{"nrhp_refnum":"78000803","name":"Gold Ridge Farm","other_names":["Luther Burbank's Experimental Farm and Cottage"],"category":"site","location":{"address":"W of Sebastopol","address_restricted":false,"city":"Sebastopol","county":"Sonoma County","state":"CA","lat":38.39753611700007,"lon":-122.834824847,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1978-12-14","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Agriculture","Education"],"significance_levels":["national"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A three-acre remnant of the 18-acre experimental farm Luther Burbank bought in 1885, on Bodega Avenue about a mile west of central Sebastopol, Sonoma County, California. It holds a neglected wood-frame cottage and surviving plantings from Burbank's time.","why_significant":"The nomination argues the site matters entirely for Luther Burbank's use of it from 1885 to 1926. His plant-breeding work there, including the Santa Rosa plum and Shasta daisy, contributed to agriculture and the nursery trade. It also influenced education, because visitors came to see his experiments and his work supported Darwin's theories.","narrative":"Three acres of Luther Burbank's original 18-acre experimental farm survive on Bodega Avenue, about a mile west of central Sebastopol. Burbank bought the land in 1885 and worked there until his death in 1926, raising fruit, nut and ornamental plants in closely spaced beds, with single trees bearing hundreds of grafted varieties. The Santa Rosa plum and Shasta daisy were developed on the property. After his death Stark Bros. Nurseries cataloged his experiments, and later the rest of the farm became an apple ranch and then senior housing. The nominated remnant holds a small hip-roofed wood cottage, now boarded up and badly deteriorated, along with about 58 trees and shrubs, including a Royal walnut and a white birch that Burbank planted. The barn burned in 1972. The site was nominated for its link to Burbank's contributions to agriculture, economics and education, and a rehabilitation master plan has proposed restoring it.","period_of_significance":"1885-1926","architect_builder":"Unknown","architectural_style":null,"criteria":[],"status_note":"Unoccupied and unused; the cottage is in disrepair with doors and windows boarded up. The barn burned in 1972 and the office no longer exists.","vacant_flag":true,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:55:31.315744-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_CA/78000803.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/78000803/68ad90f569-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/78000803/68ad90f569-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"Frank Schulenburg","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Luther_Burbank%27s_cottage.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Frank Schulenburg</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 3.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Luther_Burbank%27s_cottage.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/123862070","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luther_Burbank%27s_Gold_Ridge_Experiment_Farm","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q1442657"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/california/sonoma-county/gold-ridge-farm-78000803/"}