Kumekichi Ishibashi Ranch (site) (Rancho Palos Verdes, California) | historic landmark

 ranch, historic landmark

 Upload a photo

The Kumekichi Ishibashi Ranch site gained "Point of Historical Interest" status in Sacramento on May 1, 1992. On August 27, 2005, a large bronze plaque facing the Pacific Ocean was dedicated at Founders' Park, Rancho Palos Verdes. Beautifully engraved images of the early Palos Verdes farming era surround the Ishibashi family narrative written by Mary Roderman, President and Founder of the Rancho de los Palos Verdes Historical Society. "It honors Kumekichi Ishibashi, who built the first Japanese American farm house in 1906. The original farm house and small structures were built of wood… During World War II, the original farmhouse was demolished and the land lease broken." Today the original Ishibashi ranch site is situated behind the Trump National Golf Course clubhouse.

"The area was called the "Bay of Smokes" by both the [Tongva] Indians and Cabrillo". Property ownership and progressive subdivisions passed from Mexican grantee Juan Sepulveda & sons to Jotham Bixby (1882) who sold 16,000 acres to Frank A Vanderlip, Sr. (1913), the Palos Verdes Project investors (1923-) and subsequently to the Palos Verdes Land Cooperation prior to World War II.