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Camron-Stanford House
The Camron-Stanford House was
constructed in 1876, the start of many elegant houses that would
encircle the Lake, and while it was a residence, it was home to
numerous of Oakland's finest families. The city tax records say that
Dr. Samuel Merritt constructed the Italian Victorian house as part
of his dream to develop the downtown area of Oakland and he
transferred the title to Mrs. Alice Camron in 1877, who with her
husband Will and two daughters became the first residents of the
house. Alice had been the daughter of Abigail Tuck Marsh, a
schoolteacher and Dr. John Marsh, who lived in Contra Costa County,
and in 1837, the doctor bought the Los Meganos Rancho and lived in
the small adobe house until he could construct the famous Stone
House. Marsh was one of the early advocates of gaining statehood by
peaceful methods and would send letters to important government
leaders and newspapers in the east telling about the state's rich
resources. The information in his letters would lead to the westward
expansion of the railroads, while he continued his rounds of
practicing medicine throughout the state. It was on one occasion
that he had just left the home of the Martinez family on the night
of September 24, 1856, when he was accosted by ruffians and
murdered. Alice was just a young toddler at the time; but she was
able to grow up educated and gaining a love for poetry. She would
marry the county's deputy sheriff, William "Will" Camron and moved
to Oakland. Will began to get involved in the politics of the city
and bought some 3000 acres in what is today Orinda; planning to
develop it, but before that could happen, his other investments went
bad and he was forced to sell the tract. Things got worse and after
losing a daughter to convulsion just four days after her second
birthday, both parents became disheartened. They both felt living in
the house only seem to bring the memories to bear, and soon left.
But the incident was too much for both of them, causing Will to
leave Alice and other daughter, and they would eventually divorce in
1895, and Alice changed her last name to Cameron and ran a boarding
house in San Francisco. David and Matilda Hewes started
renting the house from the Camrons and stayed there three years
before having to leave because of Matilda's bad health. Josiah
Stanford came to California in 1849, and with his brothers, sold
supplies to the gold miners. He and his second wife, Helen, bought
the house in 1882, and lived there for the next 23 years, spending
part of their time here and the family ranch located east of
Fremont, by Warm Springs, which had been the rich resort of the
1850s for families from San Francisco. They would help to start a
big and soon prosperous grape vineyard, and soon began making the
state's first champagne. In later years, the winery would become the
Weibel Winery. Over a dozen years after Josiah passed on, John
Tennent Wright Jr. and his second wife, Terilla, bought the house
from Helen Stanford. John was a sea captain that helped carry
freight into and out of San Francisco Bay. Around the turn of
the 20th century, the city's mayor wanted to build new parks, new
libraries and a new museum that would become known as the Oakland
Public Museum. The city wanted to have the museum near the lake, but
the only building that was available was the lake front property
owned by Terrilla and John Wright, so in 1907, they purchased it
from them and converted the house into a structure that would
contain ornithological, ethnographic and anthropological
collections.
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