Music Adds to Tours of Historic Dudley House

As George Gershwin’s “‘Rhapsody in Blue” wafted through the hallways, dozens of visitors took a trip back in time Sunday afternoon during the year’s first tours of the historic Dudley House.

As part of the free 30-minute walk-throughs offered the first Sunday of the month, volunteers who run the Victorian farmhouse have added a new feature--playing famous music from the past.

“It changes the atmosphere,” said Steve Cummings, president of San Buenaventura Heritage Inc., which oversees operation and renovation of the historic dwelling. “We can change the mood of the place by changing the music.”

The CD player broadcasting the music was an odd sight in the house, which is more than a century old.

Good music wasn’t the only reason that visitors dropped in to inspect the three-bedroom house at Ashwood Avenue and Loma Vista Road in Ventura.

“The history of the house is fascinating,” said George Sandoval of Ventura.

He and his wife, Judy, said they enjoyed the docent-led tour that took them through the 10-room home. Along with an explanation of the restoration process on the building, docents offer anecdotes of yesteryear during tours.

Docent Hilbert Bolland likes to tell visitors that because family patriarch Benjamin Dudley paid $2,100 in cash to have the 2 1/2-story house built in 1892, the builder constructed a fireplace at no extra charge.

Dudley raised livestock and grew barley, wheat, walnuts, lima beans and lemons on the property. He was better known, however, for his civic roles, serving as a member of the school board, clerk of the Board of Supervisors and a justice of the peace.

“I appreciate that they haven’t done a lot to change it,” Judy Sandoval said. “It gives us a good feel for what it was like to live here.”

Five generations of the Dudley family lived in the Queen Anne-style farmhouse. The family donated the property to the city in 1977.

A group of volunteers soon began to renovate the house, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. In 1994, the Dudley House was opened to the public for special events. Regular monthly tours began last year.

But despite the more than $400,000 spent over more than two decades, the house still has a way to go, Cummings said. Volunteers are still raising money to replace the wooden floors and then move in original and turn-of-the-century furniture.

Fund-raisers, such as upcoming murder mystery parties on the property, should help. Four parties will be held Friday and Saturday nights the weekends of Jan. 29 and Feb. 5. The cost will be $35 per person.

Eventually, San Buenaventura Heritage officials would like to open the house weekly to the public.

“People ask, ‘Why do you bother?’ ” volunteer Bill Garner said. “Well, it’s to restore the past.”