Ferndale, CA

Ferndale, California is a Victorian village set off the highway and off the beaten path. In other words, you have to come here on purpose!

Filled with old Victorian homes and store fronts, the town is lovely from the moment you hit Main Street. The flowers bloom with great profusion. If you’ve never seen fuchsia trees, I suggest a visit to Ferndale. When it’s blooming, Ferndale is a very pretty place indeed.

Ferndale’s concentration of old Victorians, so many of them restored to their original grandeur, were built by prosperous Danish dairy farmers who settled this rich bottom land in the nineteenth century. The farms are mostly gone, and today, it’s the tourists who visit the town each year who have helped spur the restoration of these old homes, which originally were referred to as “butterfat palaces.”

Ferndale is also a cow town. There’s a bumper sticker you can get to declare it proudly as you drive down the road. Without the cows, Ferndale would not be what it is. Without the cows, it just wouldn’t be Ferndale!

Photo by Tom Ford