Now THIS place was cool. It's technically a museum, but really it's just the house in which Cabot Yerxe lived. He also built it! For a little background, I am copying info from the museum's site:
Cabot began construction on his pueblo-style home in 1939 and worked on it until his death in 1965 at the age of 81. The Pueblo was abandoned after Cabot’s death.
Another cool fact is that when Cabot settled in CA in 1913, he had to travel 14 miles every few days on his donkey to get water. As the saying goes, "necessity is the mother of invention." Who wants to ride a donkey for 14 miles in 120 degree weather?? Not me! And not Cabot. That's why he figured he would dig his own well. He did this with a pick and shovel and discovered the hot mineral waters of Desert Springs. Since this worked out so well, he decided to dig another whole nearby. At the bottom of his second hole, he found cold water! This prompted him to name the area Miracle Hill, which is still its name today. (Turns out, the reason for the temperature difference, was that each well happened to be on opposite sides of the San Andreas Fault. COOL!
Unfortunately, we weren't allowed to take pics inside. But basically, the downstairs had a kitchen, which reminded me of abuela's, a teeny dining room and Cabot's "bedroom" which was a hole in the wall, next to the fireplace (for heat) that was the size of a twin bed. And the bed took up the whole room. I loved it. It was like a little secret cubby! The kitchen was cool too. He would make small holes in the stone wall, place his valuables in there and put furniture in front. Now the upstairs, was his wife's personal apartment. I wish you guys could see the difference. Her part of the house was probably the definition of luxury for back then. She had a big bathroom, much nicer kitchen, a sitting room, a bedroom, a study and an outside porch area, which you can see below.
Cabot began construction on his pueblo-style home in 1939 and worked on it until his death in 1965 at the age of 81. The Pueblo was abandoned after Cabot’s death.
Another cool fact is that when Cabot settled in CA in 1913, he had to travel 14 miles every few days on his donkey to get water. As the saying goes, "necessity is the mother of invention." Who wants to ride a donkey for 14 miles in 120 degree weather?? Not me! And not Cabot. That's why he figured he would dig his own well. He did this with a pick and shovel and discovered the hot mineral waters of Desert Springs. Since this worked out so well, he decided to dig another whole nearby. At the bottom of his second hole, he found cold water! This prompted him to name the area Miracle Hill, which is still its name today. (Turns out, the reason for the temperature difference, was that each well happened to be on opposite sides of the San Andreas Fault. COOL!
Unfortunately, we weren't allowed to take pics inside. But basically, the downstairs had a kitchen, which reminded me of abuela's, a teeny dining room and Cabot's "bedroom" which was a hole in the wall, next to the fireplace (for heat) that was the size of a twin bed. And the bed took up the whole room. I loved it. It was like a little secret cubby! The kitchen was cool too. He would make small holes in the stone wall, place his valuables in there and put furniture in front. Now the upstairs, was his wife's personal apartment. I wish you guys could see the difference. Her part of the house was probably the definition of luxury for back then. She had a big bathroom, much nicer kitchen, a sitting room, a bedroom, a study and an outside porch area, which you can see below.
Old school security system:
And Shawn wanted me to put this up. He calls it one of the first direct response ads :) Have to zoom in to read it...not sure how you do that.
This place looks fascinating! What a curious-looking house. I had never heard of this man. Thank you for sending some pertinent info on him. The business about the H2O on either side of the fault line is so interesting. People were very resourceful back then because they had no choice. I am loving the blog so far!
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