Ford House - 1854 - Mendocino, CA - Dated Architectural Structures Multifarious on Waymarking.com

From the NRHP: "The Jerome B. Ford house is a 1 1/2 story wood frame vernacular building consisting of an original north-facing front-gabled section built in 1854 and a left (east) extending wing added c1865. The house is 63' east-west and 50' north-south, overall, including porches on the north and south elevations. Formerly part of a very large complex of buildings of the Mendocino Lumber Company, it was built to be the home of the company's manager and is now the only structure surviving of the vast lumber company complex. HABS surveyed the house in 1986 and noted that it was "Known as one of the most beautiful houses in Mendocino…," but also noted that "Much of the original 'gingerbread' trim is gone." HABS identifies its style as "Greek revival form with Gothic revival ornamentation." An 1863 picture looking southeast, by Carleton E. Watkins, shows the earliest (west) section of the house with a one-story flat-roofed porch across the north-facing gabled elevation, and surrounded by a lawn and a picket fence. The house is shown elaborately ornamented with sawn bargeboards on the gable and side eaves, a finial crowning the front gable, shutters, and ogeearched trim between the pillars on the north-facing porch Today the siding of the west wing is vertical, in keeping with the original Gothic Revival ornamentation. The east wing is sided in grooved weatherboard. There are two small dormers facing north and south, respectively, from the roof of the east wing, which also has a center chimney. In the 1854 section of the house, the north entrance has architrave moldings and sidelights sheltered by a porch (added in 1909 to replace the original, 1854 porch.) Across the south-facing gable and along the adjoining wing there is a second porch looking out across the headland to the sea. There are entrances to the original (west) wing and to the east wing from the south porch, and a basement entrance beneath it. Both the north and south porches have ornamental brackets and slender square columns with square "capitals" mounted near but not at their tops. Historic photos show a wide dormer facing west from the roof of the west section. This dormer, which was added during a remodelling about 1910, was removed by California State Parks in the 1980s. The rehabilitation by the California State Parks included construction of a new, poured concrete foundation, a new basement entrance under the south porch, and replacement of two non-historic windows in the west wall. An early twentieth-century brick chimney and fireplace on the south wall of the west wing was removed, as well as a chimney and fireplace in the northwest quadrant of the west wing, and a new fireplace was constructed in what was believed to be the location of an original fireplace. An ornamented staircase, probably added in the 1870s, in the northeast corner of the west section was retained. In the east wing, the original floor plan of dining room and kitchen is retained on the first floor, with a small curving staircase from the kitchen to a bedroom above. This upstairs room connects to another room and hallway in the east wing and bathroom, three bedrooms and the front stair in the west wing of the house. The exterior appearance of the house today is easily recognizable from photos taken in the 1860s and '70s. The 1909 front porch has approximately the same footprint as the 1854 original, and in all other respects the footprint and exterior shape of the house is unchanged, despite recurrent changes to the siding and the chimneys and the loss of shutters, bargeboards and finial. The south porch is especially fine. Its decorative detail is largely intact and entirely original. Viewed from the south, the porch gives the house a distinctive and characteristic appearance seen in a number of historic photos. To the southeast of the house are two wooden outbuildings. One is a square, flat-roofed two-bay garage, dating to 1916. The other is a small rectangular shed with a curved roof. The non-contributing outbuildings stand slightly south of the site of a windmill and tank, no longer extant. The house is well maintained and nicely landscaped in keeping with its present function as a museum and visitor center." (visit link)

Year built or dedicated as indicated on the structure or plaque: 1854 Full Inscription (unless noted above): Historic Building 1854 Mendocino, CA Website (if available): [Web Link]

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Date Logged Log   01/19/2022 hidegoseek visited it