House to Be Considered as Landmark

A ranch house built on Fillmore’s Rancho Sespe in 1910 from a design by the famed Greene & Greene brothers should be named a historical landmark, the county’s Cultural Heritage Board has recommended.

The Ventura County Board of Supervisors will decide Tuesday whether to designate the private residence, a guest house and a stone wall as the county’s 135th historical landmark.

The California bungalow is known as the Spalding residence, after the family that built the clapboard house on 2,200 remaining acres of Rancho Sespe.

Rancho Sespe was one of the first Mexican land grants in Ventura County, created by an 1829 grant of 26,000 acres to Carlos Antonio Carrillo of Santa Barbara, according to a report accompanying the application.

After the ranch was divided and changed hands numerous times, Keith Spalding hired Harry Payton to build the ranch house. Payton followed plans by the Greene brothers of Los Angeles and Roy C. Wilson to construct the wooden single-story house and a nearby guest house.

The residence’s dark, stained wood was painted white in 1934, when a new chimney and enlargement were added, according to the Cultural Heritage Board report.

Also in the 1930s, the Spaldings commissioned the construction of a 650-foot-long stone fence leading up to the main residence. Three men worked for nearly five years to build the fence from flat slabs of stone quarried near Santa Paula.

Today the residence and 50 surrounding acres of citrus groves are owned by the Mummaneni Family Trust. A spokesman said the family intends to make any repairs needed to maintain its appeal.