Vanderlip Mansion (Rancho Palos Verdes, California)

USA / California / Rancho Palos Verdes / Rancho Palos Verdes, California / Vanderlip Drive, 99
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Former home of Frank A. Vanderlip, the wealthiest landowner on the peninsula. Descendants still occupy the grounds.
Frank Vanderlip, the "Father of Palos Verdes", constructed his first residence on the Peninsula in 1916 in the Portuguese Bend area, the "Old Ranch Cottage", now known as the "Cottage". Other buildings were added to the estate in the 1920's including a small guest house and garage called "La Casetta" and a larger guest house known as the "Villetta", now known as "Villa Narcissa". The Cottage is still owned by Suzanne Vanderlip, the widow of John Vanderlip, the youngest son of Frank Vanderlip, Sr., and Villa Narcissa is still owned by Elin Vanderlip, the widow of Frank Vanderlip Sr.'s third son, Kelvin. A third structure, a barn and stables called the "Farmstead" later became the Portuguese Bend Riding Club. The Vanderlip properties are located at the end of Vanderlip Drive, near the end of Narcissa Drive, the road through a private gated community just south of the Wayfarers' chapel at the beginning of the Portuguese Bend area, and public access to visit the property is not available. You can see the original gatehouse to the property at the gated entrance of Narcissa Drive just off of Palos Verdes Drive South.

www.maureenmegowan.com/PageManager/Default.aspx/PageID=...
www.pvnews.com/articles/2008/06/19/society/society1.txt
Wikipedia article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_A._Vanderlip
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Coordinates:   33°45'9"N   118°22'21"W

Comments

  • Now this place is REALLY haunted! If you go during the day, you'll hear voices in the wooded areas. If you go at night... actually, never go there at night. The spirits have physically assaulted people there at night, including my ex-girlfriend.
  • There are persistent rumors that the Vanderlip mansion is haunted. Two untrue story have been circulated on the internet that the wife of Frank Vanderlip went crazy there, or that a daugher of Frank Vanderlip had an illicit affair and was put into an insane asylum across the street, but the stories still appear on several websites devoted to haunted places. John Vanderlip and his wife Narcissa had 6 children, all of whom led normal lives. One story as to the possible source of the house being haunted is that Elin Vanderlip's father (Elin is the wife of Kelvin Vanderlip, one of Frank Vanderlip's children, and still lives in the Vanderlip Mansion Villa Narcissa) was of Norwegian descent and had a full head of white hair and would sometimes wander the streets at night in his nightgown, carrying a shotgun and accompanied by several dogs which had their voice boxes removed to prevent their disturbing Elin with their barking. The sight of the old man in his nightgown with white hair, gun and silent mysterious dogs may indeed have scared the daylights out of people.
  • This place is really NOT haunted. I don't know where the rumors came from, but the area surrounding the property (Portuguese Bend) has a reputation for being haunted in certain areas. One of these legends has already been debunked. As for the mansion, the Vanderlip descendants still live there, so there IS a mansion, it's just not haunted. My cousins went up there not too long ago (at night) and confirmed this. No ghosts, just a normal, gated mansion with living people living in it. Countless people claim to have gone to the area. Ironically, many of these people don't "remember" how to get there or come back with footage or pictures o the mansion. Yet they have all experienced "paranormal activity". I myself went to Del Cerro Park (the park over looking the entire area of the Vanderlip Mansion property) and saw exactly what has been described by people who have actually BEEN there or know the Vanderlip history. A ranch, houses, fields, trees but NO abandoned haunted house! So, that's basically what the mansion is: a mansion. No ghosts. As for how my cousins got in, well they live near the Rancho Palos Verdes area. Rolling Hills to be exact, so they've heard this legend all their lives. A friend of one of my cousins has a relative living in that community, so the friend knows the pass code to get through the gates. He gave it to them obviously, & and that's how they got in. So again, no ghosts, just rumors and legends that people refuse to get over.
  • Nonsense all! I have friends who live in Portuguese Bend behind the gates and have familial relations to Ms Vanderlip (she passed just a few years back) and her family, and she acknowledged to them and in her memoir which I read that all these ghost stories exist and that she is the "old lady" in them and her house is the reputed "castle"! It's hardly a castle! No-nothings cofuse it with my freinds home which is a 1932 Italianate revival of a Tuscan farmhouse. She also said there have always been trespassers who believe the nonsense and come-up to snoop around her property. I grew up in the area and all kids in all South Bay knew the same bogus ghost stories, and drove out there too. So don't waste your time and leave the residents in peace out there.
  • I grew up there not far from where Marine Land use to be. As kids we use to wander the Vanderlip property sometimes at night...you know kids. Trust me, the only ghosts there are in people's wee lil' heads ;0)
  • I myself went there last night , I have prove that this house is haunted. At first I thought it was all a joke, then I reviewed my film that I documented inside the building and yes we made actual encounter with ghost! Didn't hear nothing last night or seen anything.but in the film when we ask for mr. Vanderlip to make a noise he does and he does it twice! Don't believe me? I'll be posting up the video soon on YouTube and I'll comment back with the link !
  • and the link is where?
  • In the 80s 81 or 82 Me and a friend went there and we got through the gate and we were walking down I guess it was the drive way there was overgrown grassy field it seems on both sides of the drive and as we were walking we heard what we thought were peacocks "Yelp""Yelp" and all of a sudden we saw this little girl running behind a horse that was choking on grass yelling help me my horse is choking they came out of no where we were so scared we started to run and when we looked back she and the horse were gone. I want people to know that this is NOT made up or a drug induced hallucination it absolutely happened My friend was Harold Mayorga from San Pedro he pased last week car accident, my name is Jimmy Spradling from Pedro
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This article was last modified 6 years ago