The Ehmann Home History

The Ehmann Home was built in 1911 by Edwin Ehmann in the Craftsman Bungalow style. Today it is the surviving reminder of the once grand Ehmann Olive Oil Company presence in Butte County. The story of the Ehmann home begins with Freda Ehmann and her olives. She is considered the “mother” of the modern olive canning industry. Her olive curing business began with her desperate effort to develop a market for the olives from her 20-acre orchard. Until then, olives had been grown primarily for olive oil. When canned, the olives were of varying colors of brown. She developed a reliable curing system at her plant. Her olives, when canned, were all the same color of black we see today. She was so successful that by 1925 she retired and built a home in Piedmont, Alameda County, Ca. The home in Oroville was later used by the county for offices for many years before being turned over to the Butte County Historical Society.

The book “Olives In California’s Gold Country” is available at the BCHS Museum Bookstore or on our webpage bookstore.

 Phone messages (530 533-9418) will be returned as soon as possible.