History of Rancho Sante Fe, CA

          The enchanting Village of Rancho Santa Fe is a historic and gentle hamlet...The area was originally part of a land grant deeded by Mexico in 1840 to the first mayor of Pueblo de San Diego, Juan Maria Osuna, whose family and descendants lived on the expansive ranchero property for many years. In 1906, the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad purchased the land and planted massive groves of eucalyptus with plans to convert the trees into railroad ties, but when the wood proved too soft and the Eucalyptus experiment failed, a new future in citrus unfolded.

         Surveyor and land expert Leone Sinnard was hired by the Santa Fe Land Improvement Company to create a high-class horticulture development of "gentlemen farmers" to create fruit tonnage for the railways. In 1922, the planned community was born, bearing the name Rancho Santa Fe. Every environment here calls for simplicity and beauty: the gorgeous natural landscapes, the gently broken topography, the nearby mountains. No one with a sense of fitness, it seems to me, could violate these natural factors by creating anything that lacked simplicity in line and form and color. "Welcome to our quiet corner of the world, a portal to Southern California countryside living at its finest.”