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Overview

Built between around 1840, rancher Fulgencio Higuera erected this adobe residence on the site of his Rancho Agua Caliente in Fremont, CA. He obtained this property in 1839 from Antonio María Suñol (1797-1865).

Building History

Fulgencio Higuera (1799–1878) built seven adobe buildings on his ranch c. 1840, although only one, this house, has survived into the 21st century. On 04/17/1858, Higuera received a US court patent on the Mexican land grant that he had since 1839. This 1858 patent was for 9,563.87 acres of land.

Higuera sold off portions of this estate, beginning in 1850, when he sold 640 acres to French-born hotel owner and pioneer wine grower Clemente Fortune A. Colombet (1817-1885). Railroad mogul Leland Stanford (1824-1893) purchased Columbet’s failed Warm Springs Hotel and Winery in 1869, after it had been wrecked in the Earthquake of 10/21/1868, centered in the Hayward, CA, area.

English-born Thomas Wale Millard (1820-1916) also bought land from Higuera in 1855. On 07/01/1870, Millard farmed (and operated a vineyard) on his property in Washington Township (near the Harrisburgh post office) with his wife Caroline David (1839-1902), and their four children, his mother-in-law Jane David (born c. 1798 in Switzerland), and a domestic servant, Nicholas Spanona (born c. 1825 in Austria). The Millards owned $34,000 worth of land, and had a personal estate of $1,000 as noted by the US Census of 1870. (See Ancestry.com, Source Citation Year: 1870; Census Place: Washington, Alameda, California; Roll: M593_68; Page: 286B, accessed 07/08/2024.) Farmers in the immediate vicinity of Millard owned parcels ranging in value from about $1,500 to $50,000. Compared to the largest, neighboring landowners, Thomas Millard possessed the smallest amount of money in liquid, personal assets. Perhaps needing money, he sold some of his land in 1870 to a neighboring farmer, mining speculator and real estate dealer Edward Field Palmer (born c. 1845 in MA), but remained farming in Washington Township in 1880 and 1900. (See Ancestry.com, Source Citation Year: 1880; Census Place: Oakland, Alameda, California; Roll: 62; Page: 529b; Enumeration District: 025, accessed 07/08/2024 and Ancestry.com, Source Citation Year: 1900; Census Place: Washington, Alameda, California; Roll: 83; Page: 17; Enumeration District: 0404, accessed 07/08/2024.)

Building Notes

The Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS) documented the Abelardo Higuera Adobe c. 1940: HABS CA-1665. HABS CAL, 1-WARM, 2 ph. The Higuera Adobe was rebuilt after World War II.

PCAD id: 3721