Was this once a golf course? Yes, it was. Welcome to California Country Club Estates. From 1917 to 1951, this was a fancy country club. George Somerville, Harry Culver, H. W. McNutt and E. H. Allen founded it. Before that, the John D. Hawes Ranch cultivated barley here.
The location was ideal. It was near the city and the sea. Boulevards and crossroads made it accessible. Electric lines passed its threshold. The breeze from the ocean cooled it.
The club survived the depression. World War II caused its demise. Members left for the Armed Services. The course could not be maintained. Water bills went unpaid. Film stars purchased the land as an investment. Bulldozers leveled the course. Homes sit on its bones today.
After the war, soldiers needed housing. Sanford Adler developed California Country Club Estates. He worked with architects Dan Saxon Palmer and William Krisal. They offered twenty different ranch-style models. Postwar families moved in.
Adler had quite a story himself. He was born in Providence, Rhode Island. His parents were Eastern European Jewish immigrants. In Detroit, he worked for builder Edward Rose. He started his own homebuilding company. Before leaving Detroit, Adler built homes in Sherwood Forest. Sherwood Forrest had a mandatory homeowners association. Perhaps this inspired the association he set up here at California Country Club Estates.
Adler became wealthy selling housing lots in Detroit. He left to develop hotels and subdivisions in Florida and California. California Country Club Estates was his first West Los Angeles neighborhood. His San Fernando Valley developments are better remembered. By the mid-1960s, he built smaller homes in South Florida. His son, Brian Dennis Adler, was president of another Adler Florida building company.
Brian Adler was more active in Los Angeles. He was co-owner of Harleigh Sandler Realtors and co-founder of Rodeo Realty. He sold Rodeo Realty to Merrill Lynch Realty in 1982. Brian’s Beverly Park development is a guard-gated estate enclave adjacent to Beverly Hills. It is considered the premier guard-gated enclave in the United States.
The California Country Club changed names several times. It was the Culver City Country Club, Cheviot Hills Country Club and Rolling Hills Country Club. It hosted business leaders and star entertainers. Golfers like John Byron Nelson Jr. and Ben Hogan played here.
In 1950, the club’s owners sold to Sanford Adler. The owners were Frank Borzage, Fred MacMurray, Bő Roos and John Wayne. Adler developed California Country Club Estates in its place.
The Santa Monica Freeway was a decade off. Southern Pacific’s Santa Monica Air Line passenger service was infrequent. The homes were within walking distance of bus lines. The Rancho Country Club became the public Cheviot Hills Recreation Center. It had a public swimming pool and tennis courts.
The Los Angeles Historic Resources calls California Country Club Estates a good example of a residential subdivision from the mid-20th century. The 1950s mid-century modern homes are being replaced. Contemporary two-story versions of farm houses are taking their place. Adler’s vision is being airlifted into the new century. One wonders how many golf balls are still being found upon excavation here at California Country Club Estates.