Fillmore Couple Converts Artists’ Barn Into B

When Alma and Max Gabaldon visited Fillmore for the town’s 1995 Fourth of July celebration, the Camarillo couple loved the city so much they decided to move there.

Then they spotted the Artists’ Barn historical landmark and fell in love with that, too. And when they saw that the 100-plus-year-old barn was for sale, they purchased it.

Now the redwood barn not only is the Gabaldons’ home, it is Fillmore’s first bed and breakfast. Although renovations are still being made by Max Gabaldon, a contractor, the couple opened the lodge for business last month.

Built in the late 1800s, the Artists’ Barn originally was home to John Hinckley, Fillmore’s first doctor, and his son, Ira Hinckley, the town’s first dentist and druggist.

In the 1930s and 1940s, Ira’s son, Lawrence Hinckley, turned the barn into a nationally recognized art gallery. A room in the barn pays tribute to past visiting artists, each of whom painted a picture on the walls. Among the artwork is a rendering of George Stanley’s Oscar, before it became a motion picture award statuette.

Alma Gabaldon, a customer service representative for GTE Corp., said the couple’s main purpose for opening the two-bedroom, 3,500-square-foot establishment was to share a part of the town’s history with residents and tourists, rather than to turn the place into a big money-making investment.

“Fillmore has a historical train. It has the new town square. It has historical buildings. The movie theater is back up [after earthquake damage forced its closure]. This falls in line with the historical aspect of Fillmore,” Gabaldon said.

“The main reason we are doing this is to share it,” she said. “This is nothing that I can see in the near future where we could even begin to think about leaving our jobs.”

When the Gabaldons purchased the $110,000 barn, their plan was solely to call it home. But after attending a joint planning meeting held by the cities of Fillmore, Santa Paula and Piru in early 1996, they decided to open it to the public.

“They were talking about this five-year plan as far as building up each of the cities,” Alma Gabaldon said. “The more those cities grow, the more bed and breakfasts will grow.”

Gabaldon said that for now, at least, she is promoting the bed and breakfast locally rather than outside the county.

“We are promoting it through the Chamber of Commerce and the historical society, where people who are really interested in the town would look,” she said. “We are trying to keep it quaint, like Fillmore is.” Room rates start at $50 per night.

Larry Jensen, general manager of the Fillmore & Western Railway Co. historic train, said the addition of a bed and breakfast should help establish Fillmore as a tourist destination.

“I’d like to see more of this in Fillmore, so we can get a reputation for having a variety of unique places to stay,” said Jensen, a former member of the board of the Tuolumne County tourism bureau. “Tourist cities I think of around California all seem to have a bunch of bed and breakfasts, and no two are alike.”

Jensen said bed and breakfasts are not for everybody, but they do attract a certain segment of travelers.

“There are actually bed-and-breakfast people who go and seek out these unique experiences,” he said. “I think there are people out there who are going to embrace this.”