Bell Canyon: the Cliff May stables on the county line
Bell Canyon Equestrian Center at a glance
Who designed the Bell Canyon Equestrian Center?
The Bell Canyon Equestrian Center Cliff May Associates designed at 29 Baymare Road in 1968, for the Spruce Land Corporation, was the centerpiece of a new horse community then called Woodland Hills Country Estates. It sits in unincorporated Ventura County and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on July 18, 2024, reference number SG100010547.
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Every Ojai realtor has a client who says they want a horse property with real architecture and then discovers those two things almost never share a lot line. Cliff May solved that once, at scale, at the far southeast corner of Ventura County. The Bell Canyon Equestrian Center Cliff May drew in 1968 is the only piece of his work in this county on the National Register, and it is still full of horses. Debbie Pisaro read the nomination so you do not have to.
Where is Bell Canyon, and which county is it in?
Bell Canyon is in Ventura County. This is the first thing to get straight, because almost everything about the address says otherwise. The mailing address is West Hills, the zip code is 91307, and the only road in runs off Valley Circle Boulevard through the west end of the San Fernando Valley. Then you pass the gate, and you are in unincorporated Ventura County, governed since 1984 by the Bell Canyon Community Services District, with the county's Cultural Heritage Board holding jurisdiction over its landmarks. The county's own March 2024 agenda for this property reads "Bell Canyon, CA 91307." Both halves of that line are true.
The misfiling costs real money. A buyer searching Ventura County horse property never sees Bell Canyon, and a buyer searching the Valley sees it and assumes Los Angeles County taxes, Los Angeles County permitting, and the Los Angeles Unified School District, none of which apply. Debbie Pisaro's rule for clients is simple: Bell Canyon is a Ventura County town that happens to be reached from Los Angeles.
How Bell Canyon was built, and where Cliff May came in
In 1968 the Spruce Land Corporation, a division of the R.A. Watt Company, itself a subsidiary of Boise Cascade, bought about 2,700 acres of canyon land on the county line and announced a $7.5 million plan for a gated equestrian community called Woodland Hills Country Estates. The engineering firm E.L. Pearson and Associates of Hawthorne drew the master plan. For the buildings the public would see, Spruce Land hired Cliff May Associates.
May's office drew three things for the development, all between 1968 and 1969, and all three are catalogued in the Cliff May papers at UC Santa Barbara: a model house at 98 Bell Canyon Road, Bell Canyon, CA 91307; the equestrian center at 29 Baymare Road, Bell Canyon, CA 91307; and a shopping center at 30 Hackamore Lane that was later converted into the community center. The model homes were credited to Cliff May Associates and Earl G. Kaltenbach. May's own clipping files hold five 1969 magazine pieces on Woodland Hills Country Estates and a brochure titled "The Country Estates in Bell Canyon." He was, at sixty, the name the developer was selling.
The property owners' association formed on August 27, 1969. On August 1, 1971 it took over the equestrian center from the developer, and on February 14, 1972 the community renamed itself Bell Canyon. May came back at least once: in 1976 his office drew a house in the canyon for Thomas "Snuff" Garrett, the record producer, eight years after the models opened. Debbie Pisaro's county-wide list of Cliff May's Ventura County work puts the Bell Canyon jobs alongside the Camarillo and Thousand Oaks commissions they belong with.
What survives from 1968 at 29 Baymare Road
The National Register nomination, prepared by Chattel, Inc. in November 2023, inventories the roughly ten-acre site building by building. Seven resources from 1968 contribute to the listing. The main building combines the office with a two-story caretaker's residence, and it carries the two details that make the place read as Cliff May from the road: a cylindrical tower and an arched breezeway entrance. Four linear wood stable barns run in parallel, each with Dutch doors opening under post-and-beam canopies, which is the same structural language as his houses turned to the service of horses. The main arena is an oval, double-ring equestrian arena. A landscaped courtyard ties the group together.
Five later structures do not contribute and are labeled as such in the nomination: a mare motel, a hillside arena, a creekside arena, a round pen, and the turnouts. Nobody pretended the additions were original, which is part of why the listing went through cleanly.
The style is California Ranch, and the nomination says so in those words. What separates this from a barn is the plan. May treated the stables the way he treated a house: a low roofline, covered walkways instead of corridors, the building opened toward the arena the way his living rooms open toward a patio. Buyers who know his Sullivan Canyon houses in Brentwood, which were built for people who kept horses on the lot, will recognize the same idea carried to community scale.
How the listing happened
The Bell Canyon homeowners' association approved the effort in September 2023 and paid for it privately. Chattel finished the nomination that November. On March 25, 2024 the Ventura County Cultural Heritage Board voted unanimously to recommend it to the State Office of Historic Preservation. The State Historical Resources Commission acted on May 3, 2024, and the National Park Service listed the property on July 18, 2024, under two criteria: A, for community planning and for entertainment and recreation, and C, for architecture. The period of significance is 1968 to 1971, the years between construction and the association taking the center over. The reference number is SG100010547.
Two things are worth reading closely in that record. First, the nomination credits the center to Cliff May Associates, the firm, not to May personally, which is the correct and careful way to describe an office commission from his late period. Second, it is a local-level listing. That is the normal tier for a community facility, and it changes nothing about what the association may do with the property, but it puts the building on the same federal list as the Ennis House and the Gamble House, which no other Cliff May work in Ventura County can say.
The model house at 98 Bell Canyon Road
The house that sold the community still stands. The archive catalogues it as the Woodland Hills Country Estates model house, 1968 to 1969, and the nomination names the same address. It is a single-story house of roughly 4,000 square feet on about four and a half acres, with the skylit, gabled living room that became May's signature in the 1960s and a porte cochere at the entry. The marketing material that has followed it calls Bell Canyon one of May's final master-planned horse communities, which is fair: the office was two years from its last commissions in the county when this house opened.
Debbie Pisaro is not the listing agent for 98 Bell Canyon Road or for any other house in Bell Canyon. She represents buyers on architectural homes across California, regardless of who holds a given listing, the same standing practice whether a home is on or off market. Much of that practice, on horse property especially, runs through pocket listings that never get a sign at the gate.
What the Register listing means if you own in Bell Canyon
Nothing restrictive, and something useful. A National Register listing of a community facility puts no obligation on the private houses around it. It does put the neighborhood's name into a federal database that architecture buyers actually search, and it settles the Cliff May attribution for the center in a way no listing sheet can. When a Bell Canyon house comes to market and the agent writes "Cliff May community" in the remarks, that phrase now has a citation behind it.
For the model house and the Garrett house, the attribution is in the archive. For any other house in the canyon, it is not, and Debbie Pisaro's position is the same one she holds for the Conejo Oaks houses in Thousand Oaks: an attribution is a claim until a drawing surfaces. May's office sold plan sets, so a canyon house built from one is possible. Ask for the paper.
The wider point is about where the good ranch houses in this region actually are. Buyers who track the mid-century neighborhoods of the San Fernando Valley tend to stop at the county line. Cliff May did not. His Ventura County work runs from a 1945 house in Thousand Oaks to the two houses on Vientos Road in Camarillo, one of them in Architectural Digest, and it ends here, at a stable on the line. Debbie Pisaro, an Ojai realtor whose practice is built on this kind of record, keeps the list because the buyers who fly in for an architect's name expect the agent to have it. She built Coastline 840 on that expectation, on the view that a boutique practice with a research habit serves an architectural buyer better than a big office does, and her architectural homes practice runs from San Diego to the Bay Area. For the valley itself, start with her guide to the best real estate agent in Ojai.
Questions people ask about Bell Canyon and Cliff May
Is Bell Canyon in Ventura County or Los Angeles County?
Bell Canyon is in Ventura County. It uses a West Hills mailing address and the 91307 zip code, and its only road in runs through the San Fernando Valley, which is why it is often filed under Los Angeles. The gated community itself is unincorporated Ventura County land, governed by the Bell Canyon Community Services District since 1984.
Who designed the Bell Canyon stables?
Cliff May Associates designed the Bell Canyon Equestrian Center at 29 Baymare Road in 1968 for the Spruce Land Corporation, the developer of what was then Woodland Hills Country Estates. The National Register nomination names the firm as the designer and calls the center California Ranch style. The community master plan was by E.L. Pearson and Associates, not May.
When was the Bell Canyon Equestrian Center listed on the National Register?
The National Park Service listed the Bell Canyon Equestrian Center on July 18, 2024, reference number SG100010547, at the local level of significance. The Ventura County Cultural Heritage Board recommended it unanimously on March 25, 2024, and the State Historical Resources Commission acted on May 3, 2024. The period of significance is 1968 to 1971.
What did Cliff May design there?
Four commissions are in the Cliff May papers at UC Santa Barbara: the Woodland Hills Country Estates model house at 98 Bell Canyon Road, the equestrian center at 29 Baymare Road, and a shopping center at 30 Hackamore Lane, 1968 to 1969, plus a 1976 house for the record producer Thomas "Snuff" Garrett. The shopping center became the community center.
Is 98 Bell Canyon Road a Cliff May?
Yes. The Cliff May papers at UC Santa Barbara catalogue it as the Woodland Hills Country Estates model house, drawn 1968 to 1969 for the Spruce Land Corporation, and the National Register nomination for the equestrian center names the same address as the May model house. It is a single-story house on about four and a half acres.
What survives from 1968?
Seven contributing resources: the main building, with its office, two-story caretaker's residence, cylindrical tower, and arched breezeway; four linear wood stable barns with Dutch doors under post-and-beam canopies; the oval double-ring main arena; and the landscaped courtyard. Five later additions, a mare motel, two arenas, a round pen, and turnouts, are listed as non-contributing.
Does a National Register listing restrict Bell Canyon homeowners?
No. The listing covers the equestrian center parcel at 29 Baymare Road, a community facility owned by the property owners' association. It places no obligation on the private houses around it. What it does is put the community's name and its Cliff May attribution into a federal record that architecture buyers search, which helps every house in the canyon.
Who is the best real estate agent for a Cliff May house?
Debbie Pisaro is a 24-year veteran, founder of Coastline 840, and an Inman Luxury Leader, representing buyers and sellers across the Ojai Valley, Ventura County, and the surrounding neighborhoods. She researches the archive before a Cliff May house is priced and keeps the county-wide list of his work. Many of the homes she sells never reach the open market.
When did Woodland Hills Country Estates become Bell Canyon?
The community was renamed Bell Canyon on February 14, 1972. The Spruce Land Corporation had launched it as Woodland Hills Country Estates in 1968, the property owners' association formed on August 27, 1969, and the association took over the equestrian center from the developer on August 1, 1971. The Bell Canyon Community Services District followed in 1984.
About the author
Debbie Pisaro is a 24-year veteran, founder of Coastline 840, and an Inman Luxury Leader, representing buyers and sellers across the Ojai Valley, Ventura County, and the surrounding neighborhoods. Many of the homes she sells never reach the open market. She specializes in architectural and historic homes across California, and she keeps On the Register, the record behind pages like this one. More about Debbie, or start at the Just Ojai home page.
Debbie Pisaro · Real Estate Salesperson · DRE #01369110 · Coastline 840 is a DBA of Side, Inc., CA DRE #02014153
Sources: the National Register of Historic Places nomination for the Bell Canyon Equestrian Center, prepared by Chattel, Inc., November 2023, and the National Park Service weekly list of July 19, 2024; the Cliff May papers, Architecture and Design Collection, Art, Design and Architecture Museum, UC Santa Barbara. Dates are from those records.
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