Miller-Melone Ranch

This 2.4-acre remnant of a prune ranch in Saratoga, California, centers on a 1½-story Craftsman house built in 1910-11 to designs by San Jose architect F.D. Wolfe. Clapboard and shingle walls, a full-width front porch, matching bays and multi-pane windows define the exterior, while the interior retains cypress woodwork, tile, built-in cabinetry and original plumbing fixtures. A garage, a three-story tank house, a windmill, a fuel oil container and an old service station gas pump complete the complex; a barn was removed in 1987. Charlie Miller and his family lived here from 1911 to 1986, through the rise and decline of fruit ranching in the Santa Clara Valley. The land came from the Melone family, who settled in Saratoga in the 1880s. The ranch is considered significant as the only local ranch devoted exclusively to prunes with its outbuildings intact, and as a well-preserved example of Craftsman design.