Navarro Area 1915

In 1905, A.G. Sterns had the house built after purchasing the Mill in Wendling the name of the town at that time. Wendling at one time had a large population. The town contained two stores, five hotels, a saloon, a livery stable, a restaurant, a barbershop and a post office.

In 1914 Sterns mill became the Navarro Lumber Co. and the town of Wendling became “Navarro.” The house then became known as the Navarro Company House, and it was a central feature in the booming mill town. Thereafter, what remained of the village near the river's mouth came to be known as “Navarro-by-the-Sea”.

There are several interesting structures remaining from the turn of the 19th century including a schoolhouse adjacent to the Navarro Mill house. The house sits atop a sunny hill surrounded by redwoods on Wendling Soda Creek Road a small street running parallel to Highway 128.

Renovated in the 1992 by the Johnsons, the house has retained much of its original character. Upgraded with radiant heating system, and modern electrical and plumbing, the house maintains it’s beauty and charm with boxed window seats and wrap around veranda, it’s hip roof design is characteristic of grand houses of the era.

Although the house was built as a result of the logging boom in early 1900’s, it now serves as a central location to explore both the sublime beauty of Anderson Valley’s agricultural bounty of apple orchards and vineyards as well as the meandering Navarro River and exquisitely beautiful and rugged Mendocino coastline.