Dunsmuir House facts for kids
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Dunsmuir House
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| Location | Oakland, California |
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| Built | 1899 |
| Architect | Eugene Freeman |
| Architectural style | Neoclassical Revival |
| NRHP reference No. | 72000214 |
Quick facts for kids Significant dates |
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| Added to NRHP | May 19, 1972 |
The Dunsmuir House and Gardens is a beautiful old estate in Oakland, California. It's also known as The Dunsmuir-Hellman Historic Estate. This amazing place has a special architectural style called Neoclassical Revival. It's so important that it's listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places. Today, it's a popular spot for weddings, parties, business meetings, and fun historical events. The estate covers about 50 acres (20 hectares) of land.
Contents
History of the Estate
Building the Dunsmuir House
The Dunsmuir House was built in 1899. A rich man named Alexander Dunsmuir had it built. His father, Robert Dunsmuir, was a very successful coal businessman from Victoria, Canada. Alexander came to the San Francisco Bay Area in 1878 to help run the family business.
He planned for the house to be a special wedding gift for his new wife. Sadly, he got sick and passed away during their honeymoon in New York. His wife moved into the house but also passed away soon after, in 1901.
The Hellman Family Buys the Estate
In 1906, I.W. Hellman Jr. bought the estate. His family used it as their summer home. By 1913, the mansion was made bigger. This was to fit their growing family and all the cool things they collected from their trips to Europe.
Mrs. Hellman kept the estate even after her husband passed away in 1920. She owned it until the 1950s. During this time, they added a swimming pool and another building called the Dinkelspiel House. They also made many improvements to the gardens on the northern part of the estate.
The Estate Becomes Public
In the early 1960s, the City of Oakland bought the mansion and its lands. They wanted to use it as a conference center. When that plan didn't work out, a special group was formed in 1971. This group wanted to save and fix up the estate for everyone to enjoy. For many years, this group and the City worked together to run the estate.
In June 1989, the special group took over most of the management. They named the grounds the Dunsmuir House and Gardens. Their main goal was to make it a place for learning about history, culture, and plants. The mansion is now on the National Register of Historic Places. Both the mansion and the Carriage House are also special Historic Landmarks for the City of Oakland.
Grounds and Gardens
The Dunsmuir gardens are truly beautiful. It's believed that John McLaren, who designed Golden Gate Park, helped the Hellmans with their garden plans. The gardens have many different kinds of trees. You can see Camperdown Elms, Bunya-Bunya, and Hornbeam trees.
The Hellman estate also had a golf course and a formal croquet court. There was a tennis court and a swimming pool with a cool Mission-style bathhouse. You could find a glass conservatory with a grotto, a fancy birdhouse (aviary), a formal garden maze, and a Japanese garden. Wild animals like deer, turkeys, and water fowl also live on the estate.
The Mansion
The Dunsmuir mansion was designed by architect J. Eugene Freeman from San Francisco. It's a great example of Neoclassical-Revival architecture. This style was very popular in the late 1800s. The mansion has 37 rooms and is very large, about 16,224 square feet.
Inside, you'll find 10 fireplaces and a beautiful dome in the style of Tiffany. The public rooms have fancy wood panels and special inlaid parquet floors. There were even servant quarters designed to house up to 12 live-in staff members.
Visiting and Current Uses
You can take tours of the Dunsmuir Mansion and its grounds. Guides lead these tours on Wednesdays and the first Sunday of the month. These tours happen from April to September, except for July.
The non-profit group that runs the estate also rents out parts of the property. People use it for weddings, company events, auctions, and historical reenactment gatherings. The estate has also been used as a filming location for several movies and TV shows, such as:
- Burnt Offerings (1976)
- Phantasm (1979)
- Partners in Crime (1984)
- A View to a Kill (1985)
- The Vineyard (1989)
- So I Married an Axe Murderer (1993)
- Nash Bridges (1996)
- Gloria (1999)
- True Crime (1999)
- Case #13 (2014 film)
- Delirium (2018)
