I enjoy walking through the neighborhood and around Eureka looking at houses and public buildings. This is a community with many vintage and historic structures, especially houses. Eureka was founded around 1850, as a port for shipping supplies to goldfields further north, and later as a port for shipping logs. Humboldt County was the source of a tremendous amount of the wood used in rebuilding San Francisco after the 1906 earthquake.
Starting from simple structures Eureka, Arcata, and Ferndale gradually filled with Victorian and Craftsman style homes. What differentiates these communities from others around California is that the original architecture endured, much of it to the present day. Why the housing stock in Eureka hasn’t turned over seems to be the outcome of the boom and bust economy, first supplying the gold rush, then the lumber industry, and later, illegal cannabis. Each industry brought an influx of cash that was often used in construction. The town centers grew slowly around resource extraction industries. Rapid growth and expansion seems to have been in logging, converting marsh to pastureland, or planting new crops. There was no call for rapid production of housing concentrated within communities (short term housing was built for miners, loggers, and farmhands, but in dispersed, rural, and largely short term bursts. As a result, towns like Eureka are full vintage houses, with their pluses and minuses.
Not all houses are kept up, and I include a few of overgrown and somewhat ramshackle places.
It’s enjoyable to see a house before and after a new coat of paint.
Sometimes I wish owners could see their house from another person’s viewpoint. There is a house I like very much, but it is barely possible to see the interesting circular details because of overgrown plantings around it.
Today, strolling Eureka to admire the houses is part of my routine. Many vintage homes are in excellent repair. Here are some of my favorites.
Llywindatravels 2025 