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Ardenwood Historic Farm

human settlement in California, United States of America

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionAug 31, 2026
Entity authorityQ4787978 ↗
Source-derived summary

Ardenwood Historic Farm is a Regional Historic Landmark in Fremont, California. It is managed by the East Bay Regional Park District. The Ardenwood Historic Farm consists of the Ardenwood Station, the former Ohlone village and burial site, a blacksmith shop, an area with farm animals, Patterson House, and a gazebo. The Ardenwood Farm today is a working farm, producing grain and vegetables.

History

Officially opened to the public on July 28, 1985, the entire park includes a farm, a large forest and a mansion now called the Patterson House. Patterson called his estate "Ardenwood", after the forested area in England mentioned in Shakespeare's play, As You Like It.

Patterson House

George W. Patterson was born in Pennsylvania in 1822 and came to California as a forty-niner during the California Gold Rush. He came to Alameda County in 1851, after not having success in mining. The Patterson House (also known as the George W. Patterson House) was first constructed as a humble farm house in 1857 by the original owner, George Washington Patterson and his neighbor James Hawley. The original house was a two-story farmhouse built in redwood and having a rectangular floor plan and a gable roof.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Ardenwood Historic Farm” is human settlement in California, United States of America. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Ardenwood, Historic and Farm, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewA dependable orientation record for establishing vocabulary, names and a first evidence trail. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1985, 1822, 1851, 1857—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. For this dossier, Ardenwood, Historic and Farm is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “human settlement in California, United States of America” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 31, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q4787978. Authority coordinates are 37.558, -122.049. 2 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1985, 1822, 1851 and 1857.

Critical limits

A concise general-reference account can conceal disagreements about scope, terminology or the weight assigned to individual sources. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

Best used for
  • Subject orientation
  • Search vocabulary
  • Locating named sources
Verify next

The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Ardenwood Historic Farm”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Ardenwood Historic Farm primary sources, Ardenwood Historic Farm archive and Ardenwood research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Ardenwood Historic Farm”?
  2. What terminology or title could unlock a more precise catalogue search?
  3. Which cited source is closest to the event, object or claim?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Ardenwood Historic Farm” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.