Northam Ranch
In 1896, Col. Robert J. “Diamond Bob” Northam purchased the last 1,400 acres of the Rancho Las Bolsas land grant for a ranch. In 1897, he used a mule team to transport his single-story Queen Anne Victorian mansion 12 miles from Buena Park to the ranch. Situated on a hillcrest, Northam’s home provided a vista to observe day-to-day operations. He lived there until 1904, selling his ranch to the West Coast Land and Water Company in 1905. In 1936, the Huntington Beach Company, which had absorbed West Coast Land & Water, built two corn grain silos to feed the ranch animals. The house and barn burned down in 2000 after which developers, city officials and a local architecture firm collaborated to salvage historically significant artifacts and build an historic marker using brick from the original foundation of the Northam Ranch house.
Huntington Beach, Orange County
Photographer: Kurt Bayless