About Us

Our Story

Canadian-born Hiram Corey constructed the stunning Rancho Las Palmas for his family between 1889 and 1891, for the cost of $4,000.00. A prominent businessman and farmer, Mr. Corey sought elegance and style for his family’s home. While traveling to Europe in 1889, Mrs. Rose Frost Corey fell in love with Chateau Versailles, and wanted her home in Salinas to be her own chateau. Hiram Corey hired a Salinas architect and relative, Carlton Bassett, to design and build this beautiful Queen Anne masterpiece. Inspired by the beauty and style of the French palace’s furnishings, Mrs. Corey dressed her home with fine antiques and artwork.

In 1918, two bags of gold coins exchanged hands when Joe Violini, a Swiss immigrant, bought the Rancho Las Palmas Victorian estate and the 1600 acre Las Palmas Ranch. The Violini family ran the ranch as a self-contained dairy farm where they also had hundreds of chickens, cured their own

bacon and ham from the hogs they raised, milked the cows, canned the fruit, and baled the hay. Mrs.Violini would bake bread while the children crushed grapes from their family vines in their bare feet.

In 1979, the family sold the property to the Las Palmas Ranch Venture which began the process to subdivide the land for future development.

In 1988, title again changed hands and was acquired by the Las Palmas Property Development Company, which completed the development. During the building and sales of the Las Palmas Ranch communities, the Corey house was used as a sales office for the development company.

Now, 118 years later, this beautiful Victorian estate, Chateau Coralini, proudly stands as a community landmark and graces the entrance to the River Road Wine Trail.