Betty Lou Young and Randy Young Santa Monica Canyon: A Walk Through History Casa Vieja Press: Pacific Palisades, CA, 1997, 182 pp., 1953
" . . . in 1953, when the Rustic Canyon Racquet Club (formerly the Uplifters Club) became available . . . The SMCC began soliciting funds . . . Al Edmundson negotiated a deal . . . The plaque on the clubhouse reads: "Given to the people of Los Angeles, November 19, 1953 by Maybell Machris in memory of her husband Alfred P. Machris." . . . [Officially opened June 1961] . . . Rustic Canyon Park . . . came into being."
"551 West Rustic . . . A historic piece of property containing an access route from the mesa above to Rustic Canyon, probably used for watering cattle in the creek. In 1953 this parcel was purchased by Dr. George Bartholomew, professor of animal physiology at UCLA, and his wife Elizabeth . . . The property contained many large native oaks and eucalyptus trees that dated back to the 1880s when the Forestry Station and Huntington Palisades were planted by Abbot Kinney. The Bartholomews planted one hundred species of trees that included pines, sycamores, redwoods, figs, and eucalyptus . . ."