Tucked into a canyon deep within the rugged Santa Monica Mountains lies a landmark steeped in both history and counter-culture: the building once known as the “Rock House,” today popularly recognized as the Rock Store — a destination for adventurous souls on wheels and on foot alike.
According to local lore, the building dates back to around 1909, in the hamlet of Cornell, California, and served as a stagecoach stop on the once-treacherous route between Calabasas and Camarillo on the long journey north toward San Francisco. Its sturdy stone construction made it a rare sanctuary for travelers braving the steep canyons and unpaved roads of the era — one of the last outposts from the age of horse and wagon just as the automobile was beginning to change California forever.
Half a century later, that same structure stood like a relic from another world. When Ed and Veronica “Vern” Savko arrived from Pittsburgh in 1961, the Santa Monica Mountains still felt remote — an untamed patchwork of oak groves, ranches and winding backroads that had yet to be touched by the sprawl of Los Angeles. Land was cheap, the pace was slow, and the old stone building must have seemed both out of time and full of promise. For a couple from Pennsylvania to simply arrive and purchase a store in what would one day be among the most idyllic and expensive corners of the world is almost unimaginable today. The Savkos bought it, opened a small grocery store and gradually transformed it into something far more distinctive: a gathering place for motorcyclists, locals and Hollywood wanderers drawn to its unpretentious charm.
Over the decades, the Rock Store evolved into one of the world’s most iconic motorcycle pit-stops — a living monument to freedom, community and the California dream. Its fame grew thanks to its dramatic setting, its easy camaraderie and a parade of riders, celebrities and gearheads who made the Sunday pilgrimage up the canyon roads.
Its location is dramatic — perched along Mulholland Highway, where the ride itself is as much part of the experience as the destination. Its weathered rock façade gives it a tangible sense of continuity with the past. (You may even recognize it from Friday the 13th Part V: A New Beginning.)
The Rock House / Rock Store stands as a bridge between eras — a place where the echoes of stagecoaches and the roar of motorcycles somehow coexist. Built at the twilight of the horse-and-wagon age and reborn amid California’s postwar boom, it remains a time capsule in stone — proof that history, in the right hands, can keep on moving.