Save Our Heritage Organisation

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March 26, 2011
SOHO Lectures
Complement Annual Historic Home Tour

Two experts on builder and designer Cliff May's early haciendas in San Diego will give illustrated talks on the San Diego native and his national influence on residential architecture and the indoor-outdoor lifestyle on March 26, during SOHO's Annual Historic Home Tour Weekend. The lectures complement a self-guided tour of six of May's most romantic haciendas from the 1930s, which will be open from 10am-5pm on March 27.

May (1908-1989) is considered "the father of the American ranch house." He streamlined his rustic hacienda designs into suburban ranch homes, built by the thousands throughout America's suburbs after World War II.

Mary van Balgooy is executive director of Peerless Rockville, a leading preservation organization in Maryland, and will present Before LA: Cliff May's Beginnings in San Diego

In 1931, Cliff May left San Diego State College and return to his old calling-jazz music. If someone had told him he would become the "father of the ranch house" and build thousands of homes, he would have laughed: "I never ever thought of building houses. Never. Even when I was in college it never occurred to me." But May did build houses starting in the 1930s in his hometown of San Diego. His early success would take him to Los Angeles and eventually he would be remembered as the man who developed the suburban dream home of the 1940s and 1950s, the California ranch house. In her illustrated presentation, historian Mary van Balgooy takes a look at May's early life, the inspiration he drew from his family heritage to design his houses, and the homes he built in San Diego.

Melinda Gándara, assistant project archivist at the University Art Museum at the University of Santa Barbara, will trace the origins of May's initial residential designs with images and information drawn from the nation's largest repository of May's drawings, photographs, papers and memorabilia, which is housed at UCSB, in her lecture Cliff May - The past is my future. As a child, May frequented historic adobe ranchos in San Diego County that deeply affected him. She'll also discuss May's enterprising practice of designing a hacienda with modern conveniences, making rustic furniture for each home and selecting suitable trees and landscaping, all to achieve his interpretation of life in old California.

Both talks will be given twice, once in the morning and once in the afternoon at 10am, 11:15am, 1pm and 2:15pm on March 26 at the Adobe Chapel Museum, 3963 Conde Street in Old Town San Diego.

Cliff May Lectures
Saturday - 10am · 11:15am · 1pm · 2:15pm
$15 each

Purchase Advance Tickets
Online HERE
Call SOHO (619) 297-9327 or (619) 297-7511
In person
Whaley House Museum Shop, 2476 San Diego Avenue
Marston House Museum Shop, 3525 Seventh Avenue

BACK to full Weekend Press Release

Proceeds benefit SOHO's advocacy and preservation work

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