 The Stow House was once the headquarters of Rancho La Patera, on the original Rancho La Goleta.In 1871, William Whitney Stow, a legal counsel for Southern Pacific Railroad in San Francisco, purchased costing $28,677 for his son, Sherman P. Stow.Sherman Stow built a Carpenter Gothic Victorian home on the site and moved into the house with his bride, Ida G. Hollister, in 1873.