What does one do with a homeless home? Still up on wheels after
three years and marking time on Fourth Street in downtown Morgan
Hill is an old farmhouse moved to make room for a Butterfield Road
extension.
What does one do with a homeless home? Still up on wheels after three years and marking time on Fourth Street in downtown Morgan Hill is an old farmhouse moved to make room for a Butterfield Road extension.
Once owned by the Actons, an old-time Morgan Hill farming family, the little house on East Dunne Avenue had been boarded up and slated for demolition in November 1999.
However, just before the wrecking ball arrived, a good citizen from Gilroy insisted that the house had historical value and may, indeed, have been owned by Morgan Hill heroine Isola Kennedy. As happens in these cases, the good citizen called the press who called the Morgan Hill Historical Society who called the city which restrained the wreckers. The house was moved to Fourth Street instead, where it awaits its fate.
Isola Kennedy, in 1909, had taken her Sunday school class on a picnic in the hills near town. When a child was attacked by a mountain lion, Isola fought it off with her hat pin.
Unfortunately, even though she rescued the child from the lion, it was probably rabid and both Kennedy and the child died of the disease. If the house had belonged to her, it would truly have been a valuable item. However, Kennedy actually lived in a similar house just east of where the Acton house was located.
It turns out that the little farmhouse does have a home to go to, on the Villa Mira Monte property at 17860 Monterey but cannot be moved until the site is prepared.
Villa Mira Monte, more commonly known as the Old Morgan Hill House, was built in 1884 by Hiram Morgan Hill and his wife, Diana Murphy Hill. That house, renovated from 1993 to 1998 by the Morgan Hill Historical Society sits on three acres and has lots of room for company.
Inside, the little Acton house is standard farmhouse of the period. A living room, dining room, bath, kitchen and bedroom are downstairs and two more bedrooms upstairs. Virginia Acton, who lived in the house in the 1960s with her husband Al, said that it took her quite a while to discover that there was an attic because the door was concealed behind a dresser. The Acton family sold the house in the early 1970s.
Joining the little house and Villa Mira Monte will be the Old Acton House, better known as the Historical Museum, now located on West Main, behind the library. To make room for a possible new library – or possibly a park – on the corner of Main and DeWitt, the city plans to move this building which now occupies part of that land.
Before either building can be shifted to a new location, expansion plans for the office building just south of the property must be settled. The issue is now before the Planning Commission. While the city and the Historical Society have talked about moving the museum for several years, something is now likely to happen on the site before the end of 2004 or later.
The old farmhouse will begin a new life, when settled on its new foundation and refurbished, as the Historical Society gift shop.
The 17860 Monterey location will eventually hold the town’s signature house – Villa Mira Monte – the historical museum, the old farmhouse and a landscaped area in back ideal for weddings, receptions and parties. The Society plans for the site to be an historical site for historical events.
The original John Acton family arrived in Morgan Hill in 1910 from Minnesota with his family early the year before. In 1911 John built a larger farmhouse on Warren Avenue at a cost of $2,700, a reasonable amount of money for the time.
After John and his wife, Charlotte, died in 1955 and 1956 respectively, their daughter, Halcyon inherited the larger house. It left Acton family ownership in 1958 or 1959.
Chris and Ida Williams (of Ida’s Restaurant), donated the house to the City of Morgan Hill in 1980 to provide space for a historical museum. The building was moved to its present site on West Main Avenue behind the library in 1983 and refurbished inside and out, upstairs and down. Until recently an apartment upstairs was rented.
Norma Edes Link (Edes is another old Morgan Hill name) was the first executive director of the Morgan Hill Museum Foundation. It was this foundation that secured funds, volunteers and donated services from local businesses to pay for the move and to rehabilitate the house. Since then, the Morgan Hill Historical Society has installed and operated the museum visited by countless third graders studying local history.
Both Villa Mira Monte and the Acton House Historical Museum are open for tours; Villa Mira Monte is available for event rentals, www.mhhistoric.org. Call the Historic Society at 782-7191 or 779-5755.
