The Rancho San Carlos, built in the 1920s near Carmel, was used as the location for filming the pilot episode and featured in most of the following episodes. See The Hacienda page for more details of its history.
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All colour photographs from the Huntze Family Archive, kindly provided by Chris Huntze. Most of the text comes from Chris, giving us his personal recollections of the house – our additions are in italics and within brackets.
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The main wall of the front of the house is straight, but it has the master bedroom on second floor that juts out like a “wing”. It was neat because it had windows on 3 sides of the room. Under the master bedroom is a carport you drive under so you are under cover when you get out of your car and go to the front door. (Scott calls this the ‘portico’ in the pilot, and so we refer to it both here and in our fiction).
In the first picture(L), it shows the driveway going under the bedroom. This is the circular drive that continues on to the left. Next pic (R) is looking into the car port a bit more, the ranch jeep is in the far side. Front door is to the right inside the carport.
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The main house to the left of that carport. The kitchen is on the far left side, and the ‘L” shaped garage building is off to the left also, out of camera shot.
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This is the side that the Pardee gang rode into, coming from the from the right side of the photo.
(You can see the patio area with its high walls and the large arched window in the great room, with the many-windowed dining room beside it, jutting out.)
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The Moore-era polo fields grown in with lupin taken in June 1971 from the main house, looking out the large picture window across the lawn and fences that Johnny jumps his horse over. Across the ex-polo fields, where the Pardee gang rides in, and way out in the distance is Moore’s Lake where Scott punches Johnny and he goes rolling down the bank and almost all the way in the water – I think that scene was filmed on the far side of the lake. It was very windy when they were shooting that scene!
The picture shows the vehicle gate going out of the back yard. My mom, Marty Huntze wrote, “Ex-Polo field, filled with Lupine.” Notice that this Lupine field is beyond the two fence lines. There were two fences because they were on either side of a ranch road running between them. This view is slightly to the left of where Johnny jumps over the fence. Johnny and the Pardee gang ride across the old Moore polo fields to get to the main house.
Moore’s lake is off in the distance at the base of the hills you see beyond the Lupin. Here you can see the fence has about 5 horizontal rails. It looks like they took a few rails off for Johnny (or his stunt rider) to jump the fence.
I am laughing now too, knowing that Johnny was galloping a horse across the back yard lawn!
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…from the outside lawn looking toward the round top gateway into the garden area. Fingers are in front of lens on right side. Just inside the 2 fingers, you will see a stucco outdoor fire pit chimney.. I think this structure was added after the filming, When we look at the first episode, I think the garden wall at that corner will just be a stucco wall… The garden area was all rebuilt at one point, and I think this is when they built the outdoor fireplace in that corner.
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The shot with pool in foreground shows the pool in 1966, but the highest level of retaining wall is concrete block. In later years, that row of wall will be covered with rock facia, as the two lower levels are in this picture.
You can see the pool is cut into the ground, so not very visible from the house.
To the rear of this view point, (behind camera person) is Las Gazas Creek. The creek separates the 3 buildings of the main house, and all the other horse stalls, barns and ranch buildings.
To the left side of the photo is the Guest House where Johnny falls from his horse, and then Scott comes to his rescue from the Pardee Gang.
From this view of the main house from the pool, the kitchen of the main house is on the other side of the building, just beyond the main house is the “L” shaped garage.
In this picture from the pool, you can see the 3rd story tower in the middle of the main building. Looking to the right at the 2nd story are 5 windows: these are for the rooms above the main living room, the room with big fireplace and big picture window.
From the pool, We are looking toward the patio wall (only a little bit of the wall is seen because there are bushes on the wall). You can see the round top gate coming out of the patio. This is the gate that Murdoch, Theresa, and Toledano come out at the ending scenes as they go to Scott and Johnny.
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Some Interior Views
The house had a small movie theatre in it, and a 4 lane ( I think ) bowling alley. It had 17 bedrooms. It was quite a neat place to visit as a child…. I also remember a simple call light system from the bedrooms–you push a button, and the light for your room number would light up in the kitchen, telling staff that someone in that bedroom wanted service. This is how I remembered the 17 bedrooms. There were 17 numbers on that lighted board.
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My Grandmother outside the round topped door that leads into the main living room. In episode 1, you see cast members coming into the living room through that door.
As you go through that door, you go down three steps to come into the main room, and to your immediate right are the three sets of French doors that go out into the patio garden.
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These two pictures are from the main living room at the Main house. It looks like the pillow near the fire place is same as in the SET 27 picture, black and white. IN Set 25 picture, you can see the model boat up on the book shelf, that is above the two girls at the piano. (See both these SET pictures on the Filming The Pilot page)
The picture of the pillow near fireplace, my mom titles “Lancer Posers”. So obviously by August, the film crew had been there.
My mom had another note saying this room was approximately 50 feet by 80 feet in dimension. Not sure how good my mom was a measuring, those numbers seem large, but for certain the room is very large.
(By the time of the 1991 visit, the decor had changed and lightened, with the dark fireplace panelling painted white.)
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The Dining Room
(Note these chairs differ from those used on the set of Lancer – it’s possible the producers used copies of the furniture owned by George Moore, the Canadian lawyer who built the house in the 1920s.)
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All the links!
The Hacienda main page
The Huntze Family Archives
Eleanor and Wes Huntz
To: The Rancho’s Grounds
Filming the pilot episode
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Lancer Fiction Gateway 