In 1849 George Washington Patterson joined the stream of young men leaving the Midwest for California's gold fields. His dreams left little room for failure, but after a year and a half of mining he was ill and broke. And so he turned to work he knew well -- farming.
George purchased his first land, site of Ardenwood Historic Farm, in 1856 with the money he earned by working for farmers near Mission San Jose. With the profits from that land he bought additional land. By the time he married Clara Hawley in 1877, he was on his way to acquiring nearly 6,000 acres of land and was one of the most wealthy and well-respected men in the area. He had struck "gold" -- not in the hills, but through farming the fertile plains of the East Bay.
Three generations of the Patterson family lived at Ardenwood and farmed the Patterson Ranch.
Today Ardenwood invites you to experience farm life as it was near the turn-of-the-century. Draft horses still pull wagons, rail cars and plows. The land still grows the kinds of crops George Patterson tended 100 years ago, and the farmyard is still full of animals. Staff and volunteers attired in Victorian clothing are on hand to show you through the Patterson family home, to demonstrate farm chores, to explain the social graces of the Victorian era, and to carry you by wagon around the 205-acre farm.
We have a History of the Patterson house in PDF form for you to download.
