Rancho Santa Fe’s secret architect, Lilian J. Rice

Picture a sleepy, little farming community about 100 miles south of Hollywood at the turn of the last century. Warm winds flow over the rolling hills where a native Indian and Spanish ranch heritage rest. All that changed in a few decades as railroad barons and gentlemen farmers decided it would be the perfect place to retire.

Rancho Santa Fe was about to step onto the world stage. Hollywood celebrities like Bing Crosby helped to make Rancho Santa Fe famous, but before they descended a village needed to be built. One woman, Lilian J. Rice, was instrumental in shaping what it would be like to live and work there. Few have known about her work until recently.

Lilian J. Rice was a part-time teacher and draftswoman, employed by the San Diego architectural firm, Requa and Jackson. In the early 1920s the firm received a commission from the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway Company to build a planned community on the site of the former Spanish land grant. As Requa had taken on numerous projects in the region, Lilian was assigned to plan and supervise the initial development of what became Rancho Santa Fe and one of the richest zip codes in America. Watch a short video about the work of Lilian J. Rice.

Diane Welch, an award-winning author and biographer recently won the People in Preservation award for her efforts to illuminate Lilian J. Rice’s prolific contributions to the architectural fabric of Southern California. Since 2005 Diane’s been investigating why more wasn't known about her and has become the Lilian J. Rice official biographer in the process. Today she is leading walking tours of several of the notable Rice buildings in alliance with the Rancho Santa Fe Inn and benefiting the non-profit, Rancho Santa Fe Seniors, Inc. 

There’s a bit of controversy over how much Lilian was actually involved in developing the unique style that eventually became indelibly identified as Californian. Her buildings incorporate a unique use of adobe, arched doorways, large beams and wrought iron detailing as well as every effort to bring the outdoors inside with patios and courtyards.

Eventually Rice obtained her architectural license and designed more than 100 commercial and residential buildings in the area. She opened her own firm employing many upcoming architects and other women designers.  All this happened at a time when many in the country were out of work due to the Great Depression. Truly, Lilian J. Rice must have been a formidable force.

Find out more about the seminal, Californian architect, Lilian J. Rice, walking tours in Rancho Santa Fe and Diane Welch’s award-winning biography.

Photo courtesy of Diane Welch