The Rideau Vineyard, with its graceful California Oaks and beautiful sweeping valley views is home to the Historic El Alamo Pintado Adobe. Originally a very popular guest ranch on the once famous stage coach route that ran from Santa Ynez to Santa Barbara, the property is rich with history dating back to 1769 when it was owned by the King of Spain and supervised by Mission Santa Barbara. 

 

After a succession of landowners in the late 1800’s, two English remittance men purchased the land and built the two-story adobe in 1884. It is one of few two-story adobes in California. Over the years it served as a stagecoach stop, a famous inn, a guest ranch and a working ranch, as well as being designated Santa Barbara County Historical Monument No. 12.

The property evolved into a peaceful and beautiful guest ranch owned by A.M.Boyd, who also owned the Los Olivos Ranch. Boyd’s property at Los Olivos was the center of social and intellectual gatherings in the Santa Ynez Valley. The property became known as the El Alamo Pintado Inn or “painted cottonwood” and was so called because of a tree painted with Indian symbols that was present on the land at that time. 

 

In the early 1900’s the Adobe with its four bedrooms, dining room and sunny verandas as well as four outer cottages became a famous resort. The rates in 1910 were from $2.50 per day and $12-$15 per week. The Inn became very chic and attracted many notables. Guests enjoyed exquisite dinners in the Adobe and lemonade on the verandah overlooking the lilacs in the spring and golden yellow cottonwoods in the fall.

As years went by, the Adobe found itself barely surviving as a working ranch and finally lay abandoned for 10 years. In August 1995, Iris Rideau purchased it with a vision to rescue the once famous inn. From weeds, peeling paint and collapsed structures the Adobe has once again become a place of old fashioned beauty.