Architectural revival styles, including Gothic Revival, appeared in the Eastern United States around 1830 and moved westward in the late 1840's. It was still being built in California in the 1860's in a simplified form.

Gothic motifs, translated into wood, were applied to a basic Colonial frame house. Classical influences appeared in the symmetrical facade, Colonial influences in the horizontal siding and Baroque influence in the front porches, central door and sometimes a central main gable.

The Benjamin Lathrop house is architecturally important because it is an outstanding example of this style. Its tall gables and arches pierced by quatrefoil designs is a prime example of its type, unique in the County of San Mateo.

The House was built in 1863 on a site fronting on Broadway. The property, including the house, was sold in 1894 to the school district. The house was moved to the rear and a new school was built on the site. In 1905 the school district sold the house and it was moved by the new owner to its present site.

The house is open to the public on a limited schedule.

A plaque on the building reads:

A classic example of early "Steamboat Gothic" architecture erected in 1863 as the residence of San Mateo County's first Clerk, Recorder and Assessor, Benjamin G. Lathrop. Later the residence of General Patrick Edward Connors and Sheriff Joel Mansfield.

Dedicated May 9, 1982 by Bonita Parlor No. 10, Redwood City Native Daughters of the Golden West

Buildings that Moved

It's not just that the people of the American West are restless, the buildings themselves sometimes pack up and move when - for one reason or another - the neighborhood no longer suits them or the neighbors no longer want them or opportunity waits down the road.

And when buildings remain in place, they are often searching for their identities.

Of the buildings and structures we have visited, the original Reno Arch holds the record for number of moves. It has been moved five times since it was built in 1926.

Jax Truckee Diner holds the distance title. The building moved from New Jersry to Pennsylvanis in 1948, then from Pennsylvania to Califonia in 1992.

Probably the most ambitious relocation occurred on July 4th 1904, when the Southern Pacific Railroad loaded most of the town of Wadsworth, Nevada, onto rail cars and transported the town thirty miles west to create a new town which became known as Sparks.