Verlaque, Theophile, House - Ramona, California - U.S. National Register of Historic Places on Waymarking.com

Excerpted from http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20080608/news_lz1mc8wewere.html

"The Verlaque family came to San Diego in 1870. There Theophile Verlaque ran a restaurant at Fifth and G streets, built a winery on Sixth Street, and ran 2,000 sheep on the outskirts of San Diego.

Verlaque's involvement with raising sheep led him to cross paths with fellow Frenchman and sheep farmer Bernard Etcheverry, who in the early 1880s was looking for someone to establish a general store in the Santa Maria Valley. Theophile and son Amos visited the valley.

Amos Verlaque purchased 2 acres near a good spring along the main wagon road to Julian. At that site in 1883, Amos built a general store and post office, the first commercial venture in a new town first called Nuevo.

While the younger Verlaque lived and worked in the new town, his father continued to live in San Diego. A few years after the opening of the store, Theophile Verlaque decided to build a country house in Nuevo for outings from the city.

The country house, completed in 1886 and adjacent to Amos Verlaque's store, was said to be built in a style reminiscent of his father's native Provence. The house had five rooms plus a basement with a 7-foot ceiling to serve as a wine cellar.

Verlaque family members operated the store until 1933. The building has housed many businesses since and is today the home of Catt Farm Supply.

The former Verlaque home also stands. Theophile Verlaque died in 1913, wife Elizabeth in 1926. Ownership of the Ramona house was passed down to three of Theophile's six children, remaining in the family until the early 1960s.

Leona Ransom bought the house from Verlaque descendants with the intention of preserving it. Ransom's heirs donated it to the Ramona Pioneer Historical Society in 1984. The building, restored with period furniture, is now part of the society's Guy B. Woodward Museum."

The graves and headstones of the Verlaque family are on the southwest corner of the property, immediately adjacent to the sidewalk.

Street address: 645 Main Street Ramona, California 92065 County / Borough / Parish: San Diego County Year listed: 1991 Historic (Areas of) Significance: Event, Architecture/Engineering Periods of significance: 1875-1899 Historic function: Agriculture/Subsistence, Domestic Current function: Recreation And Culture Privately owned?: yes Primary Web Site: [Web Link] Secondary Website 1: [Web Link] Season start / Season finish: Not listed Hours of operation: Not listed Secondary Website 2: Not listed National Historic Landmark Link: Not listed

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Date Logged Log User Rating   01/28/2024 KidWrangler visited it