Oxnard Historic Farm Park makes national registry of significant sites

When the brick winery at the Oxnard Historic Farm Park was erected in 1869, the surrounding agricultural potential had just been realized.

The winery and the Gottfried Maulhardt Farmhouse — a Victorian home built the following year ― have since stood watch as fields of barley, lima beans and sugar beats slowly gave way to tract homes, roadways and public schools.

To help preserve a time when homesteads and farmland ruled the Oxnard Plain, the National Park Service added the site to its National Register of Historic Places last month.

Jeff Maulhardt, president and director of the Oxnard Historic Farm Park Foundation, said the nonprofit applied for the list in August 2022. During the application process, the foundation had to make a case for the park’s historical significance.

“I always thought we could qualify, but I wasn’t sure it it would ever happen,” Maulhardt said.

Recognized as the Gottfried Maulhardt Farm by the national register, the park traces its origins to 1867.

Gottfried Maulhardt and his wife Sophie had just arrived in California from Germany. They joined forces with Christian Borchard, who purchased 1,000 acres on the Oxnard Plain. Borchard would then plant the first commercial crops in the area in 1867, which Maulhardt helped harvest.

Then in 1869, Maulhardt began leasing land next to Borchard’s property from Juan Camarillo, Adolfo Camarillo’s father.

Because there wasn’t a lumberyard or wharf in the area yet, Maulhardt used his masonry skills to build a two-story brick home. The bricks came from a kiln operating near the Santa Clara River.

The residence would later become the farm park’s winery, which at one point supplied wine to El Rio’s Santa Clara Chapel.

Maulhardt built a Victorian-style home in 1870 when the first lumberyard opened in Port Hueneme.

Jeff Maulhardt, who is the great-great-great nephew of Gottfried Maulhardt, said the site was crucial to the development of the Oxnard Plain and ultimately led to the area’s booming sugar beet industry.

Doors opened

Being on the national registry allows the park to apply for more federal grants, Maulhardt said.

The nonprofit foundation is in the process of raising about $200,000 for the first of three phases of renovations. So far, the group has raised about half that amount.

The first phase will start restoring the farmhouse to its original glory by removing an addition to the structure and rebuilding the floor. The nonprofit will also reestablish the cottage’s wraparound porch.

The goal is to turn the location into an educational space that can host events in a historical atmosphere. Farm equipment and period pieces such as threshers are scattered throughout the grounds. The threshers were used to separate grain and seed crops from their chaff and straw.

Another boon from national register status is historic preservation.

Stephen Schafer, chair of the San Buenaventura Conservancy, said the list identifies places important to local cultural and collective memory and preserves them for future generations.

There are more than 20 other Ventura County landmarks on the list, including the Camarillo Ranch House and Olivas Adobe Historical Park.

The local conservancy will soon submit paperwork to apply for national register status for the site of Ventura’s former Washington School. The campus, which most recently housed Ventura County Christian School, was built in 1925 and represents the midtown Ventura boom of the 1920s and 1930s.

Schafer said it’s important for those seeking to honor and restore historical landmarks to press forward. It can be easy to let a building be demolished when it seems like nobody cares or if the project becomes too expensive, he said.

“Every building needs a hero,” Schafer said. “In this particular case, Jeff was that hero.”

The Oxnard Historic Farm Park can be rented on weekends for parties and events. For more information or to donate, contact Jeff Maulhardt at director@oxnardfarmpark.org or call 805-844-9877.

Brian J. Varela covers Oxnard, Port Hueneme and Camarillo. He can be reached at brian.varela@vcstar.com or 805-477-8014. You can also find him on Twitter @BrianVarela805.

This article originally appeared on Ventura County Star: Oxnard farm site makes National Register of Historic Places