Hobart Galleries
| The History of Hobart Galleries and its historic building at 393 Main Street, Ferndale, California | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Includes Many Incredible Events... |
 Kinetic Sculpture Race |
Virtual Gallery |
1906 Earthquake |
"OKIE BAROQUE"Dictated by Hobart Brown in 2002; some things have changed.The house is an old Victorian-era hotel that was built in 1877. It was a station where the stagecoach that traveled from Eureka to Willits used to stop to load and unload passengers. The stage was famous for being robbed at various times by Black Bart, an infamous bandit. The upstairs was used for gambling and prostitution with a few rooms to rent as a hotel. When you rented a room you got a doorknob with a key on it which gave you access to your closet and your bedroom. They are on opposite sides of the hall. The rooms were small and steeped with drama. (They were called the "good old days.") The downstairs was a saloon and also had gambling. I like to think that if they were married, they went downstairs. If they were married, they went upstairs. On a cold night, seeking comfort, you could go upstairs if the candles were not burning. I bought the house in 1964 because I could use it for a house and an art gallery. Not having any idea that the upstairs would become a museum and artists studio. My choice was between one or two buildings. While we were deciding, the city put up a sign in front that said "Brown Street." I felt right at home and we bought this building for $10,000. We only owe $45,000 on it now. I have lived here since 1965 and raised two children, lost one wife, had parties of great renown for Halloween, baronial feasts, Baccanalian festivals, and more. We've renovated twice. First when we moved in and again after the infamous Ferndale earthquake of April 1992 at which time the building did the fandango and the front windows popped out. We boarded them up, wrote "We were going to renovate anyway" on one side and "Kitty Come Home" on the other. I tried selling pieces of the broken front concrete for 10 cents apiece. It was a failure. I constantly change and improve my space incrementally. Having secret rooms it is possible to have guests for a week or two and never see them. At one time, jokingly we were going to rent out the building and live in the secret rooms. One of the secret rooms had burlap bags for some unknown purpose and seeing this, we developed entrances to and improved on the secret rooms. At one time you had to go into a secret room to get into a secret room. We use as much of the things that were here. For instance, the dining room table was the dice table. The brace holding up the sink is a black jack table and the fence around my studio was the fence that actually walled the tourists off from the gamblers. I found a sign that was very interesting. It was a cure for Gleet "no matter how serious or how longstanding... when all other medicines have failed." It got my attention because the last thing I ever wanted was Gleet. Because of its reputation, we found phone numbers you could call hidden in the wall spaces in case of emergency. They were hidden in a small bullet-like thing that unscrewed by one of the old timers here. When I showed it to his grand-daughter, I realized she should have it because it was in his handwriting. So I gave it to her. The medication sign was found between the walls of the toilet and the outer wall and I glued it to a table which is still here. I love the history of this town and whenever possible I would either show historical objects in the building. This building was immortalized by an artist who made a model of it with its furnishings. Marty Connick's model is now in the Ferndale Historical Museum. At one time we had a miniatures show in the miniature gallery that Marty made in the middle of our own gallery on the first floor of the house. The real gallery has been used for many events: weddings, parties, dinners, funerals, political meetings, planning sessions for the Kinetic Sculpture Race and many other events. Ferndale was founded 150 years ago this year and has more than 100 buildings over 100 years in age. The old Catholic rectory building which we helped move and restore was the first one on the National Historic Register, now there are several others. My friend, Viola McBride was one of the first to see that this town needed life if it was to avoid becoming a string of cheap houses and parking lots. My house is built of laminated 4x6 clear grain redwood timber. Because it was so thickly built, we have actually fired guns inside the house. One wonders if this was the intent of the original builders who were planning for rambunctious 19th Century gamblers and their fancy friends. Over the thick outer walls is thin lattice and where the earthquake didn't knock it down is the original plaster. On this we have added illustrations, posters and art objects collected over the past 50 years. Having been a decorator in Beverly Hills, I felt decorating for myself was easy. Many of the photos in the house are of previous events here and in Humboldt County. Whenever a piece of history or Victoriana arrived or was found in the house, I avoided moving it. The main large room which is 26 by 30 feet was fairly easy, we added everything that is in it. The four huge doors hanging from the ceiling as a room divider were from the front of the building. The shields on the back were made as a commission; when the first set were hanging up to dry, I liked them so much I made a set for myself. The bar from downstairs was brought upstairs. We use it for a breakfast table. The local townspeople would frequently tell me points of interest about the building, so I learned its history from these old timers. They were here and using the building for its original purpose. There's still an overhead tank, pullchain toilet with lead pipe that we use in our water closet. There's also a three-cornered sink and a bathtub. There were two sinks in the hotel room for the ladies. One set of plumbing we converted into a hookup for the bathtub and now use the room as a bathroom. We walled off the other sink and don't use it. We still heat with woodstoves as the building was always heated before. Besides the gambling, saloon and working girls, the building has also belonged to the Bartletts and the Browns. It was used as a dentist's office, barber shop, attorney's office, stage stop and a city meeting hall. More information and old pictures of my building and most of the buildings in Ferndale can be found at the Ferndale Historical Museum, just down Main Street and off on Shaw. We have pictures of the house when it survived the damages of the earthquake that ruined San Francisco in 1906. The grocery store was totally destroyed and many of the buildings sustained major damage. The photos are stuck in the top of the breakfast table which was the bar. The history we added to the building is laminated onto the coffee table. There's pictures of inventions, parties, the children, past wives and girlfriends. We have thousands of great stories from its early days. My favorite about the house was the Indian and the white guy having a fight in the bar downstairs. The Indian got his thumb stuck in the white guy's mouth and they both had to go to the hospital. It was poetic justice. Two guys wanting to hurt each other had to go to the hospital just to get along. After we got the house, there have been literally thousands of good times and great stories. Incidentally my sculpture is in the gallery downstairs, but several pieces are upstairs including a model of the stage coach which used to stop outside. It has six horses, a driver and a shotgun man, and two passengers. It sold to one of my collectors, Tom Slack, for several thousand dollars and he allowed us to keep it on display here. I love to show little projects like an electronic Jacob's ladder, various cultures growing in jars. My spice rack is entirely mislabled. We have eye of newt, sparrow warts and thin air instead of coriander, coffee and nothing. We have a butter churn I used when I was a kid in the 1930s in Oklahoma, a German helmet with two bullet holes in it from WWII which I found in the Black Forest when I was stationed in Germany. We also have lots of mystic books and illustrated books as well as thousands of photographs in albums. The hall is lined with stands holding costumes from past parties and events as well as paintings, art work and memorabilia from the past 40 years. Our cat, Gasket, has one of the front windows entirely to herself. She claimed the window as her own after a series of territorial disputes. She now has the window as her bedroom with a stuffed "mouse-head" and framed "family photos." Her bedroom has a copper-bed with glass doorknob toppers; much like the glorious beds of the olden days. It's finally a real "cat-house." | |||
Visit or Contact Hobart Galleries
|
Google Map | Hobart Galleries Home Page 393 Main Street Ferndale, CA 95536 707-786-9259 Updated: |