Red Bluff

The town of Red Bluff has been around a while. Back in the days when steam boats went up and down the Sacramento River, well-to-do folks that lived in San Francisco wanted to move away from all that so they built lavish Victorian style homes in this area. I will post a few pictures of them, but first a little about the Down Town. One of the main commercial buildings in Red Bluff was the Cone-Kimball Building. It was built in 1886 and housed Zuckwilers department store. There was a clock tower on top of the building which brought a total height of 100 feet.



In 1984 the building burned to the ground. The town's prized icon was gone. The city fathers thought about the problem for a few years and in 2008 they put the finishing touches on a replica of the clock tower and placed it on the same corner lot where once stood the original tower. The new tower is only 75 feet tall but it sits on the ground and not on top a building. It has beautiful sounding chimes that sound on the hour.



Once again the cities icon can be seen from I-5 that is less then a mile away.



By far, the biggest attraction are the dozens and dozens of Victorian homes of all types. They are all privately owned and people are living in them. There is, however, on Victorian home that is now a museum. I went through it and found it interesting. Some take great pride in their homes and some have none, but the ones that do, display what these works of art looked like back when they were new buildings. Here are just a few that I photographed :









When I was taking a picture of the last picture above, the owner was outside and asked me, if I would like to take a look at his back yard? I said, "Sure would!" He took me all around his very well groomed yard. He had converted an old carriage house into a "potting shed" for his wife. He also added on the room over the porch. It looks like it was on the house originally.

Anyway, if you are the least bit interested in Victorian style homes, stop in Red Bluff and get a tour map then plan to spend a good deal of time feasting your eyes.