Built in 1898, the Monterey County Agricultural & Rural Life Museum’s Spreckels House was originally located on the Spreckels Sugar Company’s Ranch Number One. In addition to Building Number 91, as the house was called, a blacksmith shop, outhouse, barn, windmill and two water troughs were on the property located on Harkins Road. The house was constructed at a cost of $1,960. The outhouse cost $25 to build.

The Spreckels Sugar Company built four distinct types of housing for its employees. Building 91 represents type A, the simplest form. Measuring 24’ X 26’, the house originally sat on a mud sill foundation. The roof was shingled and the siding was redwood. The interior walls were covered with cloth and paper. The houses built in town were distinguished by a small window in the front gable. Those built on outlying ranches were adorned with the “wooden sugar beet” as seen on Building 91.

The Spreckels House was moved to San Lorenzo Regional Park in 1980. Through generous donations of time, money and artifacts, the house has been renovated to represent a typical Salinas Valley farmhouse.