BlockBefore
Photograph of Eugene O'Neill National Historic Site
Photograph by Unknown, Public domain. Via Wikimedia Commons.

Tao House

A National Historic Landmark. Built in 1976. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1971. 21 historic topographic surveys show this location, the earliest from 1897.

From the record

“The Eugene O'Neill National Historic Site, located in Danville, California, preserves Tao House, the Monterey Colonial hillside home of America's only Nobel Prize-winning playwright, Eugene O'Neill.”

Wikipedia article Eugene O'Neill National Historic Site, CC BY-SA 4.0.

One of 49 National Register listings published here for Contra Costa County · listed in 1971 · category: Building · built in 1976, by Frederick Leroy Confer · a National Historic Landmark.

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

The listing

  • Address. 1.5 mi. W of Danville, Danville, 94583
  • When was it listed? May 1971
  • Category. building
  • Census division. Central Contra Costa
  • When was it built? 1976
  • Architect. Frederick Leroy Confer
  • National Register reference number. 71000137 - 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 Tao House, surveyed 1995
Topographic sheet covering Tao House, surveyed 1897

Fires near this property

155 since 1992

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 155 fires within 5 miles of Tao House between 1992 and 2020, burning about 493 acres in total. 1 started naturally. 8 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/undetermined71
Equipment and vehicle use41
Misuse of fire by a minor10
Smoking10
Arson/incendiarism8
Debris and open burning7
Power generation/transmission/distribution6
Recreation and ceremony1
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
8 September 2012Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreSanta Clara UnitSAINT MARYS RD MORAGA
7 September 2020Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreSanta Clara Unitnot named
7 September 2016Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreCalifornia Department of Forestry & Fire Protectionnot named
6 September 2005Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreSanta Clara UnitALCO #10
5 September 2011Power generation/transmission/distribution9.0 acresSanta Clara UnitBOLLINGER
29 September 2019Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreSanta Clara Unitnot named
29 September 2011Smokingunder an acreSanta Clara Unitnot named
29 September 2005Smokingunder an acreCalifornia Department of Forestry & Fire Protectionnot named

Every fire recorded in Contra Costa County

Mines and quarries near this property

5 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 5 workings within 5 miles of Tao House: 3 occurrences, 2 past producers. None of them still produces. What was taken out: Stone, Crushed/Broken, Limestone, General, Limestone, Dimension, Copper. 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
Mclaughlin Lithograph-Stone QuarryLimestone, GeneralOccurrenceSedimentary
Mclaughlinlithograph-StonequarryLimestone, Dimension, Stone, Crushed/BrokenOccurrence
Mount ZionCopper, Gold, SilverPast Producer
BallStone, Crushed/BrokenOccurrence
BallStone, Crushed/BrokenPast Producer

Every working recorded in Contra Costa County

Storms near this property

3 since 2018

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Danville, the town this property stands in, in 3 storm reports between 2018 and 2024: 1 hail, 1 debris flow, 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
March 2024FloodDanville-Slow lane starting to collapse with a crack approximately 10 feet long at the offramp from southbound Interstate 680 to El Pintado Road.
January 2019Debris FlowDanville-Mud flow along hillside at Bollinger Canyon Rd just west of Bear Tree Road crossing westbound lanes.
March 2018HailDanville-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 middle of the area the National Park Service maps for this listing, 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
Eugene O'Neill National Historic Site0.2 miles1978
Danville Southern Pacific Railroad Depot1.7 miles1994
Robert Stanley Sr. Dollar House3.4 miles2013
Old Borges Ranch4.7 miles1981
Moraga Adobe6.9 miles1972
Shadelands Ranch House7.0 miles1985

Sources for this property

National Archives recordThe nomination case file for reference 71000137 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.