Adamson House

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Adamson House Grounds:
The Adamson House gardens and grounds are open daily from 8:00 a.m. to sunset. Please enjoy our self-guided outdoor interpretive panels that share the history of this special place as you walk around the outside of the house and its gardens.

Adamson House Tours:
The historic Adamson House docent-led public tours are available Wednesdays through Saturday from 11 a.m.–2 p.m (weather dependent). The last tour starts at 2 p.m. The tours run approximately every 30 minutes. Tours are first-come-first-served. We do not take reservations for groups of seven or less. Reservations, made at least 30 days in advance, are required for groups of eight or more: Please email ah.specialtours@parks.ca.gov for more information. Group tours are offered on Wednesdays.

Our tours range from about 45 minutes to an hour long. Entrance to the house is only available with a guided tour - we do not have a self-guided tour inside the home.

Adults: $7, cash only
6–17 years: $2, cash only
5-years and under: free

Malibu Lagoon Museum:
The Malibu Lagoon Museum is open to visitors Wednesday-Saturday from 11 a.m.–3 p.m. Malibu Lagoon Museum is free admission. The small, 2-room museum is attached to the Adamson House in the historic garage. Guests spend anywhere from 10 minutes to 1 hour browsing the exhibits. 

Note: In order to maintain proper preservation of the museum and its artifacts, the museum may be closed at the discretion of State Parks staff, especially during rain, fire, and other natural events. Museum and house is closed during rain.

Adamson House is located at 23200 Pacific Coast Highway. The large tile sign marks our entrance, which is west of the Malibu Pier and east of the Lagoon.

On-site parking is not available, but handicapped drop-off is permitted in front of the house.

Parking is available at the following locations for a fee: 1) the adjacent County Lot at SurfriderBeach;  2) Malibu Lagoon State Beach & Lagoon at the Cross Creek light, then a short walk across the bridge. Free parallel parking along the PCH when available.

History of the Historic Adamson House

Adamson House is designated a National Historic Site and a California Historic Landmark

 

Visible from most places on the state beach, but with entry only off the Pacific Coast Highway (Highway One), a few hundred feet down coast in Malibu Lagoon State Beach is the Adamson House. In 1892, Henry Keller sold the 13,000-acre Rancho Malibu to Frederick H. Rindge, for a price variously reported as $10-$22 per acre. Keller, it is said, had acquired it for 10 cents an acre in 1872.  Rindge, from Cambridge, Massachusetts, had recently inherited an estate of more than $2 million and moved to California.
 
After arrving in California, Rindge wrote a book called "Happy Days in Southern California." Then he looked for "a farm near the ocean, and under the lee of the mountain, with a trout brook, wild trees, a lake, good soil, and excellent climate."

Rindge found his "farm" in Malibu Canyon. He described the Malibu coast as the "American Riviera." He built a ranch house there, which burned to the ground in 1903. There were no roads to Malibu at that time. Everyone and everything came in by horseback or boat, or by horse-drawn wagon, over packed sand, at low tide. In 1904, the Southern Pacific Railroad tried to change all that by building railroad tracks across the Malibu area, to link Santa Monica and Santa Barbara. Rindge wanted none of the Southern Pacific, and to thwart it, he incorporated his own railway line, the Hueneme, Malibu, and Port Los Angeles Railroad, to bring in supplies and ship out hides and grain. That, and the wording of California law, were enough to keep out the S.P. Railroad.

Frederick Rindge died in 1905, and his wife, Rhoda May Knight Rindge, carried out his plans for the ranch, despite having to pay a big inheritance tax and high interest bills. In little more than 20 years, the Rindge Ranch became, it is said, the most valuable single real estate holding in the United States. Rhoda May Rindge, often called "May. K. Rindge," tried to keep highways out of her property, but the county and state obtained a right-of-way, and the Roosevelt Highway was opened in 1928. She started building a fine, Mediterranean-style, 50-room house in 1928. It was never finished and never lived in. The Franciscan Order acquired it in 1941, along with 26 acres of land and tile, valued at $40,000. Adamson House was purchased by the State of California in 1968.

The house and grounds share one of the most beautiful beach locations in Southern California where one can view the Malibu Lagoon, Malibu Beach and the Malibu Pier. In addition to its world-famous Malibu Tile, the house contains hand-carved teakwood doors, hand-painted murals, molded ceilings, hand-wrought filagree ironwork and lead- framed bottle glass windows. We hope you come visit us!