The Rindge family is an American family of British origin that was financially successful in real estate, natural resource development, and insurance.
History
The successes of the Rindge family began with the
Cambridge, Massachusetts textile, shipping, and banking businesses of Mr. Samuel Baker Rindge (the father of
Frederick Hastings Rindge). Ultimately the family expanded into various other areas of industry and philanthropy. Frederick Rindge, for example, built and donated parks, City Hall, and the
Rindge Technical School in
Cambridge, Massachusetts; the First Methodist Episcopal Church in
Santa Monica, California; and was deeply involved in civic life, from writing meditative books to serving as vice president of Union Oil to serving as director of Edison Electric. The philanthropy continued through the family's lineage; for example, Rindge's daughter's family, the
Adamsons, donated the first 138 acres of land for
Pepperdine University's Malibu campus in 1968.
Mr. Samuel Baker Rindge's descendants, including his son Frederick Hastings Rindge, went on to build grand mansions in
Malibu (the Rindge home that burned down in 1903 and the Rindge Castle that burned down in the 1970s), and in West Adams Heights, Los Angeles, California, (the
Frederick Hastings Rindge House
The Frederick Hastings Rindge House is a historic house located in the West Adams district of Los Angeles, in Los Angeles County, California.
The Rindge House was built in 1904 for Frederick H. Rindge and wife Rhoda May Knight Rindge and design ...
). Frederick and wife
Rhoda May Knight Rindge's daughter,
Rhoda Agatha, commissioned Malibu's
Adamson House with her husband, Merritt Adamson.
The Rindge family fortune has been valued at
US$
The United States dollar (symbol: $; code: USD; also abbreviated US$ or U.S. Dollar, to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies; referred to as the dollar, U.S. dollar, American dollar, or colloquially buck) is the official ...
700 million in 2016 dollars accounting for inflation and were close friends of the
Roosevelt family
The Roosevelt family is an American political family from New York whose members have included two United States presidents, a First Lady, and various merchants, bankers, politicians, inventors, clergymen, artists, and socialites. The progeny ...
.
Southern California
The Rindge family moved west to
Los Angeles, California, in 1887. In 1892 the Rindges purchased the Spanish land grant
Rancho Topanga Malibu Sequit Rancho Topanga Malibu Sequit was a Spanish land grant in the Santa Monica Mountains and adjacent coast, within present day Los Angeles County, California. It was given by Spanish Governor José Joaquín de Arrillaga in 1804 to José Bartolomé Tap ...
or "Malibu Rancho"; which is now present day
Malibu, California. They later expanded it to as Rindge Ranch.
The Rindges founded the Conservative Life Insurance Company (now
Pacific Life). The family patriarch, Frederick Hastings Rindge, was vice-president of
Union Oil Company
Union Oil Company of California, and its holding company Unocal Corporation, together known as Unocal was a major petroleum explorer and marketer in the late 19th century, through the 20th century, and into the early 21st century. It was headqu ...
, and a director of the Los Angeles Edison Electric Company (later
Southern California Edison Company
Southern California Edison (or SCE Corp), the largest subsidiary of Edison International, is the primary electricity supply company for much of Southern California. It provides 15 million people with electricity across a service territory of app ...
). The Rindges' investments included land near
Stockton, California
Stockton is a city in and the county seat of San Joaquin County, California, San Joaquin County in the Central Valley (California), Central Valley of the U.S. state of California. Stockton was founded by Carlos Maria Weber in 1849 after he acquir ...
, and real estate holdings in the
San Fernando Valley
The San Fernando Valley, known locally as the Valley, is an urbanized valley in Los Angeles County, California. Located to the north of the Los Angeles Basin, it contains a large portion of the City of Los Angeles, as well as unincorporated ar ...
of Los Angeles, and the state of
Sinaloa
Sinaloa (), officially the Estado Libre y Soberano de Sinaloa ( en, Free and Sovereign State of Sinaloa), is one of the 31 states which, along with Mexico City, comprise the Administrative divisions of Mexico, Federal Entities of Mexico. It is d ...
,
Mexico.
Similarly, the family patriarch Frederick Hastings Rindge was president of the Harvard Club of Los Angeles and a member of many historical, archaeological, patriotic, and religious organizations which mirrored his interests. A supporter of the
temperance movement, Frederick Hastings Rindge reimbursed the city of
Santa Monica for the loss of license fees when Santa Monica abolished saloons. He established the First Methodist Episcopal Church of Santa Monica and wrote several self-published books which were spiritual and meditative in nature.
See also
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Rindge Dam
*
Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area
*
Malibu Potteries
Malibu Potteries was a ceramic tile manufacturer in Malibu, California. Malibu Potteries was founded by Rhoda May Knight Rindge in 1926. A fire devastated the company 30 September 1931, and the company closed in 1932. Tile designs included influe ...
*''
Rindge Co. v. County of Los Angeles
''Rindge Co. v. County of Los Angeles'', 262 U.S. 700 (1923), was a case in which the United States Supreme Court held that a county government could use its power of eminent domain to take land from a private landowner to build a scenic highway.
...
'' 262 U.S. 700 (1923)
*
Adamson House (section Rindge-Adamson family)
*
Hueneme, Malibu and Port Los Angeles Railway The Hueneme, Malibu & Port Los Angeles Railway was a standard-gauge, 15-mile railroad in Malibu, California. It was founded by Frederick Hastings Rindge (1857–1905) and operated on his 13,000-acre ranch along the coast, which encompassed most of ...
(the railroad that the Rindges built through Malibu)
*
Rindge Towers
Rindge Towers is an affordable housing development in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
*
Cambridge Rindge and Latin School
*
Rhoda May Knight Rindge
Further reading
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External links
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References
{{reflist
American families of British ancestry