{"nrhp_refnum":"77000347","name":"Morse, Charles Copeland, House","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"981 Fremont St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Santa Clara","county":"Santa Clara County","state":"CA","lat":37.35211921500007,"lon":-121.94571574599996,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1977-04-13","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Commerce","Economics","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["state"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A two-story late Queen Anne Victorian residence with basement at 981 Fremont Street, Santa Clara, California, completed in 1892 for seed grower Charles Copeland Morse. A two-story carriage house stands at the rear.","why_significant":"The house is the largest remaining Victorian-style residence in the City of Santa Clara and a well-executed example of late Queen Anne architecture. It is also tied to Charles C. Morse, a pioneer of commercial seed production whose company grew into one of the largest seed growers in the world and later merged into Ferry-Morse Seed Co.","narrative":"Completed in 1892 at the corner of Fremont and Washington Streets in Santa Clara, this two-story, wood-frame Queen Anne house with a basement is the largest Victorian-style residence still standing in the city. It sits on a landscaped lot with an iron picket fence, a magnolia, two pepper trees and a two-story carriage house. Details include curved corner windows, Tiffany glass over doors and windows, carved wooden fireplaces with ceramic inlays, and a shingled roof with a dunce-cap bay. Charles Copeland Morse, born in Maine in 1842, arrived in California in 1859, worked as a house painter, and in 1877 bought a vegetable seed farm. He built it into one of the largest seed growers in the world, and his firm later merged with D. M. Ferry and Co. A local newspaper called the house \"the house that seeds built.\" Restoration was under way at the time of listing, and the exterior remained original.","period_of_significance":"1800-1899 (specific date: built in 1892)","architect_builder":null,"architectural_style":"Late Queen Anne Victorian","criteria":["B","C"],"status_note":"Being restored by the owners to correct deterioration; the exterior is in its original condition and the interior was altered somewhat many years ago.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:55:32.179081-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_CA/77000347.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/77000347/e6ad82dffc-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/77000347/e6ad82dffc-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 2.0","author":"Flickr user roarofthefour","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Charles_Copeland_Morse_Mansion.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Flickr user roarofthefour</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 2.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Charles_Copeland_Morse_Mansion.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/123861746","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Copeland_Morse_House","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q5076459"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/california/santa-clara-county/morse-charles-copeland-house-77000347/"}