{"nrhp_refnum":"85003043","name":"Patterson, George Washington, Ranch-Ardenwood","other_names":[],"category":"district","location":{"address":"34600 Newark Blvd.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Fremont","county":"Alameda County","state":"CA","lat":37.55644463200005,"lon":-122.05122285980772,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1985-11-29","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Agriculture","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A 131-acre historic district in Fremont, Alameda County, California, containing the core of the former Ardenwood Ranch: the George W. Patterson House (begun ca. 1856), six historic outbuildings and ornamental landscaping.","why_significant":"Ardenwood is what remains of one of Alameda County's largest ranching operations and illustrates 19th and 20th century rural life and the Patterson family's influence. The house grew through additions in 1883 and ca. 1910-1914, and its 1883 Queen Anne addition is a major example of the style. The house, outbuildings and landscape form a cohesive, intact ranch complex that is one of few of its kind in the county.","narrative":"Ardenwood is a 131-acre district in Fremont that preserves the heart of a once vast ranch founded by George W. Patterson, a Forty-Niner who began ranching in Alameda County about 1851. At its center is the Patterson House, begun around 1856 as a small two-story redwood farmhouse and enlarged over time. A large Queen Anne addition of 1883 more than doubled its size, adding a corner tower, a horseshoe-arched entrance, decorative shingles and a colored glass and stucco frieze. Another wing followed about 1910-1914. Around the house stand six historic outbuildings, including a sandstone milk house, barns and a garage, along with a quarter-mile driveway lined with walnut and oak trees and a wide variety of planted specimens. By 1878 Patterson was the county's largest landholder, and the ranch employed many laborers, mostly Chinese. The surviving complex shows how a rural family home and farm grew over about sixty years, and it is considered one of the finest ranch complexes of its period in the county.","period_of_significance":"1800-1899, 1900- (specific dates ca. 1856, 1883, 1914)","architect_builder":"George W. Patterson & James Hawley","architectural_style":"Queen Anne (1883 addition)","criteria":[],"status_note":"House in good condition and partially occupied; planned to become a house museum run by the East Bay Regional Park District. Termite and dry rot problems noted; some landscape and pool features in poor condition.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:54:28.215583-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_CA/85003043.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/85003043/a920e031e6-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/85003043/a920e031e6-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY 2.5","author":"Mactographer at English Wikipedia","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Memorial-Day-2003.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Mactographer at English Wikipedia</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY 2.5</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Memorial-Day-2003.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/123858320","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ardenwood_Historic_Farm","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q4787978"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/california/alameda-county/patterson-george-washington-ranch-ardenwood-85003043/"}