Weird House of Cambria: Nitt Witt Ridge

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Some of you may remember that Adam and I love ourselves a weird house. Well, Cambria, on the Central California Coast, has one of the weirdest we’ve ever seen.

It’s called Nitt Witt Ridge…and it just might inspire you not to throw your trash away.

Nitt Witt Ridge is California Historical Landmark No. 939 and its own neighborhood’s personal eyesore. The creation of Cambria’s former garbage collector, Art Beale (aka Der Tinkerpaw or Captain Nit Wit), this testament to OCD and boredom relief was assembled from found and hoarded objects, fittings and furnishings, some rumored to have come from nearby Hearst Castle.

Some of the many things that can be found decorating the Ridge: Beer cans, a plaster lawn deer, car and stove parts, coffee cups and saucers, plumbing pipe, driftwood and abalone shells from nearby Moonstone Beach. The structure is held together with cement, flour and baking soda.

Beale purchased the land here in 1928, then spent the next 50 years cobbling together an extremely odd yet affordable castle of his own. He was apparently a strange character with a long white beard and a ratty blue bathrobe who took a shower once a year; we choose to overlook his eccentricity and instead praise his dedication to his art.

When Beale died in 1992, his ashes remained here, spread around his favorite adjacent redwood. For several years afterwards, the house was abused by vandals and thieves, and eventually fenced off with chain link. It stands, proud and bizarre, in the midst of far more costly homes, and there have been many attempts to have the structure demolished.

Though dissension continues, in 1999, NWR was purchased and rescued from utter disrepair by Michael and Stacy O’Malley. Michael now gives 90-minute guided tours, which you can partially see in Nitt Witt Ridge: The Movie.

Nitt Witt Ridge
881 Hillcrest Drive
Cambria Pines, CA 93428

Tours by Michael O’Malley
$10 cash per person
(805) 927-2690

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