The Tale of Two Sacramento Houses

/ Bulldog Travels

Sacramento, particularly downtown, is full of beautiful old houses.  Featured here are two completely different examples.  The Leland Stanford Mansion and the Curtis Park Dragon House couldn’t be more different.

The Dragon House is a labor of mosaic love by owners who clearly take pride in eccentricity versus the Leland Stanford Mansion, a bastion of the old guard of Victorian Sacramento.  I would venture to guess I wouldn’t be able to give away the Dragon House to some of my friends and family but somehow I find it more interesting than the pure and perfect architecture of the Stanford mansion.

The Stanford mansion, recently rehabilitated, is full of history and Victorian pomp and circumstance and stands as a magnificent example of the time.  It is a well known Sacramento icon which represents the city and even the State for official functions and is a state park during other times.  The mosaic Dragon House is a private bungalow with no official public history, at least not yet.  Yet, when I ask around about it locals all know what and where it is.  It’s more of an unknown Sacramento gem.

Which do you prefer?!

*Happy New Year Everyone!  I hope 2019 brings all of you safe, peaceful, and memorable travels!

17 thoughts on “The Tale of Two Sacramento Houses”

  2. Hmm. Hardly a fair comparison? IMO the tiled dragon wall is an exquisitely (and expensively, no doubt) executed work of art. The front yard is a bit ‘kitschy’ on the other hand. The Stanford Mansion is 150 years old and has great historical value, but I find somewhat plain in exterior rendering, even for that period. Opinions, everyone has a least one and I have many! 🙂 Happy New Year.

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  4. If the Dragon House was available, I’d move in today. And yes, I’d likely begin new landscaping right away, ha ha. I am crazy about old mansions though. I’m so glad the Stanford Mansion has been made into a park so that many people are able to explore it. We have a fabulous place here in Portland called the Pittock Mansion that is open to the public. It wasn’t until I went inside that I could fully appreciate it. I’ll guess the Stanford Mansion is the same. Can people tour the inside?

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    • People can tour the inside! It was closed when I was there because it was pretty early in the morning. It looks magnificent. And a sign mentioned that they use the mansion to host parties on behalf of the government. So I can imagine governor balls or the like. It’s very pretty.

      Also I understand our new governor is moving in to the governors mansion which has been a park for quite some time. It’s a beautiful old creeky Victorian which has been refurbished over the years. I believe Reagan May have been the last to actually live there when in Sacramento. So that should be interesting.

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