The house was built by John Zalud, a Porterville businessman, in 1891. Architects Hugh and John Templeton designed the building in the Second Empire style; the house is the only Second Empire home in Porterville. The design includes a mansard roof with decorated dormer windows, a front porch with wooden ornamentation, and tall double-hung sash windows on the front and sides. While the house was built in brick, a departure from the standard wood construction of Second Empire buildings, it uses wood extensively in its detailing. In 1977, the city of Porterville converted the house to a museum.^[2] The Zalud House was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on March 31, 1987.^[1]

On December 10, 2016, the Zalud House was the featured as a lockdown location on a season 13 episode of Ghost Adventures, where a 'cursed chair' in an upstairs bedroom caused visitors to have chest pains. In 1917, orange grower William Brookes (John Zalud's son-in-law) was murdered in this chair while sitting in the lobby of the former Pioneer Hotel. He was shot four times and killed by a married woman named Julia Howe, who objected to what he was saying about her after bragging he had an affair with her.

• Zalud House
• Photos from the NRHP nomination