Rancho Santa Fe, which began in 1906 as a eucalyptus farm of the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad, in 1921 began to morph into the exclusive enclave of the rich and powerful it is known as today.

In the newly published "Images of America: Rancho Santa Fe" (Arcadia Publishing, $21.99), local historian Vonn Marie May has captured the rigorous building period as well as the romance of the early days, when Douglas Fairbanks Sr., Bing Crosby and corporate executives set the tone for the 9,000-acre former Rancho San Dieguito.

"The community of Rancho Santa Fe reveals itself through layers of California history," May says in the introduction to the 128-page book. "History that moves from a Spanish pueblo, to a Mexican rancho, to an ambitious horticultural experiment gone awry, and finally to an inspired planned community."

Although well-known to residents, Rancho's history as depicted in May's book comes alive in rare pictures, maps and brochures. Beyond those walls, hedges and gates is a genteel world, where horses, golfing and citrus groves still hold sway. But it's not a stuffed-shirt place: Residents, especially the children, then and now had fun.

Acquired from the heirs of the first rancho owner, Juan Maria Osuna, the ranch was master-planned in the 1920s by Leone G. Sinnard; landscaped under the direction of A.R. Sprague and Glenn Moore; and given its architectural theme by Lilian J. Rice, one of the first women to earn an architectural degree in California. The final touch was the 1928 protective covenant, drafted by town planner Charles H. Chene. Still in effect, it provides for a design review board (the "art jury") and the Rancho Santa Fe Association, which acts as a homeowners association and quasi-local government for the unincorporated community.