Terry Ambrose

Home of Mysteries with Character

Casa Romantica in winter

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A visit to Casa Romantica

It feels like it was a lifetime ago when we visited Casa Romantica in San Clemente. I have to say, this was a place we’d never heard of, but it was a big deal back in the days when it was built. In fact, the man who built the home in the Spanish Colonial Revival style was Ole Hanson, the founder of San Clemente.

The main house at Casa Romantica

A Spanish village by the sea

It was the Roaring Twenties and Ole Hanson, a land developer, had a vision. He wanted to build a Spanish village by the sea. He selected San Clemente as the site for his masterpiece. At the time, San Clemente was nothing more than barren California coastline. Still, Ole was a good promoter and sold over 300 lots, mostly to people from Los Angeles and the surrounding area. 

In 1927, Ole and his partner hired an architect to design “La Casa Pacifica.” The project was a grand success—until the Great Depression. That’s when everything fell apart. Bank of America foreclosed on the property in 1934. 

View from the inside of Casa Romantica

It’s a long road to recovery

The property was sold seven years later for the tidy sum of $10,000. Yes, you read that correctly. Ten grand. What a steal. That’s also when the name changed to Casa Romantica. Over the next 60 years, the property was sold several times, though never for a substantial profit. The big change came when the San Clemente Redevelopment Agency purchased the property in 2000 for a cool $2.5 million.

Poor Ole never profited from his vision, but the rest of us can. Enjoy this virtual trip to Casa Romantica, but don’t plan on moving in anytime too soon. The place is not for sale! 

Did you see last week’s entry? If not, you can find it at Palm Desert Holocaust Memorial. Click here to view more Friday Fotos, or you can follow me on Instagram.

View of Pacific from Casa Romantica back courtyardCasa Romantica courtyardPier view from patio at Casa RomanticaInterior courtyard at Casa RomanticaBack patio at Casa Romantica in San ClementePatio and walkway at Casa RomanticaOcean view from patio at Casa Romantica

About Terry

I started out as a skip tracer. Just in case you don’t know, that’s the guy who finds the people who don’t want to be found. It was the little things—getting paid to lie—that made skip tracing the fun part of the job.

Those years of chasing deadbeats taught me many valuable life lessons, such as liars come from all walks of life, and always keep your car in the garage.

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Comments

  1. Lorna Collins says

    Casa Romantica was never the Western Whitehouse. That was several miles south. i used to be the wedding hostess for a church in nearby San Juan Capistrano. We held several wedding receptions there. It is a beautiful location and a community treasure.

    • Terry says

      Thanks for correcting me, Lorna. I’m not sure where I picked that up, but I must have misread something somewhere. I didn’t remember it from our visit, either. I’ve made a correction to the post.