Stow House

Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2000. 11 historic topographic surveys show this location, the earliest from 1942.

From the record

“The Stow House is a U.S. historical landmark in Goleta, California, United States. Formerly the headquarters of Rancho La Patera, the Stow House, in the Carpenter Gothic style, is now the headquarters of Goleta Historical Society which preserves and interprets the history of the Goleta Valley.”
Wikipedia article Stow House, CC BY-SA 4.0.

One of 38 National Register listings published here for Santa Barbara County · listed in 2000 · category: Building.

Sources: the Wikipedia article · the case file at the National Archives · the National Register database, National Park Service

The listing

What is counted as historic. The nomination lists 1 building as contributing to the listing.
Address. 304 N. Los Carneros Rd., Goleta, 93117
When was it listed? September 2000
Category. building
Census division. Santa Barbara
National Register reference number. 00001166 - the number the National Park Service assigned this property when it was listed, and the key its nomination file is catalogued under at the National Archives.

Then and now

1942 to 1995

The ground this property stands on, surveyed 53 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.

Topographic sheet covering Stow House, surveyed 1995

Topographic sheet covering Stow House, surveyed 1942

Fires near this property

102 since 1992

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 102 fires within 5 miles of Stow House between 1992 and 2020, burning about 14,859 acres in total. None started naturally. 2 were recorded as arson. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a fire counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Reported cause	Fires
Missing data/not specified/undetermined	58
Equipment and vehicle use	26
Power generation/transmission/distribution	6
Debris and open burning	5
Recreation and ceremony	3
Arson/incendiarism	2
Fireworks	1
Other causes	1

The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.

Date	Cause	Size	Reported by	Name on the report
8 September 2011	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	2.0 acres	Santa Barbara County Fire Department	not named
6 September 2011	Equipment and vehicle use	under an acre	Los Padres National Forest	GAP
30 September 2017	Power generation/transmission/distribution	under an acre	Los Padres National Forest	TROUT
29 September 2001	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Los Padres National Forest	PEDRO
28 September 2019	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Los Padres National Forest	WINDY
25 September 2017	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	2,000 acres	California Department of Forestry & Fire Protection	not named
22 September 2013	Equipment and vehicle use	under an acre	Los Padres National Forest	VAN
12 September 2007	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	1.0 acres	California Department of Forestry & Fire Protection	not named

Every fire recorded in Santa Barbara County

Mines and quarries near this property

3 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 3 workings within 5 miles of Stow House: 2 past producers, 1 producer. 1 still produces. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction, Stone, Dimension. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Site	Commodity	Status
San Marcos Pass Quarry	Stone, Dimension	Past Producer
Ellwood Ranch Quarry	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Producer
Santa Barbara Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer

Every working recorded in Santa Barbara County

Storms near this property

7 since 1998

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Goleta, the town this property stands in, in 7 storm reports between 1998 and 2026: 3 flash flood, 2 flood, 2 debris flow. The reports record 1 death. Each account below is quoted exactly as the forecast office filed it, from the NOAA Storm Events Database, and each date opens the federal record of that event.

When	Event	Place named	Harm	What the report says
January 2026	Flash Flood	Goleta	1 killed	Heavy rainfall generated flash flooding from Maria Ygnacio Creek. One man was swept down the creek and drowned. His body was found in the creek near the intersection of San Marcos Road and Via Parva.
February 2024	Debris Flow	Goleta	-	Heavy rainfall resulted in a mudslide across Turnpike Road near Cathedral Oaks Road.
March 2024	Debris Flow	Goleta	-	California Highway Patrol reported a large boulder across Highway 154 near Painted Cave Road.
January 2023	Flash Flood	Goleta	-	Heavy rainfall produced flash flooding along Highway 46 near Painted Cave Road. The flash flooding resulted in a mudslide across the roadway.
January 2001	Flood	Goleta	-	no account filed
February 2000	Flash Flood	Goleta	-	no account filed
March 1998	Flood	Goleta	-	no account filed

Every storm recorded in Santa Barbara County

Maps showing this location

11 surveys

United States Geological Survey topographic sheets whose coverage includes this point. Matched by taking the coordinate the National Park Service records for this property, then testing that coordinate against the published boundary of every sheet.

1942 USGS Goleta quadrangle1:62500
1949 USGS Los Angeles quadrangle1:250000 - 2 printings
1950 USGS Goleta quadrangle1:24000 - 6 printings
1951 USGS Goleta quadrangle1:24000
1955 USGS Los Angeles quadrangle1:250000
1959 USGS Los Angeles quadrangle1:250000 - 3 printings
1966 USGS Los Angeles quadrangle1:250000
1975 USGS Los Angeles quadrangle1:250000 - 2 printings
1976 USGS Goleta quadrangle1:24000
1982 USGS Santa Barbara quadrangle1:100000 - 3 printings
1995 USGS Goleta quadrangle1:24000

Listed places nearby

4 within 8 miles

Other National Register properties close enough to walk or drive between, ordered by distance from this one. Both positions come from the same geocoding pass that matched these properties to their map sheets.

Property	Distance	Listed
Goleta Depot	under 500 feet	2002
Joseph and Lucy Foster Sexton House	2.1 miles	1992
Thomas Hope House	4.6 miles	1978
Santa Barbara Mission	7.9 miles	1966

Sources for this property

National Archives record	The nomination case file for reference 00001166 in Record Group 79.
Wikipedia article	Community-written account of this property, licensed CC BY-SA.
Santa Barbara County	All 38 listed properties in this county.

Provenance

Listing record. National Park Service National Register of Historic Places, listed-properties dataset, current to 2026-05-22.
Map join. Address geocoded through the United States Census geocoder, then tested against the published boundary of every sheet in the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection.
How this page is made. Listing fields come from federal records; map-sheet coverage is a labelled coordinate-to-boundary calculation, not a source-field claim.
Wildfire. Short, Karen C. 2022. Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 [FPA_FOD_20221014]. 6th Edition. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.6 Collected with United States Government funding and usable without additional permissions or fees.
Mines and quarries. USGS Mineral Resources Data System (MRDS) https://mrdata.usgs.gov/mrds/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.
Storms. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/stormevents/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105. Narratives are quoted verbatim from the National Weather Service report and are not edited or summarised.