The approx. 150-acre Blum Ranch in Aliso Canyon, Acton, went on the market in March 2017 with an asking price of $2.25 million.

The main attraction, besides its rich history and about 23 acres planted to peaches, pears and lilacs, is the century-old home built of hand-hewn stone and wood by rancher George Blum and his sons. The 2-story house with a walk-in attic was started in 1912 and completed in 1916.*

It's actually Blum's second home on the property. The original two-room rock house, which the Swiss-born stonecutter built soon after his arrival in 1891, still stands. He added a second floor of wood and used it for his expanding honeybee operation when he finished work on his new, 5-bedroom, 3-bath, 2,628-square-foot house in 1915 (per Assessor records).

A 3-bedroom guest house, an historic barn that doubles as a store, a packing shed with machinery, a walk-in refrigerator, a 1-car garage, horse facilities, water rights along the property's Santa Clara River frontage and multiple water wells are included in the sale.

The property is still in the original homesteader's family. In 1953 Blum's granddaughter, Elizabeth Blum, married a farmer from Lancaster named Ray Billet. Elizabeth and Ray ingratiated themselves with the community and became vital contributors, serving on the boards of numerous local organizations including the Acton-Agua Dulce school board and the Acton Town Council.

Usually with 60 acres under cultivation, Elizabeth and Ray worked the Blum Ranch property for the rest of Ray's life. Ray died April 21, 2016, at age 82. Along the way the battled brush fires that decimated the orchards as recently as the 2009 Station Fire; even more recently, they've had to deal with alternative alignments of the California High-Speed Rail project that threaten to traverse their property above-ground.

According to the listing, the ranch property is zoned for 40-plus multifamily residential units per acre.

Further reading: The Blum Ranch Story, 1891-1991.