Rancho Deluxe
Smith house, 1935-1936; La Habra, Calif.
Cliff May remained true to his ideas about the ranch house throughout his career, but when he met the financier and oilman John A. Smith, he began building more substantial houses—ranchos deluxe—in Los Angeles and beyond, where larger lots gave him room to spread out the plan and Smith’s financing gave him freedom. May’s early works outside San Diego include a ranch estate for Smith in La Habra (above), a house in Santa Barbara, a large speculative house in west Los Angeles, the first Frederick Blow house, and a house for himself in Mandeville Canyon.
Blow house #1, ca. 1937; Los Angeles, Calif.
Cliff May and John A. Smith formalized their relationship in a contractual partnership to “jointly undertake the construction of dwellings for sale in the vicinity of Los Angeles,” naming May as builder and designer and Smith as financier through his First National Finance Corporation. By the summer of 1937 they were aggressively promoting and publishing their houses, one of which is the first house May designed for Frederick Blow and his wife.
Frederick Blow commissioned May, left money in an account for him, and then left for Europe. This house has all the hallmarks of the best of May’s ranch houses. It spreads on the site, encloses outdoor rooms, and looks, with its uneven roof line, as though it grew on the site over decades.
Cliff May house #2, ca. 1936; Los Angeles, Calif.
His second house for his family, Cliff May house #2, was built in Mandeville Canyon. This area of west Los Angeles would remain the epicenter of May’s work and life for the rest of his long career.
For this house, the wings of Cliff May #2 enclose the outdoor living space. The street façade is straightforwardly modest and gives no hint of the expansiveness of the courtyard side.