August 7, 2015 - Today we drove west to Malibu to visit the Adamson House. The house was built in 1930 for Rhoda Rindge Adamson and Merritt Huntley Adamson. Rhoda's parents, Frederick Hastings Rindge and May Knight Rindge were the last owners of the Malibu Spanish Land Grant. The estate is located on the coast, within Malibu Lagoon State Beach Park. It has been called the "Taj Mahal of Tile" due to its extensive use of decorative ceramic tiles created by Rufus Keeler of Malibu Potteries, a company formed by May Rindge and owned by the family. This house is on to the National Register of Historic Places and is also designated as a California Historical Landmark.
Before our docent-led tour of the interior, we had another docent who gave a one hour garden tour.
Just beyond the Malibu Lagoon, to the left of the palm, is the Malibu Movie Colony.
No matter where you look, there is tile everywhere, as seen in some of these beautiful fountains.
The Adamsons loved their dogs and they had twelve collies. To keep them clean they constructed an outdoor bathtub and a large patio so the dogs could shake themselves dry.
Their pool and pool house overlook the Pacific Ocean.
Interior photography was not permitted, but here are a few pictures that are available online to give a general idea of what the house looks like inside.
In this picture of the loggia, it appears that an oriental carpet is on the floor, but it's not a carpet, it's tile and even has fringes as part of its composition.
The creativity and the sophistication of these early twentieth century tiles makes a lasting impression of the Adamson House and it's a wonderful tribute to the vision and legacy of May Knight Rindge.
After the tour it was time to eat, so we walked over to the nearby Malibu Pier for lunch. When the Rindge family bought the Malibu Spanish Land Grant, the property was thousands of acres in size. Reportedly Frederick only paid about $10 per acre for everything. There weren't any roads here so the family built Malibu Pier to ship out their pottery and tiles.
Directly west of the pier, across Malibu Lagoon, is the well known Malibu Movie Colony.
Directly east of the pier is Carbon Beach. This beach has been described as "the world's most expensive sandbox" with an estimated real estate cost of greater than $200,000 per foot of beachfront.
These assessed valuations from Zillow indicate what kind of neighborhood this is.
We had lunch at the Malibu Farm Restaurant, located right on the pier.
I had their Prince Edward Island mussels with a spicy fennel Sofrito, red wine and oranges. Judy's choice was a grass fed beef burger with red onion, a bacon confit, gruyere cheese and lemon aioli. For dessert we split a dish of basil ice cream! The ocean breeze, the sounds of the waves crashing against the pier and delicious food made for some great dining.
While we're walking on the pier, getting ready for the drive home, I noticed a girl with a Carl's Jr. bag that was holding a hamburger. Sure enough, it was Charlotte McKinney, the Carl's Jr. model who appeared in their 2015 Super Bowl ads.
It was a long day and a long drive, but it was probably one of our best adventures here in beautiful Southern California.