The Lyford House is a Victorian house located in Tiburon,

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

. Built in 1876, the house is listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

Prehistory

The earliest human habitation of the local area was by hunter-gatherer Native American peoples. The clearest extant record of such habitation in the vicinity is on the nearby Ring Mountain, where rock art and grinding stones are found on some of the large boulders.

History

The Lyford House on

Richardson Bay Richardson Bay (originally Richardson's Bay) is a shallow, ecologically rich arm of San Francisco Bay, managed under a Joint Powers Agency of four northern California cities. The Richardson Bay Sanctuary was acquired in the early 1960s by the N ...

in Tiburon, California, was the home of Benjamin Lyford (1841–1906), a doctor in the Union Army who was born in

New Hampshire New Hampshire is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Gulf of Maine to the east, and the Canadian province of Quebec t ...

and raised in

Cabot, Vermont Cabot is a New England town located in the northeast corner of Washington County, Vermont, Washington County, Vermont, United States. The population was 1,443 at the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census. It contains the unincorporated villages of ...

. He migrated to

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

after the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states th ...

to practice medicine. He married Hilarita née Reed (1839–1908), the daughter of John Reed, an Irish immigrant who was granted the ''

Rancho Corte Madera del Presidio Rancho Corte Madera del Presidio was a Mexican land grant in present day Marin County, California given in 1834 by Governor José Figueroa to John (Juan) Reed. Corte Madera del Presidio means the "lumber mill of the Presidio". The grant enco ...

'', literally "the place where wood is cut for the Presidio", which today comprises the peninsula incorporating Tiburon,

Belvedere Belvedere (from Italian, meaning "beautiful sight") may refer to: Places Australia *Belvedere, Queensland, a locality in the Cassowary Coast Region Africa * Belvedere (Casablanca), a neighborhood in Casablanca, Morocco *Belvedere, Harare, Zi ...

and much of southern

Marin County Marin County is a county located in the northwestern part of the San Francisco Bay Area of the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 262,231. Its county seat and largest city is San Rafael. Marin County is acros ...

.History of Early Mill Valley, Mill Valley Historical Society
The Lyford House was originally located at Strawberry Point as part of Lyford's Eagle Dairy Ranch. It was moved by barge in December 1957 when threatened with demolition and is now owned by the

National Audubon Society The National Audubon Society (Audubon; ) is an American non-profit environmental organization dedicated to conservation of birds and their habitats. Located in the United States and incorporated in 1905, Audubon is one of the oldest of such organ ...

. The new home's location was on eleven acres belonging to Rose Verrall, who'd lived there for decades and eventually donated the land and property that would become the Richardson Bay Audubon Center and Sanctuary. The Benjamin Lyford House was added to the

in 2000. In December 2002 the house was damaged when a tree crashed through the roof. It was closed for a year of restoration, reopening in 2004.

References

External links

Richardson Bay Audubon Center and SanctuaryLyford HouseTiburon Heritage & Arts Commission
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lyford, Benjamin and Hilarita, House History of Marin County, California Houses completed in 1876 Second Empire architecture in California Victorian architecture in California Houses in Marin County, California National Register of Historic Places in the San Francisco Bay Area Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in California Tourist attractions in Marin County, California