Heritage House Museum & Exhibitions

Local history has an important role at the Arboretum. An appreciation of the past illuminates our present. Heritage House opened to the public at the current location in 1976. It has been an integral part of the arboretum and campus life since first arriving.

The Clark home circa 1905.

This charming cottage offers a sense of what life was like in Fullerton more than 100 years ago. Dr. George Crook Clark, one of Fullerton’s pioneer doctors, built the house in 1894, the year he and Edith Johnston were wed. It housed Clark, his family and his medical office for about ten years. The restored house serves as a museum of family life and medical practice in the 1890s.

The redwood and fir structure are an excellent example of Eastlake-Victorian-style architecture, prevalent in Orange County during the late 1800s. The structural elements of the building's ornamentation and scale are balanced in pleasing proportions.

The yard surrounding the house includes an 1880s outhouse, a pump house circa 1895 and a windmill. The wisteria-covered arbor is an oversized version of an 1880’s arbor on the grounds of Edith Johnston Clark's family home in Norwalk. Similarly, the gardens and orchards surrounding Heritage House are planted in a manner typical of the late 19th century Orange County.

Heritage House was originally located at the corner of Amerige and Harvard (now Lemon) in Fullerton. Though the house was originally built for the Clark family, it had several owners over the years. The house had fallen into disrepair and was in danger of demolition due to a street-widening project. A band of community members headed by Jorice Maag and Molly McClanahan devised a plan to save the historic structure.  The North Orange County Board of Realtors (NOCBR) helped to broker the deal between Cal State Fullerton and the City of Fullerton, to bring the house to campus with the primary goal of restoring it as an historic house and museum. The City of Fullerton funded the move, while the NOCBR helped with renovation costs.

In December 1972, a midnight, cross-town move brought the house to the Arboretum. Diane Swenson of the Board of Realtors coordinated the structural restoration of the newly christened Heritage House. Contributions came from the Realtors, the Associated Students of Cal State Fullerton, the City of Fullerton and private citizens, including the family of Fullerton's first mayor, C.C. Chapman.

Fullerton College instructor Robert McCormick worked on the restoration with students from his construction classes, with advice from architect H.H. Kohlenberger. Landscape architect Myrt Purkiss designed the landscaping for the area surrounding the house to correspond to its original plantings. The fence was created from pickets painted by Fullerton area school children.

The Friends of Fullerton Arboretum restored and furnished the interior of the house. Joanne Woodard and Jorice Maag coordinated this effort with an interior design committee. The house displays some original furnishings and memorabilia from the Clark family. Other objects of the appropriate period were donated or purchased.

Heritage House as a Teaching Museum

Since opening to the public, Heritage House has been a house museum, offering tours and local history programs, and providing an opportunity for visitors to tour a 19th century Victorian era house.

Perhaps it is no surprise, the house was closed to visitors during the pandemic.  Post-pandemic the house remained closed to install a new roof and make plumbing repairs and improvements inside. As we work to reopen the house, we plan to expand the educational programming through a multi-stage project. The vision for moving Heritage House forward includes collaborations with CSUF faculty, arboretum volunteers and students from a variety of disciplines such as art, art history, anthropology, history, public history, geography, and the sciences.

Our goal is to create a museum-quality experience focusing on the Clark family; the house, its contents, architecture, and the people of the communities surrounding it/them; in addition to focusing on the cultural diversity of the area and the richness of broader implications. We plan to accomplish these using on-site and online exhibitions, highlighting collections, interpretive materials, field trips, and programming. Exhibitions will change throughout the year so to offer visitors a broad view of all aspects of life in the 1890’s.

Fall 2024 Heritage House Project Team includes arboretum staff, volunteers, faculty and students L to R, Font Row: Jessica Casciato, Sarah Martinez, Grace Quick, Nateya Williams. Middle Row: Harriet Bouldin, Trish Campbell, Greg Dyment. Back Row: Dana Dyment, Susan McNamara, Debbie Williamson. Not shown: Marta McDaniel, Sandy Jensen, Matthew Gregory, Mitchell Granger.

Collection Highlight

COMING SOON:  Vintage Toys, curated by Jessica Casciato, MPH ‘24

Exhibitions

COMING SOON (an online exhibition): Early Orange County, an Immigrant Experience