History
The original owner and builder of the home was Sacramento merchant Shelton C. Fogus, a wealthy Sacramento building merchant. The Renaissance Revival architecture of the original home is attributed to Seth Babson. Leland Stanford, a rising member of the Republican Party and president of the Central Pacific Railroad, 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. Succeeding governors Frederick Low 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. As Stanford had had to attend his gubernatorial inauguration by rowboat in 1862, the home was raised twelve feet in response to frequent flooding from the Sacramento River. In addition, one story was added to both the bottom and top of the mansion. The home was also expanded from 4,000 square feet (370 m2) to 19,000, and redesigned to reflect the French Second Empire architecture popular of the period, particularly in the 4th floor Mansard roof 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 Lathrop Stanford continued to oversee the home. In 1900, Jane Stanford donated the home to the Roman Catholic Diocese of Sacramento to be used for the children of California. It was given to the Sisters of Mercy who ran it as an orphanage named the Stanford and Lathrop Memorial Home for Friendless Children.
In 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. The mansion was designated a State Historical Landmark in 1957.
In 1978, the government of California 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 Service declared the mansion as a National Historic Landmark 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.
Read more about this topic: Leland Stanford Mansion State Historic Park
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