Glorious Frank Rand estate for sale

By: Paul Weideman
Published online: Wednesday, December 05, 2012
Appeared in: Home, Santa Fe Real Estate Guide
Edition: December 2012 Vol. 15 No. 9

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The home of one-time Santa Fe New Mexican owner Frank C. Rand and his wife, Adele L. Rand, is on the market. Located near the end of Camino de las Animas (a few houses beyond the abode built by artist Gustave Baumann in 1923), this is a classic Santa Fe estate that has been in the same family for many decades.

Frank Rand, a graduate of the Los Alamos Ranch School, owned The New Mexican from 1940 to 1948, when it was sold to Robert McKinney, father of the paper’s current owner, Robin McKinney Martin. Rand built The New Mexican’s quarters on Marcy Street. In 1947, he started a radio station, KTRC, and built the tower and Radio Plaza building next door to The New Mexican. In a 2003 interview, longtime station manager Bill Hanrahan said KTRC stood for “Keep the Rand Circulating.”

It is thought the Rands had the main house built in the 1930s (then had John Gaw Meem design a living-room addition in the 1940s), but it was preceded by today’s guest house, built in the 1920s.

Mrs. Rand preferred a New York decorative style and outfitted her new home with antiques from New York City, where the couple maintained an apartment. The house on Camino de las Animas includes some stunning Art Deco lighting and furniture, including several custom card tables. This dazzlingly different style in Santa Fe has been maintained by the Rands’ granddaughter, Santa Fe native Joan Macfarlane, who now lives in San Diego and has kept this as a second home.

The main house, mostly adobe, is approximately 4,000 square feet, with five bedrooms, five fireplaces, and five bathrooms. The living room has wall-to-wall carpeting, blue-painted walls, and stately draperies on the windows. The old living room, now a parlor, boasts carved wooden valances over the windows.

The house is filled with wonderful details like hand-painted panels inside a hallway linen closet and, in the master bathroom, painted crown art continued along a custom-made wooden window valance.

“It’s from a bygone era,” said Realtor Marilyn Foss.

A richly wallpapered sunroom looks out to the parklike rear yard. But the wall covering in the formal dining room is the real standout: it’s Chinese silk.

The master bedroom and two guest bedrooms are on the main level; upstairs, there is a library with a fireplace, and two more bedrooms.

The utilitarian quality of the kitchen is a contrast, and an evidence that this was the domain of the help, not of the owners. Eminenently and solidly practical, the two-room kitchen is filled with dozens of white Republic Steel cabinets and formica countertops — except for a small area around the Wolf cooktop/oven, which is outfitted with granite tops.

The guest house is more Santa Fe Style, complete with viga ceilings. The three-bedroom guest house, also mostly adobe construction, is about 2,800 square feet. It is heated by hot-water radiators, like the main house, and has two fireplaces.

Adjacent to this is a one-bedroom casita. Another building holds the laundry room, an exercise room, and three-car garage. There is off-street parking for 15 vehicles.

Between the main and guest houses, there is a full-size greenhouse. Here are maintained geraniums that caretaker Chris Valdez believes may be more than 60 years old. During the Rands’ ownership, the greenhouse was used to grow carnations that were shipped to their New York residence.

The property of 1.82 acres has mature apple, apricot and cherry trees; roses; lawns; vegetable gardens; and tall conifers; all watered by means of a well and drip-irrigation system.

Two lots, at 461 and 465 Camino de las Animas, comprise the Rand estate. It is listed for $2,950,000 by Marilyn Foss and Kevin Bobolsky, Santa Fe Properties.