Rebuilding the Past
![After a three-year, $5-million restoration, Will Rogers' Pacific Palisades ranch house is being reopened to the public. The 31-room house, now the centerpiece of a state historic park, will display Native American and Western artifacts and memorabilia collected by the humorist, who died in 1935.](https://ca-times.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/39788fb/2147483647/strip/true/crop/500x334+0+0/resize/500x334!/quality/75/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcalifornia-times-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F3c%2Fae%2Fbcf8ac6c9abc1d5fff53e9acffc6%2Fla-rogers1-iwao61kn.jpg)
After a three-year, $5-million restoration, Will Rogers’ Pacific Palisades ranch house is being reopened to the public. The 31-room house, now the centerpiece of a state historic park, will display Native American and Western artifacts and memorabilia collected by the humorist, who died in 1935. (Al Seib / LAT)
![Stable](https://ca-times.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/106935f/2147483647/strip/true/crop/500x334+0+0/resize/500x334!/quality/75/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcalifornia-times-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F16%2F6c%2Fc96c7c5b2abfcaf3d98d8d0b40f1%2Fla-rogers2-iwao6lkn.jpg)
Historian Randy Young, left, and Jennifer Rogers-Etcheverry, great-granddaughter of Will Rogers, stroll through the stables at Will Rogers State Historic Park. (Al Seib / LAT)
![Saddle](https://ca-times.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/50fbf5c/2147483647/strip/true/crop/283x425+0+0/resize/283x425!/quality/75/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcalifornia-times-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fa6%2F05%2F9d8e8776a963e3daa35dbb5952e5%2Fla-rogers3-iwao7okn.jpg)
To freshen displays and preserve artifacts, curators plan to rotate displays of Rogers’ memorabilia. (Al Seib / LAT)
![Exterior](https://ca-times.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/429d893/2147483647/strip/true/crop/500x334+0+0/resize/500x334!/quality/75/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcalifornia-times-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fbf%2F1d%2F55a04afd7260b7ccc2371bb591f1%2Fla-rogers4-iwao4zkn.jpg)
Rogers’ home sits on a gentle slope between the barn where the humorist kept his horses and the polo field where he played with Clark Gable and other celebrities. (Al Seib / LAT)
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![Interior with Pair](https://ca-times.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/b822a6c/2147483647/strip/true/crop/500x334+0+0/resize/500x334!/quality/75/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcalifornia-times-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F26%2F7e%2Fc839ca7282543d84381f9f9f6a03%2Fla-rogers5-iwao4kkn.jpg)
Jennifer Rogers-Etcheverry, left, great-granddaughter of Will Rogers, and Rochelle Nicholas-Booth, the state parks curator at the house, chose items from Rogers’ extensive collection of ropes, saddles, Native American rugs and blankets and Western art. (Al Seib / LAT)