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Warner-Carrillo Ranch House Gets Plastered
By Kathryn Fletcher
November/December 2023
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Left A worker prepares to restore the Warner-Carrillo Ranch House’s adobe exterior. Right The restored facade, which naturally and beautifully hugs the arid land that produced the earth for its adobe bricks. |
 Work in progress repairing an interior plaster wall. Hanging at left is a portrait of early rancher and the home’s builder Doña Vicenta Sepúlveda Carrillo (1813-1907), painted by Robin Lakin. All photos by Kathryn Fletcher, 2023 |
Crews have finished the latest exterior and interior adobe repairs to the Warner-Carrillo Ranch House Museum and the results are beautiful.
Fifty-two inches of rain, snow, and hail last year (2022) really took a toll on the 1857 adobe structure. For the recent repairs, we used steel lathe over the original adobe walls and applied the new plaster to the lathe, a method that should last much longer, and still be historically correct. This work was actually part of the restoration’s original scope, but funds were not available until now and we have had to do regular plaster and repair every couple of years.
Some windows and shutters were renovated, too, and interior door frames repaired and re-plastered. The wood gutters have been repaired and lined to better capture runoff from rain.
The Warner-Carrillo Ranch House is a fragile building that requires ongoing maintenance in the sometimes harsh climate of the Warner Valley.
We are grateful to our partners and landlords at the Vista Irrigation District for their ongoing support to keep the Warner-Carrillo Ranch House Museum repaired and open. If you haven't visited lately, this is a lovely time of year in the backcountry to do so.
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