. They sold it, still in 1913, to Frederick and Olive Schneider. A year later, on April 14, 1914, the Schneiders sold it to Horace L. Hill and his wife Julia. Apparently, upon his death in 1918, the heirs sold to one J. Meyer, who held the land from June 6, 1918, until April 2, 1919. From then until May 24, 1927, the 260 acres belonged to Fred C. and May Franks. They were sold to Joseph M. Macdonough, and the old Burke Ranch was added to the holdings of the vast Ormondale Ranch.

The Ormondale Ranch consisted of 1400 acres, including today’s Ladera and Westridge. The main portion of it had been bought in about 1886 from Nicholas Larco by the Macdonough family. A large home was built above the land where the Country Shopper now exists, but its exact location has not been determined. What is known is that the home consisted of imported materials from Europe, and cost $100,000 to build, a fortune at the time. Through the years it was used for racehorses, shorthorn cattle, sheep, and Aberdeen Angus stock. The most famous of the Macdonough horses was Ormonde. 

He was bought by the Macdonoughs in the late 1800s for $150,000, the highest price ever paid for a racehorse at that time. Ormonde was never beaten in a race. (He never raced in this country but won his races in England.) When he died, his bones were sent to the British Museum in London. He was the sire of Ormondale, another great horse. The Ormondale school in Portola Valley occupies the place where the race track of Mr. Macdonough’s ranch was located.

By the time the Ladera’s 260 acres became part of the Ormondale Ranch, the horses had largely been replaced by cattle and sheep. Stanley Webb was growing up on the neighboring Webb Ranch during these years, and he can remember occasional visits of a Basque sheep-herder to his mother’s kitchen. He recalls that she would cook. the mutton he brought and that the Webb children would disappear, lest they be invited to share in the meal. Mrs. David Botsford tells of childhood memories of running up the hill from Alpine Road to a big poplar tree (still standing beyond the end of East Floresta) to see the shepherd and count the new lambs.

There is little other evidence of activity on the land that was to become Ladera, although nearby Jasper Ridge is riddled with shafts dug by silver seekers. There was a famous hermit Domenico Grosso living there in the late 1800s. He had a cabin, a barn, a shop, roses, fruit trees, terraces, and an ornamental trout pool. Neither he nor anyone else realized any profits from these shafts. Stanley Webb can recall two prospect silver mines on the site of Ladera-one near the top and one across from a large rock with a huge hole in it that was called “Rainbow Rock.”

The last single owner of Ladera, before its development as a community, was Denton W. Macdonough. On his Ormondale Ranch, he planted 300 redwoods, 800 oaks, and 300 pepper trees, including the pepper trees along Gabarda today. In the later years, his wife operated an antique store, Merryvale, where the Ladera Oaks clubhouse is today. Although the horseracing days were largely over then for the Ormondale Ranch, Macdonough loved horses, horse races, and open spaces. Macdonough lived in frail health at 168 Chestnut in San Francisco. When he sold 260 acres of his ranch to the Peninsula Housing Association in 1946, the current story of Ladera began.

The Magical Cooperative, A Noble Dream!

The Ladera of homes, families, streets, and stores had its beginnings during World War II. Because of his interest in the Consumers’ Cooperative Movement and his role in helping to originate the Palo Alto Cooperative, Dr. Murray Luck, a professor of biochemistry at Stanford, was invited by the Stanford YMCA and YWCA to conduct a Christmas vacation workshop at Asilomar on consumers’ cooperatives. Several other workshops, including one on city planning conducted by Sumner Spaulding (then the city planner for the City of Los Angeles), were conducted simultaneously. 

It was as a result of these meetings and many conversations with Mr. Spaulding that Dr. Luck began to realize the possibilities of a group of people joining together to buy land and plan and develop a community in which they would live. The potential economic and social benefits which might be realized encouraged him to pursue such a cooperative approach. It appeared to be obvious that such a community could have values for the residents that might be lacking in a typical commercial development.

Dr. Luck found enthusiastic support for this idea in Dr. Erik Heegaard, another biochemist Dr. David Bonner, a biologist, and Ralph Evans, then the Palo Alto postmaster and also a member of the Palo Alto Co-op. On April 17, 1944, under their leadership, the Peninsula Housing Association was incorporated to purchase a tract of land and to direct its development as a cooperative community. Frederick & Rebecca Anderson, and Mrs. Aletha Baker, were also members of the founding committee. 

Each put up $200 for legal help in incorporating, and Dr. Heegaard recalls that that was a sizable sum in those days and that he taught Air Force students, at night, for many months to earn his $200. In March of 1945, the PHA was granted permission from the Commissioner of Corporations to sell memberships and to issue certificates of interest. Thus was born the group which grew rapidly and ultimately failed-that, in the words of Wallace Stegner, “had the spirit that used to animate barn raisings when democracy was younger and simpler.”

What It Means To Be A Cooperative!

The spirit of cooperation was plenty in the land in those years. Housing costs were high and were soaring even higher. Newspapers were digging into the wretched status of housing. Henry Kaiser was planning a low-cost housing project applying assembly line techniques. Harry E. Sharkey, editor of the York, Pa. Gazette and Daily, was urging the cooperative movement to enter the housing field. There were newspaper reports of successful co-op housing projects in Denmark and Sweden. 

There was enough interest that the U. S. Bureau of Labor Statistics printed a pamphlet on the organization and management of co-ops. By 1947, there were perhaps 100 cooperative housing groups in the country with about 5000 members. At least four were in California: Community Homes, Inc. of Los Angeles; Veterans Housing Cooperative in San Francisco; Home and Community Planning Association of Berkeley; and the PHA of Palo Alto. Its founders believed that none was more thoroughly cooperative and detailed in its planning than the PHA.

Word of the PHA spread through Stanford and the Palo Alto Co-op and out beyond until 1944’s handful became fifty members by September 1945, and 150 by 1946. The goal was 400 members. The membership fee was $200, $150 of which was refundable upon withdrawal. On completing the payment of membership fees, the member bought certificates of interest in the cooperative. 

These certificates were negotiable securities for $500 bearing 5% interest. This investment was to pay for the development of the property, and the certificates were to be exchanged for a deed to a specific lot. Ultimately, as the development of the land began, certificates of interest or assessments were required of members; by 1950 most had $2300 invested.

In addition to several Stanford professors, these members were people from all walks of life: chemists, writers, nurses, accountants, pilots, public school teachers, lawyers, mechanics, and government employees. The average family had two children; many were expecting more. The average age was thirty-six. The average income range was $4000-$8500. They hoped that through the PHA they could make their money count for more. The goal was to live in a well-planned, beautiful community. The original hope was to achieve this aim for $6000 per family.

There were many reasons why the PHA members thought that they could save each family some money. Buying and developing the land themselves would represent a considerable saving. Undeveloped land similar to Ladera was selling for as much as $2,000 an acre (by the year 2000, this same land was valued at $1-2 million per acre). Wallace Stegner was quoted a price of $10,000 for another hillside lot. 

The Sanderson Smiths were quoted a price of $6,000 for a non-view acre in Atherton. Smaller town lots in Palo Alto were selling for $3,000-$4,000. Ladera cost about $600 per acre, and with sewers and utilities, the average one-third acre lot would cost $1,500 to $1,800. In addition, the owners would have equity in the acres of common land set aside as parks and open spaces. Then too, it was thought that architecture and construction costs would be cut by building 400 homes at once in one place. Large-scale financing should be less costly. Even buying 400 refrigerators and washing machines should bring the individual’s cost down.

Hey! Our Ladera Story is far from over! 

Stay tuned for Parts 1 and 2 and to find out the intricacies in Ladera’s Rise to popularity as a developed community.