Historical Homes
The Gingerbread Mansion, also known as the Ring Mansion, is a historic Queen Anne Carpenter Gothic Victorian style house located at 400 Berding Street in Ferndale, Humboldt County, California. Historically it has served as the family home of medical doctor Hogan J. Ring (1851-1930), his office, a public hospital, veteran’s building, rest home, apartments, and a bed and breakfast inn.
The Gingerbread Mansion is the largest residential building in Ferndale, with three floors, 32 rooms, 11 bedrooms, 9 bathrooms and extensive gardens in 1975 when it had been converted into apartments. In 2017, it had 11 bedrooms and 11.5 bathrooms and is a working bed-and-breakfast inn.
Dr. Ring had a house, a barn and a water tank house on the property prior to the construction of the mansion which were moved to the Francis addition by John Morris house movers in April, 1899. The Ring Mansion was unusually well-built, even for its time, from the concrete foundation up to 2 feet (0.61 m) crawl spaces between floors. Built, as were many Ferndale residences, from redwood, the Gingerbread Mansion also has 24 inches (61 cm) double wall construction and 18 inches (46 cm) square support members.
Ring’s builders created a turreted, balconied, gabled and crested Victorian Gothic with Queen Anne influences in the spindles and turnings which cover the Berding Street facade and continue partway down Brown Street.The exterior was fully fenced and had a concrete sidewalk built in 1899. The highly ornamented original portion of the home is in front, an addition in 1920 added the less decorated section at the rear to serve as the town hospital.
source:
en.wikipedia.org
gingerbread-mansion.com
