The Carson Mansion is a large
Victorian house, constructed from 1884 to 1886 and located in
Old Town
In a city or town, the old town is its historic or original core. Although the city is usually larger in its present form, many cities have redesignated this part of the city to commemorate its origins. In some cases, newer developments on t ...
,
Eureka,
California
California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...
. Regarded as one of the premier examples of
Queen Anne style architecture in the United States
Queen Anne style architecture was one of a number of popular Victorian architecture, Victorian architectural styles that emerged in the United States during the period from roughly 1880 to 1910. It is sometimes grouped as New World Queen Anne R ...
,
the house is "considered the most grand Victorian home in America."
It is one of the most written about and photographed Victorian houses in California and possibly also in the
United States
The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...
.
About
Originally the home of William Carson, one of Northern California's first major lumber barons, it has been a private club since 1950.
The house and grounds are not open to the public.
It is owned and occupied by the private
Ingomar Club.
Carson family history
William Coleman Carson (July 15, 1825 New Brunswick – February 20, 1912 Eureka), for whom the house was built, arrived in
San Francisco
San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...
from
New Brunswick
New Brunswick is a Provinces and Territories of Canada, province of Canada, bordering Quebec to the north, Nova Scotia to the east, the Gulf of Saint Lawrence to the northeast, the Bay of Fundy to the southeast, and the U.S. state of Maine to ...
,
Canada
Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...
, with a group of other woodsmen in 1849.
After rolling out gold slugs in San Francisco, they joined in the northern gold rush, arriving in the Trinity Mountains via the
Eel River and
Humboldt Bay
Humboldt Bay (Wiyot language, Wiyot: ''Wigi'') is a natural bay and a multi-basin, bar-built coastal lagoon located on the rugged North Coast (California), North Coast of California, entirely within Humboldt County, California, Humboldt County, ...
.
They left the Trinity Mountains to overwinter at Humboldt Bay and contracted to provide logs for a small sawmill.
In November 1850, Carson and Jerry Whitmore felled a tree, the first for commercial purposes on Humboldt Bay.
All winter, Carson and his team hauled logs from the Freshwater Slough to the Pioneer Mill on the shores of Humboldt Bay.
In spring, the party went back to the mines where they had previously staked claim on Big Bar by the Trinity River. They built a dam and continued mining until they heard that a large sawmill was being built at Humboldt Bay.
They went south through the Sacramento Valley, bought oxen, and returned to Humboldt Bay by August 1852, where Carson, alone, went into the lumber business permanently.
In 1854, he shipped the first loads of redwood timber to San Francisco. Previously, only fir and spruce had been logged.
In 1863, Carson and
John Dolbeer formed the Dolbeer and Carson Lumber Company. Eighteen years later, in 1881, as the company advanced into areas more difficult to log, Dolbeer invented the
Steam Donkey Engine which revolutionized log removal, especially in hard-to-reach areas. At about the same time, Carson was involved in the founding of the
Eel River and Eureka Railroad with John Vance.
Before commencing the building of his mansion, Carson said, "If I build it poorly, they would say that I am a damned miser; if I build it expensively, they will say I'm a show off; guess I'll just build it to suit myself." In 1884, on the eve of construction of the great home, the company was producing of lumber annually. The milling operations, combined with additional investments as far away as Southern California and at least partial ownerships in schooners used to move the lumber to booming markets on the west coast and all over the globe,
set the stage for the seemingly unlimited budget and access to resources.
Pacific Lumber Company purchased the company in 1950
and maintained milling operations at the original Humboldt Bay site, located bay-side below the house, well into the 1970s. Following the Carson family divestiture of remaining family holdings (including the home) in 1950, the family left the area.
The building was purchased for $35,000 in 1950 by local community business leaders,
and now houses the Ingomar Club, a private club,
which was named after Carson's Ingomar Theater, itself named for Carson's favorite play, ''
Ingomar the Barbarian''.
Architecture
The
house
A house is a single-unit residential building. It may range in complexity from a rudimentary hut to a complex structure of wood, masonry, concrete or other material, outfitted with plumbing, electrical, and heating, ventilation, and air c ...
is a mix of every major style of
Victorian architecture
Victorian architecture is a series of Revivalism (architecture), architectural revival styles in the mid-to-late 19th century. ''Victorian'' refers to the reign of Queen Victoria (1837–1901), called the Victorian era, during which period the st ...
, including but not limited to:
Eastlake,
Italianate
The Italianate style was a distinct 19th-century phase in the history of Classical architecture. Like Palladianism and Neoclassicism, the Italianate style combined its inspiration from the models and architectural vocabulary of 16th-century It ...
,
Queen Anne (primary), and
Stick.
One nationally known architectural historian described the house as "a baronial castle in Redwood..." and stated further that "The illusion of grandeur in the house is heightened by the play on scale, the use of fanciful detail and the handling of mass as separate volumes, topped by a lively roofscape."
The style of the house has been described as "eclectic" and "peculiarly American."
The building has always been maintained and is in nearly the same condition as when it was built.
In May 1964, the house was included in the Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS) as catalog number CA-1911.
This is the only official historical building listing of the house. Although the historic house does merit
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...
status, the Ingomar Club has chosen not to apply for it.
Architects
Samuel Newsom and Joseph Cather Newsom of the firm Newsom and Newsom of San Francisco (and later Los Angeles and Oakland) were nineteenth century builder-architects contracted by Carson to create the house by 1883.
Of their many commissions in California, many of the original buildings remain in addition to the Carson house, including the
Napa Valley Opera House and the
San Dimas Hotel.
One Queen Anne style Victorian house they designed in Eureka was named "The Pink Lady," which William Carson gifted to his son Milton as a wedding present in 1889.
After being sold in 1920, it went through several owners before being inherited by sisters in Germany.
It operated as a rooming house until it was seized as
Nazi
Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right politics, far-right Totalitarianism, totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During H ...
property in 1942.
In 1964, it became the first historic building in Eureka to be restored.
Another of their Queen Anne style designs was built in Eureka in 1982 as the
Carter House Inn.
It is a replica of the 1885 Murphy House in San Francisco, designed by Newsom and Newsom, which was lost in the
1906 San Francisco earthquake
At 05:12 AM Pacific Time Zone, Pacific Standard Time on Wednesday, April 18, 1906, the coast of Northern California was struck by a major earthquake with an estimated Moment magnitude scale, moment magnitude of 7.9 and a maximum Mercalli inte ...
.
In popular culture
Images of the house are prevalent in website designs and video animations as well as on posters, paintings, and book covers. This popularity also has led to replicas being created in amusement parks, including the clock tower on the train station at
Disneyland
Disneyland is a amusement park, theme park at the Disneyland Resort in Anaheim, California. It was the first theme park opened by the Walt Disney Company and the only one designed and constructed under the direct supervision of Walt Disney, ...
.
The home also serves as a model for haunted house artwork and design.
References
Further reading
*
*
External links
The Ingomar Club – Carson Mansion
{{Eureka, California, state=autocollapse
Houses completed in 1886
Queen Anne architecture in California
Victorian architecture in California
Buildings and structures in Eureka, California
History of Humboldt County, California
Landmarks in California
Wooden houses in the United States
Houses in Humboldt County, California
Gilded Age mansions