The James C. Flood Mansion is a historic mansion at 1000 California Street, atop

Nob Hill Nob Hill is a neighborhood of San Francisco, California, United States that is known for its numerous luxury hotels and historic mansions. Nob Hill has historically served as a center of San Francisco's upper class. Nob Hill is among the highes ...

San Francisco, California 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 ...

, USA. Now home of the

Pacific-Union Club The Pacific-Union Club is a social club located at 1000 California Street in San Francisco, California, at the top of Nob Hill. It is considered to be the most elite club of the West Coast, and one of the most elite clubs in the United States, a ...

, it was built in 1886 as the townhouse for

James C. Flood James Clair Flood (October 25, 1826 – February 21, 1889) was an American businessman who made a fortune thanks to the Comstock Lode in Nevada. His mining operations are recounted to this day as an outstanding example of what may be done with a ...

, a 19th-century silver baron. It was the first brownstone building west of the

Mississippi River The Mississippi River is the second-longest river and chief river of the second-largest drainage system in North America, second only to the Hudson Bay drainage system. From its traditional source of Lake Itasca in northern Minnesota, it fl ...

, and the only mansion on Nob Hill to structurally survive the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and fire. It was declared a

National Historic Landmark A National Historic Landmark (NHL) is a building, district, object, site, or structure that is officially recognized by the United States government for its outstanding historical significance. Only some 2,500 (~3%) of over 90,000 places listed ...

in 1966.James Dillon (April 24, 1976) , National Park Service and

Description and history

The Flood Mansion occupies an entire city block on Nob Hill, bounded by California, Taylor, Mason, and Sacramento Streets. The block is fenced on three sides by bronze fencing installed at the time of the mansion's construction. It is a large masonry structure, three stories in height, its exterior finished in brownstone quarried in

Portland, Connecticut Portland is a town in Middlesex County, Connecticut, United States. The population was 9,384 at the 2020 census. The town center is listed as a census-designated place (CDP). It is situated across the Connecticut River from Middletown. Brown ...

and shipped around

Cape Horn Cape Horn ( es, Cabo de Hornos, ) is the southernmost headland of the Tierra del Fuego archipelago of southern Chile, and is located on the small Hornos Island. Although not the most southerly point of South America (which are the Diego Ramí ...

. It is an elaborate expression of Classical Revival architecture, with corner quoining, a balustraded roof edge, and windows framed by pilasters and elaborate pediments. The main entrance, facing California Street, is sheltered by a broad and deep three-bay portico supported by clustered square columns. James Flood Mansion (San Francisco)

The mansion was built by James C. Flood, who made his fortune in the silver mines of

Nevada Nevada ( ; ) is a state in the Western region of the United States. It is bordered by Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast, and Utah to the east. Nevada is the 7th-most extensive, ...

. His inspiration for the building were the

Gilded Age In United States history, the Gilded Age was an era extending roughly from 1877 to 1900, which was sandwiched between the Reconstruction era and the Progressive Era. It was a time of rapid economic growth, especially in the Northern and Wes ...

mansions he saw on the East Coast of the United States, so he commissioned one from architect Augustus Laver. Completed in 1888, it was one of his homes until his death in 1889, and was occupied by his daughter when it was gutted during the 1906 earthquake and fire. She sold the shell of the building to the Pacific-Union Club, which originally contemplated tearing it down. It ended up commissioning

Willis Polk Willis Jefferson Polk (October 3, 1867 – September 10, 1924) was an American architect, best known for his work in San Francisco, California. For ten years, he was the West Coast representative of D.H. Burnham & Company. In 1915, Polk oversaw t ...

to design alterations including a third floor and a new interior. These alterations included the use of additional brownstone, furnished from the same quarries as the original material. The mansion was the only one on Nob Hill to survive the 1906 earthquake and fire; the other mansions on the hill were built of wood, with finishes that gave them the appearance of stone, and were destroyed.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Flood, James C., Mansion Houses in San Francisco Nob Hill, San Francisco Houses completed in 1886 National Register of Historic Places in San Francisco National Historic Landmarks in the San Francisco Bay Area San Francisco Designated Landmarks Historic American Buildings Survey in California Gilded Age mansions Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in San Francisco

Description and history

See also

References

External links