Hi Everyone, For those of you who get frustrated trying to find elusive ancestors. Researching the history of a specific house is just as frustrating. Just like family stories about people are sometimes proven false, printed stories about this house were just as often false. I started in 1869 and managed to trace the land ownership through 1905. [Francis SPRING -> Amos AUSTIN -> William O. HARLAN -> Benjamin C. HARLAN -> Claude F. LACEY. After having found all the relevant deeds, the next logical step was to search through the old Tax Assessment Rolls to find out when the house first showed up on the tax rolls. Unfortunately, the incumbent Tax Collector in 1915 was so incensed by not being re-elected he destroyed all the tax records for the period 1890-1915. Those years are the critical ones for figuring out when the house was built. Frustrated but not deterred, I went to the City Planning Department. Their earliest records for the house began in 1946. I have a nice record of all the changes made to the house from 1946 until 1989 when the house was moved. THe down side is that there were no details. The records only included date, street address, and things like "kitchen remodeled", "new garage", etc. No owner's name, no builder's name, no plans. Speaking of plans, there are no blueprints for the house either. After extensive searching I learned that the architect's nephew destroyed all of the architect's original drawings after the architect died. The nephew felt the drawings were "cluttering up" the garage. Thank goodness I love a challenge. I'm about to start scanning a bunch of old city maps that include the footprint of any buildings. It appears that I will get a little closeer to finding out the year of the house's creation. The other bright light is that the Society has made contact with descendants of relatives of Claude F. LACEY. He is my prime suspect for commissioning the house. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that there is a "packrat" in the family who may be able to help us. If I never find the answers, it certainly won't be for lack of trying. Take care, Anita C. Monterey County