Transforming the Irvine Ranch

Joan Irvine, William Pereira, Ray Watson, and the Big Plan

H. Pike Oliver, C. Michael Stockstill

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2022
• ISBN:
  9781000552140
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Real Estate
• Index: Business

From citrus trees to spring breakers, Transforming the Irvine Ranch tells the story of Orange County's metamorphosis from 93, 000 acres of farmland into an iconic Southern California landscape of beaches and modernist architecture. Drawing on decades of archival research and their own years at the famed Irvine Company, the authors bring a collection of colorful characters responsible for the transformation to life, including:

• Ray Watson, whose nearly century-long life took him from an Oakland boarding house to the Irvine and Walt Disney Company boardrooms
• Joan Irvine Smith, a much-married heiress who waged war against the US government and the Irvine Foundation's reactionary board and won
• William Pereira, the visionary architect whose work became synonymous with the LA cityscape.

Spanning the history of modern California from its Gold Rush past to the late 1970s, Transforming the Irvine Ranch chronicles a storied family's largely successful attempts to remake the vast Irvine Ranch in its own image.

1A Decade of Determination

DOI: 10.1201/9781003226291-2

Irvine Ranch Assemblage in 1899

Figure 1.1 In 1899, the Irvine Ranch consisted of approximately 110,000 acres, stretching 22 miles northeast from the Pacific Ocean to the Santa Ana River.

The image on the left is the 1899 survey prepared by S.H. Finley (courtesy OC Archives) and the image on the right was hand drawn for the authors by Robert Dannenbrink, Jr.in June 2021 and digitally edited by Jason Baesel in July 2021.

The hand drawn map highlights the geography of the property, with the foothills framing the central section, and the rugged mountainous area where the ranch boundaries taper to the Santa Ana River.

Since 1864, when James Irvine and three partners began acquiring land in Southern California, the Irvine Ranch had contended with drought, crop failures, an armed standoff with the Southern Pacific Railroad, and countless conflicts with humans and nature.

But just ten years—from 1937 to 1947—were perhaps the most consequential in shaping the future of the ranch.

It was in 1937 that James Irvine’s son, James Irvine II, who was best known as “JI,” established the James Irvine Foundation, endowed it with cash, real estate holdings, and, most important, shares of the Irvine Company. JI’s decision to vest control of his ranching empire in the foundation after his death irretrievably charted the course for future development of the ranch into a New Town.¹

Figure 1.2 James (JI) Irvine, II, ca 1912.

(Courtesy of James Irvine Foundation)

The impact of World War II in the middle of that decade would also shape the destiny of the ranch both during and after the conflict.

In 1943, the federal government identified 2,400 acres of fog-free flatlands at the base of the Lomas de Santiago foothills at the eastern edge of the ranch as the perfect site for an airfield. Marine Corps Air Station El Toro, named for the tiny community that abutted it, was quickly constructed to train hundreds of Navy and Marine pilots headed to the war in the Pacific. And in 1944, the government approved funds to double its size.

On the western side of the ranch, near Tustin, another 1,600 acres of property was also taken by the Navy and turned into a dirigible base. The blimp hangars, hastily but soundly built, remain to this day on the site of the former base, which like El Toro, was retired from service in the early 1990s.

JI rarely sold land—it must have been a terrible blow to part with even just 4 per cent of his property. But he did not fret long. He took the funds paid to him by the government for the unexpected land sales to purchase the 100,000-acre Flying D Ranch in Montana, where he raised cattle and angled for trout on the Madison and Gallatin Rivers. It was there on August 24, 1947, Irvine keeled over while fishing, dead from an apparent heart attack. He was 79.

Irvine’s estate was valued at just under $15 million; estate taxes reduced it to $9.9 million—in 2022 dollars about $124.8 million.

At the close of the decade, the James Irvine Foundation, by the terms of Irvine’s will, would hold most of the Irvine Company stock and thus control of the company. (Family members held the rest.)

One motivation for creation of the foundation was the untimely death of his son, James Irvine Jr., known as “Jase,” who died at age 42 from tuberculosis. Multiple reports indicate Irvine was grooming Jase to run the ranch. His death left his brother, Myford, as the only other male heir, but Myford loved music more than farming and was considered by JI as ill-suited to assume the leadership role at the ranch.

The foundation board was selected by Irvine. The original members were Myford Irvine, Katherine Irvine (JI’s wife), W.H. Spaulding, A.J. McFadden, N. Loyall McLaren, James Scarborough, and Paul Dinsmore.

The foundation was established and headquartered in San Francisco, where the Irvine family owned commercial real estate and a family residence. Other than the family members and Irvine Company legal counsel, Scarborough, McLaren, and McFadden were sterling members of California’s business establishment. McLaren had been a member of the Federal Reserve Bank and worked at a successful accounting firm in San Francisco. More important, McLaren had been advising JI for nearly 30 years on tax and investment issues. McFadden, an Orange County resident, had extensive knowledge in agriculture, and Dinsmore and Spaulding were attorneys. Spaulding died in 1944 and was replaced on the foundation board by Brad Hellis, the general manager of the ranch.

Figure 1.3 N. Loyall McLaren (ca 1970), the guiding force behind the James Irvine Foundation.

(Bancroft Library at the University of California, Berkeley)

From the time he established the foundation until his death ten years later, Irvine made regular donations of cash, real estate, and shares of Irvine Company stock to the foundation, which made its first grant of $1,000 in 1938, then made increasingly larger gifts and donations as Irvine’s contributions increased the value of its investments and income.

Figure 1.4 James (JI) Irvine, II in the later years of his life.

(James Irvine Foundation)

Immediately following Irvine’s death, the foundation board named Myford Irvine as president of the Irvine Company.

Figure 1.5 Myford Irvine in the 1950s.

(Orange County Public Libraries)

The company’s principal business at the time was agriculture and livestock. Citrus abounded, as did lima beans and other specialty crops.

Orange County was now on a new course. The war brought thousands of newcomers to California to arm America and defeat fascism, as well as soldiers and sailors stationed or trained all over the state. GI Joe and Rosie the Riveter got married and wanted to settle down.

The county population was 130,700 in 1940; ten years later it was 216,200, and by the mid-1950s it had doubled. And in the next five years the population almost doubled again to 703,000 in 1960. New residential communities like Garden Grove sprung up seemingly overnight. Established small towns like Huntington Beach and Costa Mesa spread out into the flat landscape, where building a three-bedroom ranch house could be accomplished as fast as carpenters and plasterers could be hired.²

The Irvine Foundation and Irvine Company recognized that a tide of humanity would soon crash upon the western boundaries of the ranch. Real estate developers and their agents were already making offers, including one from local attorney Samuel Hurwitz, who proposed on behalf of an unidentified “syndicate” to buy the Irvine Company shares from the foundation for $60 million. Another developer from New York proposed a 70/30 partnership that would leave the foundation in charge while ceding planning and building expertise to the new partner.³

Other forces of change were gathering, including the powerful University of California. The Irvine Company no l...