Manistee Ranch — Attraction in Glendale

I should say I sure do have a lot of history with the beautiful Manistee Ranch mansion I actually worked here for quite some time about six months or so and I did extensive work on the entire house from the very top of the 42 window 7 large double hung windows per side this georgous room at the top of the mansion is believe it or not a huge swamp cooler there was a huge recess almost as big as the whole room and in that recess they would actually fill it up with water almost enough to go swimming in it but I did not get to see it operating but all the Bones were very good and you could open the windows as needed to cause a nice draft on the water and that was the actual cooling system for the entire house I have also worked on the maids quarters in the upper part of the house it was painted with milk paint yes the whitewashed wainscoting maids quarters was painted in that non toxic white wash just blew me away it's very cool up there and the ceiling is maybe only 6 feet tall you definitely know you are in the maids quarters when you have to duck down a tad possibly so you don't hit your head on the very cool ceiling like miniature doll house kinda with it's very own I think two sided 🔥 fire place if I remember correctly it has been at least 15 years ago but this place is just unbelievable I think I really love this masterpiece it is part of me and I will never forget it OH 2 more details I need to mention is I have worked on all the first floor 🔥 fire places they had to be jacked up from the basement because they were sinking down into the basement quite a bit about a foot or so I think they were in bad shape sinking into the floor but in decent condition and what a difference it makes to have it all back to the way it used to be many many years ago this house absolutely thrills me for so many reasons but one more thing needs to be addressed supposedly the movie called aracnaphobia was filmed in the unreal basement and my job was to remove all the huge black and white asbestos flooring that was installed 100 years ago and let me tell you it was no easy task it took me almost a month to get all that nasty flooring out of the house I remember opening the strange basement windows and chucking out the tiles through the windows the basement was pretty big and the job took forever to scrape it up and get rid of it all sigh and tsk tsk tsk I would stop for a minute and catch my breath WOW I really do love this house it's so cool and so much to see and admire remember now I pretty much know every nook and cranny of this amazing place and I never get sick of it may God bless 🙏 us all...

Cool history, neat place in the middle of the city. Great place for pictures. I'm giving the low star rating because of my last experience. We were at the extreme north end of the park, about 5:45pm. A city of Glendale truck came onto the property with it's yellow beacon lights on(yellow flashing lights on top of the truck). The driver drove in part way, turned around and went back out the gate. We grabbed our stuff and headed that way, thinking it was his way of letting us know the park was closing(I supposed it was a half-hearted attempt at verifying all park goers where off property). As we got closer I heard him locking the gate so we started to jog a bit and called out to him. He got in his truck, hesitated when he heard me yelling from about 100 feet away(we locked eyes) and then shut the door and drove off! I ran up to the gate, jumped up and down and yelled for him to come back. He slowed and then accelerated out of the parking lot, as if deciding wether or not he would come back to let us out. This was inconvenient because the fence around the property is an anti-climb security fencing. If I had been disabled it would have been impossible to climb over the fence. Also, I could have been injured jumping the fence. Pretty irresponsible, rude and dangerous...

Grew up in the area in the late 60's and 70's. The ranch was a favorite hang out for all the neighborhood kids. We use to swim and catch frogs in the large canal that use to run along 51st. Mr. Davis who worked there in some capacity, always allowed access to us kids to pick fruit, pecans and mulberry's. Some of the largest pears I had ever seen came from a tree by the main house. It also served as a great short cut to Valley West Mall, I think it was in '73 when it opened. I remember in '76 at a bi-centennial celebration downtown, Mr. Davis received some kind of recognition from the city and all of us kids cheered, which made his wife so happy. On a recent trip to the valley from where I live near Flagstaff, I did a drive by the old neighborhood and it was good to the see what had been preserved, since Manistee held so...