Gushaw-Mudgett House
circa 1884
commonly known as the Mudgett House

It was built in the mid 1880's when Italianate architecture was popular in Humboldt County. Eastlake detail is also evident....

The land on which the house stands was part of a large holding purchased by George Francis Gushaw from John Skinner in 1870. Gushaw, a native of Pennsylvania, was among the early wave of Argonauts who crossed the plains from the mid-west to California in 1849. Returning to Ohio is 1853, he married Rachel T. Watkins who then accompanied him back to California; eventually they settled along the Eel River at what was known as Slide, later to become Springville and in 1889, Fortuna. The Gushaws had two sons and five daughters, one of whom Eda, married Decatur Mudgett a native of Maine who arrived in Humboldt County in 1875.

Following Gushaw's death in 1894, his widow sold the house to her daughter Eda Mudgett. Decatur and Eda raised eight children in the old home which remained in family ownership until 1973 when it was sold to the present owner following the death of the last Mudgett daughter, Jessie M. Mudgett.