According to lore, Bette Davis, Robert Mitchum, Errol Flynn and a host of other stars of the golden age of movies spent time at Villa Rockledge. That’s a fun fact, but the actual place is even more impressive.
The home is built on a steep cliff overlooking a sandy cove, and it’s said that you can’t appreciate it fully unless you see it from the ocean — so of course I soon found a route to the beach to get that view.
The sound of crashing waves thunders through the place, and yet it has a secluded charm, with winding stone steps leading from outbuildings to the main house, and, of course, that precipitous walk to the beach.
According to historical sources, it was built in 1918 (completed in 1922) by the early California developer and art collector Frank A. Miller — who developed the landmark Mission Inn in Riverside — as a beach home for his wife; hence the original name, “Mariona.”
Miller and his architect, Arthur Benton, were evidently smitten by Mission and Spanish-influenced architecture, which they used to create places of historic grandeur — and concretized a “California” style of architecture.
Miller’s “twin” projects — Mariona on the ocean and the Mission Inn inland — evolved over the many years that he built, developed and lived in them, adding rooms and buildings, and perfecting their designs.
What is now known as Villa Rockledge has a dashing, yet dreamlike quality, as if one has just stepped into an Errol Flynn movie.
