This home is one of the oldest structures in San Jose. It was built as the farmhouse of James Ashworth, a gold rush pioneer who acquired 250 acres of farm land in 1854 on the east side of Coyote Creek.

James Ashworth came from Kentucky with two brothers, one who settled in Oregon and the other in Mariposa County, California. James later brought his wife and seven children to live on the farm and built the appropriate home for his farm in the 1860s. Ashworth lived here until 1890 when he moved to a house in San Jose after the death of his wife. By this time, ninety acres of the original holdings had been sold piecemeal.

In 1891 Peter Remillard took possession of the 160 remaining acres and the Ashworth home. Remillard had come from Canada in 1854 and spent his first years in California in the gold fields at the Malakoff-Diggins. Remillard then moved to Oakland and took over a brick company which became his own Remillard Brick Co. in 1861. In 1892 he established a new brickyard behind the former Ashworth home next to Coyote Creek.

Remillard was a pioneer in bringing industry to the Santa Clara Valley.

Excerpted from the NRHP nomination form.