The Hubley House

The Hubley House was built in the 1880’s by Grace Hubley’s grandfather as part of a 1883 homestead grant.

Her grandfather started a fruit farm here with seeds brought over during a voyage around the Horn. Once the orchard had been planted and Hubley House built, Grace’s grandfather convinced her parents to move here from Pennsylvania.

Her parents, William and Catherine Hubley, moved into the house when Grace was eight. Grace attended the first Colfax Elementary (Grammar) School and later became a member of the Colfax Literary and Debating Society.

A working farmstead located just outside Colfax, the house was the center of an 80 acre fruit ranch. The sunny, gently sloping site was ideal for grapes, apple and pear trees.

After inheriting the house in the 1918, Grace moved back into it. This move followed a career as a fine arts photographer in San Francisco and a portrait photographer in Sacramento.  Her husband, Frank, became the Colfax railroad station manager.

Grace was listed among the best women photographers on the West Coast.

She continued her photography work, developing her prints here in the house.  The light coming in through the upstairs windows is particularly remarkable and almost mystical; one can easily image Grace being inspired by the light.

Warren & Ruth Hill

In 1962, the 2-story clapboard Victorian farmhouse and its acreage was acquired by Warren & Ruth Hill who lived on the adjoining five acres.

Boasting a rural setting, old gardens and wonderful light, it was particularly inviting to artists who had the heart and soul to appreciate an old Victorian farmhouse.

Long-term tenants included painters, photographers, guitar makers, musicians, a children’s art teacher, an historian, and a Colfax mayor and her family.

It had survived as long as it did in part because it was constructed out of first growth timber. But by 2005, the house was in need of major repairs and renovations. Consideration was given to its future with all options being considered, including the possibility of demolishing the house.

Lead by Colfax Area Historical Society founder Gertrude Paul, a coalition of Placer County historical societies made a spirited pitch to the Hill family to preserve it as part of Grace Hubley’s and Colfax’s heritage and save it from demolition. In 2005, a decision was made to stabilize it and to make plans for its restoration and use by the community.

In 2007, the operations of the Hubley House was turned over the Grace Hubley Foundation.

2005 was not the only time the house was saved from imminent destruction; there was another close call in 1923. Read an account from the Colfax Record newspaper:

Colfax Record (Sentinel) News
September 21, 1923
On Sunday night about 10pm and just as many of our people were coming from the movie show, Colfax people were startled by the ringing of the fire bell. The cause was not difficult to see, as the whole west side of the Big Hill was a seething mass of flames, being fanned by a terrific north wind which amounted to little short of a gale. The fire was racing southward toward the TB sanatoriums and was rapidly eating its way eastward toward the city, while the heavens were lighted up and the roar of the flames could be plainly heard for a mile or more.

Letter to the Editor
We Thank You
We wish to express our sincere appreciation to the men and women who fought in that inferno to save the old Hubley house and especially to the few who had the guts to go back for the last time and saved the day when the battle seemed lost. We thank you. Frank E. Jones, Grace Hubley Jones.