Leland Stanford Mansion State Historic Park is a state and federally protected area in Sacramento,
CaliforniaCalifornia is the most populous state in the United States, and the third largest by area. California is the second most populous sub-national entity in the Americas, behind only São Paulo, Brazil...
. It features the
Leland Stanford House, a
mansionA mansion is a very large dwelling house. U.S. realtors define a mansion as a dwelling of over . A traditional European mansion was defined as a house which contained a ballroom and tens of bedrooms...
once owned by
Leland StanfordAmasa Leland Stanford was an American tycoon, politician and founder of Stanford University.-Early years:Stanford was born in the town of Watervliet, New York on March 9, in 1824; in what is now the town of Colonie. He was one of eight children of Josiah and Elizabeth Phillips Stanford...
,
Governor of CaliforniaThe Governor of California is the highest executive authority in the California state government, whose responsibilities include making annual "State of the State" addresses to the California State Legislature, submitting the budget, and ensuring that state laws are enforced.The position was...
from 1862 to 1863, U.S. Senator from 1885 to 1893, railroad tycoon, member of the Big Four and founder of
Stanford UniversityThe Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university located in Stanford, California, United States...
. The house was designated a
National Historic LandmarkA National Historic Landmark is a building, site, structure, object, or district, that is officially recognized by the United States government for its historical significance. All NHLs are listed in the National Register of Historic Places...
in 1987.
The original owner and builder of the home was Sacramento merchant Shelton C.
Leland Stanford Mansion State Historic Park is a state and federally protected area in Sacramento,
CaliforniaCalifornia is the most populous state in the United States, and the third largest by area. California is the second most populous sub-national entity in the Americas, behind only São Paulo, Brazil...
. It features the
Leland Stanford House, a
mansionA mansion is a very large dwelling house. U.S. realtors define a mansion as a dwelling of over . A traditional European mansion was defined as a house which contained a ballroom and tens of bedrooms...
once owned by
Leland StanfordAmasa Leland Stanford was an American tycoon, politician and founder of Stanford University.-Early years:Stanford was born in the town of Watervliet, New York on March 9, in 1824; in what is now the town of Colonie. He was one of eight children of Josiah and Elizabeth Phillips Stanford...
,
Governor of CaliforniaThe Governor of California is the highest executive authority in the California state government, whose responsibilities include making annual "State of the State" addresses to the California State Legislature, submitting the budget, and ensuring that state laws are enforced.The position was...
from 1862 to 1863, U.S. Senator from 1885 to 1893, railroad tycoon, member of the Big Four and founder of
Stanford UniversityThe Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university located in Stanford, California, United States...
. The house was designated a
National Historic LandmarkA National Historic Landmark is a building, site, structure, object, or district, that is officially recognized by the United States government for its historical significance. All NHLs are listed in the National Register of Historic Places...
in 1987.
History
The original owner and builder of the home was Sacramento merchant Shelton C. Fogus, a wealthy Sacramento building merchant, while the Renaissance Revival architecture of the original home is attributed to Seth Babson.
Leland StanfordAmasa Leland Stanford was an American tycoon, politician and founder of Stanford University.-Early years:Stanford was born in the town of Watervliet, New York on March 9, in 1824; in what is now the town of Colonie. He was one of eight children of Josiah and Elizabeth Phillips Stanford...
, a rising member of the Republican Party and president of the
Central Pacific RailroadThe Central Pacific Railroad was the California-to-Utah portion of the First Transcontinental Railroad in North America.Many proposals to build a transcontinental railroad failed because of the disputes over slavery in Washington; with the secession of the South, the modernizers in the Republican...
, purchased the home for $8,000 in June 1861, shortly before his election to the governorship in the general elections that year. During his two-year governorship, the Stanford Mansion served as the state's executive office and living quarters. Proceeding governors
Frederick LowFrederick Ferdinand Low was an American politician, US congressman and governor of California.-Life:Born in Frankfort in 1828, Low attended the Hampden Academy in Hampden, Maine. Low moved to California, entering the shipping business in San Francisco in 1849...
and Henry Huntly Haight would also make the mansion their office.
Between 1871 to 1872, the Stanford family embarked on an ambitious remodeling of the residence. The home was raised twelve feet in response to frequent flooding from the
Sacramento RiverThe Sacramento River is the longest river entirely within the state of California. Starting at the confluence of the South Fork and Middle Fork of the Sacramento River, near Mount Shasta in the Cascade Range mountains, the Sacramento flows south for , through the northern Central Valley of...
, as Stanford had attended his gubernatorial inauguration by rowboat in 1862. In addition, one-story was added to the bottom and top of the mansion each. The home was also expanded from 4,000 square feet to 19,000, and redesigned to reflect the
FrenchFrance , officially the French Republic , is a country located in Western Europe, with several overseas islands and territories located on other continents. Metropolitan France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, and from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean...
Second EmpireIn the United States, the Second Empire style usually combined a rectangular tower, or similar element, with a steep, but short, mansard roof; the roof being the most noteworthy link to the style’s French roots. This tower element could be of equal height as the highest floor, or could exceed the...
architecture popular of the period, particularly in the 4th floor
Mansard roofA Mansard or mansard roof in architecture refers to a style of hip roof characterized by two slopes on each of its four sides with the lower slope being much steeper, almost a vertical wall, while the upper slope, usually not visible from the ground, is pitched at the minimum needed to shed water...
that caps the home. The result was a four-story remodeled architectural sandwich in which the original 2-story house sat between the added floors.
Following Stanford's death in 1893, his widow
Jane StanfordJane Stanford , was the daughter of a shopkeeper and lived on Washington Avenue in Albany, New York. She wed Leland Stanford in 1850. They headed west, first to Wisconsin and then to California...
continued to oversee the home. In 1900, Stanford donated the home to the
Roman Catholic Diocese of SacramentoThe Roman Catholic Diocese of Sacramento is an ecclesiastical territory or diocese of the Roman Catholic Church in the northern California region of the United States...
to be used for the children of California. It was given to the
Sisters of MercyThe Religious Order of the Sisters of Mercy is an order of Catholic women founded by Catherine McAuley in Dublin, Ireland in 1831. , the order has about 10,000 members worldwide, organized into a number of independent congregations....
who ran it as an
orphanageOrphanage is the name to describe a residential institution devoted to the care of orphans – children whose parents are deceased or otherwise unable to care for them...
named the Stanford and Lathrop Memorial Home for Friendless Children.
In the 1932, the home was handed over the Sisters of Social Service who eventually transformed the mansion from an orphanage to a residence for dependent high school girls. A fire in the mansion in 1940 brought considerable damage to the fourth floor. During the same decade, the mansion was designated a State Historical Landmark in 1957.
In 1978, the
government of CaliforniaCalifornia is governed as a republic, with three branches of government, the executive branch consisting of the Governor of California and the other elected constitutional officers, the legislative branch, the California State Legislature, consisting of the Assembly and Senate, and the judicial...
acquired the property for use as a state park. The Sisters of Social Services would remain on the grounds until 1987, when California State Parks designated the mansion and the immediate surrounding land as a state historic park. Following the state's decision, the
National Park ServiceThe National Park Service is the U.S. federal agency that manages all national parks, many national monuments, and other conservation and historical properties with various title designations...
designated the mansion as a
National Historic LandmarkA National Historic Landmark is a building, site, structure, object, or district, that is officially recognized by the United States government for its historical significance. All NHLs are listed in the National Register of Historic Places...
on May 28, 1987. It was not until September 2005 that the mansion would finally be open to public tours, after 20 million dollars worth of renovation and rehabilitation.
Restoration
Beginning in 1991, with the help Sacramento businessman and former
Stanford UniversityThe Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university located in Stanford, California, United States...
professor Peter McCuen, the Stanford Mansion underwent a 14-year renovation at the cost $22 million dollars. Accurate restoration of the home and its rooms was aided by both an extensive study of the home in 1986 through the
Historic American Buildings SurveyThe Historic American Buildings Survey , Historic American Engineering Record , and Historic American Landscapes Survey are programs of the National Park Service established for the purpose of documenting historic places. Records consists of measured drawings, archival photographs, and written...
, and through a large collection of photographs of the home taken in 1868 by
Alfred A. HartAlfred A. Hart was a 19th century American photographer for the Central Pacific Railroad. Hart was the official photographer of the western half of the first transcontinental railroad, for which he took 364 historic stereoviews of the railroad construction in the 1860s...
, and again in 1872 by
Eadweard MuybridgeEadweard J. Muybridge was an English photographer, known primarily for his important pioneering work, with use of multiple cameras to capture motion, and his zoopraxiscope, a device for projecting motion pictures that pre-dated the celluloid film strip that is still used today."....
.
The repairs and restoration were completed in 2005, where the mansion again opened to the public. California State Parks offers guided tours through the fully refurbished home. Visitors today, as then, must climb a full story to enter the home's original ground floor. Most rooms of the house have been restored to their 1872 appearance.
The park is on the corner of 8th Street and N Street in downtown
Sacramento, CaliforniaSacramento is the capital of the U.S. state of California, and the county seat of Sacramento County. Located along the Sacramento River and just south of the American River's confluence in California's expansive Central Valley. With a 2007 estimated population of 460,242, it is the seventh-largest...
, just two blocks away from the
CapitolThe California State Capitol sits in Sacramento, California at the west end of Capitol Park. The grounds are framed by L Street to the north, N Street to the south, 10th Street to the west and 15th Street to the east. The capitol houses the California State Legislature and the office of the...
building. Prior to the reopening of the Stanford Mansion, California did not have a location for the hosting of official functions for nearly 40 years. Today the mansion is frequently used by the
government of CaliforniaCalifornia is governed as a republic, with three branches of government, the executive branch consisting of the Governor of California and the other elected constitutional officers, the legislative branch, the California State Legislature, consisting of the Assembly and Senate, and the judicial...
to host foreign dignitaries. The
Governor of CaliforniaThe Governor of California is the highest executive authority in the California state government, whose responsibilities include making annual "State of the State" addresses to the California State Legislature, submitting the budget, and ensuring that state laws are enforced.The position was...
also retains an office in the mansion. Tours of the mansion are offered daily, but can be impacted by official functions on behalf of the Governor's Office or the
California State LegislatureThe California State Legislature is the state legislature of the U.S. state of California. It is a bicameral body consisting of the lower house, the California State Assembly, with 80 members, and the upper house, the California State Senate, with 40 members...
leadership.
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