Rindge-Adamson family Frederick Hastings Rindge was a wealthy Boston businessman who relocated to Los Angeles, and owned the "Rindge Ranch", which included the historic Spanish land concession
Rancho Topanga Malibu Sequit, enlarged by subsequent land purchases surrounding the ranch. The Rindge Ranch thus encompassed present day Malibu, California, and small portions of the
Santa Monica Mountains. His daughter was Rhoda Agatha Rindge Adamson. Adamson met Rhoda Rindge while he was employed as the foreman of the Rindge Ranch.
Rhoda Rindge reportedly became interested in him when she helped nurse him back to good health after he was injured in an accident. The couple was married in 1915. In 1916 Adamson established a
dairy business in the
San Fernando Valley, in
Tarzana known as Adohr Farms, the name being his wife's name spelled backwards. Completed in 1930, Stiles called the house an outstanding example of modified Mediterranean Revival-style architecture. Architectural historians refer to the style as a synthesis of
Spanish Colonial Revival and
Moorish Revival architecture. The interior features red tile floors, lancet windows, tile roofs, wood beams and molded walls. The house features
teak woodworking,
fireplaces in several interior and outdoor
patio rooms, handpainted ceilings,
lead-framed bottle glass windows, and "
wrought-iron filigrees fitting over the windows like intricate jewelry." Hand-crafted art tile fired from local
clay was specially designed for each room of the Adamson House. The Malibu Potteries only operated for six years from 1926 to 1932, During
World War II, the bathhouse was used by the
United States Coast Guard as a local headquarters to watch out over the Malibu coast. After her death, her heirs announced plans to build a $10–12million "deluxe
Waikiki-type beach resort" on the site, while preserving the house as an art and history museum. The State of California, however, filed an
eminent domain lawsuit in 1966, seeking to raze the house and turn it into beach parking. The state won its eminent domain lawsuit and purchased the property from the Adamson estate at the $2.69million valuation set by the court.
Preservation as a museum Despite the state's victory in the eminent domain proceeding, the Malibu Historical Society, supported by the Los Angeles County Department of Parks and Recreation and the Adamson family, together with other leading Malibu citizens, fought over the next ten years to have the Adamson House preserved. In addition to its extensive use of Malibu tile, preservationists touted the house as "a prime example of California Moorish-Spanish architecture." The house is open to the public for tours. ==In pop culture==