Paramount Ranch: Cultural Landscape Inventory, Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area, National Park Service

National Park Service

The Paramount Ranch is a rural historic landscape in the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area. The lands of the Paramount Ranch managed by the National Park Service, which encompass 650 acres, comprise the most representative, surviving portion of the approximately 2,400 acre former Paramount Studio Movie Ranch, which owned and developed the property between 1927 and 1943. Undeveloped and mountainous terrain surrounding the Paramount Ranch was once part of the Paramount Studio Movie Ranch but lie outside the park boundaries. Located within NPS boundaries are the former ranch headquarters area, the sites of a number of historic set locations, and much of the historic road system. The ranch area, roughly triangular in shape, is bounded on the east by Cornell Road, and the southern boundary is near the summit of a range of hills overlooking Triunfo Canyon. The northwest boundary line, which extends along a range of hills, is shared by Malibu Creek State Park. The principal landforms within the ranch are the valley of Medea Creek, and the hills to the west of the creek. Medea Creek, which follows a general north-south course in the eastern section of the property, is at an elevation of about 750 feet. Sugarloaf Mountain, the largest of the hills on the west side of the creek, reaches 1,320 feet in elevation. A small valley, descending from west to east, runs through the hills along the west side of the ranch toward the center of the ranch property. The ranch area contains typical coastal foothill vegetation communities representative of the Mediterranean climate in California. Chaparral covers more than two-thirds of the acreage of the historic landscape. Along Medea Creek, the riparian vegetation consists primarily of willows and walnut trees, with associated herbs and grasses. Oak woodlands are located in close proximity to the watercourses and the dominant species are coast live oak, valley oak, and scrub oak. Oak savannahs, which are grasslands with scattered valley oaks, are also present at the ranch, and were the principal areas for film production and set construction during the period of significance. The central developed area of the movie ranch is located at the intersection of the small east-west trending valley and Medea Creek. This is where a number of structures were erected over the years, where the movie ranch headquarters were located, and was the site of administrative and operational activities. Several structures remain at the ranch that date from the period of significance, 1927-1943. These include a livestock barn, equipment storage garage, prop storage sheds (2), the studio’s mess hall/kitchen building (Longhorn building), mill/carpenter building and the Medea Creek bridge. The buildings that remain at the former ranch headquarters area and which date to the period of significance have been altered throughout the years and new buildings have been added, so that the cumulative effect is that the complex as a whole no longer conveys its original character. Outlying sites where movie sets were constructed, however, remain intact. The broader landscape characteristics of the ranch that retain integrity include natural systems and features, spatial organization, circulation, topography, and natural systems and features. Natural systems and features, or the natural setting of the ranch, was one of the chief values ascribed to the site as a location for the production of motion pictures; its diverse natural features and landscape qualities allowed for a wide range of locales to be represented on-screen. These landscape characteristics continue to evoke the setting and feeling of the historic period and contribute to the site’s significance as one of the best preserved examples of the movie ranches developed by the motion picture industry in Southern California.

Paramount Ranch: Cultural Landscape Inventory, Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area, National Park Service

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