Named for Rhoda Rindge Adamson (1893-1962), cofounder, with her husband Merritt Huntley Adamson, of Adohr Farms, once one of the largest dairies in the U.S. (“Adohr” is Rhoda spelled backward.) Rhoda was born into the über-wealthy Rindge family, who literally owned Malibu. Rhoda Street, located near the original Adohr Farms dairy in Encino, was named in 1949. It was a fateful year for the Adamsons: Adohr Farms was moved to Camarillo; Merritt was busy subdividing the 340 acres of their now-vacant Encino land into commercial and residential real estate; Rhoda was accused – perhaps falsely, perhaps not – of participating in a failed racist campaign to keep black singer/pianist Nat King Cole from buying a house opposite her Muirfield Road mansion in Hancock Park; and finally Merritt, 60 years old and despondent after a recent stroke, shot himself to death. Adamson House, the couple’s Malibu estate, is now a California State Park.
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