By Robert Lerner
VALLEY CENTER, California — There is no shortage of places in Valley Center that would qualify for an official government historic register. Yet, not a single home, building or site has ever been recognized on any local, regional or federal government official list of sites, buildings, structures or objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historic significance. Only signs reading “Site of Historic Interest” appear on many properties, all installed by the Valley Center Historical Society.
That is about to change.
Lilac Ranch, also known as Rancho Lilac, is the historic Valley Center property that has welcomed a who’s who of world class visitors since it was first settled in 1865. It qualifies on each preservation count, and is poised for nomination to the first of what could be a string of historic registers. For decades, the ranch was home to a United Nations official whose house guests included dignitaries, government leaders and celebrities. And it has been a highly-regarded cattle ranch for decades.
Since 2011, Lilac Ranch has been owned by the state of California (Caltrans) which acquired the property under an Environmental Mitigation exchange program. A complete archive on the property is maintained at the Valley Center History Museum.
This summer, the San Diego Association of Governments (SANDAG), the countywide public planning agency, will review and release the Request for Proposal (RFP) and later hold public hearings to determine what entity or conservation agency will be awarded the contract to own and manage the ranch in perpetuity. A draft of the RFP is currently being circulated to interested stakeholders.
One of the mandates is that within one year, the new owner must nominate the ranch to the San Diego County Historic Site Board. The State Historic Preservation Office has already concurred with Caltrans and the Valley Center Historical Society which identified 46 cultural resources potentially eligible for the National Register of Historic Places.
The Historical Society worked with Caltrans for seven years during which 49 items were deemed qualified for historical status. The archive includes hundreds of items donated by Abbe Salomon Wolfsheimer-Stutz and Louis Wolfsheimer during their years of ownership.
She was the daughter of Irving Salomon who was appointed by President Eisenhower to serve as an ambassador to the United Nations. During his stewardship of the onetime 2,300-acre cattle ranch, Col. Salomon hosted Eisenhower and First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, among many dignitaries. When Col. Salomon acquired the ranch in 1945, he changed the name from Lilac Ranch to the more romantic-sounding Rancho Lilac by which it is known today.
SANDAG has begun the process of circulating a draft of a Request for Proposal (RFP) which includes recommendations from the Valley Center Historical Society and the Valley Center Trails Assn., which requested public access and trails on the now 900-acre ranch. The public last had an opportunity to visit Rancho Lilac in 2004 when the History Museum hosted a day-long tour which attracted hundreds of members and guests.
Although Valley Center lacks even a single building with official historic status, neighboring Pauma Valley holds claim to two: in 1971, the Serrano adobe, built in 1844 and still standing on SR-76, became the first site in San Diego County to be recognized by the California Historical Landmarks Commission; and, in 2016, an adobe post and beam residence on Pauma Valley Road designed by a onetime apprentice to Frank Lloyd Wright received historic designation from the County Historic Site Board.
For more information, contact the Valley Center History Museum by mail, email at museum@vchistory.org or by phone at (760) 749-2993. The museum is temporarily open by appointment, but anticipates returning to full schedule when the County resumes full operation of the adjoining Valley Center Library. When available, a copy of the SANDAG Request for Proposal is expected to be available in the History Room at the library.
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Robert Lerner is the historian of the Valley Center Museum. Salomon and his family were members of the Jewish community.