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Crocker’s mansion, which was called “New Place,”
became the home of the Burlingame Country Club
situated on New Place Road. Arthur Page Brown
would no doubt be amazed that two structures he
built for Will Crocker ended up as private country
clubs, both with Shakespearean names.
Macbeth
was the source of Birnam
Wood’s name; “New Place” was Shakespeare’s final home in Stratford-
upon-Avon, where “The Bard” died in the early seventeenth century.
Unfortunately, Brown’s career was cut short in 1895, when he died
prematurely at the age of 36 from horrific injuries suffered in a harrowing
buggy accident. The cause was eerily reminiscent of Charles Crocker’s
demise, the man whose own death from a carriage accident resulted in
Brown moving to California.
For reasons unknown, as he was still alive, Will Crocker deeded his
interest in the Crocker-Sperry Ranch to his wife, Ethel, in 1893; Las
Fuentes was now under the complete ownership of her and her mother.
The Poniatowski Era
The Crocker-Sperry Ranch entered a new era upon the 1897 death of
Will Crocker’s mother-in-law, Caroline Sperry. She bequeathed her share
of Las Fuentes to her daughter Elizabeth Helen Poniatowski, who at that
point was living primarily in the Bay Area. Helen’s aristocratic husband,
André, had moved from France so that he could partner with his brother-
in-law, Will Crocker, to form the Standard Electric Company. Together
they built the Electra Power House and delivered power to San Francisco,
from an unprecedented distance of 143 miles.
In 1904, André and Helen returned to France, where they continued to
rear their four sons—Stanislaus, Charles Casimir, Marie André and John.
The Poniatowski family distinguished itself in the French military during
both World Wars, while their Crocker relatives were widely decorated
for their generosity to France through war relief and rebuilding efforts.
Meanwhile, their 268-acre Crocker-Sperry Ranch began to decrease in
size, as some small parcels began to be sold off. In 1928, twenty-one acres
of Las Fuentes were sold to the Valley Club of Montecito for its clubhouse
and part of its golf course.
The Crocker-Sperry Ranch had been reduced to 238 acres by the time
Elizabeth Helen Poniatowski died in 1947, leaving the property to her
four sons. It was Prince Casimir Poniatowski who returned from France
to live on the Montecito ranch, managing the property on behalf of his
siblings. Casimir was actually a native Californian, having been born in
1897 in the Crocker mansion on Nob Hill that was destroyed by the 1906
earthquake. The Crocker family donated that San Francisco property for
the site of Grace Cathedral, which still stands there today.
“Poniatowski was an elegant man who lived up to his noble heritage,”
said Ozzie Da Ros. “He used to allow us to come onto the ranch and dig
up stone from under the oak trees, which we used on other estates being
built in Montecito.” Da Ros’s recollections indicate there was literally tons
of stone left on Las Fuentes even after the packing house had been built.
Birnam Wood Golf Club
Las Fuentes entered its current phase in 1964, when Robert McLean,
publisher of the
Philadelphia Bulletin
and owner of the
Santa Barbara
News-Press,
purchased the property from the Crocker-Poniatowski
families. Casimir’s wife, the former Anne de Carenan Chinay, was in poor
health, so they returned to France where they eventually died, Casimir
in 1980. Robert McLean (who ironically also died in 1980), a Scotsman
with a taste for Shakespeare, supposedly christened the property “Birnam
A Model Lemon Ranch in Southern California
, a lithograph
that appeared in Harper’s Weekly, drawn by artist Charles
Graham (American, 1852-1911) actually depicts various
views of Rancho Las Fuentes during the Crocker-Sperry era.
The lower two scenes are the only known images of the
football field-sized reservoir located on the upper section of
the ranch near East Valley Road. Graham lived in California
from 1893 through 1896, and illustrated many scenes of
the San Francisco Bay Area. As a member of the Bohemian
Club, he probably met Will Crocker and his friends, which
might explain his familiarity with a private lemon ranch in
Montecito (collection of the author).