If you think the face of Malibu has changed with recent commercial development, that scale is nothing in comparison with the evolution of the original Rancho Malibu during the half-century from 1905 to 1955.
Longtime native Ronald Rindge, who was there to witness a significant segment of those years unfold, recently completed a historical book, “Malibu Rails and Roads: A Photographic Journey Across Rancho Topanga- Malibu-Sequit.”
The idea for the book began a decade ago, with coauthor Thomas Doyle. When Doyle died in 2009 before the project was completed, Rindge pressed forward with the book, enlisting the research assistance of William Clark and Glen Howell.
“The book is the culmination of three years of everyone’s research,” said Rindge in an interview. “The most enjoyable part of the project was combining all the knowledge Tom Doyle had and putting it together with our historical research to seal the story.”
Doyle conducted much of his research by going to the City of Los Angeles archives and combing through court filings, said Rindge. Those involved in the project also collected Malibu memorabilia by buying pieces at yard sales and swap meets over the years.
Because much of the book is a graphic presentation, largely with photographs, maps and captions, Rindge says he hopes to produce a subsequent book that would contain more historical text.
A particular challenge in preparing the current book, he said, was that the original Rancho Malibu was a very isolated area. During 1900 to 1920, he said, the property was a private ranch owned by his grandfather. That made it difficult to confirm certain factual material that accompanies the photographs in the book.
“There were lots of speculation and wild rumors back then,” said Rindge. “We couldn’t rely on what was in splashy newspaper stories from that time, so we had to do research to determine what was true.”
Because Rindge lived on Latigo Shore Drive from 1939 to 1968, much of his research came from “feet on the ground experience,” he said. The book contains amazing historical photos, including a full page of the Rindge beach house on the Roosevelt Highway at Latigo Beach in 1940. The home’s exterior was used in the classic 1945 Joan Crawford film, “Mildred Pierce.”
Other unique photographs include images of horses being ridden on the beaches, a woman(tentatively identified as May Rindge) driving a pair of horses across a vacant expanse of Point Dume and railroad tracks being installed at various places, along with old maps that parallel the photographed locations. Photos dating from the 1940s show such landmarks as the Malibu Trading Post on Malibu Road, the Malibu Riviera Motel, the Holiday House Hotel, the Malibu Inn (then known as the Malibu Beach Inn) and Fiddler’s Inn opposite the Malibu Pier.
Overall, the book provides a historic walk through the early highways and byways across Malibu—the trails, railways and roads. Key portions of the book memorialize the Rindge railway, the county dirt road subsequently built in 1921 and the subsequent two-lane paved highway installed by the state in 1929 (which became the Pacific Coast Highway). Another important means of transport through Malibu was the Rindge railway, whose progress and demise are well documented throughout the book.
Rindge’s hope is that the book will “bring a better appreciation to longtime residents and to visitors of what this beautiful area was like. Malibu is still beautiful, but now there are more residences and more people, and that’s just how California is.”