LANDMARKS / COUNTY HISTORICAL SITES : Faulkner House Is Nationally Significant
* History: The Faulkner House was built in l894 by G.W. and Roda Faulkner, who were among the first to raise apricots and lima beans in the Santa Clara Valley. The home was designed by Herman Anlauf and Franklin P. Ward, also architects of the Adolfo Camarillo residence.
* Location: 14292 W. Telegraph Road, Santa Paula
* Hours: The home is not open to the public.
When he came West to look for desirable land in 1876, George Washington Faulkner wrote back to his wife in Ohio: “We will have to begin at the foot of the ladder and grow up with the country, but I think that, in a few more years, we can have a beautiful home if all goes well.”
All went well, and those words are carved on a marker in front of the Faulkner House, which was completed in 1894.
In addition to being an official Ventura County landmark, the Queen Anne-style house has been named to the National Register of Historic Places.
The three-story house features a collection of ornate stained-glass windows and a front door that contains more than 500 pieces of beveled, etched glass set in copper. The home was wired for electricity and piped for indoor plumbing when it was built, many years before these services were usable in the area.
It has about 4,000 square feet of living area, not counting the attic and basement and was built at a cost of between $15,000 and $18,000.
The house has been restored almost to its original condition by the Faulkners’ great-grandson, Allan Ayers, and his wife, Lin.
The Ayerses have lived in the house since 1982 and operate the Ayers Pumpkin Patch on the property. They purchased the farm after Ayers’ great-uncle, Seymour Faulkner, died in 1981, having lived his entire life at the home.
In restoring the home, the owners have tried, without records, to return it to its original condition. For instance, they have replaced built-in bathtubs and linoleum installed in the 1940s with claw-foot tubs and tile, and have maintained what Lin Ayers calls an “old, old country kitchen.”
“We have learned to live with the house,” she said.
