Officially, it's called the Meyer-Doran house. But the structure near San Marcos Creek is better known to locals as the "pink house" for the pastel color of its weathered clapboard siding.
The house is older than the city it sits in. San Marcos was incorporated in 1963. No one is certain exactly when the house was built, but the best estimate is between the "late 1800s and early 1900s," said San Marcos Mayor Rebecca Jones, who referred to the house as "she."
"She is an historical part of our city," Jones said.
After more than a century, the "pink house" needs some work, and the city has begun replacing the roof. The city says the old roof was leaking and rotting, letting animals get in.
The roof work is estimated to cost $40,000.
The house was was built by Wilhelm Meyer, a farmer and widower, who moved to the area with his three daughters.
“Mr. Meyer was a farmer, and he decided that he was going to put his house here, raise his family, and then also make sure that he grew his crops here,” Jones said.
The house used to be at the corner of Via Vera Cruz and Discovery Street, but in 2014 it was moved a few hundred yards west to its current location because of the San Marcos Creek Project, a mixed-use retail and residential development.
Jones said the most notable thing about the "pink house" was what happened in front of it in 1907: a shooting involving William Doran, a ranch hand working for Meyer, and another man named Gus Eliason.
"Mr. Eliason came here and there was a little bit of a conflict, but he had brought a gun — Mr. Eliason — and he ended up having a fight with Mr. Doran. And he (Eliason) was shot and killed,” Jones said.
A jury found Doran acted in self-defense. He would later inherit the home after marrying one of Meyer’s daughters, giving the home its official name, the Meyer-Doran house. Ten years after the shooting, Doran was elected to the California State Assembly.
Up until around the 2010s, the home was occupied by various tenants.
As we were interviewing the mayor, North County resident Joe Wise came up to share his own memory of the house — as a place to get into mischief in his younger days.
“We used to party in this house, way back when, 55 or so years ago," Wise said. "And there was nothing in San Marcos at the time.”
The home is a landmark, he said, and he has a lot of fond memories of the home when his friend lived there.
“I remember this house because I used to pick him up to go to work and then drop them back off, and he'd always say, 'Hey, let's go inside and have a couple of drinks,'” Wise said.
The city plans to restore the home to its former glory, which might mean it won't be a "pink house" anymore. It was only painted pink in either the late 1990s or early 2000s.
"We definitely want her to be brought back to her restored state because we really do believe in the whole history and preserving it,” Jones said.
At this time, however, there is no definitive timeline for its restoration.
