Qualla: Griffith Mansion

Griffith Mansion: Introduction

Thu, 02 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Gregciro, CC BY-SA 4.0. In May 1998, contractors excavating a swimming pool behind a Victorian mansion in the tiny town of Yolo, California, struck something unexpected: a 400- to 500-year-old Patwin village. Arrowheads, spear points, chert drills, shell bead currency, and human remains emerged from the same ground where Abraham Griffith had built his Italianate home 112 years earlier. The discovery was not entirely a surprise. When Griffith's workers dug the foundation for the mansion's chimneys in 1886, they had found the bones of a Patwin individual buried in a sitting position. Two eras of habitation, separated by centuries, layered on top of each other along the banks of Cache Creek, just outside Woodland in Yolo County.

Read more: Griffith Mansion on Qualla

Image: Gregciro | CC BY-SA 4.0

Griffith Mansion: From Newcastle to Cache Creek

Thu, 02 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit GT1886, Public domain. Abraham Griffith was born in 1822 in Newcastle-under-Lyme, Staffordshire, England. He crossed the Atlantic in 1844, landing in New York City, where he spent five years working as a store clerk and waiting for his chance. When news of the California Gold Rush reached the East Coas...

Read more: Griffith Mansion on Qualla

Image: GT1886 | Public domain

Griffith Mansion: The Merchant of Cacheville

Thu, 02 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit GT1886, CC BY-SA 3.0. Mining treated Griffith roughly. He saved about $500 working the Trinity diggings, only to have the money stolen by a fellow traveler. Disgusted, he returned to Cacheville and took a job cooking for Cochran, who soon absconded to Australia, leaving debts behind and nothing but a ...

Read more: Griffith Mansion on Qualla

Image: GT1886 | CC BY-SA 3.0

Griffith Mansion: Ashes and Italianate Columns

Thu, 02 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit GT1886, Public domain. Griffith retired in 1880 with a family of eight children, though his daughter Jennie had died at age three in 1868. In September 1885, while he was in San Francisco with his wife and four youngest sons, his house in Cacheville burned to the ground. He had no insurance. Rather tha...

Read more: Griffith Mansion on Qualla

Image: GT1886 | Public domain

Griffith Mansion: What the Ground Remembered

Thu, 02 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit GT1886, CC BY-SA 3.0. The 1998 pool excavation brought UC Davis anthropologists to the property for six days. Volunteers and undergraduate students spent 240 hours collecting materials from what turned out to be a significant Patwin archaeological site. Among the finds were delicate chert drills, impo...

Read more: Griffith Mansion on Qualla

Image: GT1886 | CC BY-SA 3.0

Griffith Mansion: Layers Still Visible

Thu, 02 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit GT1886, Public domain. A Bay Area family eventually purchased the mansion and undertook a fifteen-year restoration, returning the residence to its original Victorian character while adding modern utilities. The home remains a private family residence today on 14 acres of the original parcel. From the a...

Read more: Griffith Mansion on Qualla

Image: GT1886 | Public domain