From the sidewalk it looks like a modest old cottage, the kind you might drive past a hundred times without a second glance. Step through the gate, though, and a whole world of trees, string-lit tables, and Basque family history opens up behind it.
This home belonged to the man who helped launch one of California’s most beloved boarding houses, and its story still shapes how people gather here today. I came curious and a little hungry for history, and I left wanting to plan a party.
A Queen Anne Cottage on Baker Street
Bakersfield hides plenty of surprises in its older neighborhoods, and one of the best sits at 1325 Baker Street in East Bakersfield. Noriega House is a Queen Anne Cottage-style home built in 1900, now carefully renovated and running as an event venue.
Let me be clear up front about what you will and will not find. Noriega House is not a restaurant, and it does not serve walk-in meals or rent rooms like a boarding house…