Rossmoor, Walnut Creek, California
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Rossmoor is a gated community for senior citizens in Walnut Creek, California.
In the 1930s shipping tycoon Stanley Dollar constructed an estate in Tice Creek Valley near Walnut Creek in Contra Costa County, California. The Dollars bred purebred Herefords and raised show horses. Over the years they expanded the estate of 1,436 acres (5.8 km²) to 2,200 (8.9 km²).
In 1960, R. Stanley Dollar Jr (son of the shipping magnate) sold the family estate to Ross W. Cortese. Cortese owned a development company called Rossmoor Corporation. Cortese had been active in Orange County and the unincorporated community there named Rossmoor was one of his projects. After finishing Rossmoor he started on a new idea of private gated retirement communities for active seniors called Leisure World, starting with the Leisure World in Seal Beach in 1960.
Leisure World gave promise of low-cost housing, coupled with services appropriate to Cortese's view of retirement -- golf courses, swimming pools, clubhouses, riding stables, transportation, medical services, and a host of administrative employees to see that the residents did not have to bother themselves with house and yard maintenance, and even little things like waste collection, cable television service, and watering the lawn.
Cortese's plans were a bit too ambitious and he lost control of Rossmoor in Walnut Creek almost immediately after ground was first broken. The name Leisure World is still used as a trademark by Cortese's family, but it has not applied to Rossmoor in Walnut Creek for many years. Cortese's idea was popular though and others carried out his scheme.
There are now 9,200 residents in the gated community, with business and public services (such as the supermarket and post office) just outside the main gate. Rossmoor itself is within the city limits of Walnut Creek and it is usually considered part of that community.
