From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Ralston Hall
Ralston Hall
William C. Ralston House Added to NRHP: November 15, 1966
U.S. National Register of Historic Places Designated NHL: November 13, 1966[4]
U.S. National Historic Landmark
Ralston Hall Mansion located in Belmont, California, was
the country house of William Chapman Ralston, a San
Francisco businessman, founder of the Bank of California,
and financier of the Comstock Lode. It is an opulent Ital-
ianate Villa, modified with touches of Steamboat Gothic
and Victorian details. It is a California Registered Land-
mark and is designated a National Historic Landmark[4].
It is now part of Notre Dame de Namur University.
The mansion
Ralston Hall Mansion is situated on the campus of Notre
Dame de Namur University, on the San Francisco Penin-
Ralston Hall sula. The mansion has been built around the villa of
Count Leonetto Cipriani, former owner of the estate. Tak-
ing three years to build, it was completed in 1867, when
San Francisco’s leaders and first citizens had large sum-
mer homes on the Peninsula, an integral part of San
Francisco high society. Architect John Painter Gaynor,
who later worked with Ralston on the Palace Hotel in San
Francisco, is thought to have worked on it. Several of the
design elements of Ralston Hall Mansion were copied in
the design of the Palace.
A history of San Francisco speaks of the palatial
grandeur of Ralston Hall: "In a domed wing was the oval
ballroom. Its walls were mirrored, and from the frescoed
ceiling hung a great crystal chandelier whose reflected
lights and sparkle filled the room. I have never seen a
more effective setting for a ball."
The Hall is a four-floor, 55,000 square foot (5,000 m²)
mansion, with a stately dining room, a mirrored ballroom
in the Versailles tradition, an opera box modelled after
Location: Belmont, California
the Opéra Garnier in Paris, a grand staircase, 23 crystal
Coordinates: 37°31′3″N 122°17′10″W / 37.5175°N chandeliers, and inlaid wood floors. Ralston greatly ad-
122.28611°W / 37.5175; mired the Palace of Versailles, and incorporated several
-122.28611Coordinates: 37°31′3″N of the palace’s elements in his design of the mansion. The
122°17′10″W / 37.5175°N 122.28611°W /
mansion has a number of elegant sitting rooms and par-
37.5175; -122.28611
lours. The Oriental Music Room has a set of Chinese high-
Built: 1864 tea chairs and buffets. Ralston Hall houses a collection of
Architect: Henry Cleaveland[2] antiques accumulated by Ralston, including some valu-
able Thomas Hill paintings.
Architectural style: Victorian-Italianate Villa[3] The grounds of the mansion contain numerous gar-
Governing body: Private dens, a stoney grotto, and a garden of 150-year-old bam-
boo trees.
NRHP Reference#: 66000234[1]
Significant dates
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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Ralston Hall
Uses of the mansion
After Ralston’s death, the estate passed to his former
business partner, United States Senator from Nevada
William Sharon, whose family lived in the house.
Sharon’s daughter Flora’s wedding to Englishman Sir
Thomas George Fermor-Hesketh, 7th Baronet, of Rufford
was one of the last elaborate social events of the time,
taking place in the mansion’s ballroom. After Senator
Sharon’s death in 1885, the mansion became Radcliffe
Hall, a girls’ finishing school. From 1900 to 1922, it was
the Gardner Sanitarium.
Since 1922, Ralston Hall has been on the campus
Notre Dame de Namur University, formerly the College of
Notre Dame. It contains the admissions office and is rent-
ed out for society weddings and other occasions. 2008-04-15. http://nrhp.focus.nps.gov/natreg/
A few of the notable persons who have been enter- docs/All_Data.html.
tained at Ralston Hall include: [2] NPS Redbook
• President Ulysses S. Grant [3] NHL Writeup
• Admiral David Farragut [4] ^ NHL Summary
• Leland Stanford
• Mark Hopkins
External links
References • Ralston Hall
• Notre Dame de Namur University
[1] "National Register Information System". National
Register of Historic Places. National Park Service.
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Ralston_Hall&oldid=471617791"
Categories:
• History of San Mateo County, California
• Houses in San Mateo County, California
• Houses in California
• National Historic Landmarks in the San Francisco Bay Area
• Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in California
• National Register of Historic Places in the San Francisco Bay Area
• Houses completed in 1867
• Notre Dame de Namur University
• Italianate architecture in California
• Victorian architecture in California
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