I was thinking of writing a summary post about the history of this place, as I was stuck on mapping out the story of the great room. When I googled the original owner (aka the Doc), I was saddened to find an obituary. Turns out he passed away almost two years ago. His obituary included this lovely bit: he “enjoyed his ‘ranch hand’ activities in the evenings and weekends at ‘home’ (60 acres in the east foothills of San Jose): building barns, corrals, retaining walls, roads (yes roads, with his Allis-Chalmers bulldozer) were some of the many ‘hobbies’ he had fun with.” I was lucky to find him back in 2015 and he was willing and able to come see the place.
I gleaned from the obituary the names of his children, so when I googled them, I found another bit of sad news: the Doc’s ex-wife, for whom we probably have to thank for many of the lovely details inside the house, also passed away just this past November. Per the write-up, she and her daughter “became very involved in raising and showing Morgan horses. They competed at many shows across the western states, winning many awards including Morgan Horse of the year.”
Thus, a sad bit of tangential news.