Lest we forget… Today is the fifty-ninth anniversary of the D-day Normandy invasion landings.
I’m not one to stand on sentiment, but the cost was very high that day, and I for one, wish to remember those sacrifices made.
On with today’s column…
On that last trip down to the Disneyland Resort, we took one of the “official” guided tours. While that’s the subject of a future column, there was one story that came out that is worth sharing with you.
Seems that Walt was giving an interview to a British journalist about the park. Somewhere along the way, this reporter got the idea that Walt was looking to sell the empty mansion overlooking the banks of the Rivers of America to someone. The idea (as related) was to offer a chance to live inside Disneyland.
The story generated all kinds of letters to Disneyland with folks who wanted to buy that house and live inside the “Happiest Place on Earth”. Disney’s PR folks took it all in stride and sent courteous replies thanking these folks, but letting them know this really was not what Walt had meant. Later came the invitation for the ghosts to live in the house, and the rest is theme park history…
Ok, we all have dreams of hitting the big one and retiring to the country to live in a big house, right? Well, watching the PBS series, “Manor House“, got me thinking. In the words of Lefou and Gaston from Disney’s “Beauty and the Beast”, “A dangerous pastime.” “I know.”
Well, what if your family had such a house? Could you see yourself living the good life in all the luxury that would go along with it? Don’t know about the rest of you, but I certainly could! And if fate had been a small bit kinder, probably would have…
So, with this week’s column, I’ll take you back to what could have been the family mansion, high atop San Francicsco’s “Nob Hill”. Yes, the Colton mansion, located at the corner of California Street and Taylor Street. Once upon a time, that is or was…
Today, this is the location of Huntington Park and you’ll find no notation of the name “Colton” anywhere about. It’s a nice place, right across the street from Grace Cathedral. (If you ever saw the mini-series, “More Tales of the City”, and the church at the end of it, yup, that’s the place!) On the other side of the park is the Pacific Union club, formerly the home of “Bonanza King” James Flood. It’s the last of the grand mansions that gave this hill its name. Nob is a contraction of the Hindu word nabob or nawwab: “a person, especially a European, who has made a large fortune in India or another country of the East; a very wealthy or powerful person.
Recall the previous column about Billy Ralston? He was a contemporary of the people who built their grand homes here. Think the real estate mantra of “location, location, location” and you get why they built here. A view of the city and the bay was unmatched (and still is pretty impressive today!). California Street is one heck of a steep hill. In the days when the horse drawn streetcars were high tech transportation, it presented a real challenge. Andrew Halladie put steam power to work and using cable ropes created a system to pull the cars up the hill. Over 100 years later, cable cars still climb the street from the financial district up to the top of the hill.
Among the men who built mansions here were the “Big Four”. Leland Stanford, Mark Hopkins, Collis P Huntington and Charles Crocker were the men who reaped the rewards from participation in the Transcontinental railroad with the Central Pacific. The fortunes they made were the result of hard work and being in the right place in the right business at just the right time. Huntington and Hopkins had a hardware store right next to the Sacramento River landing where thousands of fortune seekers came ashore. Leland Stanford was one of brothers who also had a mercantile business in Sacramento, and had become governor of California in 1861. Charlie Crocker also was a Sacramento merchant and politician. All of them put their influences to work in ways that California still feels the results of today.
So, I can hear you asking, “How does Colton come into play here?”
It does in the presence of David Douty Colton. He was often referred to as the fifth member of the “Big Four” by businessmen of the day. Rightly so, as he had smartly managed to become involved in many of the enterprises of the others. When they prospered, likewise did he. How he got to that position is a tale worth telling. Like many men of that era, he had taken advantage of opportunities presented by the growing West.
A native of Maine, he came west like many others in search of greater fortune. (About the only reference of note are the chapters of the Oscar Lewis book, “The Big Four” (first published by Alfred A. Knopf in 1938) relating to his involvement with the Central Pacific Railroad.) While still under twenty-five, he became an integral piece in one of California’s political organizations. That piqued his interests in organization and manipulation, but not in actual political office. One term as sheriff in a Northern California county took care of that, but he did have affection for the title of “General” from and early connection with state militia.
He had the good fortune to gain real estate in the City that would pay off handsomely in later years. After the War Between the States, he went east and studied law at Albany, New York. Returning to California, he formed a law partnership and set about exerting political influence, with appropriate social connections. Putting friendship to work, he used his connections with Charles Crocker to his benefit. Taking on the role of financial director for the Central and Southern Pacific railroads, he made the best of investments and opportunities afforded him. Local wags joked that he was the fifth member of the “Big Four”.
By 1872, he had given up the law practice and was enjoying prosperity. Five years after his return from Albany, he had completed the mansion on Nob Hill, and his ranch on the slopes of Mount Diablo (across the bay from San Francisco). In those days, Contra Costa County was agricultural in nature and profession. Much of the property was arranged as it had been under Spanish land grants. Some smart folks had taken their Gold Rush profits and invested in businesses in some of the small towns (such as Walnut Creek — at the crossing of two major roads) in the area. Others took advantage of the changing times and bought land from the owners. Such was the case with David Colton’s Mount Diablo ranch. On the southwest slopes of the mountain, this property offered good grazing and pasture land and was just secluded enough to become a favored spot for the “General” and his family.
It was here that fate played it hand when David Colton was thrown from a horse in early October of 1878 while riding at the ranch. On October 10, he passed away as the result of the injuries received. In the wake of that event, his railroad partners sprang into action to preserve their interests.
Among the many tasks David Colton performed, perhaps the most important during his tenure was that of political lobbying or as it is better known today, influence peddling. His task was to convince legislators to vote in what ever were the best interests of the “Big Four” and their properties. Everything from railroad stock, bonds, to free transportation and more was provided in return for a favorable consideration. Unknown to his partners, he kept copies of over 600 pieces of correspondence related to those transactions.
David Colton had also taken on the liability of a one million-dollar note during his time with the railroad barons. Had he not passed away, it is very likely that he would have been able to pay. However, from what Lewis describes, it appears that Huntington (who was not as enamored of Colton as Crocker was) took advantage of the situation and coerced the grieving widow into surrendering all of the railroad-related securities issued to Colton, even a number of shares given to one of his daughters as a wedding present. The threat of scandal, accounted for by the question of embezzlement by Colton from the railroad, was held over the widow to secure her cooperation.
She later reconsidered that and decided she had indeed be taken advantage of by the surviving railroad partners (Crocker, Huntington and Stanford). A series of trials brought forth into the light of public scrutiny the business practices of the railroads — especially the influence buying. David Colton had kept meticulous records of correspondence, and these served to damn the railroads and their owners, as each one of those letters was read into the court records. After several trials, he was cleared of embezzlement charges, but his widow was denied the return of the securities as the court held that she had given them up with out duress.
Along the way, circumstances forced Ellen White Colton to sell the house in the early 1890’s. She wasn’t poor by any means. David Colton’s other interests outside the railroad did provide income to support her; maybe not just in the fashion to which she had become accustomed.
The view of the house below shows it as it appeared in 1875. The photo was one of two that appear in Oscar Lewis, “Big Four” book, along with a portrait of David Colton. The Colton mansion is the white structure in the middle with the Crocker residence in the rear. The unpaved street in the foreground is California Street (which would see the arrival of cable cars soon after).
The buyer for the house was none other than Collis P. Huntington — the same man who had so adroitly coerced the widow into surrendering much of the estate back to the railroad interests. Huntington was likely influenced to make the purchase by his second wife and her penchant for the finer things in life. He had been spending much of his time elsewhere with visits to the Pacific Coast reduced to twice-yearly trips. As Lewis put it, “His dislike for California and, in particular, for San Francisco, increased as he grew older.” After the Colton trial, and the exposure of the political dealings, such dislike may not be unexpected. Before the purchase of the Colton house, Huntington had taken a number of rooms at the Palace Hotel as his headquarters for his stays in the City. It was the place where power and influence were both in evidence among its guests.
In the fall of 1892, society newspaper columns noted the arrival of Mrs. C.P. Huntington and her plans to renovate the structure inside and out. Lewis refers to the Colton house as a “modest structure when compared to its baroque neighbor”, and tells that local critics regarded the circumstance of its location as “unfortunate” with the “fantastic redwood mansion” of Charles Crocker tending to “kill” its neighbor across Taylor Street.
Exterior views of the home are out there in a fair number. The Bancroft Library has a number of them available online as part of the Online Archive of California. While I have never seen any images of the interior, one would guess that some must exist. As photography was one of the growing arts of the day, it might be assumed that some image was captured at some point during or after the renovations.
Huntington also took over the Mount Diablo property and ranch of David Colton, and established the Oakwood Stock Farm. However, he did keep on the managers of the property — David Colton’s daughter and son-in-law. The bulk of that property became the Diablo Country Club, and is today a somewhat upscale community with appropriate property values.
Huntington died in 1900, and his widow, Arabella Duval Huntington maintained the house as one of her residences.
April 18, 1906 changed a lot of things in the City. As much as the earthquake did initial damage, it was the fires that followed that were the real devastation. The Colton/Huntington house was one of the Nob Hill casualties, with then house not to be rebuilt afterwards. She donated the property to the City of San Francisco, and it was designated “Huntington Park”.
In yet another twist of fate, Arabella married Collis nephew and another heir, Henry E. Huntington after his divorce in 1906. Henry went on to influence the development of a great deal of Southern California real estate, along with the famed Pacific Electric Railway and founded the museum/library that bears the family name in San Marino.
David Colton’s legacy? Well, it is an interesting tale. He left a wife and two daughters and no male heir. And as far as I know, there is no direct family link from my branch to his, but I’m still looking for more details in the family trees.
After all of the political influence peddling was revealed the state government was forever changed in California. Perhaps the most direct result was the way in which public utilities are regulated. California once had a railroad commission in Sacramento. And with the state government so influenced by the railroad, well what ever was good for the railroad was obviously good for the state, right?
So with that in mind during a bout of political reforms, the California Public Utilities Commission was established in San Francisco, instead of in Sacramento. The idea was to keep the politicians out of the utility business by putting distance between them.
And if we haven’t had enough irony so far, last year California got another taste of this with the state and the governor getting involved in the power crisis by setting prices.
The more things change, etc…
So there you have it. The tale of the Colton mansion… in a round about way. Had fate smiled upon the Colton’s a bit, I might be writing this from atop Nob Hill in San Francisco.
Them’s the breaks…
Next week: After the latest round of Jim Hill Media tours at Disneyland, Roger offers a glimpse into the “official” Disneyland tours — complete with a few surprises. Hope you’ll enjoy it.
And in future weeks… Roger’s going to broaden your horizons by taking you out to explore some things you may have thought you would never be able to do (Hello, fantasies? And none of that, this is a family site!), but actually can! To start with, it will be trains, planes and automobiles — in three amusing efforts. So stay tuned for more adventures…
If this tale has amused you, why not show your support by clicking on the link for Roger’s Amazon Paybox? Every little bit helps!