John Muir National Historic Site

John Muir National Historic Site
Location: 4202 Alhambra Avenue, Martinez, California
Area: 345 acres (140 ha)
Built: 1849
Architect: Wolfe & Son; Martinez, Vicente
Architectural style: Italianate-Victorian[2]
Visitation: 28,166 (2005)
Governing body: National Park Service
NRHP Reference#: 66000083[1]
Significant dates
Added to NRHP: October 15, 1966
Designated NHL: December 29, 1962[3]
Designated NHS: August 31, 1964[4]

The John Muir National Historic Site is located in the San Francisco Bay Area, in Martinez, Contra Costa County, California. It preserves the 14-room Italianate Victorian mansion where the naturalist and writer John Muir lived, as well as a nearby 325 acres (132 ha) tract of native oak woodlands and grasslands historically owned by the Muir family. The main site is on the edge of town, in the shadow of State Route 4, also known as the "John Muir Parkway".[5]

Contents

History

Mansion

The mansion was built in 1883 by Dr. John Strentzel, Muir's father-in-law, with whom Muir went into partnership, managing his 2,600-acre (1,100 ha) fruit ranch. Muir and his wife, Louisa, moved into the house in 1890, and he lived there until his death in 1914.

Conservationist

While living here, Muir realized many of his greatest accomplishments, co-founding and serving as the first president the Sierra Club,[6] in the wake of his battle to prevent Yosemite National Park's Hetch Hetchy Valley from being dammed, playing a prominent role in the creation of several national parks, writing hundreds of newspaper and magazine articles and several books expounding on the virtues of conservation and the natural world, and laying the foundations for the creation of the National Park Service in 1916.

The home contains Muir’s “scribble den,” as he called his study, and his original desk, where he wrote about many of the ideas that are the bedrock of the modern conservation movement.[7]

Archive and Landmark

The Muir house was documented by the Historic American Buildings Survey in 1960.[8]

It became a National Historic Site in 1964, is a California Historical Landmark #312 and National Historic Landmark, and is on the National Register of Historic Places.

In 1992 the nearby Mt. Wanda Nature Preserve was added to the Historic Site. [1].

John Muir National Historic Site

The John Muir National Historic Site offers many historical and natural activity Things To Do for the visitor.[9]

See also

References

  1. ^ "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. 2008-04-15. http://nrhp.focus.nps.gov/natreg/docs/All_Data.html. 
  2. ^ NPS Red Book
  3. ^ NHL Summary
  4. ^ NHL writeup
  5. ^ http://www.nps.gov/jomu/planyourvisit/directions.htm . accessed 8/22/2010
  6. ^ http://www.sierraclub.org/JOHN_MUIR_EXHIBIT/ . 8/22/2010
  7. ^ http://www.nps.gov/museum/exhibits/jomu/index.html . 8/22/2010
  8. ^ http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/ampage?collId=hhphoto&action=browse&fileName=ca/ca0100/ca0124/photos/browse.db&recNum=0&itemLink=Dhh:1:./temp/~ammem_0K3G::&title2=John%20Muir%20House,%20Alhambra%20Boulevard,%20Martinez,%20Contra%20Costa%20County,%20CA&displayType=1 . Library of Congress-HABS: 1960 Report
  9. ^ http://www.nps.gov/jomu/planyourvisit/things2do.htm . accessed 8/22/2010

External links

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  • Category:National Register of Historic Places
  • Portal:National Register of Historic Places