The McDonald Mansion, also known as Mableton, is an historic residence in

Santa Rosa, California Santa Rosa ( Spanish for " Saint Rose") is a city and the county seat of Sonoma County, in the North Bay region of the Bay Area in California. Its estimated 2019 population was 178,127. It is the largest city in California's Wine Country and ...

. It was built in 1876 in the Victorian Stick/Eastlake style as a summer home for the McDonald family, whose primary residence was in

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish for " 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 fourth most populous in California and 17th ...

. After the death of the senior McDonalds, the eldest son Mark Jr. and his wife Isabelle eventually became sole owners of Mableton, and made it their primary residence. By the early 1920s, the two began to extensively remodel Mableton to suit their own tastes. In 1959 Mabelton's exterior was used in the filming of

Walt Disney Walter Elias Disney (; December 5, 1901December 15, 1966) was an American animator, film producer and entrepreneur. A pioneer of the American animation industry, he introduced several developments in the production of cartoons. As a film p ...

's ''

Pollyanna ''Pollyanna'' is a 1913 novel by American author Eleanor H. Porter, considered a classic of children's literature. The book's success led to Porter's soon writing a sequel, ''Pollyanna Grows Up'' (1915). Eleven more ''Pollyanna'' sequels, know ...

''. However, film editors altered the look of the McDonald house by using

matte painting A matte painting is a painted representation of a landscape, set, or distant location that allows filmmakers to create the illusion of an environment that is not present at the filming location. Historically, matte painters and film technicians ...

to add several stories to make the building taller, as well as architectural features. In 1977, during a restoration process, a fire destroyed a large part of the house. The owner, Dr. Jack Leissring, rebuilt the house. He sold it in 2005 to technology entrepreneur John Webley and his wife Jennifer. As of 2018, they remain the owners of the house. In 2006, the Rynerson O'Brien Architecture firm began a five-year renovation of the home. The overhaul included restoring the exterior, recreating Victorian theme rooms throughout the home, and adding new features to the backyard.

References

{{commons category, McDonald Mansion Houses in Santa Rosa, California History of Sonoma County, California Houses completed in 1877 Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in California National Register of Historic Places in Sonoma County, California Stick-Eastlake architecture in California 1877 establishments in California Gilded Age mansions