Malibu

A bit of history

Frederick Hastings Rindge, a Harvard-educated East Coast transplant, bought the Malibu property in 1892 for about $10 an acre, and he and his wife May became the last owners of the Malibu Spanish Land Grant. Their daughter Rhoda and her husband Merritt Adamson built the Adamson House in 1929, using clay found on the property (while May was actually searching for oil) to found Malibu Potteries, a short-lived tile company whose work is now considered historically significant. The Rindge family held the land under tight private control for decades, and Malibu didn't incorporate as its own city until 1991.