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The A. Berding Home is a historic
Local justice of the peace Seth Shaw, married Berding and Mary Blum (b. 1832), a widow with three small children, June 7, 1867. The small residence they built in 1868 was moved around the corner and replaced with the current house where the Berdings had four more children together. In 1888 after much illness, the Berdings had a high brick foundation laid to raise the house. The 1900 Census shows that Arnold, Mary and two of their children were living in the Berding house, although they traveled frequently. The newspaper reports regular trips to San Francisco and in 1904, that Mary Berding and daughter Christina traveled across the United States to attend the St. Louis Exposition, and visit relatives from Illinois to Idaho. In 1909 the ''Ferndale Enterprise'' noted that the home of "Pioneer Berding" had recently been improved and renovated.
The house was added to the
Carpenter Gothic
Carpenter Gothic, also sometimes called Carpenter's Gothic or Rural Gothic, is a North American architectural style-designation for an application of Gothic Revival architectural detailing and picturesque massing applied to wooden structures ...
Victorian style house with Italianate accents built by pioneer merchant Arnold Berding in 1875 at 455 Ocean Avenue in Ferndale, Humboldt County, California is also called "The Gum Drop Tree House" from the neatly trimmed row of 150 year old cypresses in front.
History
Born inGermany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...
in 1826, Berding arrived in Humboldt County by a route that included Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro ( , , ; literally 'River of January'), or simply Rio, is the capital of the state of the same name, Brazil's third-most populous state, and the second-most populous city in Brazil, after São Paulo. Listed by the GaWC as a ...
, San Francisco
San Francisco (; Spanish for " 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 fourth most populous in California and 17th ...
, and the California Gold Rush mining camps. In 1857 he arrived in Humboldt County and set up a store, hotel, livery and post office at the now-abandoned village of Centerville, California where Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln ( ; February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865) was an American lawyer, politician, and statesman who served as the 16th president of the United States from 1861 until his assassination in 1865. Lincoln led the nation thro ...
appointed him Centerville's first and only postmaster.
In January 1860, shortly after the victims from the wreck of the were buried in a mass grave marked by the Centerville Beach Cross, wreck salvage was sold at auction at Berding's Centerville store. After selling the Centerville businesses, Berding spent a short time in Oregon, returning to Ferndale in 1866 and opening the first merchandise store in town.
Local justice of the peace Seth Shaw, married Berding and Mary Blum (b. 1832), a widow with three small children, June 7, 1867. The small residence they built in 1868 was moved around the corner and replaced with the current house where the Berdings had four more children together. In 1888 after much illness, the Berdings had a high brick foundation laid to raise the house. The 1900 Census shows that Arnold, Mary and two of their children were living in the Berding house, although they traveled frequently. The newspaper reports regular trips to San Francisco and in 1904, that Mary Berding and daughter Christina traveled across the United States to attend the St. Louis Exposition, and visit relatives from Illinois to Idaho. In 1909 the ''Ferndale Enterprise'' noted that the home of "Pioneer Berding" had recently been improved and renovated.
The house was added to 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 ...
on 4 January 1983. Much of the extant furniture was purchased by Arnold and Mary Berding. The parlor was last wallpapered and painted in 1889 for a wedding.
The house is owned by the Berding family via a trust.
References
External links
* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Berding, A., House Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in California Buildings and structures in Ferndale, California Carpenter Gothic architecture in California Houses completed in 1875 Carpenter Gothic houses in the United States Houses in Humboldt County, California National Register of Historic Places in Humboldt County, California