As a child, Haley Wright often heard foreboding tales of an abandoned house in her hometown of Grass Valley. She vividly recalls the panic she felt the day she explored it for the first time, sitting on her father’s shoulders and walking up a dark, graffiti-covered staircase. Today, as general manager of North Star House, she muses, “If you would have told me I would end up working here, I would have cried. … Now I’m often here alone, and you can just feel all the love and the passion that has gone into this house.”

North Star House, designed by renowned 20th-century architect Julia Morgan and now owned by the nonprofit North Star Historic Conservancy, has for the last 20 years undergone the painstaking process of being restored to its original glory. The goal is for North Star House to serve as the area’s premier cultural center for the surrounding community, hosting events for all age groups, focusing on the arts, theater, history, literature and music.

A visitor on any Tuesday or Thursday will find the house humming with as many as 50 enthusiastic volunteers, some planning events, others giving tours and still others utilizing their skills in restoration, construction, gardening or historical research. Says Wright, “It really is special here — all the work they put into it. Everyone here cares so much.”

David Wright (no relation to Haley), board member and site architect for North Star House, is one of the longest serving volunteers. Two decades ago, as co-founder of the Nevada County Land Trust, he was asked to evaluate the dilapidated manse, overgrown with vegetation and surrounded by a tall fence. It had been ravaged by vandals, and the roof was nearing collapse; but, Wright remembers, “I could see it was once a pretty gracious place. It definitely looked impressive.”

Through research, Wright discovered a photo of the house in the book “Julia Morgan, Architect” by Sara Holmes Boutelle, confirming his impressions that the house was the creation of the esteemed architect.

In June of this year, North Star House received the honor of national significance from the National Register of Historic Places, a distinction awarded to only 1 percent of the country’s nominees. The home was recognized for significant contributions to U.S. history in the areas of architecture, literature, women’s history and equal rights. Moreover, only 2 percent of those receiving national recognition focus on women’s contributions, making this an exceptional honor.

In 1904, James Hague, owner of the thriving gold-mining operation North Star Mine, enlisted Morgan to design a house for his mine superintendent, Arthur De Wint Foote, and his wife, author and illustrator Mary Hallock Foote. Hague, inspired by the Bourn Cottage at the rival Empire Mine, envisioned a home that would reflect the wealth and status of the North Star Mine and serve as a social hub for entertaining local leaders and investors, in addition to serving as an elegant and comfortable family home.

The house was one of Morgan’s first significant commissions, as she had just become licensed that same year as the first female architect in California. Her talent was evident from the start, as her sophisticated design for the sprawling 11,000 square-foot Craftsman-style home has been praised as an outstanding exemplar of Morgan’s work. A proponent of the First Bay Tradition architectural style, Morgan incorporated local materials such as ponderosa pine, red cedar and quarried granite from the mine to integrate indoor and outdoor spaces and create harmony with the natural landscape. Morgan combined classical symmetry with rustic simplicity, albeit on a grand scale, employing stone terraces, pillars and cedar shingles to provide both a grounding and a welcoming sense of place. 

With Hague’s request for a multipurpose home, Morgan hit the mark. She was unique in her ability to design multifunctional rooms which provided intimate settings to gather within a grand space. This feature was a hallmark of North Star House and is recognized as the prototype for Morgan’s future buildings. Morgan would go on to create over 700 buildings, among them the YWCA Asilomar Conference Grounds in Monterey and the famed Hearst Castle in San Simeon. In 2014, she was the first woman to be honored (posthumously) with a prestigious gold medal by the American Institute of Architects.

The original residents of North Star House were illustrious, as well. Mary Hallock Foote, a college-educated career woman and early feminist, was a master woodcut book illustrator and a sought-after artist for such literary titans as Nathaniel Hawthorne, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and Louisa May Alcott. Later, she transitioned to writing novels from the vantage point of a sophisticated East Coast woman navigating life in the rustic, gold-mining American West. Her strong female characters were on equal footing with the men, and her books, in the progressive era of the early 20th century, were highly acclaimed.

Although Hallock Foote was already nationally distinguished when she and her husband moved into North Star House in 1905, a significant body of her work was written while living at the house, with her books increasingly focused on issues of women’s rights. (Remarkably, Julia Morgan designated the house’s office for Hallock Foote – an uncommon gesture at the time and an acknowledgement by Morgan of changing gender roles, of which she herself was a prime example.)
In 1919, Hallock Foote wrote “The Ground-Swell,” possibly the first mainstream American novel to feature a lesbian relationship. Hallock Foote’s beloved granddaughter was openly lesbian, and this was likely a motivation for her emphasis on the subject of the so-called “third sex.” 

Mine superintendent, A.D. Foote, despite his occasional financial struggles, was a brilliant engineer, inventor, horticulturist and photographer. In addition to engineering the world’s largest Pelton wheel at the time (a hydroelectric turbine used in mining), Foote developed and traded new plant cultivars with two other horticultural pioneers, Luther Burbank and Felix Gillet.

Foote planted Edwardian-style gardens on the surrounding acreage at North Star House and documented his work through photographs and plant lists. Carole Miller, an early volunteer with the conservancy, identified original landscape plantings by using Foote’s records, exploring the property and interviewing descendants. (The home remained in the Foote family until 1968.)

Many of the original plants, however, were lost due to neglect and grazing deer. As a tribute to Foote’s original landscape, the conservancy created the charming and colorful Heritage Garden: a large, fenced plot that includes many of the original cultivars. A variety of other thoughtfully planned projects are ongoing.

The quality shines through every facet of North Star House’s restoration. The first floor has been completed (again with the help of Foote’s photographs) with the utmost attention to detail and serves as a pristine snapshot in time. Efforts on the second floor are just getting started. In keeping with the conservancy’s mission, plans for the upstairs include classrooms, workshops for arts and crafts, and the Margaret Swan Levine Art Gallery, named in honor of a revered local leader, artist and early champion of North Star House.

Such a monumental endeavor is, of course, dependent on funding. The conservancy recently launched a fundraising campaign for its most pressing need: a fire sprinkler system to protect the house. Events at the venue also provide income. Last year, North Star House hosted 35 weddings on the picturesque grounds, with all profits going to the restoration effort. House Manager Jennifer McGuire explains to couples “that they are not just renting a venue, they are actually contributing to the restoration of the house.” Most relish the opportunity to play a role in this effort, she says, preserving a connection to history, architecture, literature and the ideals that formed a national heritage.

Walk-in visitors are welcome to view the house and grounds and meet the dedicated volunteers on any Tuesday or Thursday. Free guided tours with a resident historian are offered every second and fourth Thursday of the month, from 1-3 p.m. No reservation is necessary. For an ideal day trip, add a visit to the nearby North Star Mining Museum and Empire Mine State Historic Park, then have dinner in the quaint, historic downtown Grass Valley.

Comstock’s “Unlisted” is an insider’s look at noteworthy homes that aren’t for sale. To recommend a house to be featured, contact dmorlan@comstocksmag.com. 

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