Calabasas, California - Claretville of Calabasas

Claretville of Calabasas

The Claretians (The Missionary Sons of the Immaculate Heart of Mary in Rome, or The Claretian Order) of the Roman Catholic Church had come to Southern California by way of Mexico in the early 1900s, working in Los Angeles inner city missions. From 1952 to 1977 they operated the 'Theological Seminary of Claretville' and the 'Immaculate Heart Claretian Novitiate,' on the former Gillette Estate, which they renamed Claretville. The 'Thomas Aquinas College' rented the Claretville campus from the Claretians from 1971 to 1978. When the Claretians sold their Claretville property in 1978 to Clare Prophet and her Church Universal and Triumphant (CUT), Thomas Aquinas College purchased, moved to, and began construction on a permanent campus in Santa Paula, California At the present time, the Gillette Estate/Claretville property is now known as the 'King Gillette Ranch' and this property remains at the intersection of Mulholland Highway and Las Virgenes Road in Calabasas. The land and historic structures by architect Wallace Neff are now part of Malibu Creek State Park.