Old Borges Ranch: Five Generations on Walnut Creek

The Old Borges Ranchhouse was built in eighteen ninety-nine by Frank Borges, known as Francisco, and his wife Mary, along with their children. It was the cornerstone of a working cattle ranch in the hills above Walnut Creek, and it stayed in the Borges family through five generations of ranching life.

The property reflects the pattern of Portuguese immigrant farming families who settled the valleys and hills east of the Bay Area in the late nineteenth century. Many came from the Azores and brought with them a culture of dairy and cattle ranching that shaped the agricultural character of Contra Costa and Alameda Counties for decades. The Borges ranch has since been preserved as part of Walnut Creek's open space system, giving visitors a rare intact glimpse of what this landscape looked like before the postwar suburbs arrived. The old house still stands as the Borges family built it, surrounded by the same hills.