The Great California Outdoors: The John Marsh House

The John Marsh Stone House**
Impressive abandoned stone house in the middle of nowhere

Located off of HWY4 immediately South of Brentwood, the John Marsh House is a sad empty building that was once one of the most important in the state of California.  It was the home of John Marsh, the first doctor in California and a pioneer known for this monumental mansion.


A Harvard graduate in 1823, Marsh studied medicine and opened the first school in Michigan Territory (Minnesota) before becoming an Indian Agent at Fort Snelling. He participated in the Black Hawk War, then fled to Illinois Territory with his wife and newborn son after controversies involving the conflict. After his wife died in childbirth, Marsh abandoned his son, became an Indian trader again, raised another scandal for selling weapons to them, and fled (again) to Missouri. After failing at business there in 1836 he took the Santa Fe Trail to California.

Marsh never completed his medical studies. However, he was the only person in Alta California with a medical education, and using his Harvard diploma as his "medical certificate", (the diploma was written in Latin which the officials could not read), Marsh was granted permission to practice. Apparently he was good at his practice, but demanded high prices for his skills.

With enemies now in the South, Marsh moved to Mission San Jose in 1838, purchasing Rancho Los Meganos. Again he prospered due to his high prices and apparently skinflint ways. As he helped the Bartleson-Bidwell Party upon their arrival in the region, the California Trail terminates at Brentwood.

In the mid-1850s, Marsh began building this massive Gothic Revival stone house, with 15 rooms and wrapping balconies. The house was likely for his new wife Alice, though she soon died in 1855. The John Marsh House was finally completed in 1856. John Marsh lived there for three weeks. While visiting Pacheco, he was ambushed and killed by three of his vaquero workers, apparently over a pay dispute.

According to local legend, soon before his father's death John Marsh's eldest son came to the door seeking shelter during a storm and had a joyous reunion with his father. Later he helped track down his father's murderers and brought them to justice.

Since then, the John Marsh Stone House has survived; apparently later tenants hated the condition of the home, the building was badly damaged by the 1868 and 1906 earthquakes, and vandalism peaked in the 1970s. Around 2000 the entire north wall collapsed. Emergency funding restored the building, keeping it in arrested decay. The John Marsh stone house is a state park, but remains closed to the public, perennially without funding to fully restore the building and open it.

The area remains almost as lonely as when John Marsh built his stone house from 150 years ago, but settlements seem to be rapidly encroaching from the North.