Place name: California House
Description: An old tavern located in Cullen Township near Waynesville on the main road from St. Louis to Springfield. It was built early in the 1850s by Hugh McCoin and named by him for the State of California where he had been successful in the gold fields. It is no longer standing. (HIST. LACLEDE, 111, 133; G.M. Reed)
Source: Weber, Frank. "Place Names Of Six South Central Counties of Missouri." M.A. thesis., University of Missouri-Columbia, 1938.
See also http://www.oldstagecoachstop.org/webgeezer/Gazette83/page23.pdf
A fine description from contemporary knowledge republished in 1983.
It was quite a complex located on the Wire Road otherwise known as the Springfield - St. Louis Road about 7 miles west Waynesville.