Main Street Historic District

A mile-long stretch of Victorian commercial architecture in such good condition that the whole district is designated a California State Historic Landmark. The main street is lined with ornate storefronts dating from the 1870s through the 1910s: Eastlake-style brick commercial buildings, wooden false fronts, elaborate cornices, and carved wooden details that speak to the wealth generated by Humboldt County's dairy industry in its prime.

The buildings are still in everyday use — galleries, antique shops, bakeries, and restaurants occupy the ground floors, and many of the upper floors remain residential. The effect is of a Victorian town that simply never stopped being Victorian. Walking the length of the main street takes about 20 minutes, though stopping to look properly at the architectural details, peer into shops, and take photographs adds considerably to the time. The best light for photography is morning, when the sun is at a low angle and picks out the texture of the painted woodwork.

things to do sight architecture
A story
Ferndale's Victorian buildings survived largely intact for a simple economic reason: the town was too prosperous to need replacement in the early twentieth century, and then too poor to afford it. The dairy farmers who built the grand houses and commercial blocks in the 1880s and 1890s left behind a freeze-frame of late Victorian California that no subsequent generation had the money or the inclination to tear down.