The Pardee Home is a

house A house is a single-unit residential building. It may range in complexity from a rudimentary hut to a complex structure of wood, masonry, concrete or other material, outfitted with plumbing, electrical, and heating, ventilation, and air cond ...

Oakland, California Oakland is the largest city and the county seat of Alameda County, California, United States. A major West Coast port, Oakland is the largest city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, the third largest city overall in the ...

. It was the home of three generations of the Pardee family. It is now a non-profit

museum A museum ( ; plural museums or, rarely, musea) is a building or institution that cares for and displays a collection of artifacts and other objects of artistic, cultural, historical, or scientific importance. Many public museums make th ...

showing over 100 years of the life of a prominent California family. The house, a well-preserved example of

Italianate architecture The Italianate style was a distinct 19th-century phase in the history of Classical architecture. Like Palladianism and Neoclassicism, the Italianate style drew its inspiration from the models and architectural vocabulary of 16th-century Italian ...

, is a city landmark, a

California Historical Landmark A California Historical Landmark (CHL) is a building, structure, site, or place in California that has been determined to have statewide historical landmark significance. Criteria Historical significance is determined by meeting at least one of ...

, and listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...

. The house was constructed in 1868 by

California State Senator The California State Senate is the upper house of the California State Legislature, the lower house being the California State Assembly. The State Senate convenes, along with the State Assembly, at the California State Capitol in Sacramento. D ...

Enoch H. Pardee. His son,

George Pardee George Cooper Pardee (July 25, 1857 – September 1, 1941) was an American doctor of medicine and politician. As the 21st Governor of California, holding office from January 7, 1903, to January 9, 1907, Pardee was the second native-born Californ ...

, a

Governor of California The governor of California is the head of government of the U.S. state of California. The governor is the commander-in-chief of the California National Guard and the California State Guard. Established in the Constitution of California, t ...

, also inhabited the house, inheriting it after his father's death. After George's death in 1941, it passed on to his two daughters, Madeline and Helen (the same name as her mother), who lived in the house until their deaths in 1980 and 1981 respectively. The interior of the house is the main attraction of the museum. George's wife Helen collected knick-knacks from all over the world, including

scrimshaw Scrimshaw is scrollwork, engravings, and carvings done in bone or ivory. Typically it refers to the artwork created by whalers, engraved on the byproducts of whales, such as bones or cartilage. It is most commonly made out of the bones and teeth ...

from

Alaska Alaska ( ; russian: Аляска, Alyaska; ale, Alax̂sxax̂; ; ems, Alas'kaaq; Yup'ik: ''Alaskaq''; tli, Anáaski) is a state located in the Western United States on the northwest extremity of North America. A semi-exclave of the U ...

, tobacco pipes from the

Philippines The Philippines (; fil, Pilipinas, links=no), officially the Republic of the Philippines ( fil, Republika ng Pilipinas, links=no), * bik, Republika kan Filipinas * ceb, Republika sa Pilipinas * cbk, República de Filipinas * hil, Republ ...

, and a giant elk head. She was fond of giving house tours to show off her collection. All of the furnishings are original and the house looks as it did in 1981. The original

carriage house A carriage house, also called a remise or coach house, is an outbuilding which was originally built to house horse-drawn carriages and the related tack. In Great Britain the farm building was called a cart shed. These typically were open ...

and

stable A stable is a building in which livestock, especially horses, are kept. It most commonly means a building that is divided into separate stalls for individual animals and livestock. There are many different types of stables in use today; the ...

are still standing and the entire complex is part of Oakland's Preservation Park Historic District. The house was to be demolished for the construction of

Interstate 980 Interstate 980 (I-980) is a short auxiliary Interstate Highway entirely within Oakland in Northern California, connecting I-580 and State Route 24 (SR 24) to I-880 near Downtown Oakland. I-980 passes the Oakland Convention Cen ...

, but conservationists were able to save the building. It opened as a public museum in 1991.

References

External links

Pardee Home web sitePreservation Park web siteHistoric American Buildings Survey. Photographs, October 1960. Description and history, January 1966
{{Oakland Attractions Houses in Oakland, California California Historical Landmarks History of Oakland, California Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in California National Register of Historic Places in Oakland, California Italianate architecture in California Victorian architecture in California Houses completed in 1869 Museums in Oakland, California Historic house museums in California Houses in Alameda County, California 1869 establishments in California