From walnut farm to Valle Verde
The story of the Rutherford family's Santa Barbara ranch
We acknowledge and honor the Chumash people who originally called this beautiful land "home."
Arroyo Burro Creek Ranch
In 1902, Stephen Rutherford Sr. purchased 84 acres of the Hope Rancho, just west of Arroyo Burro Creek, and planted it with walnuts. Around 1920, his son Stephen Jr. — a Goleta native born in 1882 — took over the property and added lima bean farming alongside the walnut orchards.
1915 map of the area. The Rutherford acreage (84 ac.) is at the top/middle left, bordering Arroyo Burro Creek.
Walnut harvest at Arroyo Burro Creek Ranch, 1920. Walnuts are spread to dry on trays in the foreground; a water tower stands in the background. Photo courtesy of Jessie Stevens Family Album.
Verde Baldwin
Verde Baldwin was born on April 19, 1890, in Camp Verde, Texas, to Christadelphian parents who had come west from Iowa. After a childhood marked by Texas drought, the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, and her family's search for steady work, Verde settled in Oakland. She married Heber Essington in 1909 and had four children. After Heber died of pneumonia in 1921, Verde found herself a widow with three surviving children.
A new chapter for the ranch
Stephen Jr. was also widowed — his first wife, Gertrude, had died in the 1919 Spanish flu epidemic, leaving him with two young children. Both Stephen and Verde were Christadelphians, and it is likely their faith community brought them together. In 1922, Verde began coming to the ranch to help with cooking and the walnut harvest. They married on September 4, 1923. Lore has it that Stephen renamed the ranch Valle Verde in his wife's honor. A daughter, Jessie, was born in 1924, making a household of eight.
Verde and Stephen Rutherford at the ranch, 1945. Photo courtesy of Jessie Stevens Family Album.
Selling with purpose
As Stephen's health declined in the 1950s, Verde took on the task of planning for their future. She was determined to sell not for a subdivision but — in her own words — "to the glory of God." Through realtor Edna Beck, a member of First Baptist Church of Santa Barbara, Verde connected with a church committee seeking land for a senior retirement community. She sold 50 acres to Santa Barbara Baptist Homes, Inc. in 1960 at $5,200 per acre, below full market value. A condition of the sale was that Verde could remain in her home off Torino Drive for the rest of her life. She died there on February 12, 1986, at the age of 95.
Aerial view, October 26, 1957. The walnut orchard fills the upper half of the image (the dots are walnut trees); Arroyo Burro Creek follows the darker tree line across the middle of the photo.
Key dates
About the Christadelphian faith
Christadelphian House of Worship, 206 Stanley Drive, Santa Barbara
Christadelphians are a worldwide Christian denomination of roughly 50,000 members in 120 countries. Their name joins the Greek words for Christ and brothers — "brothers and sisters in Christ." They consider the Bible the inspired word of God and have no centralized leadership; each local group, called an ecclesia, governs itself.
The movement took shape in 19th-century England and America. Christadelphians deliberately avoid the word "church," preferring to describe their community rather than a building.
The Santa Barbara ecclesia dates to the 1870s, making it one of California's oldest. Members originally gathered in homes and halls. In the early 1950s they built a permanent meeting hall on Stanley Drive in the Samarkand neighborhood, still in use today.
Both Verde and Stephen Rutherford were Christadelphians — Verde raised in the faith by her parents, Stephen through meetings held at his family's Goleta home. Stephen served as Sunday School Superintendent for 20 years and Finance Brother for more than 35 years.
For more history of the Rutherford family, go to: https://goletahistory.com/stephen-rutheford/