Meet Architect Lilian Rice...

On the way to visiting Steve's Mom, we delight in taking detours. This one provided us with an interesting history lesson about Southern California native, Lilian Jeannette Rice (1889–1938).

In 1921, Rice was hired as an associate in the office of Richard Requa and Herbert Jackson, resulting in a significant advance in her professional life. Of note is that the roster of the California State Board of Architectural Examiners indicates that Rice was only the tenth woman in the state to receive her license at a time when there were 1,650 men licensed as architects. Requa and Jackson had recently been commissioned to design a Civic Center on the former Spanish land grant of Rancho San Dieguito in San Diego County (a property of nearly 9,000 acres), a project that they passed on to Rice, their most capable associate. When the designs for the Civic Center site plan and buildings were completed, she turned to the residential aspects of the highly restricted, upscale subdivision, which was renamed Rancho Santa Fe in mid-1922. With other more lucrative projects to work on in San Diego, Requa gave her full creative and supervisory control over the entire project in 1923, and she was soon directing a large team of workers. Rancho Santa Fe became one of the state's first planned communities unified by a single architectural theme, the Spanish Colonial Revival.
With not enough time to explore thoroughly, we ogled as many of her buildings as possible. Finished in 1923, this was her office.


Rice’s variation on the Spanish colonial architectural style was a Spanish village concept, where she combined the history of the original rancho, her travels (she loved Spain) and her training. La Flecha House, her first village residence, was built in 1923.
A modest building of some 1,000 square feet, the home included a living room, dining room, kitchen, two bedrooms and a bath. Its most unusual feature was being wired as an all-electric house—heating (including hot water), lighting and cooking—at a time when many rural San Diego homes had no electricity at all. The home was built of adobe brick, rough plastered on the exterior, smooth on the interior. The roof was flat, with parapet walls, equipped with drainpipes to dispose of rainfall. All railings, and both exterior and interior lighting fixtures were crafted of wrought iron in the Spanish colonial style. A garage wasn’t provided, or needed, at the time.
It now houses the Rancho Santa Fe Historical Society but wouldn't you know it, it was closed for renovations. Next time!
Our final stop was an explore of The Inn. In 1924, the Santa Fe Land Company built a guest house called ‘La Morada’ for potential homebuyers. As the new village took shape along Paseo Delicias — Rice also designed the commercial block, row houses, a school, even a gas station — The Inn soon became the center of the community. It attracted such Hollywood stars as Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks, who had ranchos nearby, and later, Bing Crosby, who opened the Del Mar Racetrack in 1937. Howard Hughes even leased a cottage here in the early sixties.




We plan to return to admire more architectural masterpieces, lounge about in the library, and have lunch on the patio to admire the view created by Lilian over 100 years ago.
If it's good enough for Bing, it's good enough for us!
"The community of Rancho Santa Fe reveals itself through layers of California history. History that moves from a Spanish pueblo, to a Mexican rancho, to an ambitious horticultural experiment gone awry, and finally to an inspired planned community. The very name Rancho Santa Fe (the namesake of the Santa Fe Railway) is a result of the marriage of these historical eras testifying to life in southern California during the 19th and 20th centuries. This extraordinary tract of land continues to convey its history even today."

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