By Hunter Fuentes and Jon Stordahl
Jeopardy
We utilize many resources when preparing a column. These include historic newspaper archives, county property records, city building and planning files, Ancestry.com, and vintage telephone directories. Sometimes, assistance comes from an unlikely source, such as the venerable game show Jeopardy. One of us (the old one) appeared on a single episode of the show in 1992, finishing in an ignoble second place. But we both remain fans.
Charles A. Hunter was one of the accomplished architects practicing in Laguna during the 1930s and 1940s. He did significant work in Dana Point, San Clemente and Laguna Beach. He was especially prolific in his Three Arch Bay commissions. We have identified more than thirty homes designed by Hunter in that beautiful section of our community. One of those homes was a handsome Spanish residence commissioned by “F.L. Ransome,” according to a May 4, 1934 article in the South Coast News. The newspaper story did not include an address so we reached out to the Orange County archivist, Susan Beruman, for assistance. She said she would need a first name for Mr. Ransome, so back to the newspaper archives. We finally found a name; Dr. Frederick Leslie Ransome. That helped identify the property address on South La Senda.
The Ransome Residence.
We took a drive down to Three Arch Bay and found the home still standing. It is a striking Spanish-style home with a large arched doorway, barrel tile roof, and a picturesque tile inset that adds charm to the façade. The front yard is an inviting mix of green grass and succulents. There is a timeless beauty to the residence.
One of the most satisfying byproducts of our research is learning about the people who built these beautiful homes. Dr. F.L. Ransome was one of the nation’s leading geologists and was instrumental in selecting the site for the Hoover Dam. He died less than a year after the completion of his home. Following his death, there were several newspaper articles over the years that mentioned regular visits to the home by his widow, “Mrs. F.L. Ramsome.” This was an era when women’s identities were often reduced to their husbands’ names with the accompanying “Mrs.” But who was Mrs. F.L. Ransome?
She not only had a name of her own, she had a voice. She was born Amy Cordova Rock, known to family and friends as “ACR,” in Washington, D.C. in 1872. Her father, Miles Rock, was an astronomer and engineer who was retained by the government of Argentina to design that country’s national observatory. ACR was born in Argentina while her father worked on that project. Her middle name is a tribute to the town of her birth. She grew up in Washington, D.C. and attended Bryn Mawr College, graduating in 1893. ACR was a gifted student of science. She was the first American woman to be awarded a master’s in chemistry from the University of Heidelberg. She went on to study for a doctorate at the University of Berlin. She worked for the US Geological Service in 1898 when she met her future husband.
ACR was also a passionate suffragist. She agitated for women’s right to vote in the decades leading up to the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment in 1920. We stumbled onto an April 28, 1942, South Coast Newsarticle that noted her lobbying efforts for an Equal Rights Amendment. I knew that an Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) had been proposed by Congress in 1972 and that it ultimately failed to secure the support of the requisite 38 states needed for ratification. I had never known that the initial efforts to secure such an amendment dated back to 1923.
Then this answer appeared on the Feb. 21, 2025 episode of Jeopardy: “In 1923 suffragist Alice Paul drafted and had introduced to Congress the first version of this proposed amendment.” The correct response was: “What is the Equal Rights Amendment?” I googled the name “Alice Paul” and found that she and ACR were friends and activists in the National Women’s Party. Paul appointed Ransome the Western Regional Chair of the group and, in 1937, had her lead the American delegation to a special session of the League of Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, held to address the issue of women’s rights at the global level, the first of its kind. If Marie Curie and Susan B. Anthony had a love child, she might have likely been Amy Cordova Ransome!
She died in 1942, still campaigning for the Equal Rights Amendment, and is buried in Washington, D.C. She would certainly be shocked that over a century after it was first proposed, the ERA remains still out of reach. But, she might draw inspiration from Amelia Earhart, a woman she no doubt admired, who once noted, “Women must try to do things as men have tried. When they fail, their failure must be but a challenge to others.”
