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Photograph of John Muir National Historic Site
Photograph by NPS, Public domain. Via Wikimedia Commons.

John Muir National Historic Site

A National Historic Landmark. Built in 1964. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1966. 21 historic topographic surveys show this location, the earliest from 1897.

From the record

“The John Muir National Historic Site is located in the San Francisco Bay Area, in Martinez, Contra Costa County, California. It preserves the 14-room Italianate Victorian mansion where the naturalist and writer John Muir lived, as well as a nearby 325-acre tract of native oak woodlands and grasslands historically owned by the Muir family.”

Wikipedia article John Muir National Historic Site, CC BY-SA 4.0.

One of 49 National Register listings published here for Contra Costa County · listed in 1966 · category: Building · built in 1964 · a National Historic Landmark.

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

The listing

  • National Historic Landmark. The highest federal designation, held by about 2,600 places in the country against roughly 100,000 Register listings.
  • What is counted as historic. The nomination lists 3 buildingss, 1 site, 1 structure as contributing to the listing.
  • Still standing. The Park Service records this property as extant.
  • Address. 4202 Alhambra Ave., Martinez, 94553
  • When was it listed? October 1966
  • Category. building
  • Census division. Central Contra Costa
  • When was it built? 1964
  • National Register reference number. 66000083 - 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

1897 to 1995

The ground this property stands on, surveyed 98 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.

Topographic sheet covering John Muir National Historic Site, surveyed 1995
Topographic sheet covering John Muir National Historic Site, surveyed 1897

Fires near this property

424 since 1992

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 424 fires within 5 miles of John Muir National Historic Site between 1992 and 2020, burning about 1,919 acres in total. 1 started naturally. 70 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/undetermined174
Equipment and vehicle use73
Arson/incendiarism70
Smoking47
Misuse of fire by a minor35
Debris and open burning13
Power generation/transmission/distribution5
Recreation and ceremony3
Railroad operations and maintenance3
Natural1

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

DateCause SizeReported by Name on the report
9 September 2015Power generation/transmission/distributionunder an acreSanta Clara UnitALHAMBRA VALLEY RD BRION
9 September 2003Equipment and vehicle useunder an acreSanta Clara UnitFOUR
7 September 2011Misuse of fire by a minorunder an acreSanta Clara Unitnot named
7 September 2010Smokingunder an acreCalifornia Department of Forestry & Fire Protectionnot named
7 September 2006Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreCalifornia Department of Forestry & Fire Protectionnot named
6 September 2019Missing data/not specified/undetermined1.3 acresSanta Clara Unitnot named
6 September 2015Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreSanta Clara UnitBEAR
6 September 2011Power generation/transmission/distribution18 acresSanta Clara UnitBRICKYARD

Every fire recorded in Contra Costa County

Mines and quarries near this property

10 of 12 shown

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 12 workings within 5 miles of John Muir National Historic Site: 6 occurrences, 2 prospects, 2 past producers, 2 producers. 2 still produce. What was taken out: Stone, Stone, Dimension, Stone, Crushed/Broken, Clay. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Where SiteCommodity StatusRecorded
Unnamed LocationClayOccurrence
Main Mine & MillStone, Crushed/BrokenProducer
MartinezStone, DimensionOccurrence
McnearsStone, DimensionOccurrence
Port Costa Shale QuarrysStone, Crushed/BrokenProducer
ChristenStoneOccurrence
ChristenStoneProspect
MartinezStonePast Producer
McnearsStonePast Producer
Port Costa Clay Products Co.StoneOccurrence

Every working recorded in Contra Costa County

Storms near this property

2 since 2018

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Martinez, the town this property stands in, in 2 storm reports between 2018 and 2020: 1 hail, 1 flood. No death or injury is recorded in these reports. 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.

WhenEvent Place namedHarm What the report says
January 2020FloodMartinez-Roadway flooding at SR-4 W and Alhambra Ave off ramp. Flooding across entire slow lane.
March 2018HailMartinez-no account filed

Every storm recorded in Contra Costa County

Maps showing this location

21 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.

Listed places nearby

6 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.

Photograph PropertyDistance Listed
Port Chicago Naval Magazine National Memorialunder 500 feet2009
Martinez Grammar School Annex1.6 miles2018
Tucker House1.7 miles1999
Martinez City Library1.8 miles2008
Contra Costa County Hall of Records1.9 miles1991
Borland House1.9 miles2015

Sources for this property

National Archives recordThe nomination case file for reference 66000083 in Record Group 79.
Wikipedia articleCommunity-written account of this property, licensed CC BY-SA.
Contra Costa CountyAll 49 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.