For all intents and purposes, there have been four owner/occupants of this property,at least from what history tells us. The first owner was Hernry Huffman. The second owner was C. Ray Robinson. The third owner was The Dominican Sisters of Kenosha, Wisconsin. The fourth owner is the present owner Jack Hooper.
Mr Huffman occupied the property from 1882 until 1893.a total of 11 years. The Crocker-Huffman company owned the property from 1893 to1933, a total of 40 years. The Robinsons occupied the property from 1936 until 1974, a total 38 years. The Dominican sisters owned the property from 1974 to 1987, total of 13 years. The Hoopers occupied the property the 1987 until it became an Inn in 2001, a total of 14 years.

Henry Huffman

Charles Henry Huffman began constructing his Victorian home beginning in 1882. He and his family occupied the home until they sold his ranch holdings to Crocker interests 1n 1893 and the family moved to San Francisco. The home then was occupied by a series of Crocker -Huffman superintendeents and their families.

Mr Huffman was born in Hoppen, Germany on July 14, 1829. He arrived in San Francisco in in 1850 much as did others as part of the "gold rush". After trying his luck in gold seeking, he became a teamster. Eventually, Mr. developed a very successful freight hauling business even developing a large wagon built to Mr Huffman's specifications (The Stockton Wagon). He hauled freiight from Stockton to the mining country especially around Sonora. Mr Huffman then became active in farming and became one of the largest growers of wheat in the San Joaquin Valley. He was also an owner of several warehouses in the central valley to store wheat and flour. Mr. Huffman.in 1859 became "town site agent" for the railroad. His job was to secure rights-of-wayand the land for town locations. I credited with choosing the site for Merced and some accounts call him "the Father of Merced". In 1872, he moved to Merced and in 1882 started construction of the original victorian home.

The story of Mr. Huffman is told in the book "Pioneer Genius - Charles Henry Huffman", a copy of which is in your room.

The Huffman home burned on January 11,1933. The Cottage was constructed on the foundation of the Huffman tankhouse.

C. Ray Robinson

Mr. C. Ray Robinson purchased the property and began construction of the present home in 1936. Mr. Robinson was born in Merced County on January 28.1904. He attended Merced County Schools and attended Merced High. He attended the University of California at Berkeley and Boalt Law School at Berkeley. He served in the California Assembly for two terms. He practiced Law in Merced until his death and had offices in Auburn, Los Angeles, and San Francisco. During World War II, he was in the Navy Jag Corps serving with Adm. Halsey in the South Pacific. He helped found the American College of Trial Lawyers and was their second President. He was active ib thoroughbred horse racing - owning horses and representing the Horsemen's Benovolent Protection Association and the Jockey Guild. His father much of his life. His father had been a cattle rancher and C.Ray ran cattle much of life. He married Pauline Irwin March 26, 1932. They lived on 27th Street before occupying this home.

Mr Robinson died on January 29, 1974.

Dominican Sisters

The property was donated to The Dominican Sisters by Mr Montgomery after Mr Robinson's death. The Dominican Sisters were the owner/operators of the Mercey Hospital across the creek from the house.

Jack Hooper

Jack and Mona Hooper purchased the property from The Sisters in September 1987. The Hoopers were given the opportunity to match an offer for the property by a group who wanted to demolish the home and build condominiums. The home was in very poor condition when the Hoopers first occupied the property. In fact, there was some concern whether they could save the home. Jack and Mona lived in the home for three years while Jack and Mona did extensive repairs, renovation, restoration and remodeling. After three years Jack and Mona determined that they could save the home and finally installed modern heat and air conditioning. They lived for those 3 years without heat or AC. Restoration and other work continues.

Jack is a fourth generation Merced County farmer. His maternal grandfather Jacob Jorgensen came to Los Banos from the island of Als (Denmark) in 1895 at the age of 15 years. His family sent him to the United States to avoid being conscripted into the German army. Germany occupied this area of Denmark at the time. Jacob worked at first for the Miller- Lux company in Los Banos then became a farmer (with parners Chris Schmidt and Charles Johnson) in the San Luis area (now under the water of the San Luis Reservoir). In 1908, he moved to land near Gustine, which the family still owns today.

Jack startwd working at age 12, having a business taking care of the yards for professional baseball playeers. In life he has been a university professor, a rancher, a farmer, and above all an enteprenuer. Jack was born on December 2, 1936. He attended schools in Berkeley, California and graduated fron Berkeley High in 1954. He graduated from the University of California, Berkeley earning a BS, MS and PhD. He became a professor at Utah State University and taught at several universities including UC Berkeley and UC Davis, Oregon State, Texas A&M, Texas Tech and Kansas State. During his academic career, he was the author of over 50 scientific articles.

He then worked for a conglomerate which managed moneies and properties for high income individuals. Dr Hooper was a financial advisor for the composer and conductor Leonard Bernstein, and other celebrities such as Alfred Hichcock, the Marx brothers, and Baron Hilton. He worked for Adnan Kashoggi, reportedly the richest man in the world in the 1970s. And during the Viet Nam era was a Vice President of World Airways (then the largest charter airline in the world) He was responsible for management of 1,800,000 acres of farm and ranch land, and the firm had over 100,000 mother cows. Jack had probably the largest contiguous acreage of peaches in California, perhaps the world. and he was the largest the largest producer of pickling cucumbers in the U.S. He has farmed almost every crop grown in California from apricots to pomegranates. At age 50, he designed a "portable tomato inspection station". With threse stations he and Mona handled 15% of the processing tomatoes in California.

Jack and Mona bought The Robinson property in 1987. Jack opened the property as a Bed and Breakfast Inn after Mona death, fulfilling her dream to have the property be a B&B. Mona was born in Exeter, New Hampshire on January 26, 1938. She succumbed to cancer on July 10, 2000. Mona was blessed to be a "stay at home Mom" until such time that all the children were in College. She then joined Jack in the tomato business and was instrumental in "growing the business" until she was diagnosed wih cancer in 1997.