A Victorian Village

Last Saturday my husband and I spent the morning in the Victorian hamlet of Ferndale. I love that little town! It is quiet and quaint and.......special. It is one of the few local places that seems to be untouched, for the most part, by all the consumerism of the age. Of course there are shops and cafes and a repertory theater and even a little market, but the feeling of the town is so much different from the hustle and bustle of other areas-----it's like stepping into another era. It feels, very simply, like home.

Ferndale boasts some of the most beautiful examples of 19th century Gothic Revival, Italianate, Eastlake and Queen Anne architecture in California and, in fact, the entire village is a California Historical Landmark (No. 883). These homes, many of them still private residences or Bed & Breakfast Inns, are locally known as "Butterfat Palaces", referring to the fact that they were built for the wealthy dairy farmers of the late 1800s.

Ferndale's Main Street

Mark and I rambled about for an hour and a half or so before heading to Ferndale Cemetery to have a look around. Wandering through a cemetery is not really my idea of "fun", but this one, I must say, was interesting as it is situated on an immense hillside, with some gravesites dating to the 1870s.

Ferndale is certainly one of the loveliest little towns I have ever had the pleasure of visiting and I am so glad that it is near enough my home to make it a regular destination. Please visit the following website to learn more about Ferndale and other towns in the Eel River Valley.

http://www.victorianferndale.com/