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| Landmark #626 | San Diego County | Visited: January 26, 2014 | Plaque? YES! 🙂 |
| What is it? | The still standing adobe home of the Porters and historian, Hubert Howe Bancroft! |
| What makes it historical? | THE GUIDE SAYS: Adobe built about 1863 by A. S. Ensworth. Home of Capt. Rufus K. Porter and family. Curved timbers brought from the Clarissa Andrews, famed coaling hulk formerly of the Pacific Mail Steamship Co. Historian Hubert Howe Bancroft later owned this estate and here wrote a part of his monumental History of California.
OTHER TIDBITS: This area has been an important place for millennia, owing to the freshwater spring for which Spring Valley takes its name! The Kumeyaay lived here originally in a place called Meti, until the missions were secularized and the rancheros kicked them out! Interestingly enough, Rufus K. Porter was the son of the founder of Scientific American and was so tickled pink by the discovery of a European snail on a nearby peak that he named both the peak and the local post office after it (Helix)! Then, when Hubert Bancroft moved in, he finished his days building Helix Farm! Must have been a slow process! |
| How can I Help the Helpers? | HERE’S HOW:
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| Where is this place? | LISTED DIRECTIONS: One block E of Memory and Bancroft Dr Spring Valley, CA 91977 ANNOTATIONS: From Los Angeles: ~128mi (206km) — 2.2hrs |
| When should I go? | The adobe is open Friday, Saturday, and Sunday from 1:00 PM until 4:00 PM! |
