This Monterey Colonial home was built in 1936 for Neil F. and Amelia Dougherty. Neil was a prominent farmer in the Sutter Basin for many years.

After Amelia passed away, her grandson, Neal Dougherty and his wife, Rebecca, bought the house.
The house was modeled after the Castro-Breen adobe in San Juan Bautista, which is now part of a state historical site.
Amelia Dougherty was the granddaughter of Patrick Breen, who was a survivor of the Donner Party, a group of American pioneers who migrated to California from the Midwest by wagon train.