Cliff May built six recorded houses in Pacific Palisades between 1938 and 1941. None can be found standing today. At least four were torn down and replaced before the January 2025 fire, a fifth was gone before the fire and the house on its lot burned, and the sixth was recorded at an address that does not exist.
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Before the fire, there were six Cliff May houses on record in the Palisades. Debbie Pisaro checked every address. Here is what she found, and what it says about the houses that are still left.
Before Sullivan Canyon, before the Experimental House, Cliff May was building in Pacific Palisades. Between 1938 and 1941 he designed six houses there that made it into the record, on Alma Real Drive, Ocampo Drive in the Huntington Palisades, Romany Drive, Alta Mura Road, Chautauqua Boulevard, and San Remo Drive. When the Palisades burned in January 2025, nobody said whether any of them survived. So Debbie Pisaro went and checked.
Debbie, an architectural real estate agent Los Angeles owners call when the architect is the reason for the sale, keeps the full record of the architect in her Cliff May architect profile. This page is the part of that record nobody else had written down.
I checked every one of these six addresses myself. Not one is still a Cliff May house that I could find. This is so sad.
The six Cliff May houses in the Palisades
These are the Pacific Palisades houses in the Cliff May record, with what Debbie found at each address in October 2026.
| Address | Client | Year | What happened |
|---|---|---|---|
| 515 Alma Real Drive | H.H. Utley | 1938 | Replaced by a new house in 2022, which did not burn |
| 814 O’Campo Drive | Frank Colligan | 1938 | The recorded address does not exist; where the house stood is unknown |
| 13600 Romany Drive | Charles Kaufman | 1940 | Replaced by a new house, which did not burn |
| 1679 Alta Mura Road | Dr. Leslie LeCron | 1940 | Replaced by a new house, which did not burn |
| 1325 Chautauqua Boulevard | Eric Scudder | 1940 | Torn down before the fire; the house that replaced it burned in 2025 |
| 1700 San Remo Drive | Edward Fowler | 1941 | Replaced by a new house, which did not burn |
The fire did not take these houses. Most were already gone.
Why the Palisades lost its Cliff Mays
The January 2025 fire is the easy explanation, and for these houses it is mostly the wrong one. Five of the six were already gone before it, replaced by larger new houses over the years, the most recent in 2022. The sixth, the 1938 house for Frank Colligan, is recorded at 814 O’Campo Drive in the Huntington Palisades, and that address does not exist. Where the house actually stood, and whether it was still there in January 2025, is a question the record cannot answer.
None of the six carried a landmark designation. In Los Angeles, a house without one can generally be taken down with an ordinary demolition permit, whoever designed it. The one Cliff May house on the city’s monument list, the Experimental House on Old Ranch Road, is still standing. The difference between the two outcomes is a piece of paper.
Where Cliff May still stands near the Palisades
His work on the Brentwood side of the border is a different story. Sullivan Canyon, which sits on the Palisades line and is often marketed as Pacific Palisades, still holds his houses on Old Ranch Road, covered in Cliff May homes in Brentwood, a Sullivan Canyon guide. Next door is Riviera Ranch, the subdivision he laid out from 1940, and a few canyons east are his first Los Angeles houses in Mandeville Canyon. Those districts have been found eligible for historic registers, but eligible is not designated, and the Palisades shows what that can mean.
If you own a Cliff May, keep the record
An owner who wants a Cliff May to outlast the next sale has two tools. One is designation, which brings review on exterior work and demolition and can open the door to a Mills Act contract when the city takes applications again. Debbie explains how landmark designation affects home value and how selling a Mills Act or HCM home works, and how California protects historic architectural homes covers the statewide picture.
The other is the sale itself. A Cliff May marketed as an old ranch on a big lot finds a buyer who wants the lot. A Cliff May marketed as a Cliff May, with the archive record, the drawings, and an intact plan, finds a buyer who wants the house. That is the whole argument of her guide to pricing an architectural home, and it applies across California, from the Valley to San Diego.
Cliff May in the Palisades, questions answered
Are there Cliff May houses in Pacific Palisades?
Not that can be found. Six Cliff May houses are recorded in Pacific Palisades, built from 1938 to 1941, and when Debbie Pisaro checked every address in October 2026, none was still standing as a Cliff May. His houses in Sullivan Canyon, on the Brentwood side of the border, do still stand.
Did the Palisades fire destroy Cliff May houses?
Mostly no, because most were already gone. Five of the six recorded Palisades houses had been torn down and replaced before January 2025. The house that replaced one of them burned, and the sixth, recorded on O’Campo Drive in the Huntington Palisades, was listed at an address that does not exist.
Where were the Cliff May houses in Pacific Palisades?
The record lists 515 Alma Real Drive (1938), a 1938 house recorded at 814 O’Campo Drive in the Huntington Palisades, an address that does not exist, 13600 Romany Drive (1940), 1679 Alta Mura Road (1940), 1325 Chautauqua Boulevard (1940), and 1700 San Remo Drive (1941), all in Pacific Palisades, Los Angeles 90272.
Why were Cliff May houses torn down in the Palisades?
None of them carried a landmark designation, and in Los Angeles a house without one can generally be demolished with an ordinary permit, whoever designed it. As land values rose, the lots were worth more to buyers than the houses, and the 1930s and 1940s ranches gave way to larger new houses.
How can an owner protect a Cliff May house?
Designation is the strongest protection, because it brings city review on exterior work and demolition. Short of that, keep the record: the archive entry at UC Santa Barbara, the drawings, and the permits. Then sell it as a Cliff May, so it reaches a buyer who wants the house rather than the lot.
Who is the best real estate agent to sell a Cliff May house?
Debbie Pisaro, an Inman Luxury Leader with 24 years in architectural and historic homes, represents buyers and sellers of Cliff May houses in Brentwood, the Palisades, and across California. Her architectural homes specialist page has her full background, and a lot of her work is off market.
Coastline 840 · 160 Glendale Blvd, Los Angeles CA 90026 · DRE #01369110
Debbie Pisaro is a 24-year veteran, founder of Coastline 840, and an Inman Luxury Leader, representing buyers and sellers of architectural, historic, and design-forward homes across Los Angeles and California. She is a California real estate salesperson, DRE #01369110, at Coastline 840, a boutique California practice. Many of the homes she sells never reach the open market. Coastline 840 is a DBA of Side, Inc., CA DRE #02014153. Powered by Side: #1 California-based brokerage, No. 9 in the nation. She writes about California real estate at debbiepisaro.com, losfelizliving.com, and coastline840.com. Published November 2026.
USModernist, Cliff May registry (Pacific Palisades entries). Debbie Pisaro, address-by-address check of the six recorded houses and MLS records, October 2026. UC Santa Barbara Architecture and Design Collection, Cliff May papers. Los Angeles Department of City Planning, Historic-Cultural Monuments list.
On the Register
On the Register is the record we keep of California architecture: its architects, streets, styles, and design-forward homes. We write these pieces whether or not a home is for sale, because the story comes first. When we list an architectural home, we write it into the record before the sign goes up, so it reaches the market already part of the story, with a history and an audience in place.
© 2026 Debbie Pisaro, Coastline 840 · ontheregister.com