Porter--Vallejo Mansion - Pajaro, CA - U.S. National Register of Historic Places on Waymarking.com

Porter John Thomas Porter (1831-1900) was born in Duxbury, Massachusetts. H ecame to California in the 1840s. In 1859 he married Florence “Fanny” Cumming. During his lifetime, Porter was sheriff of Santa Cruz county, founded the Bank of Watsonville, and was a partner in the sugar beet factory at Soquel Landing. In 1874, Porter purchased 820 acres of the Rancho San Cayetano from the Vallejo family. The Vallejo family was given right to the land in 1824. Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo's father Ignacio Vallejo, built an adobe on the land in the 1820s. The present home was built in 1840.

On the rancho was the house. Between 1895 and 1899, Weeks remolded the home into a 23 room, three story house. Weeks transformed it into "one of the handsomest homes in this section of the state." The Porter home was the first home with electricity. It also featured a large dining room, china room, a billiards room and a library.

In a 1905 article, the local newspaper said about the home and a social party taking place there: "the beaty of the Porter home with its luxuriant gardens and shaded walks, the confortable coolness of the day, and the enhancing music, and withal the hapy feeling of welcome made the affair a complete success.

The home is the oldest building in Pajaro. In 1991 by then-Monterey County Supervisor Marc Del Piero and converted into a public library/senior citizen center.

Source: Monterey County's North Coast and Coastal Valleys by Margaret Clovis

Street address: 29 Bishop St Pajaro, CA USA County / Borough / Parish: Monterey Year listed: 1990 Historic (Areas of) Significance: Person, Architecture/Engineering Periods of significance: 1900-1924, 1875-1899 Historic function: Domestic Current function: Vancant/Not in Use Privately owned?: no Primary Web Site: [Web Link] Season start / Season finish: Not listed Hours of operation: Not listed Secondary Website 1: Not listed Secondary Website 2: Not listed National Historic Landmark Link: Not listed

Visit Instructions:
Please give the date and brief account of your visit. Include any additional observations or information that you may have, particularly about the current condition of the site. Additional photos are highly encouraged, but not mandatory.

Recent Visits/Logs:

There are no logs for this waymark yet.