{"nrhp_refnum":"66000227","name":"Bancroft, Hubert H., Ranchhouse","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"Bancroft Dr. off CA 94","address_restricted":false,"city":"Spring Valley","county":"San Diego County","state":"CA","lat":32.74559726700008,"lon":-117.00174335251884,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1966-10-15","is_nhl":true,"nhl_designated_date":"1962-12-29","areas_of_significance":["Literature"],"significance_levels":["national"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A one-story adobe ranch house at 9050 Memory Lane in Spring Valley, San Diego County, California, built in 1856 by A. S. Ensworth and later owned by historian Hubert Howe Bancroft.","why_significant":"The house was the retirement home of Hubert Howe Bancroft, who compiled a 39-volume history of the western half of North America. He bought the ranch in 1885 and lived there until his death in 1918, writing part of his history series and experimenting with subtropical crops.","narrative":"This one-story adobe house in Spring Valley, California, was built in 1856 by A. S. Ensworth. Its gable roof overhangs the entrance side to form a small veranda, and curved oak timbers from the hull of the Clarissa Andrews, a former trans-Atlantic packet, are incorporated into the structure. Captain Rufus K. Porter bought the property in 1865 and added a kitchen, dining room and two bedrooms. In 1885 Hubert Howe Bancroft purchased it, along with neighboring land, creating a 515-acre property called Helix Farms. Bancroft, a San Francisco bookseller and publisher, compiled a 39-volume history of the Pacific slope and western North America, and part of the series was written here. He also tried subtropical trees, palms, olives and citrus. He lived at the ranch until his death in 1918. A frame addition was made in 1940, and a major overhaul in 1962 added bracing and a concrete floor. The house opened as a museum in 1963.","period_of_significance":"1856, 1885 (specific dates given; 1800-1899 period checked)","architect_builder":"A. S. Ensworth (built 1856)","architectural_style":null,"criteria":[],"status_note":"Opened in 1963 as the Bancroft Ranch House Museum, holding artifacts and relics of Spring Valley; owned by the Spring Valley Historical Society; condition listed as good and altered.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:55:31.353973-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_CA/66000227_NHL.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/66000227/8a48391732-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/66000227/8a48391732-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY 2.0","author":"Flickr user Allan Ferguson","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bancroft_Ranch_House.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Flickr user Allan Ferguson</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY 2.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bancroft_Ranch_House.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/123858018","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hubert_H._Bancroft_Ranch_House","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q3177698"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/california/san-diego-county/bancroft-hubert-h-ranchhouse-66000227/"}