Ferndale Main Street Historic District

Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1994. 9 historic topographic surveys show this location, the earliest from 1916.

From the record

“A portion of the City of Ferndale (California) was designated a State Historic Landmark in 1975 by the California State Parks Office of Historic Preservation. Ferndale's Main Street Historic District was established in 1994 by the National Park Service and placed on the National Register of Historic Places.”
Wikipedia article Ferndale Main Street Historic District, CC BY-SA 4.0.

One of 52 National Register listings published here for Humboldt County · listed in 1994 · category: District.

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 39 buildingss, 1 object as contributing to the listing.
Address. 300--580 Main, 330 Ocean and 207--290 Francis Sts., Ferndale, 95536
When was it listed? January 1994
Category. district
Census division. Ferndale
National Register reference number. 93001461 - 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

1916 to 1987

The ground this property stands on, surveyed 71 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.

Topographic sheet covering Ferndale Main Street Historic District, surveyed 1987

Topographic sheet covering Ferndale Main Street Historic District, surveyed 1916

Fires near this property

65 since 1992

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 65 fires within 5 miles of Ferndale Main Street Historic District between 1992 and 2020, burning about 77 acres in total. 1 started naturally. 3 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	20
Equipment and vehicle use	20
Debris and open burning	14
Recreation and ceremony	3
Arson/incendiarism	3
Misuse of fire by a minor	2
Natural	1
Smoking	1
Power generation/transmission/distribution	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
27 September 2005	Equipment and vehicle use	1.0 acres	Humboldt-Del Norte Unit	FERNBRIDGE
27 September 1993	Equipment and vehicle use	under an acre	Humboldt-Del Norte Unit	CHRIS
26 September 2020	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Humboldt-Del Norte Unit	CARROLL RD LOLETA
26 September 2013	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	5.0 acres	Humboldt-Del Norte Unit	BEAR
20 September 2004	Debris and open burning	1.0 acres	Humboldt-Del Norte Unit	CLARK
12 September 1992	Equipment and vehicle use	1.5 acres	Humboldt-Del Norte Unit	SINGLEY
11 September 2020	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Humboldt-Del Norte Unit	LOLETA DR LOLETA
11 September 2019	Arson/incendiarism	under an acre	Humboldt-Del Norte Unit	CARROLL RD LOLETA

Every fire recorded in Humboldt County

Mines and quarries near this property

7 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 7 workings within 5 miles of Ferndale Main Street Historic District: 3 producers, 2 occurrences, 2 prospects. 3 still produce. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction, Volcanic Materials, Pumice. 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	Recorded
Unknown	Volcanic Materials	Occurrence
Unnamed Location	Pumice	Occurrence
Fernbridge Gravel Bar	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Producer
Mencer Fraser Co	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Prospect
Singley Bar Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Producer
Unnamed Location	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Prospect	Sedimentary
Worswick Gravel Bar	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Producer

Every working recorded in Humboldt County

Maps showing this location

9 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.

1916 USGS Cape Fortunas quadrangle1:62500
1943 USGS Ferndale quadrangle1:62500 - 2 printings
1949 USGS Eureka quadrangle1:250000 - 2 printings
1951 USGS Ferndale quadrangle1:62500 - 2 printings
1958 USGS Eureka quadrangle1:250000 - 2 printings
1959 USGS Ferndale quadrangle1:24000 - 3 printings
1959 USGS Ferndale quadrangle1:62500 - 2 printings
1961 USGS Eureka quadrangle1:250000 - 2 printings
1987 USGS Eureka quadrangle1:100000

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.

Property	Distance	Listed
A. Berding House	under 500 feet	1983
Rectory, Catholic Church of the Assumption	0.1 miles	1982
Shaw House	0.2 miles	1984
Ferndale Public Library	0.3 miles	1990
Alford-Nielson House	0.7 miles	1986
Andreasen, F. W.-John Rossen House	1.3 miles	1989

Sources for this property

National Archives record	The nomination case file for reference 93001461 in Record Group 79.
Wikipedia article	Community-written account of this property, licensed CC BY-SA.
Humboldt County	All 52 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.