Rancho Cienega de Los Paicines

Built in 1912, for A. Kingsley Macomber (1877-1955) and his wife, the oil heiress Myrtle Harkness (1883-1962). Their 15,000-square foot home was designed by architect Frank Delos Wolfe and was modelled after a house they had seen in Nice, in the South of France. Its 20-rooms included an indoor pool, "with an arched roof of bronze screening and a gold dome". The grounds encompassed a golf course and a 12-car garage. The 8,900-acre ranch was the center of their extensive cattle-breeding operation and thoroughbred racehorse farm of 150 horses in which Myrtle took an active role, having spent several years working with her father's horses in Kentucky....