Ferndale, CA

From the Top of the Christmas Tree - Main Street, Ferndale

Ferndale, California is a beautiful 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 welcoming from the moment you hit Main Street. The people are friendly and the flowers bloom with great profusion. If you’ve never seen fushia trees, I suggest a visit to Ferndale. When it’s blooming, Ferndale is one of the prettiest places a person can be. Folks here care a lot about their pretty town and go out of their way to keep it that way.

Ferndale’s concentration of grand Victorians, so many of them restored to their original colorful grandeur, were built by prosperous Danish dairy farmers who settled this rich bottomland in the nineteenth century. The farms remain prosperous, but today, it’s the thousands of tourists who visit the town each year who have helped spur the restoration of the elegant 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 the booming little berg that it is. Without the cows, it just wouldn’t be Ferndale!

Come visit! Bring your camera and be prepared to have a grand and glorious day. It will be fun and friendly. You’ll be sorry to leave, and as you drive across the bridge towards the highway, you’ll know you want to come back.

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Photo by Tom Ford