Forest Home Farms Historic Park, at 19953 San Ramon Valley Blvd., has a free activity from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. on nearly every Saturday between now and December 12. The one gap is November 28, which has nothing listed. Two ticketed evenings and mornings fill in around them: a Victorian Mourning Tour on Friday, October 30, and a Victorian Christmas Tour on Saturday, December 19. Most of that programming is about the late 1800s, which is the era the Glass House was built to show.
The farm's most important chapter came later. For about thirty years it processed walnuts for the whole San Ramon Valley. That work happened in a separate three-building walnut plant, but the man behind it, Travis Boone, lived in the Boone House. The City now has design money set aside to renovate and preserve that house, and the plans include an interpreted Travis Boone office. Funding for the full renovation is expected to be requested in FY28. This fall's Saturdays show the farm as it stands right before that work begins.
What 16 Acres Are Left Of
The name throws people off. A 2010 Patch history column says "Forest Home" probably refers to the trees along Oak Creek, not to a family called Forest. The same column puts the original farm at 375 acres. The park today covers 16.
Minnie and Numa Boone bought the farm in 1900. Minnie used inheritance money to enlarge the original farmhouse into the Dutch Colonial Revival home that stands today, and their son Travis and his wife Ruth inherited it later. From the 1930s through the 1960s, the property worked as a walnut processing operation for the entire valley. Fog made outdoor drying unreliable, so Travis Boone designed an indoor conveyor dryer, and according to the Patch column, other walnut operations across Northern California copied it.
Much of that industrial layer is still standing. The City lists two houses, 14 outbuildings and two pergolas on the grounds. Those include a barn built sometime between 1850 and 1860, a 7,000-square-foot building for equipment and auto storage, and a three-building walnut plant with a three-story hulling-and-drying structure. Ruth Quayle Boone gave the property to San Ramon on the condition that it be preserved permanently for public education and enjoyment. A year later, the City's 1999 master plan counted 21 buildings on site, and that inventory led to the farm's listing on the National Register of Historic Places.
The Victorian layer arrived later. David and Eliza Glass came to the valley in 1850, and the Museum of the San Ramon Valley credits them with planting its first apple orchard. They built their Italianate house in 1877. The house was moved from its original site at Lora Nita Farm to the south end of Forest Home Farms. It opened as a museum on May 15, 2010.
The Saturday Calendar, Week by Week
Fun on the Farm is a partnership between the City of San Ramon and the San Ramon Historic Foundation. The activities are free, and the few that need registration are flagged on the City's page. October 3's Farm Horse day has already passed. Here is what's left:
| Date | Theme | What happens |
|---|---|---|
| Oct 10 | Indigenous People's Day | Learn about the Tribal Nations that lived in the San Ramon Valley |
| Oct 17 | Iron Horse | The history of trains and the Iron Horse Trail, plus a take-home craft |
| Oct 24 | Trick or Treat on the Farm | Come in costume and visit stations around the farm for activities and treats |
| Oct 31 | Pumpkins, Gourds, & Squash | Uses of pumpkins and gourds, a winter squash recipe and a craft |
| Nov 7 | Quality Quilts | Quilting history and a paper quilt square |
| Nov 14 | Bread & Jam | Thresh, grind and sift wheat into flour |
| Nov 21 | Turkey Time | About the local turkeys, which were brought in from Oklahoma and Texas |
| Dec 5 | Candle Making | How families made candles from beeswax in the 1800s |
| Dec 12 | Holiday on the Farm | Santa, old-fashioned ornament making, a puppet show and refreshments |
The October 17 Iron Horse Saturday comes at a good time. On September 21, the San Ramon City Council approved a design agreement of up to $2,059,133 for an Iron Horse Trail bicycle and pedestrian overcrossing above Crow Canyon Road. The City lists construction as tentatively 2028 to 2030, depending on funding. That puts the corridor's railroad history and its next big change in the same month. The farm's newly installed Railroad Depot Display, which sits alongside the Tractor Museum, makes a natural stop that morning.
Only Bread & Jam on November 14 gets close to what this land actually produced, and even that is about wheat. The walnut era doesn't have a Saturday of its own. For now, it lives in the plant buildings and the equipment barn.
The Two Dates That Need Registration
Victorian Mourning Tours, Friday, October 30. The Glass House tours run in four staggered slots between 6:00 and 8:30 p.m. They cost $10 for residents and $12 for non-residents. The tour covers the hazards behind early deaths in the Victorian era, including deaths in the Glass family. It is open to ages 12 and up but is aimed at adults, and anyone 15 or younger needs an adult with them.
Victorian Christmas Tours, Saturday, December 19. Five slots run from 10:00 a.m. to noon, at $12 for residents and $15 for non-residents, and all ages are welcome. After a tour of the Glass House focused on holiday traditions, the group sings carols on the walk over to the Boone House for nutcracker nibbles and mulled apple cider.
That carol walk links the Victorian house to the farmhouse with the walnut-era past. The Boone House is also the building whose renovation status is worth tracking.
Where the Boone House Renovation Stands
The project has moved slowly, and it hasn't reached construction yet. Here is the City's timeline:
- 2021. A Boone House Future Use Survey found that 75% of respondents rated expanded educational and interpretive space as important or extremely important.
- August 2024. The City brought in TreanorHL, a historic preservation firm, to review earlier studies, inspect the house, evaluate its structural needs and set a path forward.
- October 8, 2025. The Parks Commission approved an unphased design-study recommendation and sent it on to the City Council.
- FY27, the current fiscal year. Funding is set aside to complete the design phase.
- FY28. The City expects to request full renovation funding. Once approved, construction should take about 12 to 18 months.
The planned scope is substantial. It includes selective demolition to fix structural problems on the first and second floors, a new roof, a reconfigured interior staircase, museum-grade lighting, updated heating and cooling, and new exhibit, storage and meeting space. It also adds the interpreted Travis Boone office, which would give the man behind the walnut dryer a room in his own house. The project is expected to be paid for by the Park Development Fund, the City Beautification Fund and the San Ramon Historic Foundation.
During construction, public and staff access to the house will be affected, and the historic archives will be moved temporarily. School tours will continue with minor changes, and the City expects little impact on the rest of the park. Those school tours reach a lot of kids. The Foundation's Summer 2026 newsletter reports that during the 2025/2026 school year, it supported Farm Life tours for 1,492 third-graders, Victorian Life tours for 631 second-graders and tours for 399 TK students.
No closure date has been announced, and construction funding hasn't been approved. Right now, the Boone House on the December 19 carol walk is still the house as the Boones left it.
The Foundation Behind the Saturdays
The San Ramon Historic Foundation's own events are getting bigger. Its April 25, 2026 Sheep Shearing Day drew more than 1,200 people for shearing, wool demonstrations, sheepdogs and tractor rides, with the Glass House and Tractor Museum open. The same newsletter says Carol Rowley stepped down after 10 years as president and that Sandy Silva was chosen to succeed her. The Foundation held its first Farm Fall Fest on October 4, 2025. Its site hasn't announced a 2026 edition, so check there before planning around one.
The Tractor Museum is easy to miss. It holds more than 50 antique tractors from the 1920s through the 1950s, plus working "hit and miss" engines, and some of the equipment still goes out in parades. Those decades overlap with the walnut operation, so the machinery is the closest thing the farm has to an exhibit on that era until the Boone House work is done.
Before You Go
- The grounds are open Tuesday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. On event days, the gates open at 11 a.m. The park is closed on federal holidays.
- Free Glass House docent tours run Saturdays at noon and 1 p.m. Docent availability varies, so the City recommends calling ahead.
- The Gift Shoppe is open Saturdays from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. For self-guided visits on other days, the free Otocast app has a guide to the farm, and there is also a web-based version.
Ashley Mancera grew up in the San Ramon Valley, and she pays attention when a place like the Boone House gets a new chapter. If you have questions about how projects like this one fit into life on the north end of San Ramon, Hector Mancera is glad to talk it through. Let's Connect.