A prominent landmark even today, the 200-foot high hill that rises just west of the intersection of Fairview Avenue and Cathedral Oaks Road was once home to Dr. Walter Scott Franklin and his wife, Laura.

Franklin, son of pioneers who came to California by wagon train in the wake of the Gold Rush, graduated from Stanford University and studied medicine in Vienna and Berlin. According to Walker Tompkins in his book “Goleta the Good Land,” Franklin became a nationally prominent ophthalmologist. He was named to the medical faculty of UCSF in 1912, and served on it until 1929.

Franklin and Laura, a prominent San Francisco socialite, discovered the Good Land and bought 116 acres of what was previously Edgar Hollister’s Fairview Ranch. They called it “Walora,” a combination of the couple’s first names, Walter and Laura.

Construction of their long, low, rambling mansion and elaborate grounds, situated on the brow of the hill overlooking today’s Goleta Valley Junior High, took place between 1919 and 1925. Considered a generation ahead of its time architecturally, the home, surrounded by formal gardens, featured floor to ceiling picture windows, breezeways, a split-level floor plan and large swimming pool. It also included a major library, considered exceptional by bibliophiles, fountains, statuary, tennis courts, hedges and luxurious lawns.

The Franklin estate, which was still standing as late as 1966, hosted an impressive array of celebrity visitors from Hollywood, Marin County, Pasadena, the Bay Area and Washington D.C. Herbert Hoover visited in the 1930s while he was president, said Tompkins.

Franklin apparently continued practicing as a physician, but with limited hours, as his primary focus became his Goleta ranch, where he replaced walnut groves with lemons, and cultivated grapes and berries, and bred turkeys commercially. Walora was also the site of extensive scientific research on avocados with the help of a consultant Franklin brought in from UC Berkeley.

A generous community benefactor, he invested millions in the area. When Franklin had telephone lines installed all the way up Fairview Avenue to the hilltop home in 1919, he encouraged those living along the route to tie into the service.

Active in Republican politics, Franklin ran for lieutenant governor of the state in 1938 as running mate of incumbent governor Frank Merriam, but the two lost the election. He later ran for a seat in Congress, but was defeated again, and he retired from politics.

After Walter Franklin died in January of 1946, his widow continued living at Walora Ranch for many years, selling the property in 1961. Laura Baldwin Franklin died in 1963.