Early on, the grounds encompassed 9 acres, most of which was developed by Wright S. Ludington between 1927-1955. The Austins increased the size of the holdings to 17.4 acres during their time at Val Verde. Many dates have been given for Goodhue's original design for the Dater Residence.  

Henry Dater, a New York coffee broker and real estate speculator, commissioned the renowned New York architect, Bertram Grosvernor Goodhue, to design this house in 1915;

he never occupied it, and, in 1924, it was sold to the Philadelphia lawyer, Charles Ludington. The estate, in turn, was willed in 1927 to Charles's aesthetically-acute, flamboyant son, Wright S. Ludington, who supervised much of the planting in the gardens. Ludington ran out of money to maintain the estate in 1955, and sold it to a Denver woman, Marjorie Buell;

Buell decided that this location was not appropriate to raise horses, so she sold it to the heiress of the Chicago Bridge and Iron Company fortune, Florence "Bunny" Heath Horton (1915-1991), who was the fiancee of Dr. Warren R. Austin (1911-1999). Austin had the distinction of being both the physician to the Duke of Windsor and the one of the first medical practitioners to settle in the upscale town of Montecito, CA. (Information from conversation with Prof. David Streatfield, University of Washington, Seattle, 02/12/2007.)