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Health & Fitness

Lady of the House - Living in the Mansion

Small family living in a huge mansion for free

In 1971, an opportunity of a lifetime happened for me, my ex, and my two small children.  There was a 5,800 square foot “mansion” located in Union City known as the Harvey House.  It sat on 13 acres of farm land, along a railroad spur line, and it was recently vacated. Back in those days, there weren't many huge houses like this; today they are not rare at all.

The house and the land were purchased by a developer for the purpose of building a future shopping center. The former owner moved to a place called “Orinda” which I had never heard of. My father-in-law, a city department head, worked with the developer who sold the house to him for $1 with the understanding that the house had to be gone when they were ready to develop the property.

My father-in-law asked my ex and I if we wanted to move into the huge house. At first I said “no” because I was afraid of living there on the land with virtually no neighbors.  But then I told myself it would be a chance of a lifetime and I would be a foolish woman if I let this opportunity slip through my fingers. We went over and toured the house and I fell in love with it.  Our little family of four moved in right away.

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Driving by there for years when I was younger, I always admired the beautiful gingerbread type house located along a major street within a dense eucalyptus grove and never imagined that one day I would live there.  You had to drive by very slowly to view the house between the trees. The house was multi-level and was added to, much like the famous Winchester Mystery House.

The story behind the house was that the man who owned the home had quite a few children and when his wife passed away, he hired a live-in nanny. They apparently fell in love after a while, married, and had their own children, which necessitated some remodeling of the home.  He leased out the farm land surrounding the house and I never knew anything more about the family or what the master of the house did for a living. 

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The first floor had two bedrooms, two bathrooms, kitchen, foyer, large stairwell with Persian runners, a bright and sunny breakfast nook (with a built-in hutch), living room (30 feet by 40 feet with beautiful oak plank hardwood flooring and a fireplace so large you could almost stand up in it), dining room with the same oak plank hardwood flooring, and a huge laundry room bigger than most bedrooms with built in cabinets, sink, and laundry bins. The second floor contained three bedrooms, one bathroom, and a huge playroom upstairs inside one of the bedrooms; and the uppermost level had two bedrooms and a bathroom as well as a door to a balcony area overlooking the living room.  Each bedroom contained huge closets with built in dressers and a window. 

All the interior doors were antiqued solid maple and the front door was a very thick and heavy double Dutch door.  The windows were all leaded stain glass and the bathrooms were tiled from the floor half way up the walls.  The landscaped grounds were beautiful with luscious green grass, wisteria, and lovely trees and plants all manicured to perfection.  Our first duty after moving in was to fire the gardener because we could not afford the $350/month gardening bill. There was a one bedroom cottage in the side yard and the children’s play area which had all handmade play equipment.  Wisteria grew along the fence surrounding the cottage which made it look like something from a storybook.

In the long driveway, surrounded by tall trees, was a built in bar-be-que with sink, spit, and tiled counter space. There even was a glass hothouse in the back, a commercial freezer and commercial refrigerator in the garage and a huge basement. 

The priest came to the house to baptize my son in 1971 which was followed by a huge party. The house was great for parties.  One of the attendees who lived in Dixon brought some road island red chickens and a rooster as a gift.  It was so wonderful to hear the rooster crow each morning.  When the mama chicken was taken by a chicken hawk, the rooster assumed the mother role and it was comical to see him make sure the chicks followed him in single file and if they got out of line, he pecked them on the head. 

There were no window coverings on the windows at ground level so when I heard a noise, I grabbed my two little ones (both under three) and went upstairs and flipped on the outside lights which lit up the grounds like Christmas.  I was easily spooked so this did occur a few times that I am not ashamed to confess.

The house was far too big for our little family so we closed off most of the house. We only used two bedrooms on the uppermost floor, closed off all on the second floor, and closed off the two bedrooms and one of the bathrooms on the street level toward the back of the house.  As I think back on this, it must have been funny to see a little couch, loveseat, single chair, and stereo in that huge living room.  We made a large area rug from samples purchased from a carpet store which only gave it warmth around the furniture.  We did not have much and in this huge house, it looked like we had nothing in terms of furniture.

In the dining room I put my Nona’s huge oak table with a gorgeous ornate pedestal like I had never seen since. That table served many people over the years in our SF home because it stretched from the kitchen swinging door through the French doors of the dining room into the living room due to its many leaves of oak.  Mom hated that table. When we moved from SF to our new home, she would only let it in if it was beautified.  In other words, she hated the color of oak.  So Dad meticulously “antiqued” it with a creamy off-white paint.  It looked nice in the mansion. 

Ours was the last phone line on the rural phone system (that cost less than $3/month) which I guess the phone company was bound to honor until the line was removed or changed.  I almost screwed it up when I wanted to put the phone line in our name. That would have negated the original plan and our expense for it would have been a far cry from $3/month.  Our biggest expense was for electricity to pump the water into the house and that was around $27/month.  We lived there for free for about a year, just so no one would break in, until my ex’s job transferred us to Vacaville which necessitated us to move from that huge house into a three-bedroom little condo.

As dictated by the original agreement, when the land needed to be cleared, the house had to go.  It was somewhat land locked by the freeway, even when it would have to be cut into thirds for moving.  My father-in-law tried to find someone to take the house but it was impossible due to logistics.

After we moved out, there was a wine tasting there, and shortly thereafter, the house was broken into and some things like the claw foot bathtub was destroyed by vandals.  So, my father-in-law stripped the house. We took some of the interior doors and the front door for the house we were building in South Lake Tahoe. As a side note, that original house we built in Tahoe before adding a second story was a single story home 30 feet by 40 feet, the size of the living room in the mansion.  The front door was terrific for us to open the top, rest our arms on the lower portion and be thrilled by watching the electric storms up in the mountains. A glorious show of nature for sure each time it happened.

My father-in-law found homes for the maple kitchen cabinets and double oven, jen-aire cook top, and the leaded windows.  The house was pretty much bare bones at this point.

We had by this time moved from Vacaville back to Union City and when the house was going to be burned down for a fire drill, I sat in my old friend the Fire Chief’s car and watched it burn down.  It was sad to see the place burn and it was quite painful to see some wonderful memories go up in smoke. I cried as I watched the house razed.

When we divorced, we sold the house in Tahoe Paradise that contained the doors from the mansion and I doubt the owners of the house knew the history of the interior doors in it. Truth be told, we never knew the history of those beautiful doors and who made them but they were obviously hand crafted by a true artisan.

It is a shame there was not an interest in preserving this house for its historical value.  It would have made a unique restaurant.  Now in its place there sits an ugly shopping center instead of this beautiful house. So much for progress and preserving history. 

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