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The Friends of Huddart and Wunderlich Park are working to raise a total of $400,000 to complete a project to save the 150-year-old Dairy House in Wunderlich Park. The nonprofit organization is hoping to begin restoration efforts this summer.
The local park organization sees it as a mission to help San Mateo County Parks with some of the preservation and historic projects onsite, said Executive Director Kym Teppo. The nonprofit was involved in the restoration of Folger Stables in 2010, another historic structure in Wunderlich Park.
The Dairy House is an ice house made of limestone and is in dire need of restoration, Teppo said.
“If we don’t do some major preservation efforts on it, it’s going to crumble and fall down,” she added.
The Dairy House was built in 1874 by Simon Jones, a farmer and owner of exporting business S.L Jones & Co. in San Francisco. In an era before refrigerators, the historic structure was used to preserve perishable goods including fruits, dairy and meat.
According to Teppo, the Dairy House is one of the oldest structures in all of San Mateo County and is one of the very few ice houses that still exist in the country.
The organization began fundraising and planning for the project in 2021 and has raised about $300,000 over the years. It is aiming to close the gap on the remaining $100,000 needed to start the project. Recently, a donor agreed to match any donations made until the end of March.
According to Teppo, the project has been evaluated, designed and is ready to break ground. Despite the remaining $100,000 needed, the organization said it is ready to begin the project once it has its permits.
“The problem with a lot of these structures is that once they’re gone, people wish that they were still there,” said Teppo. “Once these things are gone, they’re gone forever.”
The Dairy House showcases how food was managed before electricity and how people provided for themselves in the winter when fresh food was not available, Teppo said.
The history of the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 also plays into the Dairy House, she added. Jones, who exported his goods to China, also hired Chinese laborers to work on his property and testified against the act.
The work of the Chinese laborers can be seen across the various stone walls on the property and in the Dairy House, which were built using a technique known as dry stacking. This is a centuries-old building method that involves the arrangement of stones without the use of grout.
The Dairy House is currently closed to park guests and is tarped off to prevent further decay from the winter rain. It will continue to be off limits until the restoration process is completed, Teppo said.
Visions after restoration
In prior years, the Dairy House was used as part of the Friends of Wunderlich Park educational programming for school field trips and guest experiences. The organization often held history tours for third- and fourth-grade students who were learning about California history.
Teppo hopes that the renovated Dairy House will allow the organization to continue its programs as well as incorporate new interpretive elements to the site.
“We’re thinking of ham hocks hanging from the ceiling and bushels of apples in the actual facility itself, so that people can see what it would have looked like in the 1800s and how it would have been used,” Teppo said.
The Friends of Huddart and Wunderlich Park is asking for the community’s help in preserving the history of the structure through donations.
For more information about the Dairy House preservation project visit https://www.huddartwunderlichfriends.org/save-the-dairy-house.
