Eugene O'Neill National Historic Site — Attraction in Danville

Access to the Eugene O’Neill house needs to be improved.

After contemplating visiting with my family for years, I finally booked a tour. It wasn’t easy. The public can only access the site by shuttle during select times (it’s located on a private road and that’s the agreement with the neighbors). Tours cannot be booked online. Tours cannot be booked by speaking with a person on the phone. It’s like a secret club. You can only book a tour via voice message or email.

After I booked a tour, I was given vague directions on how to access the tour shuttle. The pickup location is apparently outside of the San Ramon Valley Historic Museum. Staff at the historic museum seems to almost deliberately disassociate itself with the Eugene O’Neill house, offering minimal knowledge of how to book a tour or how pickup works. The National Parks Service and Museum of the San Ramon Valley are doing each other a disservice by not collaborating more to help make this public resource more available to the public.

Lastly, and most disappointingly, our scheduled tour made the decision to leave early and without us. I’d emailed with the ranger multiple times and took a lot of time and energy to get my wife and kids all to the meeting spot on time. When I emailed Ranger Nicko to ask what happened, he acknowledged the shuttle bus arrived and left without us. He then asked if I’d like to reschedule. How about just not leaving early without us :(?

All that said, I did visit the Eugene O’Neill house over a decade ago and found it enchanting. It’s a jewel that is being protected and made available to the public.

I don’t know when I’ll have it in me again to navigate the labyrinth that is gaining access to a tour. The last one I attended was booked by a group I was affiliated with. After the bus departed early on my family and we waited for 30 minutes with no way of knowing if we missed the bus or if it didn’t come, my wife and kids are dubious of...

On 3/6/20 my wife and I were two of four people who enjoyed a private tour of the Eugene O’Neill Nat’l Historic Site. Our guide was “Joy” and I don’t now have her last name. She was exceptional. Her grasp of the O’Neill story was impressive. She seemed to know all the personal details of his life and all the nuances of this complicated man’s work. At the end of the tour she invited us to share any insights and observations that had come to us during the tour. At that time and since, I have found myself deeply contemplating various aspects of our time with Joy.

My impression was that she was probably a history or drama major who had immersed herself in the O’Neill story over many years. I was stunned to know she had been assigned to this Nat’l Historic Site for only a period of months and would soon be moving on.

Additionally, some time before, when I had made our reservation, I had happened to speak with Joy. At that time I asked her an obscure question about Eugene O’Nell that she had not heard about. When we arrived for our tour, she had researched the question and gave me a copy of an article concerning the matter.

It is hard to overstate what a professional, knowledgeable, caring and personable representative of the Park Service Joy is. She is the finest we have ever encountered and you are exceptionally fortunate to have her in your...

To visit the house is so complicated it's as if they don't want you to come. While visiting family in Danville it was suggested we visit on the one day the sun was out (it was a gloomy week this December) so no time to pre book. We rang and left a message on their machine enquiring if there was availability on the 2:00 bus. Not having had a reply by 1:45 we rang again and a person answered and informed us a driver wasn't available. No apology for not checking their messages. We wasted a lot of time waiting around and could have done something else. We had firstly enquired at the Museum where the bus departs from and they brusque told us there was no connection with them. Wouldn't it be a good idea to share information with the museum so that they could see the when the bus was running and the number of pre bookings? Visitors to the museum could be encouraged to visit and they have human beings there instead of...