Widow Smith's Station
Widow Smith's Station, also known as Gordon's and Clayton's. was a stagecoach station of the Butterfield Overland Mail from 1858 to 1861. It was located about a mile south of what is now Green Valley, California at 38839 San Francisquito Canyon Road.[1]
The station was in existence by the summer of 1856, when Harris Newmark says he stayed at Gordon's Station overnight when returning to Los Angeles from a business meeting at Fort Tejon.[2] In October 1860, a correspondent of the Daily Alta California wrote an account of his travel by stage to Los Angeles from San Francisco. He mentions that the Butterfield Overland Mail had a Clayton's Station operating at the former location of Widow Smith's Station.[3] After 1861 the station was used by other long haul stagecoach lines until the advent of the railroad ended them.
Historic American Buildings Survey and Fate Of The Site
In 1929, a photograph and reference to the station were included in an article titled "In Pursuit of Vanished Days" by Marion Parks, published by the Historical Society of Southern California. In 1936 and 1937, Gordon's Station, unoccupied, neglected and being used for storage of grain and farm products, was photographed and surveyed by the Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS). Detailed drawings of the site, floor plan and north, south, east and west elevations were made. Construction of the building dating from 1859, is described in the floor plan:
- "Foundations are of field stone laid in adobe mortar. Walls are adobe with some field stone mixed in. Walls plastered inside and out with a plastic adobe mixed with sand. Front or south gable wall over porch, lime plastered. All other outside walls heavily whitewashed. Walls of rooms No. 1-3-4 whitewashed, walls of Room 2 papered. Ceilings and roof projections whitewashed. Doors sash and trim painted slate gray. Floors, including porch, are 1"x 6" matched pine flooring laid on 2"x4"s flat on ground. Roof framing has not the appearance of being original material. Roofing is of redwood shakes recovered in 1933."[4]
The station building remained into the 1960s. It was torn down by 1966.[5]
References
- ^ Mildred Brooke Hoover, Hero Eugene Rensch, Ethel Grace Rensch, 3rd Edition revised by William N. Abeloe, Historic Spots in California, 3rd Ed., Stanford University Press, Stanford, 1966, p.168
- ^ Harris Newmark, "Sixty Years in Southern California, 1853-1913", The Knickerbocker Press, New York, 1916, p. 195
- ^ Notes of a Trip to Los Angeles No. 1, Daily Alta California, Volume 12, Number 3888, 5 October 1860 — Page 1
- ^ Major Gordon's Station, San Francisquito Canyon; 1936 Photos and HABS Renderings, from www.scvhistory.com
- ^ Mildred Brooke Hoover, Hero Eugene Rensch, Ethel Grace Rensch, 3rd Edition revised by William N. Abeloe, Historic Spots in California, 3rd Ed., Stanford University Press, Stanford, 1966, p.168
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