McCrea Ranch House (Thousand Oaks, California)

USA / California / Moorpark / Thousand Oaks, California
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Joel McCrea – who was an outdoorsman who had once listed his occupation as "rancher" and his hobby as "acting" – had begun buying property as early as 1933, when he purchased his first 1,000 acres in what was then an unincorporated area of eastern Ventura County, California, but later became Thousand Oaks, California. This was the beginning of what became a 3,000 acre spread on which McCrea and his wife Frances lived, raised their children, and rode their horses.

By the time the 1940s ended, McCrea was a multi-millionaire, as much from his real-estate dealings as from his movie stardom. In the late 1960s, he sold 1,200 acres of land to an oil company, on the condition that they would not drill within sight of his home.

The McCreas ultimately donated several hundred acres of their personal property to the newly formed Conejo Valley YMCA for the city of Thousand Oaks, California. Today, the land on which the Conejo Valley YMCA rests is called "Joel McCrea Park".

www.mccrearanchfoundation.org
Wikipedia article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joel_McCrea
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Coordinates:   34°14'38"N   118°51'11"W

Comments

  • Thanks for posting this informative listing on a great fellow and good actor. BTW: there is a life size bronze statue of him in downtown Camarillo of his likeness sitting on parkbench.
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