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Merriam House, San Marcos

Deteriorating due to neglect, the wood-framed Merriam House has been unoccupied for more than a decade. Built in 1889 in the folk Victorian style by Gustavus French Merriam, an early settler of Twin Oaks Valley, it was crudely expanded three times. Now, the two-story house is suffering decay from abandonment, exposure to the elements, and piles of tree leaves rotting on the pitched roof. Few people even know of the home's threatened status, as it occupies land owned by a nonprofit organization with private operations. The group has not fulfilled its decade-old agreement with San Diego County to rehabilitate and reuse the house. Meanwhile, the 21st-century is encroaching on this fragile building, with heavier traffic on Deer Springs Road and the area's waning agriculture.

Merriam, a farmer producing wine and honey who had been a major in the North's army in the Civil War, helped settlers who followed him to Twin Oaks Valley. He also provided a school for the community and served as vice president of the First National Bank of Escondido. In addition to Merriam's contributions, his niece Florence Merriam was a nationally influential ornithologist who pioneered studying birds in the wild, rather than as specimens in a museum. Bird watching while riding sidesaddle, she eventually wrote eight books, including A-Birding on a Bronco, which features her observations in Twin Oaks Valley astride her horse Billy.

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Photos by Paul Johnson

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