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The Murphy Ranch is an abandoned ranch in Rustic Canyon, Los Angeles, built in the 1930s by Winona and Norman Stevens. A long-running urban legend claims the ranch was built to serve as a pro-Nazi enclave.[1][2][3][4]
From 1950-1965, the property was owned by the Huntington Hartford Foundation, which operated it as an artists' retreat.[5][6]
The site, now abandoned and in a state of disrepair, is currently owned by the city of Los Angeles.
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Jessie M. Murphy purchased 41 acres of the Lawes property in Rustic Canyon, Los Angeles in the early 1930s. This land became known as Murphy Ranch. Winona and Norman Stevens purchased it from Jessie Murphy in 1933 or 1934. Winona Bassett Stevens was a wealthy heiress, inheriting a fortune amassed by Arthur J. Bassett in the Chicago steel industry.[7] A Rasputin-like spiritual healer named Conrad Anderson convinced Winona to purchase the Murphy property as a survival retreat, accurately claiming that a great war was coming.
Construction began in 1934. Canyon hillsides were terraced, and 8 long concrete staircases were built into the side of the canyon to maintain orchard trees on the terraces. A good well was drilled, and a 300,000-gallon water tank and another smaller tank were added to be filled from the well. A watering system was built to water the trees in the terraces. A concrete building to house two large diesel generators was constructed, to provide electricity for the property's needs. The entire 41 acres were chain-link fenced at the perimeter, with barbed wire strands across the top. It appears that this fence is still there today. An electric gate at the property entrance had an intercom wired to the main house, from which the gate could be operated remotely. A strong steel house was built to serve as a garage in the original plan. Several large mansions were planned, one by architect Paul Williams, a well-known African American architect in the Southern California area. But only the steel building and two other small houses were built by the time the Stevens family moved in, which was November 26, 1942 - Thanksgiving Day.
The family consisted of Norman and Winona Stevens and their four children: Dale, Robin, Carlile, and Theanne. Conrad Anderson had a house on the property, and three of his followers also moved to the property: Ilsa Reynolds, Josephine Spotts, and Florence Kamp. All but Conrad Anderson worked daily on the property, tending livestock and chickens, maintaining the orchards, milking cows, raising hay and other crops, etc. The family moved out in 1945, after the war ended. The Stevens moved to property they bought in Ramona. Anderson had died in 1943. In 1949, they sold the property to Huntington Hartford for $100,000. This was a huge loss for the Stevens’, as they had put $900,000 into the property.[8]
Hartford also bought the adjacent Josepho property, for a total of 154 acres. He set it all up as a retreat for artists and writers, who would be accepted to the retreat for six-month periods, all expenses paid for by Hartford. Henry Miller, Edward Hopper, and Christopher Isherwood were among those who were awarded these stays. The art colony ran until 1965 when Hartford ran out of money. He sold it that year to Jack Morehart, who owned Pacific Ocean Park.[9] Morehart later sold 86.6 acres of the property, including Murphy Ranch, to the city of Los Angeles in 1972. He donated half and received $478,000 for the other half. Despite being so far from the city, it remains a Los Angeles city park to this day (2024). The Mandeville Canyon fire of 1978 destroyed most of the structures. The large water tank, gate, and remains of the steel building were torn down in 2016, mainly for safety. The concrete powerhouse is the only structure left standing on the Murphy Ranch portion of the property. It is thoroughly painted over by graffiti, which is continually updated. All entryways have been sealed.[10][11]
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John Vincent was a UCLA music professor who helped Huntington Hartford with the purchase of Murphy Ranch from the Stevens family and later managed the art colony. He told the story that the Stevens family had bought Murphy Ranch at the urging of a German spy. He explained it in such a way that it was clear that he was talking about Conrad Anderson, though he called him "Herr Schmidt". When a local historian, Betty Lou Young, was writing a book about Pacific Palisades, she asked him to tell the story in the form of an affidavit in 1975. In the affidavit, he said that the Stevens family (he misspelled their name 'Stephens', which lingers on in the legend), built out the property based on National Socialist ideals. Young included the story in her book.[12] Her son Randy Young told the story to many over the years and was interviewed for the History Channel.
The legend grew in the telling, eventually claiming that the FBI raided Murphy Ranch on the day after Pearl Harbor, that Nazi spy Herr Schmidt and the Stevens family were arrested, that 50 members of the pro-Nazi Silver Legion of America marched on the property, that the property contained a bomb shelter, that the fence was electrified, etc. None of this is supported by evidence other than Vincent's story. The legend spread without any reply or awareness of the Stevens family. In 2023, Stanton Stevens, grandson of Norman and Winona Stevens, published a book telling the family's story about Murphy Ranch.[8]
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The ruins of Murphy Ranch are featured in Richard Kadrey's Sandman Slim series novel Killing Pretty.
Murphy Ranch was the featured location of the radio play "Annexing the Palisades" written in 2020 by Alex Goldberg.[13][14] The play is set in 1939 and is about the construction of the house and its supposed Nazi ties.[15]
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