Near downtown Oakland, inside the Preservation Park historic district, stands an 1868 Italianate villa with a cupola on top. The Pardee Home Museum calls it the finest intact Italianate villa estate left in Northern California. Its biggest draw is that almost nothing inside has changed.
Three generations
State Sen. Enoch H. Pardee built the house. His son George Pardee, who became governor of California, inherited it. After George died in 1941, his daughters Madeline and Helen lived there until their deaths in 1980 and 1981. The museum says all of its furnishings and collections are original, showing the family's life in the house from 1869 to 1981.
George's wife, Helen, collected objects from around the world, including scrimshaw from Alaska, tobacco pipes from the Philippines and a giant elk head. She liked to give tours to show them off.
The freeway that missed
The house was slated for demolition to make way for Interstate 980, but preservationists saved it. The museum says the all-redwood carriage house was also threatened by an on-ramp. It survives with its horse stalls, tack room and hayloft stairway. The home opened as a public museum in 1991. It's a city landmark, a California Historical Landmark and on the National Register of Historic Places.
Taking the tour
Guided tours run at 10:30 a.m. on the second and third Saturdays of each month, by reservation at least a week ahead. Wait for confirmation before you go. Private group tours can be arranged any day between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. Tours last about an hour to an hour and a half and are a $10 donation per person, paid at the door by cash or check. Children 12 and under and members are free.
The tour covers the three formal front parlors, the back parlor and dining room, then the upstairs bedrooms, billiard room, curio room and cabinets of Mrs. Pardee's antiquities. Visitors can also climb into the cupola. It ends in the gardens and carriage house. Check the museum's events calendar for holiday closures.