When buyers ask about Cliff May homes, they are usually asking about the long, low California ranch house: a central living room, wings reaching out around patios, sliding glass doors and a roof that barely rises above the eaves. May did not invent the ranch house alone, but a state history of postwar tract housing credits him, more than any other designer, with popularizing it.
This guide covers who May was, how his custom houses were planned, the low-cost panel houses he designed for tract builders, and what that means if you think you have found a Cliff May house in the Bay Area. It relies on the University of California, Santa Barbara archive that holds his papers, a California Department of Transportation history of tract housing, and preservation sources.
Who Cliff May was
Cliff May was born in San Diego in 1908, a sixth-generation Californian, and died in 1989. He did not start as an architect. As a young man he made Monterey-style furniture, and he began designing and building houses for sale in San Diego in the early 1930s, in part to give his furniture a fitting setting.
Those early houses drew on the adobe homes of California's Spanish and Mexican periods: white stucco walls, red tile roofs, wrought-iron gates and a deliberately handcrafted feel. What set them apart, according to the Caltrans history, was how low and spreading they were, with easy access to ground-level galleries and patios rather than raised porches.
The sources differ on when he moved to Los Angeles. The UC Santa Barbara archive says 1936, after he had built 35 houses in San Diego; the Caltrans history says 1937, after nearly 50. Either way, he stayed in Los Angeles for the rest of his career. With financier John A. Smith he began the Riviera Ranch subdivision in west Los Angeles in 1939, with large custom houses on lots of up to two and a half acres. May's own house there served as the model home. By 1943, the UC Santa Barbara archive says, he had a national reputation as a designer of custom California ranch houses.
How a Cliff May ranch house is planned
In Los Angeles, May moved away from overtly Spanish designs toward a more generally Western look. The Caltrans history describes the elements that define his custom ranch houses:
Materials. Board-and-batten siding combined with stucco, and cedar shakes rather than clay tile on the roof. Wide masonry chimneys offered an occasional vertical counterpoint.
Horizontality. Low-pitch roofs and elongated plans, with a rustic, informal character even in the largest houses.
A central living room with wings. Two to four wings extend from a large living room, holding bedrooms, kitchen and service spaces, the garage and guest rooms. Smaller houses form L, U or H shapes; larger ones splay into Y or X plans.
Patios everywhere. The splayed wings create several wind-sheltered patios, and direct access to the outdoors from many rooms is a hallmark. May was among the first designers to use sliding glass doors in houses.
Single-loaded halls. Wings were typically one room plus a hallway wide, so daylight and views reached the halls, and the houses were generally one story.
The Cultural Landscape Foundation describes his houses as built around one or more patios that link sleeping, living and eating spaces. If you live in a mid-century house, that idea will feel familiar; our indoor-outdoor living page traces how it runs through the period.
Plan books, panel houses and tract builders
May's reach grew far beyond his custom clients. In 1946 the publishers Larry and Ruth Lane issued a plan book of ranch houses featuring mostly May's designs and nine by William Wurster. The Caltrans history says it sold more than 50,000 copies, to an audience well beyond California. A second plan book of May's houses followed in 1958. See our page on William Wurster for the Bay Area architect whose work appeared alongside May's.
May also designed for merchant builders. With architect Chris Choate, he developed plans for low-cost houses built from five standard wall panels made in a factory in Santa Rosa. Once the panels arrived, a small crew could raise the shell in a single day. Tracts of these May-Choate houses went up across California in the early to mid-1950s, from San Diego County to Chico, and some were built with conventional on-site framing instead of panels. Houses in Vista, in San Diego County, were built from the panels in 1953. Like other postwar prefabrication efforts, the factory approach was short-lived.
The Los Angeles Conservancy describes a well-documented example, Rancho Estates in Long Beach, completed in 1953 and 1954 with about 700 houses designed by May and Choate. Their major elements were pre-cut and assembled, and they feature shallow gabled roofs, clerestory windows, board-and-batten siding, glass doors to patios, a five-foot planning module and fencing that encloses a front courtyard.
Through his company, Cliff May Homes Incorporated, May sold low-cost ranch plans to developers in California and across the country. The Caltrans history estimates that about 18,000 tract ranch houses were built from his plans, not counting what it calls "bootleg" houses built from his plans without his permission; May sometimes sued builders over them.
Cliff May in the Bay Area
A few years after the plan book, the Lanes commissioned May to design the headquarters of their company, Lane Publishing Company, in Menlo Park. It was completed in 1951. The Caltrans history describes it as essentially an oversized ranch house with a courtyard plan. The same history illustrates a custom ranch house in Menlo Park that May designed and that was built in 1962. Farther north, the UC Santa Barbara archive lists the Robert Mondavi winery in Rutherford, in the Napa Valley, among his commissions.
May-Choate panel tracts reached Northern California too, as far as Chico, but this post does not name specific Bay Area tracts because we could not confirm them in an archive, city survey or other official record. If you are researching a specific house, the steps below are a better guide than a neighborhood's reputation. Our Menlo Park mid-century modern homes page covers the city's broader mid-century housing.
How to tell whether a house is a Cliff May design
Many postwar houses borrowed May's ideas, and builders across the country marketed homes as California ranch houses. A low roof and a sliding door are not proof. To confirm a design:
Check the county records and the city's permit file for the original builder, the year built and any architect or plan name on the drawings.
Look up the recorded tract map to learn when the subdivision was created and by whom.
Search city historic surveys. Some California cities have studied their postwar neighborhoods and name designers where records allow.
Consult the archive. The Cliff May papers at UC Santa Barbara's Architecture and Design Collection run to 350 linear feet, from about 1931 to 1989, and are described in a public finding aid.
Compare the plan, not just the facade. A central living room with wings, single-loaded halls, multiple patios and glass doors from many rooms point toward May's approach. Panel houses may show a regular module and clerestories.
For how ranch houses relate to other postwar modern homes, see our guide to the difference between Eichler and mid-mod houses.
Frequently asked questions
Did Cliff May invent the California ranch house?
No single designer invented it. The Caltrans history notes that architects such as William Wurster and builders across the country contributed to the modern ranch house, but it credits May, more than any other designer, with popularizing it.
Was Cliff May an architect?
He did not start as one. The Caltrans history calls him a designer, and the UC Santa Barbara archive says he studied business at San Diego State College and left without a diploma, though it also says he kept an active architectural practice in Los Angeles until his death. The Los Angeles Conservancy notes that he was later given an honorary designation by the American Institute of Architects. His tract plans for merchant builders were developed with architect Chris Choate.
Are there Cliff May houses in Silicon Valley?
May's Lane Publishing headquarters and a 1962 custom ranch house are both in Menlo Park, according to the Caltrans history. We have not confirmed specific Cliff May tracts elsewhere in Silicon Valley, so check permits, tract maps and city surveys before relying on a listing's label.
What is a Cliff May panel house?
It is a low-cost house May designed with Chris Choate using five standard wall panels made in a Santa Rosa factory. A small crew could put up the shell in a day, and tracts were built across California in the early to mid-1950s.
Related reading
Mid-Century Modern vs. Ranch: How to Tell California Houses Apart
Streng Brothers Homes: Sacramento's Mid-Century Modern Tracts
Mackay Homes: What the Records Say About a Mid-Century Builder
Own a ranch house you think May designed, or looking for one? Call or text the Boyenga Team at (408) 373-1660 or (650) 383-8606, or contact the Boyenga Team to talk about the house and its history.
