Our own Spreckles Farmhouse at Monterey County Agricultural and Rural Life Museum is an attraction everyone must see. Coming from a quaint town that is famous for the largest sugar beet factory in the world in 1899, the small house now resides in King City California at the San Lorenzo Park. The blue house with white trim has a long past. Let’s talk about it.
Spreckles is located between Monterey and Salinas, California. It was originally built to support the sugar beet factory during 1897. Before the house was brought to King City, California, it originally was placed on a mud sill foundation close to the sugar beet factory in Spreckles, California. During the growth of sugar beets, workers would move to Spreckles to help grow and produce sugar beets. Claus Spreckles owned the factory and later became one of the richest people in history alongside Bill Gates. His profit came from the Sugar Spreckles Company, Hence the Last name.
The quaint 24' X 26' house was brought to us in 1980, coming from Spreckels Sugar Company's Ranch Number One. The house was built in 1897, when the sugar beet factory was built. The house consists of 2 bedrooms, one bathroom, one kitchen and one living room. The ‘bathroom’ isn't the traditional type of bathroom, for it only has a bathtub instead and a bucket for a sink. The bathroom was called an outhouse, which was a separate room from the house itself. Back then the cost of the house was $1,960 which would now cost $72,436.40.
Though the house has been modified and renovated through many generous donations, it is still the original layout of the types of houses that were built. There were four types of houses built in Spreckles, the farmhouse being one of them. The house represents the typical style and feel of a late 1800’s home. With certain artifacts and clothing items, the house takes us back in time to those before us.
