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Photo, Print, Drawing Bidwell Mansion, 525 Esplanade Street, Chico, Butte County, CA

[ Drawings from Survey HABS CA-1317  ]

More Resources

[ Data Pages from Survey HABS CA-1317  ]

About this Item

Title

  • Bidwell Mansion, 525 Esplanade Street, Chico, Butte County, CA

Names

  • Historic American Buildings Survey, creator
  • Cleaveland, Henry W.
  • Bidwell, John
  • Bidwell, Annie Kennedy
  • Rancho Arroyo Chico
  • General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church
  • Chico Normal School
  • Chico State College
  • State of California Division of Beaches & Parks
  • Sutter, John
  • Harris
  • Rotsch, Melvin M., project manager
  • Baird, Joseph A., Jr., historian
  • Fong, Robert J., delineator
  • Pitts, James L., field team
  • Spector, Howard O., delineator
  • Brandstatt, Clark, delineator
  • Flathmann, James, delineator

Created / Published

  • Documentation compiled after 1933

Headings

  • -  mansions
  • -  adobe buildings
  • -  horticulture
  • -  gold mining
  • -  historic house museums
  • -  education
  • -  restoration (process)
  • -  people associated with politics & government
  • -  domestic life
  • -  schools
  • -  Italianate architectural elements
  • -  log cabins
  • -  deer parks
  • -  experimental gardens
  • -  Gothic Revival architectural elements
  • -  Georgian architectural elements
  • -  servants' quarters
  • -  towers
  • -  houses
  • -  state parks & reserves
  • -  California--Butte County--Chico

Latitude / Longitude

  • 39.732344,-121.843563

Notes

  • -  For additional documentation, see also HALS CA-63
  • -  Significance: General John Bidwell (B. 1819, D. 1900), early pioneer, farmer, and U.S. Congressman, arrived in California in 1841; he was employed as manager of various holdings of John A. Sutter. Acquiring in 1849 his own ranch lands, he built a log cabin and later an adobe house, and laid out the city of Chico. Beginning in 1865, Bidwell built this Italianate style mansion at a cost of $60,000; he occupied it with his bride in 1868. The house was used as a college facility from 1921 until 1964, when it was acquired as part of the system of California Beaches and Parks; it will be preserved as State Landmark No. 329. John Bidwell was an important figure in California history. One of the successful early gold miners (Bidwell's Bar), he went on to purchase a very large acreage in the Chico area (about 26,000 acres) and to make it into one of the show place farms and horticultural centers of his time. Bidwell's marriage to Annie Kennedy precipitated completion of a great mansion, to replace the early cabin and later two-story adobe house in which Bidwell had been living. Begun in 1864 and completed in 1868, with Henry Cleaveland of San Francisco as architect, the Bidwell Mansion cost between $56,000 and $60,000 to build. A massive residence of brick, with a central tower on the facade and encircling one-story veranda of wood, Bidwell's new Mansion represented the Italian Villa at its purest in California. As the social center of Bidwell's vast Rancho Arroyo Chico, it was a mecca for the great and near-great of his time. After Mrs. Bidwell's death, the house was willed to the Presbyterian Church to be utilized as a Girls School. Due to lack of funds the Mansion was sold in 1921 for $10,000 to the State of California for Chico Normal School (now Chico State College). Used variously by the School, the building is now being restored by the Division of Beaches and Parks and will be a complete House Museum. Rancho Chico and Bidwell Adobe is California Registered Historical Landmark No. 329. The Bidwell Mansion, nearby, was completed in 1868.
  • -  Unprocessed Field note material exists for this structure: FN-184
  • -  Survey number: HABS CA-1317
  • -  Building/structure dates: 1864- 1868 Initial Construction
  • -  Building/structure dates: 1921 Subsequent Work
  • -  Building/structure dates: 1908 Subsequent Work
  • -  Building/structure dates: 1909 Subsequent Work
  • -  National Register of Historic Places NRIS Number: 72000216

Medium

  • Measured Drawing(s): 10
  • Data Page(s): 10

Call Number/Physical Location

  • HABS CAL,4-CHIC,1-

Source Collection

  • Historic American Buildings Survey (Library of Congress)

Repository

Control Number

  • ca0059

Rights Advisory

Online Format

  • image
  • pdf

Rights & Access

The Library of Congress does not own rights to material in its collections. Therefore, it does not license or charge permission fees for use of such material and cannot grant or deny permission to publish or otherwise distribute the material.

Ultimately, it is the researcher's obligation to assess copyright or other use restrictions and obtain permission from third parties when necessary before publishing or otherwise distributing materials found in the Library's collections.

For information about reproducing, publishing, and citing material from this collection, as well as access to the original items, see: Historic American Buildings Survey/Historic American Engineering Record/Historic American Landscape Survey (HABS/HAER/HALS) Collection - Rights and Restrictions Information

  • Rights Advisory: No known restrictions on images made by the U.S. Government; images copied from other sources may be restricted. https://aj.sunback.homes/rr/print/res/114_habs.html
  • Reproduction Number: ---
  • Call Number: HABS CAL,4-CHIC,1-
  • Access Advisory: ---

Obtaining Copies

If Digital Images Are Displaying

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    • Make note of the Survey Number (e.g., HAER NY - 143) and Sheet Number (e.g., "Sheet 1 of 4"), which appear on the edge of the drawing. (NOTE: These numbers are visible in the Tiff "Reference Image" display.)
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  • Data Pages
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  • Visit the Prints & Photographs Reading Room and request to view the group (general information about service in the reading room is available at: https://aj.sunback.homes/rr/print/info/001_ref.html). It is best to contact reference staff in advance (see: https://aj.sunback.homes/rr/print/address.html) to make sure the material is on site. OR
  • P&P reading room staff can provide up to 15 quick copies of items per calendar year (many original items in the holdings are too old or fragile to make such copies, but generally HABS/HAER/HALS materials are in good enough condition to be placed on photocopy machines). For assistance, see our Ask a Librarian page OR
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  • You can purchase copies of various types, including quick copies, through Library of Congress Duplication Services (price lists, contact information, and order forms for Library of Congress Duplication Services are available on the Duplication Services Web site):
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    • No, the item is not digitized. Please go to #2.
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Cite This Item

Citations are generated automatically from bibliographic data as a convenience, and may not be complete or accurate.

Chicago citation style:

Historic American Buildings Survey, Creator, Henry W Cleaveland, John Bidwell, Annie Kennedy Bidwell, Rancho Arroyo Chico, General Assembly Of The Presbyterian Church, Chico Normal School, et al. Bidwell Mansion, 525 Esplanade Street, Chico, Butte County, CA. Chico Butte County California, 1933. Documentation Compiled After. Photograph. https://aj.sunback.homes/item/ca0059/.

APA citation style:

Historic American Buildings Survey, C., Cleaveland, H. W., Bidwell, J., Bidwell, A. K., Rancho Arroyo Chico, General Assembly Of The Presbyterian Church [...] Flathmann, J. (1933) Bidwell Mansion, 525 Esplanade Street, Chico, Butte County, CA. Chico Butte County California, 1933. Documentation Compiled After. [Photograph] Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://aj.sunback.homes/item/ca0059/.

MLA citation style:

Historic American Buildings Survey, Creator, et al. Bidwell Mansion, 525 Esplanade Street, Chico, Butte County, CA. Documentation Compiled After. Photograph. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, <aj.sunback.homes/item/ca0059/>.