The Wright-Patrick House has a history longer than that of the Town of Chico. Its builder, Thomas Shelton Wright, came to seek gold in 1849, but found prosperity instead in the fertile valley of the Sacramento River. He constructed the house on the banks of Little Butte Creek in 1852, envisioning it as headquarters for his 1100 acre ranch. It soon became many things to the sparse inhabitants of the area, serving as way station, watering hole, courthouse, jail, mercantile, and political meeting house. Wright himself served as justice of the peace, road overseer, gentleman rancher, innkeeper, political gadfly, and even ran for state assembly.

1877 lithograph of the Patrick Ranch 

By 1858 the population was rapidly expanding in Butte County, and roads were being realigned to reflect the new demographics. The trails intersecting at Wright’s ranch house were a casualty of these realignments, so he dragged the house on logs about a mile north to the intersection of today’sHegan Laneand the Midway, where it sits at the present time on those same logs.

Also about that time (1858) he brought his sister Melissa Patrick and her family out to California to help with the operation of the ranch. When “Old Man Wright” died in 1863 at age 42, the house passed to Melissa. She and her husband Will ran the ranch until Will’s death in 1870, when she took over the ranch operations herself and became known for her success as a woman farmer. Upon her death in 1898 her youngest son Will (named after his father) took over, managing the ranch with his family until his death in 1935.

Patrick family members shown in front of the home in 1906

In 1929 Will’s son Garrison developed Chico’s first commercial airport on the property, Patrick Field. The airport offered everything from charter flights to pilot training to crop dusting, and was operational until 1990. Garrison also kept the ranch going, gradually selling off sections of it. After his death in 1981, the house and its environs were sold to the Brusie family, in whose hands it remains today.

This house has sheltered three generations of Patricks, itinerant miners and peddlers, and has evolved and expanded with the times, without ever losing its initial identity as a primitive outpost on the American frontier. It is most definitely what State Historic Preservation Officer Wayne Donaldson has called “a rare find”, “a real treasure”, and “a hotbed of early California history”. Through voluminous documentation its story is being recorded for future generations. It is our responsibility to see that the property itself continues to provide that portal into our distant past.

The Chico Heritage Association was first given access the the house in the fall of 2007, when the current tenant moved out.  Several months were spent hauling out garbage from the interior and cleaning up the rooms and attic to make them accessible.  We also had a tree removed that was in danger of falling on the house.  In 2008 we raised funds to have a new roof installed, and in 2009 we began rehabbing the upstairs siding and planted an heirloom garden.  In 2010, with only limited access to the house, we continued with the siding rehab and painting, and began the process of repairing upstairs doors and windows, and are presently working on rehabbing or rebuilding all the upstairs windows.  After a survey of current needs, it has been determined that the next step would be to place a permanent foundation under the house, as the “temporary” (150-year-old) foundation is beginning to fail. 

Volunteers working on rehabbing the siding in 2009

 Before beginning stabilization work in 2008

 The Wright-Patrick House as it appears today