{"nrhp_refnum":"66000240","name":"London, Jack, Ranch","other_names":["Jack London Home and Ranch"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"0.4 mi. W of Glen Ellen in Jack London Historical State Park","address_restricted":false,"city":"Glen Ellen","county":"Sonoma County","state":"CA","lat":38.35430152500004,"lon":-122.538667570253,"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":"Jack London Home and Ranch, now Jack London State Historic Park, a 47.5-acre property about 0.4 miles west of Glen Ellen in Sonoma County, California. It contains the Wolf House ruins, the House of Happy Walls (built 1919) and the graves of Jack and Charmian London.","why_significant":"The property is significant for its association with Jack London, who rose from poverty to become the highest paid and most popular novelist and short story writer of his day. He completed some 51 books between 1900 and 1916, and his work is read worldwide in some 68 languages. The ranch, where he built Wolf House and ran Beauty Ranch, was a primary preoccupation of his later years.","narrative":"Jack London State Historic Park, near Glen Ellen in Sonoma County, preserves the ranch where the novelist spent his final years. The 47.5-acre park holds the stabilized ruins of Wolf House, a 26-room lava rock and redwood mansion with nine fireplaces and a fireproof manuscript vault, destroyed by fire on August 22, 1913, shortly before the Londons planned to move in. Nearby stands the House of Happy Walls, a two-story stone building with a tile roof, built in 1919 by Charmian London as a memorial to her husband. London's grave lies on a wooded knoll beneath a large lava boulder. London rose from the factories and waterfront of West Oakland to become the best-paid and most widely read writer of his time, completing some 51 books between 1900 and 1916. After about 1911 he devoted much attention to operating Beauty Ranch. The property was recognized for its association with his life and work.","period_of_significance":"1909-1916","architect_builder":null,"architectural_style":null,"criteria":[],"status_note":"Park dedicated in 1960 and administered by the State of California; Wolf House is a stabilized ruin, and the form lists the condition as good to fair with public park and museum use.","vacant_flag":null,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:55:31.299617-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_CA/66000240_NHL.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/66000240/d36082d340-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/66000240/d36082d340-1600.webp","licence":"Public domain","author":"Robert E. Nylund","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:LondonCottage.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Robert E. Nylund</a>, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:LondonCottage.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/123858119","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_London_State_Historic_Park","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q6113737"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/california/sonoma-county/london-jack-ranch-66000240/"}