About this property
The Shaw House, also known as the Shaw House Inn, is a historic Carpenter Gothic Victorian style house located at 703 Main Street in Ferndale, Humboldt County, California. It served historically as a courthouse, a post office, and a single-family dwelling. The Shaw House was built in 1854 by Seth Shaw, who with his brother Stephen W. Shaw had arrived by canoe in 1852 to build a cabin, clear some land, claim it and found the town of Ferndale. Despite long-standing local legend, the house was not inspired by Nathaniel Hawthorne's House of the Seven Gables, but rather by the home of Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo, now known as the Vallejo Estate, in Sonoma, California which had been drawn and painted by Stephen W. Shaw. In the early days, the Shaw House served as the area's first courthouse as well as post office. The building was owned by the family, vacant for several years at the end, until sold in 1967. Fully restored by two owners, the Shaw House was added to the National Register of Historic Places on September 13, 1984. It remains the oldest house in Ferndale and functions as a bed and breakfast under the Shaw House Inn name. It still features the marble fireplace that Isabella Shaw, Seth's bride, chose from Gump's department store in San Francisco, California. National Register of Historic Places digitized photos, July 6, 1983 National Register of Historic Places digitized text, July 6, 1983
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Property data from the National Register of Historic Places, National Park Service (public domain).
Description adapted from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
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Questions about this property
When was Shaw House listed on the National Register?
Shaw House was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on September 12, 1984.
What type of historic resource is Shaw House?
Shaw House is classified as a building in the National Register of Historic Places.
What is the period of significance for Shaw House?
The period of significance for Shaw House is recorded as the industrial era.
Can I research the history near Shaw House?
Yes. Aubrey Research reports search National Register listings, battlefield records, land patents, and other primary historical sources within any radius of a US address. A report for an address near Shaw House will include this listing and all other historical records in the area.
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