The Chambers Mansion is a historic house that was built in 1887, and is located at 2220 Sacramento Street in the

Pacific Heights Pacific Heights is a neighborhood in San Francisco, California. It has panoramic views of the Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco Bay, the Palace of Fine Arts, Alcatraz, and the Presidio. The Pacific Heights Residents Association defines the neig ...

neighborhood of

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

. In 2010,

CBS News CBS News is the news division of the American television and radio service CBS. CBS News television programs include the ''CBS Evening News'', ''CBS Mornings'', news magazine programs '' CBS News Sunday Morning'', '' 60 Minutes'', and '' 48 H ...

declared the Chambers Mansion one of the "scariest haunted houses" in the United States, based on stories of its dark history. The house is listed as one of the

San Francisco Designated Landmark This is a list of San Francisco Designated Landmarks. In 1967, the city of San Francisco, California adopted Article 10 of the Planning Code, providing the city with the authority to designate and protect landmarks from inappropriate alterations. ...

, since October 5, 1980.

History

The architect for the house was Julius Case Mathews and the firm J. C. Mathews & Son. The architectural style is Queen Anne Victorian with Gothic and Tuscan details. The Chambers Mansion was built in 1877 for R. C. Chambers (Robert Craig, sometimes incorrectly identified as Richard Craig; 1832–1901); and for his wife Eudora T. (

née A birth name is the name of a person given upon birth. The term may be applied to the surname, the given name, or the entire name. Where births are required to be officially registered, the entire name entered onto a birth certificate or birth re ...

Tolles; 1848–1897). Chambers was an Utah mining tycoon, banker, and politician. Eudora Tolles Chambers died in 1897 at the age 48/49, following suicide attempts. After Chamber's death in 1901 and with no direct heirs, his house in San Francisco was inherited. There are conflicting stories about who inherited the house; some stories say his younger sister Ada Chambers; and other stories say it was either his two nieces (or Eudora's two nieces Lillian and Harriet). In 1917, an addition was added to the house by architect Houghton Sawyer. In 1977,

Bob Pritikin Robert C. Pritikin (May 6, 1929–February 13, 2022), commonly known as Bob Pritikin, was an American advertising executive, creative director, author, art collector, and ''bon vivant'' active on the San Francisco social scene. Early life and ca ...

opened the "Mansion Hotel", a bed and breakfast at the Chambers Mansion. The decor as a hotel was eclectic and featured nightly magic shows. In 2000, he sold the hotel, by then it was designated a city landmark, and was converted into two private townhouses.

Haunting and folklore

The Chambers Mansion has been the subject of many stories. The most popular (but untrue) story is Chamber's niece Claudia Chambers lived with her sister in the inherited house, and the sisters did not get along. In 1917, they built a second house on the property so they could live separately. Claudia was murdered, she was sawed in half in what the family claimed as a farming accident. The ghost of Claudia has been seen haunting the house. However nobody named "Claudia Chambers" ever lived in the house, per city records.

References

{{Authority control San Francisco Designated Landmarks Houses completed in 1887 1887 establishments in California Haunted hotels Houses in San Francisco Reportedly haunted locations in San Francisco Queen Anne architecture in California

History

Haunting and folklore

See also

References