{"nrhp_refnum":"74000537","name":"Gil, Jose Mario, Adobe","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"Hunter Liggett Military Reservation","address_restricted":false,"city":"Jolon","county":"Monterey County","state":"CA","lat":35.96203869500005,"lon":-121.18838777699995,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1974-06-07","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Agriculture","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A single-story, L-shaped adobe ranch house of about 1200 square feet at Jolon in southwest Monterey County, California, built in 1865 by Jose Mario Gil on land he bought near Jolon.","why_significant":"The nomination calls it one of the few adobes in Monterey County not absorbed into a private home, making it an unusually fine example of the ranch adobes of the Salinas Valley. It is described as a physical reminder of the Cattle Ranching Era that preceded irrigation farming, and as a good example of the architecture of that time.","narrative":"Built in 1865 by Jose Mario Gil, this adobe ranch house sits near a general store and a country road intersection in the dry, scrub oak landscape of Jolon, in southwest Monterey County. It is a low, rambling, L-shaped building of about 1200 square feet, with three-foot-thick adobe brick walls, a shingle roof, wooden porches on three sides, seven rooms and two fireplaces. A small family cemetery holding Gil, his second wife and many of their children lies beside it. Gil, born in Spain in 1821, came to the Jolon area during the Gold Rush, became a U.S. citizen in 1850 and farmed 260 acres to support a large family. The property later passed to a Dr. Miller, then to William Randolph Hearst, who deeded it to the U.S. Army during the Second World War, when it served as a barracks. The adobe is valued as a rare, unincorporated ranch adobe and a reminder of the cattle ranching era before irrigation farming.","period_of_significance":null,"architect_builder":"Jose Mario Gil (built his adobe ranch house in 1865)","architectural_style":null,"criteria":[],"status_note":"Listed as deteriorated and unoccupied; the adobe core is described as well preserved and easily restorable, while the grounds are shabby. A later 1979 letter mentions photographs taken before and after stabilization.","vacant_flag":true,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:55:31.17932-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_CA/74000537.pdf"},"photo":null,"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/123859919","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jos%C3%A9_Mario_Gil_Adobe","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q124673595"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/california/monterey-county/gil-jose-mario-adobe-74000537/"}