A dream to see an Arroyo Grande home listed on the National Register of Historic Places may soon be fulfilled, as state officials are collecting the last pieces of information necessary to make their final decision.

The Paulding History House, home of the first medical doctor in Arroyo Grande beginning in 1892, has been the focus of a five-year effort to obtain recognition and protection for the local historic resource.

Recently, supporters received word the California State Parks Office of Historic Preservation was putting the item on next month's Historical Resources Commission agenda - the final frontier before obtaining national and state historical status.

But now that has been delayed because the state wants additional revisions to the application and likely will continue the matter to its November meeting.

"It's a very laborious process," explained Jean Hubbard, a South County Historical Society member and longtime docent at the Paulding House. "The first thing you have to do is ask the city to declare it a historical landmark, which the city did four or five years ago."

After that hurdle, supporters must submit a huge amount of information, both written and photographic, for national consideration. The documents must show the building has an association with a person significant to the area or an important historical event, a distinctive design or artistic value or has yielded or may yield important information about history.

One other building in Arroyo Grande has been listed on the national register, and that is the International Order of Odd Fellows Hall on Bridge Street. It was designated historic in 1991, primarily for its distinct period design.

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Paulding House applicants want the same designation for the home but "because of what Dr. and Mrs. Paulding did for the community in medicine and education," said Hubbard.

Dr. Edwin Paulding (1849-1935) came to Arroyo Grande in 1883 and set up shop as the first permanent doctor in town. The son of a medical missionary in Syria, Paulding studied medicine at Ohio State Medical School and headed west after graduation.

His wife, Clara Edwards Paulding (1855-1946), was born in Bath, N.Y., and lived with her missionary family among the Choctaw Indians in Oklahoma before coming to Arroyo Grande to teach school in 1883. She taught here for the next 42 years.

The couple married in 1889, and in 1891 they purchased their home at 551 Crown Hill St. The building was only two years old at the time.

The Pauldings' daughter, Ruth, was born in 1892 and also became a teacher. After attending college and teaching out of the area for a number of years, she returned to Arroyo Grande and lived in her parents' house until she died in 1985.

Paulding Middle School, located just up the street from the house, was named after Ruth in honor of her contributions to education.

After Ruth's death, the Historical Society turned the house into a museum where visitors learn about the Pauldings and their way of life and view the countless pieces of furniture, art, books and everyday items that today seem so ancient to youngsters.

Billie Swigert is another expert on the Pauldings and gives tours of the house. The stories she tells portray the family as educated, sophisticated and well-traveled yet also down-to-earth, friendly and practical.

"Dr. Paulding loved to garden and he saw that things grew well here, so he decided to set up his residence here," Swigert said on a recent tour. "(His wife) wanted to be on a hill where she could have a view and he wanted a garden, so it worked out."

Swigert also showed off the dining room that used to be a kitchen until the Pauldings realized they needed to provide more space for families of patients who stayed at the house.

Until then, they had a small summer kitchen and a larger kitchen but no dining room, so they used the new dining room to serve meals to the patients' families.

"If a patient stayed here the whole week, the whole family stayed," Swigert said.

And Mrs. Paulding was no ordinary lady of the house, she added.

"She was the best thing that ever happened to Arroyo Grande. She made sure we got a high school," she said.

Mrs. Paulding was also quite involved with the women's suffrage movement, added Hubbard, but she would be most known for her educational contribution.

"We're so used to having high schools, but in their day, not everyone was in favor of sending their kids to high school - they thought they had enough education," Hubbard said.

If the state Historic Resources Commission finds the information about the Paulding House compelling enough to list it on the register, that means the property will gain not only distinction but also protection for the future.

Special rules would require owners to carefully maintain it and would restrict many alterations to the building.

The prestige of being on the register could also make it easier for the Historical Society to win grants that support their programs at the house, said Hubbard.

Karin Driesen can be reached at 489-4206, Ext. 5015, or kdriesen@santamariatimes.com.

July 18, 2005