This morning I helped with the clean up of an old Victorian house in Big Oak Flat, California.

The Cobden house was built in 1901 during the height of the hard rock mining boom in Big Oak Flat. The building was built by Edward Cobden for the Raggio family and it is also know as the Raggio house.

The house is now owned by the Southern Tuolumne County Historical Society, and it is part of what is known as the Gamble Block. Another building on the block is an old Wells Fargo building that will soon undergo restoration.

The house is in what most people would refer to as a Victorian style, but more precisely it is a mixture of NeoClassical and Craftsman with Queen Anne details.

The first picture shows part of the front of the house. I really like the big wraparound porch. The second picture shows the back of the house and the continuation of the porch.

The house is in very rough condition. It was our job today to help stabilize the building for future renovation. We did some work on the inside of the house and also helped cleaned up the yard.

One of my jobs was to remove the tack strips from one of the rooms. I then helped remove all the nails and hardware attached to the walls. It was amazing that there were so many nails that had been used to hang things on the walls.

The house has a small second story with three small rooms with slanted ceilings and the main story has three large rooms.

Here is a picture that was taken in the early days of the house. You can see all the intricate architectural details in the picture. You can also see the original shake roof. The metal roof was added later when it was very common for buildings in the area to have corrugated metal roofs.

Here is some of the detail in one of the dormers. You can see the multi-color window and the beautiful gingerbread detail.

One of the next renovations of the house will be for the exterior to be repainted. I am looking forward to see what it will look like.

The Cobden house sits behind the Wells Fargo building. In this picture you can see the back of both buildings. The front of the Wells Fargo building is very impressive. If you drive through Big Oak Flat the Wells Fargo building is hard to miss. It is the building with the large metal doors on the front.

In this picture the yard is pretty bare. After we finished inside I spent a lot of time hoeing, raking and transporting weeds and leaves to the dumpster. It was a morning of hard work.

For a few interior pictures see: Cobden House II

For more information you can visit the website of the Groveland Museum.

You may also enjoy a post that I wrote about the Yosemite Gateway Museum in Groveland.

I am sure that I will be sore tomorrow after my Six Mile Hike yesterday and helping with the clean-up day today.

Steven