Your Guide to Buying a Home in Arcata, CA

Buying a Home in Arcata, California

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(There are many wonderful examples of Victorian Archetecture in Arcata)

Arcata is located in Humboldt County

Population: 15,197 Although gold prompted Arcata's settlement, it was the area's timber resources which sustained its development. Virgin redwood forests, which covered alluvial flats and coastal ridges, soon felt the assault of the woodsman's axe and saw. Logging giant redwoods required new skills and equipment for cuttings, moving and milling, which resulted in a locally-unique economy, labor force and social structure.

The Plaza's central green space recalls the New England common or the squares of the South, where people pastured livestock in early years and in later times, gathered for social events, picnics, parades or simply conversation and a little sun on a summer day. The palm trees and statue of William McKinley go back to 1906; they are today, as they have been for decades, distinctive landmarks associated with this unique community and the Plaza.

From the earliest days of settlement the Plaza has been the center of Arcata's commercial life, preserving in its green space an atmosphere of small town community reflected as well by its distinctive historic buildings, shaped by a special historical and architectural heritage. With the exception of the Jacoby's Storehouse Building, which incorporates the original store house of the 1850's on the ground floor, none of the original architecture remains.

Fire and the passage of time have not been kind to the Plaza; however, most of the buildings were built before the turn-of-the-century and, except for three buildings of the 1950's, the remainder were built by 1915, the Hotel Arcata being the last. The Minor Theatre, constructed in 1914, is claimed to be the oldest movie theater still in operation in the United States. Arcata's Main Street Program has been instrumental in restoring a number of the old buildings, some dating to the 1870's, whose original appearances were disguised by modern facades.

Courtesy of the Chamber of Commerce