:Sandstone Retreat

{{short description|Southern California swingers resort (1969–1976)}}

{{More citations needed|date=September 2007}}

{{Use mdy dates|date=April 2025}}

{{Infobox settlement

|name = Sandstone

|nickname = Sandstone Ranch

|settlement_type = Intentional Community

|pushpin_map = Los Angeles

|pushpin_map_caption = Location within Los Angeles County

|coordinates = {{coord|34|4|3|N|118|37|20|W|type:city_region:US-CA|display=inline,title}}

|subdivision_type = Country

|subdivision_name = {{USA}}

|subdivision_type1 = State

|subdivision_name1 = {{flag|California}}

|subdivision_type2 = County

|subdivision_name2 = Los Angeles

|established_title = Establish

|established_date = 1969

|founder = John and Barbara Williamson

|area_total_acre = 15

|elevation_ft = 1702

|timezone = Pacific (PST)

|utc_offset = -8

|timezone_DST = PDT

|utc_offset_DST = -7

}}

Sandstone Retreat, officially the Sandstone Foundation for Community Systems Research,Alex Mar, [http://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/what-happened-to-the-most-liberated-woman-in-america? "What Happened to 'The Most Liberated Woman in America'?"], Atlas Obscura, June 7, 2016. was a clothing-optional, open sexuality resort for swingers located at Sandstone Ranch, a {{convert|15|acre|ha|adj=on}} estate in the Santa Monica Mountains overlooking Malibu and the Pacific Ocean.

The community’s beginnings are based on the philosophical ideals of John (July 31, 1932 – March 24, 2013)William Yardley [https://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/05/us/john-williamson-dies-at-80-founded-sandstone-retreat.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0 "John Williamson, Co-Founder of the Sandstone Retreat, Dies at 80"], New York Times, 4 May 2013 and Barbara Williamson. John was an engineer by training, and a former project manager with Lockheed Aircraft who worked on the design and management of missile support systems, including development of the Polaris missile.[https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/10089834/John-Williamson.html Obituaruy: John Williamson], telegraph.co.uk, 30 May 2013 In the early 1960s, he opened his own electronics company, but later sold it to purchase the property at 21400 Saddle Peak Road, a cluster of well-maintained buildings on a 15-acre hilltop site in Topanga Canyon in 1968,Kevin Roderick & AP [http://www.laobserved.com/archive/2013/05/john_williamson_founder_o.php "John Williamson, founder of Sandstone nudist and sex retreat was 80"], LA Observed, 3 May 2013 and founded the Sandstone Foundation for Community Systems Research, Inc. in 1969. Barbara Williamson, née Cramer, was a former insurance sales representative{{cite web |url=http://hstrial-jwilliamson8.homestead.com/articles.html |title=Sandstone: Close-up of a Unique Life-style |author=Ferderber, Skip: Times Staff Writer |date=April 6, 1972 |editor=Los Angeles Times |publisher=John Williamson at Homestead}} who had met and married her husband in 1966. The Williamsons believed their venture was about exchanging partners for sex and setting society free, and that monogamy was sexually unsatisfactory and preventing people from having full lives.[https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/john-williamson-freelove-pioneer-8606658.html "John Williamson: Free-love pioneer"], The Independent, 8 May 2013

The retreat offered members and guests over the age of 18 the resources of a spa with the addition of several large open communal sleeping areas, both indoor and outdoor, and communal bathrooms. Prospective members were interviewed on a daytime visit to determine suitability.{{cite book |title=Sandstone Experience |author1=Hatfield, Tom |author2=Rimmer, Robert H |date=December 12, 1988 |publisher=Random House Crown |pages=[https://archive.org/details/sandstoneexperie00hatf/page/184 184] |isbn=978-0517518793 |oclc=1176055 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/sandstoneexperie00hatf/page/184 }}

The retreat was managed by a residential community consisting of up to 20 persons, a self-selective job. At its height in the early 1970s, it welcomed such members as Daniel Ellsberg, Anthony Russo, Betty Dodson, Max Lerner, and Dr. Alex Comfort, as well as a variety of major and minor Hollywood celebrities, educators, attorneys as well as members of the public.{{cite web |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=veUCAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA46 |title=Thy Neighbor's Wife (Book Review) |author=Richler, Mordecai |date=April 28, 1980 |work=Bad Vibrations |editor=New York Magazine |editor-link=New York (magazine) |pages=46, 48, 49 }} The Williamsons sold the resort in 1973; reputedly never profitable, it finally closed in 1976. All of the property buildings and improvements burned down in January, 2025.

The retreat was the subject of a documentary called Sandstone (1975), still in release through Indieflix.com. It is mentioned in the 1973 edition of More Joy of Sex, by Dr. Alex Comfort (it was omitted from later editions),{{cite book |title=More Joy of Sex - A Lovemaking Companion To The Joy Of Sex |author1=Comfort, Alex |author2=Raymond, Charles |author3=Foss, Christopher |year=1974 |publisher=Fireside/Simon & Schuster |pages=159–167 |isbn=978-0671221249 |oclc=43004433}} and treated in the book Thy Neighbor's Wife (1980) by American author Gay Talese, who first set foot in Sandstone in 1971 as part of his preparations for writing, and lived at the retreat for several months.{{cite book |title=Studies in Human Sexuality: A Selected Guide |author1=Frayser, Suzanne G |author2=Whitby, Thomas J |date=June 15, 1995 |publisher=Libraries Unlimited |pages=663–664 |isbn=978-1563081316 |oclc=246859790}}

The Sandstone Retreat buildings were destroyed in the Palisades Fire of 2025 (January 7–30, 2025).