by Erin Waldner
The Portuguese Bend Riding Club on Narcissa Drive was once stables for Villa Narcissa, the home of Narcissa, and Frank Vanderlip, the wealthy banker, and former Assistant Secretary of the U.S. Treasury. The Vanderlips purchased the 16,000-acre ranch Rancho de los Palos Verdes in 1913.
The East Coast couple built Villa Narcissa in the 1920s for their home away from home.
“Everybody rode in the family,” said Vanderlip’s granddaughter, Katrina Vanderlip. The Vanderlips invited their friends to drag hunts, during which riders follow a scented trail. The riders dressed in formal attire.
Over the years, the stables were a place where Peninsula kids learned to ride. Lisa Wolf began taking riding lessons at the stables when she was a teenager in the 1960s. The Pacific Palisades youngster was bowled over by the property’s beauty.
“Oh, I loved it,” she recalled. “It was beautiful.”
She took lessons there for about two years, and went to work there about 10 years later.
Wolf has loved horses since she was child, she said.
“They’re a very instinctive, caring, forgiving animal,” she said. “They are incredibly fun to ride. And there’s a lot of satisfaction in the connection and the communication with the animal.”
Her parents purchased the stables y from the Vanderlip family in the late ‘70s.
“They always appreciated what a beautiful place it was,” Wolf said. “And, of course, they did it for me, too.”
Wolf has been running the club since the late 1980s. The Spanish-style building dates back to 1927. Stables are on the ground floor. Upstairs are rooms where the Vanderlips’ guests stayed when visiting. Wolf resides in one of the apartments and her barn manager in another.
Over the years, she has made steady improvements.
These days, the club has hunter/jumper trainers who go to top-level horse shows. There’s also a large group of western riders who attend shows, run a summer camp and give lessons. The club has a riding school and horses people can ride for lessons. People board horses there, as well. The club offers full care and training for horses.
The first all-volunteer horse show in America was held there in the 1960s. The show continued to take place at the riding club through the 1970s and 1980s, before outgrowing the facility.
Approximately 70 horses are stabled at the club.
“The old riding school horses, they worked really hard. I feel I owe it to them to keep them in their retirement. I’m in a fortunate position to be able to do that,” Wolf said.
One of the barns was once a greenhouse.
“We still call it the greenhouse barn,” Wolf said.
Another barn was a carriage house.
“It had big Greek columns. You could tell it had once been very fancy, very beautiful, but it was pretty much in ruins by the time I saw it. Somebody put up the barn that’s on it now.”
Wolf had a covered, round pen built on the property. Horses exercise there when it rains.
Of course, it takes work to maintain an older property. Plumbing breaks and has to be fixed. There’s been electrical work, roof repairs, structural damage from heavy rains.
“We just kind of do it as we go,” Wolf said.
Wolf lives at the riding club in a Spanish-style building that dates to 1927. Stables are on the ground floor. Upstairs are rooms where the Vanderlips’ guests stayed when visiting.
Katrina Vanderlip appreciates the work Wolf has put into preserving the facility. She said the community needs to rally around anyone trying to maintain historic structures.
Wolf’s most recent challenge has been COVID-19. When the pandemic hit, Wolf was shut down for about three months, though people who boarded horses at the stables were allowed to care for them. Wolf’s workers cared for the horses, too.
But there were no lessons, and no horse training.
“It was a little financially hard at that point,” Wolf said.
But she weathered the storm and now, there’s a long waiting list for riding lessons.
“Everyone wants to ride because you’re outside and you don’t have to be in close contact with other people,” Wolf said. “We had a hard few months and who would have ever thought that business would be so good afterwards.”
However, like restaurants and other businesses, Wolf is having a hard time finding workers.
“You can’t just shut down a stable. My guys who work here have been fantastic. Everyone works really hard,” Wolf said.
Wolf is keenly aware of the historic role the Portuguese Bend Riding Club plays in the community.
“I’d like to see it stay the same, only better,” she said.
The Portuguese Bend Riding Club is located at 40 Narcissa Dr., Rancho Palos Verdes. For more information about the club call (310) 377-3507, or visit PBRCRide.com. PEN
