An legendary Hacienda tucked into the lush Santa Barbara foothills re-stakes its claim as a sunny haunt for Hollywood stars, political leaders and savvy traveler.

By Michael M. Clements

Originally part of land titled in 1769 by the Kind of Spain, San Ysidro Ranch served as a way station for Franciscan monks in the late 1700s and a working citrus ranch in the 1800s; in the 1930s Hollywood actor and former California Senator Ronald Colman transformed it into a secluded resort for world leaders and Hollywood’s A-list. John and Jackie Kennedy choose it for their honeymoon in 1953.

“It’s difficult for one used to our Eastern winter climate to imagine a more delightful situation.” – Winston Churchill

For three months during the winter of 1912-13, Winston Churchill, then 38 and having recently been named First Lord of the Admiralty, found himself – surprisingly – not involved greatly in affairs of State. Instead, the iconic British leader sank head first into the California lifestyle. Still forty years removed from his 1953 Nobel Prize in Literature, he waxed poetic about his stay at San Ysidro Ranch: “The mountains, scored by deep canyons,” he wrote, “rise up behind, for all the world like grand-opera scenery idealized, and far below, across the green plains of Montecito, one sees the white line of the beach and the Pacific stretching westward to blue islands shimmering in the haze.” He would return sixteen years later in the fall of 1929 after a visiting with publishing mogul William Randolph Hearst in San Francisco to engage, almost Hemingway-esque, in bill fishing off the coast of nearby Catalina Island.

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Congressman-elect John Tunney, son of heavyweight boxing champion Gene Tunney, and Senator Ted Kennedy, weather the winter in relaxed Palm Beach style, January 1, 1965.

Historic homes, storied families, more than 100 charitable foundations; Palm Beach has served as a luxurious escape from cold northern winter for over a century. Beginning in 1933, when Joseph and Rose Kennedy purchased a pied-à-terre on North Ocean Boulevard, generations of Kennedys made the trip south— John F. Kennedy and his family took at least six trips a year to the compound—and kept company with the island’s upper-crust families: the Duponts, the Posts, the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, and Mrs. Lowell Guinness. AP Photographer Bob Davidoff chronicled the Kennedy clan for almost fifty years at their “Winter White House” in Palm Beach. We celebrate the era with photos from “The Kennedy Family Album, Personal Photos of America’s First Family.” As the Palm Beach Post once wrote, “Jack Kennedy grew up with Florida sand in his shoes.” The famous family sold their home in 1993, yet the presence of a new generation is still felt in the effervescent town.

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The camera-ready Kennedys evoked the mystique of Camelot.

by Donna Evers

A photo of Jackie Kennedy during her White House years.

When President John Fitzgerald Kennedy and his beautiful, young wife moved into the White House, it was the beginning of a new era in American style. Handsome and photogenic, with adorable little children in tow, they provided a considerable contrast to the plain, aging Eisenhowers of the preceding regime. The young president presented the voters with a brilliant vision for the country’s future. The newly refurbished executive mansion – whose renovations were directed by Jackie Kennedy in person – became the setting for glittering dinner parties presided over by French chefs. These evenings featured a stunning guest list of notables from the world of music, art and literature. Presiding over this splendor, Ms. Kennedy floated regally through the magazines and newspapers in one gorgeous gown after another. Princess Diana may have captured the hearts of her countrymen in the 1980’s, but in the ’60’s, Jackie was our queen.

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