Raney Ranch Map Points of Interest

1. Cliff and Ruth Raney’s house (originally owned and used by the Johnson family).
2. McCullom’s house.
3. Big tin barn, with an outdoor privy, where the seasonal walnut pickers' and gleaners' families lived. This structure was larger than the music collection building.
4. Raney ranch house.
5. Garage.
6. Feed and storage building.
7. Chicken pen.
8. Mr. Hill’s “real estate office” house from 1929 to 1939. This house is where the nurse lived that took care of A.C. Raney after he had cancer surgery, circa the mid-1940s.
9. Ruby Raney’s rose garden.
10. The large music collection house (or barn).
11. Little house—from time to time various relatives and friends stayed here.
12. Mexican family—ranch caretaker’s house.
13. Pig pen.
14. Apple orchard.
15. Car bridge.
16. Frank Lloyd’s home (later Wilbur Cox’s home).
17. St. Johns’ home (later the Alexander’s home).
18. Cabanas along the San Jose Creek.
19. Sandy beach—picnic and play area surrounded by willow and cottonwood trees, reeds, cattails, wild grapes, tulles, castor beans, honeysuckle, et cetera.
20. City of Whittier’s water pumping plant.
21. Mill School.
22. City of Whittier’s bridge for water pipe across San Jose Creek.
23. Fruit trees.

(Map image courtesy of Clara May (Raney) Akard.)

Clara May (Raney) Akard's hand-drawn map and accompanying legend of the Raney Ranch, June 2003.

(Photograph courtesy of Clara May (Raney) Akard.)

Mr. Hill s Real Estate House, circa 1929, soon after it was moved on to the Raney Ranch. Raney map location #8. Mr. Charles Edgar Hill was a vice-president of the Santa Fe Railroad and had an office in the Kerckhoff Building (sometimes referred to as the Santa Fe building), located at the corner of Main and 6th Street in downtown Los Angeles. A.C. Raney called him Charlie, and after his wife died he lived at the Raney ranch from 1929 up until his death in 1939.

Charlie loved living on the ranch, because he wanted to be more physical and he loved being outdoors, rather than just sit behind a desk. One day in 1938 he was out chopping wood by the woodpile, which was located on the high bank overlooking the San Jose Creek, when across the creek a 12-year old hunter, accompanied by his father, mistakenly shot at Charlie thinking his white shirt was some kind of big white bird, like an egret or heron. The bullet pierced one of Mr. Hill’s lungs. He recovered, but died about a year later in 1939, possibly due to complications from the earlier gunshot injury.

Along Whittier Boulevard there were these cute little houses that real estate agents used for offices. Inside they were like one big living room, with a couple of desks, and off to one side they might have a bathroom and a kitchen. This was large enough for Charlie Hill; his bedroom and living room were the same room with a bathroom off to one side, to which he added a small kitchen.

(Photograph courtesy of Clara May (Raney) Akard.)

The side door to the ranch house, circa 1932, with a flock of geese in the back yard area.

(Photograph courtesy of Clara May (Raney) Akard.)

The devastating flood along San Jose Creek on January 1, 1934. There were many bridges near the ranch that crossed over San Jose Creek. There was a bridge at the end of Cliota Avenue that carried the City of Whittier’s water line, and another north of the ranch on Mission Mill Road for automobiles, and another one further north and past the Pellissier dairy. And then to the south of ranch, by Beverly Road, there was a heavy-duty bridge for the Union Pacific Railroad traffic.

It rained and it rained, and in those bygone days there was no direct channel to the ocean, so the San Gabriel dam was to the point of overflowing and so they dumped water to save it. This sent so much water down the Rio Hondo River (a divergent channel splitting off of the San Gabriel River channel) and San Jose Creek that the bridges washed out, one on top of another. They all piled up along with the little cabanas built along the creek at Mission Mill Road. Then the surging water took everything down to the railroad bridge at Pico (now Pico-Rivera). The surge of water changed everybody’s land near the creek, sweeping away the Raney’s pecans, the asparagus, the old apple orchard, and any other improvements near the once tranquil creek. The water course of the creek, and where it joined the Rio Hondo river channel, had been permanently changed. The Raney’s lost a significant amount of valuable land.

(Photograph courtesy of Clara May (Raney) Akard.)

The Raney Ranch House in the Fall of 1942. The fireplace and chimney was located on the front side of the living room area, a spacious room that was added to the earlier structure circa 1935. It is also where a modest portion of the automatic musical instrument collection was housed in later years. Photograph presented by Harold D. Larsh.

(Photograph courtesy of Clara May (Raney) Akard.)

2. Panorama view southwesterly overlooking the Raney Ranch, circa 1948. Left panel: View from above the Rose Hill Cemetery, circa 1948. The tower on the Rose Hills Mausoleum is shown as labeled on the image.

Wooden oil derricks in the Montebello oilfield are barely visible dotting the hills in the background.

(Photograph courtesy of Clara May (Raney) Akard.)

3. Panorama view westerly overlooking the Raney Ranch, circa 1948. Center panel: View from above the Rose Hill Cemetery, circa 1948. The Raney Ranch (Strong Estate purchase) is outlined by the upper rectangle as indicated by a dashed line. The Raney Ranch house is located in the tall grove of eucalyptus trees left of center in the photograph (off of the end of Cliota Avenue).

The lower rectangular area, also indicated by a dashed line, shows the boundaries of the later Johnson purchase, which, before this photograph was taken, was planted in walnut trees.

Cliff Raney,house (i.e., Albert Clifford Raney, Jr.), the old Johnson ranch house, was alongside Cliota Avenue at the further corner of the Johnson purchase.

The Cahen Pumping Station is a tiny plot of land sold for $10 by the Raney's in 1933, with the condition that the land be used only for purposes of extracting water, along with other conditions, with failure to fulfill said conditions shall cause the properly to revert to the grantors.

On the forward side of the former Johnson property are the Union Pacific Railroad's tracks leading easterly out of the Los Angeles area.

(Photograph courtesy of Clara May (Raney) Akard.)

4. Panorama view northwesterly overlooking the Raney Ranch, circa 1948. Right panel: View from above the Rose Hill Cemetery, circa 1948. At left is Cliota Avenue (earlier Walnut Avenue). The next street to the right is Mission Mill Road.

At the junction of Mission Mill Road and San Jose Creek was the Frank Lloyd later the Wilbur Cox Estate, the nearest Raney Ranch neighbor along San Jose Creek.

Mill Elementary School is located at far right and is where the Raney children went for their early schooling. For high school, they attended Whittier Union High School west of the main uptown Whittier area.

(Photograph courtesy of Clara May (Raney) Akard.)

5. View westerly overlooking the Raney Ranch, circa 1948. View of the Raney Ranch from Cliff Raney's house (i.e., Albert Clifford Raney, Jr., who for a while lived in the former Johnson property ranch house next to Cliota Avenue).

The telephone poles at right are also alongside Cliota Avenue. The main Raney ranch house was located in the eucalyptus trees near the center of the photograph, off of the end of Cliota Avenue.

The large building visible at the far left, which is left of the rows of orange trees (the smaller foreground trees), is the separate music house.

San Jose Creek is estimated to have been about 300 feet beyond the main ranch house.