County Past
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Ventura County, California

Historic newspapers, landmarks, and county history layers for genealogists and local historians.

—newspaper titles
—digitized titles
45historic places
—earliest paper
1873formed
843,843pop. 2020
15cemeteries
—CW battlefields

At a glance

Summary

The National Register of Historic Places includes 45 listed properties in the county, first listed in 1971; 1 is also National Historic Landmark. Most listings are in or near Ventura, Oxnard, Santa Paula.

Summary generated automatically from the source data on this page.

Newspapers

Library of Congress

Newspaper directory data for California is not yet loaded on this site. Browse Ventura titles at the Library of Congress.

National Register of Historic Places

NPS NRHP

26 of 45 listings mapped; some locations are restricted by NPS to protect sensitive sites.

45 listed properties
PropertyCityTypeListed
Anacapa Island Archeological DistrictPort HuenemeDistrict1979
Anacapa Island Light Station (Additional Documentation)OxnardDistrict1991
Anacapa Island Light Station (Boundary Increase)OxnardDistrict2024
Bard, Elizabeth, Memorial HospitalVenturaBuilding1977
Bardsdale Methodist Episcopal ChurchFillmoreBuilding1986
Bell Canyon Equestrian CenterBell CanyonBuilding2024
BerylwoodPort HuenemeDistrict1977
Burro Flats Painted CaveSanta SusanaSite1976
Burro Flats Site (Boundary Decrease)Canoga ParkSite2020
Calleguas Creek SiteOxnardSite1976
Camarillo Ranch HouseCamarilloBuilding2003
Case Study House No. 28Thousand OaksBuilding2013
Colony HouseSimiBuilding1978
Dudley HouseVenturaBuilding1977
Ebell Club of Santa PaulaSanta PaulaBuilding1989
Faulkner, George Washington, HouseSanta PaulaDistrict1991
Feraud General Merchandise StoreVenturaBuilding1986
First Baptist Church of VenturaVenturaBuilding2009
Franz, Emmanuel, HouseVenturaBuilding1982
Glen Tavern HotelSanta PaulaBuilding1984
Gould, Thomas, Jr., HouseVenturaBuilding2005
Grand Union HotelNewbury ParkBuilding1975
Grandma Prisbrey's Bottle VillageSimi ValleyDistrict1996
Isis TheaterOjaiBuilding2026
Maulhardt, Gottfried, FarmOxnardBuilding2023
McCrea, Joel, RanchThousand OaksDistrict1997
Mission San Buenaventura and Mission Compound SiteSan BuenaventuraDistrict1975
Olivas AdobeVenturaBuilding1979
Oxnard Public LibraryOxnardBuilding1971
Oxnard, Henry T., Historic DistrictOxnardDistrict1999
Pratt, Charles M., HouseOjaiBuilding2002
Rancho Camulos NHLPiruDistrict1996
SS WINFIELD SCOTT (Steamship)Anacapa IslandSite1988
San Buenaventura Mission AqueductVenturaStructure1975
San Miguel Chapel SiteVenturaSite1978
Santa Paula Hardware Company Block-Union Oil CompanySanta PaulaBuilding1986
Saticoy Southern Pacific Railroad DepotSaticoyBuilding2018
Scarlett RanchOxnardDistrict2024
Simi Adobe-Strathearn HouseSimiBuilding1978
St. Thomas Aquinas ChapelOjaiBuilding1995
Thacher School Historic DistrictOjaiDistrict2019
Ventura County CourthouseVenturaBuilding1971
Ventura TheatreVenturaBuilding1986
Washington Elementary SchoolVenturaBuilding2025
Women's Improvement Club of HuenemePort HuenemeDistrict1989

Source: National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places. Property links open NRHP nomination files at the National Archives.

County formation

Newberry AHCB

Ventura was formed in 1873 (1873-01-01) from both SAN LUIS OBISPO, Santa Barbara.

VENTURA created from both SAN LUIS OBISPO and SANTA BARBARA. Act passed 22 March 1872; took effect 1 January 1873.

Source: Newberry Library, Atlas of Historical County Boundaries.

Population by decade

Census

Ventura County population from 1880 to 2020 (Census historical series).

844k424k5,073188019201950196020002020
188019001920194019501960198020002020
5,07314,36728,72469,685114,647199,138529,174753,197843,843

Sources: U.S. Census Bureau historical county population (Forstall 1790–1990) and public-domain / CC0 county population series through 2020.

National Park Service sites nearby

NPS

Park units within about 40 km of the county centroid (from NPS Public POIs; no API key).

SiteTypeDist.
Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation AreaPark unit47.7 km
Channel Islands National ParkPark unit58.3 km

Source: NPS National Datasets / Public POIs. The NPS Developer API requires a free key and was not used.

Cemeteries & historical places

USGS GNIS

15 cemeteries and 9 historical populated places (ghost towns / former settlements) recorded in USGS GNIS for this county.

Cemeteries — 15 of 15 listed
NameLatLon
Assumption Cemetery34.25623-118.77198
Bardsdale Cemetery34.36082-118.94127
Cemetery Memorial Park34.28123-119.28
Conejo Mountain Memorial Park34.18358-119.00219
El Rancho Simi Pioneer Cemetery34.26603-118.76737
Hueneme Masonic Cemetery34.1625-119.14885
Ivy Lawn Memorial Park and Funeral Home34.25189-119.21538
Japanese Cemetery34.16197-119.15083
Mount Sinai Memorial Park34.28639-118.66743
Nordhoff Cemetery34.44562-119.26055
Olson Cemetery34.22667-118.86869
Pierce Brothers Santa Paula Cemetery34.35364-119.0798
Piru Cemetery34.41519-118.80418
Saint Thomas Aquinas Cemetery34.43055-119.26898
Santa Clara Cemetery34.23121-119.18492
Historical populated places — 9 of 9
NameLatLon
Brownstone34.40944-118.93482
Kimballville34.275-119.30372
Los Pitos34.31861-119.38845
Miscanaka34.28167-119.29817
Somis34.24862-119.00455
Sucrosa34.19639-119.06983
Teagueville34.40833-119.08205
Ternez34.2725-118.93538
Wene'me34.15001-119.19816

Source: USGS Geographic Names Information System (public domain). Cemeteries from the 2021 NationalFile archive; historical places from GNIS HistoricalFeatures topical extract.

Historical markers

HMdb link

Marker text and photos from the Historical Marker Database (HMdb) are not embedded here. HMdb allows non-commercial reuse with attribution, but commercial/compensated use needs written permission; this is a commercial site, so we only link out.

Search HMdb for Ventura County, California

Terms: hmdb.org/copyright.asp. Linking is encouraged by HMdb.