Murphy Ranch

34.072°N 118.513°W / 34.072; -118.513

The Murphy Ranch house in Los Angeles, 2006
For other uses, see Murphy's Corral.

The Murphy Ranch is a ranch built in Rustic Canyon, Los Angeles in the 1930s by Winona and Norman Stevens.[1][2] According to a long-running urban legend, they were sympathizers of the anti-semitic, white supremacist Silver Legion of America.[3][4] The owner of record in 1933 was Jessie M. Murphy.[2] Supposedly designed as a base for Nazi activities in the U.S.,[5] it was intended to be capable of being self-sustaining for long periods. The compound had a water storage tank, a fuel tank, a bomb shelter, and various outbuildings and bunkers. The estate's main gate was designed by Paul Williams, a well-known African-American architect in the Southern California area.

According to the legend, with no supporting newspaper accounts or other hard evidence: on Monday, December 8, 1941, the day after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, local police occupied the compound and detained members of the 50-strong caretaker force.

As of 1990, it was abandoned and in a state of disrepair, and covered in graffiti.[2] The site is currently owned by the city of Los Angeles. In early 2016, many of the ranch buildings were demolished, as they were deemed unsafe. A few buildings remain, including the power house, an all-concrete building that once contained the diesel generators. All entryways have been sealed.

The ruins of Murphy Ranch are featured in Richard Kadrey's "Sandman Slim"-series novel Killing Pretty.

The Murphy Ranch was the featured location of the radio play[6] "Annexing the Palisades" written in 2020 by Alex Goldberg.[7] The play is set in 1939 and is about the construction of the house and its Nazi ties.[8]

  • An abandoned building in the Murphy Ranch valley in 2018
    An abandoned building in the Murphy Ranch valley in 2018
  • Another angle of the building
    Another angle of the building
  • The Murphy Ranch house in 2006
    The Murphy Ranch house in 2006

See also

References
  1. Almendrala, Anna (March 19, 2012). "Hitler Bunker In Los Angeles: Murphy Ranch Reveals An Alternate Universe". Huffington Post.
  2. Rivera, John (November 18, 1990). "Nazi Sympathizers' L.A. Utopia Is Now a Ruin". Los Angeles Times.
  3. Stevens, Stanton (July 12, 2023). The True Story of Murphy Ranch. One Reality Productions. ISBN 979-8-9882432-0-5.
  4. Morton, Ella (February 27, 2014). "Murphy Ranch, the Abandoned Nazi Compound in the Hills of L.A." Slate.
  5. "Rustic Canyon's Murphy Ranch". Atlas Obscura. Retrieved 2014-03-01.
  6. "The Zip Code Plays Season One".
  7. "Theatre".
  8. "Annexing the Palisades"—A Radio Play about Rustic Canyon's Notorious Murphy Ranch".
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