Why was California's Largest Mansion Buried in San Francisco?
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 15 มิ.ย. 2024
- Join Ken on a journey back in time as we uncover the intriguing tale of James Flood, a man who went from humble beginnings to becoming one of America's richest. Discover the mysterious fate of his magnificent mansion that was once the pinnacle of luxury in California but now lies hidden beneath the very ground we walk on.
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0:00 History
2:58 House Tour
Public Domain Photos from: Library of Congress,
CC BY 2.0(creativecommons.org/licenses/...) Photos from: Flickr User: inkknife_2000
CC BY-SA 4.0(creativecommons.org/licenses/...) Photos from: Wikipedia User: Sanfranman59
Assets from: Envato Elements
Music from Epidemic Sound
Hi everyone, I wanted to clarify what I meant by, “in San Francisco.” This is referring to the San Francisco Bay area, not the city itself. As mentioned in the video, the house was located in Menlo Park which is in the San Francisco Bay Area.
I enjoyed the clip and appreciate your new clarification. But the post said that the mansion was buried in San Francisco and that Menlo Park was part of “ modern day San Francisco” and you made no mention of the San Francisco Bay Area, which is a large area of 9 counties with 8 million people. There is a big difference between the city of San Francisco and the the “San Francisco Bay Area”.
SF Bay Area, okay.
@@nevada531_Nine_ counties, even
@@nevada531 Absolutely agree with that!
Quibble, that's what I wrote under my previous comment that brought on this pinned comment.
The demise of some of these one of a kind mansions brings me to tears. I love the history of the people who made them possible.
Not to mention all the precious materials and work that go into making them.
I think they built the house that was on full house above it. Really sickens me to think of those three weird men trotting around on top of literally history.
Have you guys heard of lake Lanier?
What happened to this house, is one of the most disgusting things I've ever heard. Shame on the human beings of the time, for not recognising just how beautiful, majestic and special this building was. The benevolence of the daughters intentions were truly wasted on the naive future generations.
If there was no money for long-term upkeep...
@@kristineanderson4983 Paid entry into this majestic stately home would have been more than enough to cover the costs I am sure. As people would be queuing at the door to see inside this incredible building.
That's the other problem, the glutonous excess that created a house with that many rooms, bedrooms etc and huge gardens and land space that all cost money to maintain, or building a massive church with huge stone spires that start crumbling and become unstable, and cost millions to repair... basically dooms these buildings because they are difficult to convert to a modern use like apartments, or cost a fortune to repair.
Seen a number of massive churches that have like 10 story high spires on them get damaged from weather and time,and the congregation dwindles down to an unsustainable numebr who cant even afford to heat the building let alone come up with $30 million to repair the two collapsing spires, and the building is closed, vandalised and stripped and the city winds up footing the costs for demolition- after which the congregation decides to cash in on the LAND by selling the land for tax free profit after the city spent millions clearing the building of it!
@@kristineanderson4983
Conserving things is a new idea, of the past decades. No one cared much, back in the day. Also: it's the economy, stupid. There are also people who question these quite decadent and wasteful expressions. It's disharmonious bad taste of the filthy rich. It doesn't add much but a huge volume of cliches. Not functional.
@@HobbyOrganistchurches and private mansions are not comparable. In general, churches and cathedrals were paid for by the congregations of the time, who donated. And the spires were never about gluttony.
Wow, what a huge and beautiful place. Always amazes me how so many one-of-a-kind places were just discarded.
If you have enough money to buy his dream house, then you have enough money to build your dream house. It's sad to see them gone and even sadder that they bulldozed salvage that could have been reused.
James Flood’s name still remains famous in San Francisco through an iconic beaux arts office building on Market Street and three impressive mansions built by him and his son. But I need to correct the narrative when Menlo Park is called a part of “modern day San Francisco.” which it most definitely is not nor has ever been. Menlo Park is 30 miles south of SF. Today it is in the heart of Silicon Valley. The home of tech giants like Apple, Facebook and Google. “The Peninsula” as it’s called today was in the 19th century a favorite place for wealthy San Franciscans to build palatial country estates where they could escape the congested city with it’s chilly, foggy summers. Flood’s estate was one of them. His family’s mansions in SF still survive but this country estate does not.
Please see the pinned comment. Menlo Park is in the San Francisco Bay Area.
@ThisHouse
Yes of course it’s in the San Francisco Bay Area but the narration said it was in “modern day San Francisco” not the San Francisco Bay Area. The geographical difference is important to understand for viewers.
The same Market Street that has businesses closing all down the road? Sad to take in the rise in homelessness, glad I escaped California's soul trap. Bunch of liars and child pervs all over the place around there. Not safe for families to raise children anymore. This youtube video is promoting a narrative totally based in lies.
Two days ago was our 33rd anniversary of moving into the oldest house in our county in Eastern PA with our six young children. The house is from the late 1600’s, so it always upsets me to learn of an old home’s demise. We learned how to restore and taught the kids. We lost 2 of our children, but the remaining 4 all live in very old homes today and make all their own repairs.
This is a sad story. A beautiful and elegant mansion buried. All the rooms shown are so decorative. It’s a shame there weren’t more heirs to keep the mansion. Thank you Ken for telling their story and showing this magnificent mansion. I live in California and didn’t know about this mansion that once was.
Why would anyone destroy this masterpiece intentionally ☹️
The one word that seems to have been the demise of many amazing houses..."Developers" Money wins over everything it seems!
You'd be appalled at all the beautiful old buildings that have been demolished in the US. All for the almighty dollar.
@@SpiritGirlSF Some call it progress. Even sticking it to the rich. I call it destruction of fine art any bit as good as the Mona Lisa or Blue Boy. Or the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. The people who destroyed it couldn’t have made something that grand and hardly ANYONE today could come close.
@@mileshigh1321 And this was destroyed in 36 art deco and modernism were the big trend in architecture then. So the houses the built on top of the rubble of the beautiful mansion were ugly as h€££!!!
Jealous
You can see Mary's bedroom set at 5:44 now on display in the double bedroom of Heidelberg Hall in PA. It's estimated that Flood spend over $78,000 in 1879 for this bedroom suite. It was thought lost for the last 85 years until recently discovered in 2022.
My Grandfather was James Junior Driver till he died. My dad grew up on the estate and lived in the gate house.
Hi Robert - I"d love to know more. Would you be available? Thanks!
I’m sure the builders, owners and those who inherited these types of beautiful homes NEVER thought in their wildest dreams they would have been destroyed. What I also find sad is Flood’s daughter, who inherited the mansion donated it yet they were able to sell of the furnishings, etc. I wish the daughter would have done that so she could leave the wealth to future generations.
A stunning house for sure. But I think many of the houses you feature should be called follys. An extraordinary expense for a house that is used little by its owners and doesn't last long before being demolished. I feel badly for the talented craftsmen who toil on these projects, only to have their exceptional handiwork destroyed, and bulldozed into the ground.
These and many other houses are old world buildings, including the Palace of fine arts... They inherited these buildings and it is a known fact that these buildings have been here for a couple of hundred years.. this is the reason why they felt no connection to the house and didn't mind the contents being auctioned off ..did you hear him say that the furniture was several hundred years old.. who is an avid collector of fine arts and then walks away from it.. there was a certain energy and spirit in that house that did not sit well with the inheritors ..and that's why they only used it for parties and rarely live in it ,yet they built their own house in knob hill and lived there.! If they told you the truth about these palaces it would be more questions than answers and they will have to rewrite history.. we had no Craftsman here that can do that type of building and work..no sir, that's why they rarely tell you who was the building company that built these old world houses!😊
@@kevinshephard8279 Tartarian empire ?
@@manuelaguirre1062 I wouldn't necessarily say that we don't know what type of political structure was here ., But it was some type of political order.. and definitely buildings and cities were here.. and the timeline was was definitely changed and our industrial revolution was ushered in by inventions that were reverse engineered!! Come on, the Parthenon and Greek and Roman buildings in America. Castles and Palaces everywhere..! They don't teach that in our history!
@@kevinshephard8279 I agree. Lots of history they teach us is wrong.
Also, imagine how little immigrant wages were just as today.
Treated just as lowly until this very day.
Pitiful.
What a crying shame that they didn't appreciate all that gorgeous craftsmanship. 😢
Such a shame we keep tearing apart our historical past!!!!
What I find unforunate is that the mansion was sold after it was donated. Granted a place like this would have very high maintenance costs however it is still a shame.
Just a horrific shame. Just incredibly sad the people didn't appreciate what they had-- such breathtaking beauty, we can't even build today. Today's buildings are brutal and plain, no one would travel to visit.
I was left absolutely gobsmacked by the sheer size of this particular mansion 😮!!! Thank you again for yet another great video!
I couldn't imagine just paying the heating and electric bill in a place so large. They must've had a huge staff just for the daily upkeep of the house and grounds. The place is so big there's probably rooms he never entered but maybe once or twice. Guaranteed even the rafters and wall studs were of wood of such high quality, (likely clear straight grained redwood), it'd be difficult to find such a grade of wood today. The trim alone throughout the entire house would cost millions in today's dollars to replicate, not to mention the stonework, and it's all smashed underground now.
Is it that time of the week already!? Thanks, Ken. I like these 7-8 minute ones. Feels like a sweet spot.
This makes me sick just thinking about the loss of fine artistry, materials and craftsmanship destroyed by developers of the time. Little did anyone know of the immense wealth coming to the area which could have preserved this gigantic mansion in the future. I have passed the gates to this property on Middlefield Road in Menlo Park many times never understanding the history behind them. Thank you for the great work.
How sad to lose these beautiful, one if a kind places.
Mr. Flood’s humble beginnings and quest to become wealthy is very interesting. Good for him for fulfilling his dreams!
…the only reminder of this great estate are the grand entry gates on James Ave and Linden Ave which is on Middlefield Rd. It is now used to enter the Lindenwood area of Atherton. I grew up a few houses down from the Linden gate.
That is absolutly so sad & disgusting!! What a beautiful estate it was!! Now only to be like everything else just a boring building with no character. What a time it would have been to be alive then to see some of these beautiful & unforgetting treasures..
Yeah it's kind of sad really. Seems like they could have used this house for some sort of Museum or something because the house itself was a work of art. Hundreds of thousands of man hours by master carpenters and artesians and all that beautiful wood and chandeliers that were used throughout the house. I can't stand seeing art destroyed.
Thank your sharing this, I never knew he had this home only know of his home on California Street in the Nob Hill area of San Francisco.
The dining room cabinets from the Flood house is now in the Crocker Art Museum in Sacramento. It is spectacular!
What a gorgeous house - I love the design. To each his own I guess, I noticed the comment right before mine called it ‘hideous’ (??) Your narration was fabulous - so intriguing that the fragments of it lay buried. Just like the Victorian statues of dinosaurs that supposedly lay buried in Central Park (NYC).
Library, library, library! But all of the rooms seem stately, without being over done with layers of decorating. The hand painted ceilings are wonderful. It would have been a huge cost to restore. Mind-boggling, actually. Weird that the son (or was it grandson?) bought it back. The Gold Rush, and the large harbor in San Francisco allowed California to leap-frog over other western territories into statehood. Southern California (including Los Angeles and San Diego) remained 'sleepy' and small, depending on coach routes through the desert, or long sea voyages around the tip of South America. As with many other places in the country, the railroad line connecting to the east (1876) made a huge difference in growth. The Panama Canal, completed in 1914 (there were huge celebratory Expos in San Diego and San Francisco...my great-uncle attended this one; I have the original brochure) changed everything. Thanks for visiting us out here. :)
What an incredibly fantastic house...how unfortunate no one wanted it. Thanks again for bringing these wonderful places to our attention
I especially loved the fireplace between 2 windows in marys room! 😃 ❤️
I was a carpenter for over 30 years and some of the buildings that were built back then amazes me most were built with hand tools that's talent FJB
Love the FJB ending 😂
Tartaria
@@unknownsender6852 That was my first thought. The story we are told about an extraordinary house like this makes zero sense.
@@thelogicaldanger If you knew ANYTHING about craftsmanship you'd understand how ordinary but very talented humans could create those buildings. People took their time and were proud of their creations, instead of having some suit in a corner office telling them to get it done yesterday ... oh and come in 10% under budget.
The TartarSauce conspiracy's been debunked as a 19th century Russian fable. Full stop.
I do hate how often in the U.S. the need and want to preserve these mansions was overshadowed by making money, thereby them getting torn down.
Gotta wipe out the previous civilization, to prevent people from asking the right questions. Where is the construction photos or blueprints for ANY of these grand structures from this previous civilization? Melted brick phenomenon as well, especially all around Napa Valley. We're lied to about our history, especially California's history. LOL. They fail to mention the mosquito people blessing tribes with long life outside of San Francisco, life sapping shaman's kidnapping young women, teaching them how to eat souls. Queen Calif and her griffins, so much ancient history out of California alone, just completely ignored. The first shaman is said to be responsible for the creation of grand structures and buildings throughout this continent. Maybe if we cared enough to piece together the facts as our ancestors share them, then we'd not feel the need to continue to write narratives about history according to what we believe today. No one knows how to speak with the ancestors here. Shame. Narrow view without them.
Love the dome ceiling. Thanks Ken! Love hearing the history of these houses/homes.
Great narrative Ken! was like listening to an audio book! Makes me wonder, in a 1000 years what some archeologist is going to make of the buried floors . . .
well, at least we have a few pictures.....what a waste, though. Great Video! thanks for sharing.
What a shame. Those ceilings in every room were amazing
I never knew of this house....and I'm a native San Franciscan. And I even have known the Flood Mausoleum at Cypress Lawn, since I was 16....I'm almost 70 now. We are all familiar with the old Flood mansion (Pacific Union Club) that survived the '06 earthquake and fire, due ti it's stone construction. There are many Flood descendants still living.
Hi there, as a San Franciscan, you did not know if this particular mansion because this mansion was in Menlo park about 30 miles south from San Francisco,where I grew up. It would be interesting to see if any of the construction companies that build those beautiful houses in Lindenwood came across any archaeological evidence of the mansion.
I liked. Mrs. Floods. Bedroom. With the. Fireplace
Beautiful!!! It’s a shame that it was destroyed. The interior was amazing.
You could show what that location looks like today!
If you look it up on maps, it's just a large neighborhood. The original entrance to the estate was at Middlefield Rd and Linden Ave in Menlo Park, CA. Though, the gate is not the original, it is in the same spot. Flood Circle is roughly where the mansion sat.
What a waste of amazing artistry ☹
"Progress."🤔
@@JayYoung-ro3vu There's never been real "progress". In thousands of years we haven't learned to be nice to each other, and we still have to wipe our @$$ after we $#!t.
Your writing is evocative of the time. Excellent.
As always, excellent video. Thank you for your tireless effort in bringing the story of this fine home to your viewers.
It always amazes me what stddenly is lost in value and interest until it is too late for following generations to appreciate.
What a shame to tear this down!
Ken, love your narrating...you make us glide thru the house, seeing all the details. Thanks!!!
Daaang, that was a stunning estate. Some of the styling details remind me a little bit of Hawaii's Royal Palace.
Wow! What a story!!
Thank you!
I wonder if you have a video on the Julius Loewenberg house that was tragically demolished in the 60’s I believe???? It was in Portland. I would love to find more about it, ever since I first saw it, and especially would love to see full floor plans. It was a beautiful house.
Thanks for taking us on this adventure along the property! You're an ace!
Wow! How shameful is it that modern day people couldn't find a better use for this unique, one of a kind home. I can only imagine how much blood, sweat and tears went into producing it. It just seems like someone could have come up with a way to preserve the home.
I’ve bought and sold Mary’s bedset and a 12ft tall dining room cabinet. Incredible pieces made by a New York firm, Pottier & Stymus.
@Alexander’s Vault Antiques.
The Nob Hill home once had a full time employee whose job it was to polish the ornate copper fence. Great video but it saddens me that one man had so much when so many people had so little in those days.
Unfortunately it was very common in this period, the Gilded Age. There was massive resource/wealth extraction and no income tax in the US
Most of these men started as people who had so little. They were willing to put the hard work, effort and sweat to prosper. Nobody handed anything to them. How wonderful that they created something so beautiful, giving employment to hundreds of people.
@@serenitypeaceandcomfort3669 Nobody handed them anything? The US government _literally_ gave western land that once belonged to indigenous people to any US citizen who could afford the filing fee. 270 million acres were distributed (in 160 acre parcels) to Americans between 1862 and 1988 under the Homestead Act.
@@bonniea8189 And they had to venture out in wagons, with little food, little water in all kinds of weather and storm and build a life out of nothing. No police. No firemen. No blacksmiths, no veterinarians, no stores, no hospitals. Nothing to protect themselves except a rifle. No schools or teachers. No place to worship. No GPS and no roads to travel on. Yet they persevered and endured and built up the country that YOU benefit off of. Many didn't have have the tenacity and the grit it took. Many just didn't survive. And you think that's not a big deal, huh? You think that's not worthy of admiration? Good grief. Where were you when they were handing out the critical thinking skills?
So many efforts of artisans swept away. What about all the workers that actually “built” the places. 💕
Beautiful house I liked the living and bedroom
Thanks! I absolutely adore you and your videos. Thank you so much for existing ❤
Wow, thank you!
what an interesting story :-)
What an interesting, historical story. I'm thankful for photos were taken of this amazing home and it breaks my heart that it was imploded and buried
In 1000 years will be remembered for not what we have built but for what we have destroyed.
I may be thinking of another house, but I was thinking the Flood mansion was once owned and used by a Catholic religious order. Whoever all the owners were, what a loss. The destruction of the house is especially sad though I'm glad the owner was able to have some parts removed and saved.
That was another house. I went to high school in atherton , and Lindenwood, the sight of the Flood mansion, was on one side of the high school, and the priory was in another mansion on the other side of Menlo-Atherton High School. M-A for those of us who graduated from there
Most likely you are mentioning one of the buildings in the Vallombrosa Center off Oak Grove, originally built by one of the heirs of Mark Hopkins, not Flood.
I believe a lot of the furnishings were sold to Hollywood studios to be used as props in movies. Herter Brothers supplied much of the furniture for this house, and I have seen some of the pieces in various movies over the years. The movie "Pollyanna" and one of the Sherlock Holmes movies in particular. One thing I did notice about this house was that there were very few paintings on the walls of the public rooms. Usually at this time, the very rich covered their walls completely with works of art to show off their apparent taste and worldliness (and money). These walls seemed kind of bare.
I've heard the same about the Hollywood studios.
Man, if I lived on Flood Cir., I’d be doing my own archeological excavation in my backyard! Imagine finding a marble floor or foundations under your yard…
Of course, those houses there are probably worth $6-$7 million each, so I doubt I’ll ever live there.
Thank you 🙏
you beautifully explained this estate
Well, that has to be one of the weirdest house stories I've ever heard. For some reason, it seems to be one thing to tear it down, and another to bury it under new development. Thinking in terms of earthquakes and building stability, I wonder if we'd do the same today? As I've said, we can't keep everything forever, but I'm sure those who enjoyed these houses never thought they'd be destroyed, buried, or turned into apartments.
They say the first generation makes the money, the second generation spends the money and the third generation destroys it.
It really says a lot about US culture
Luxury beyond belief! Love your narration.
This is fascinating and crazy. Imploded the house and built over it. It boggles the mind.
They didn’t have to pick on the big beautiful pieces of grandiosity, they could’ve kept up by becoming different things like museums,divided into stores. Colleges, etc... and could even been divided into becoming small apartments,that still had flair.But the financiers had to have the places inspected, and money would have to be allowed for loans and very much so.
Wow. The immense waste. 😲... Anyway, what I really wanted to comment on, though, is how much I appreciate how you (the creator) walk us through these still photos. Mentioning the smells, the textures, shapes, materials, etc., really help build a beautiful picture. Thank you so much for sharing with us. I'm quite glad I stumbled upon your channel today. 👍🌸
How tragic that it was destroyed. Inconceivable! 🙁
Wow, such a shame that people of that era were not inclined to find a way to re-purpose and save this amazing building. I grew up in the bay area and never knew about this incredible place.
Music room and library were something. Dining room would have been special to see
Wow. I’m am from this area and never knew this
I am a Calif native, and have lived in SF and the South Bay for 24 yrs of my life; and I have never heard of this mansion. What a crime to have destroyed this magnificent piece of architecture, art /and furnishing. It's like his achievement was erased by the construction of apt. bldgs, etc. It's so sad. I don't think the narrator stated the year it was built over. I wonder why the house was not bought by the State of Calif that could have stab. it as a historical landmark; and today there 67could have been public tours.
Great video
Amazing House 😃
Interesting video-along with great photos.
You might want to consider looking into some VO coaching
what a Grand House, wow.
I just recently toured The Biltmore mansion, and hearing this one was just leveled and turned into dust is really sad to think about.
This was so interesting! Thank you for putting this together, I really enjoyed it! The house was magnificent, it’s a shame to think that it was turned into infill. I wish we could see inside the Nob Hill house!
The interior of the Nob Hill house was gutted by the earthquake and fire of 1906. The house was sold to a wealthy private men's club, the Pacific Union Club, and they rebuilt the interior. It is a private club and the public isn't allowed to enter the building.
Love the videos of these grand homes. And all I can say is I am so thankful that I don’t own one. They must be hellish to dust!
I don’t think Menlo Park was ever considered “modern day San Francisco.” It’s pretty darn far from the city, always was.
Love the bedrooms!
It was a crime to destroy such beauty.
OMG extravagant!!!
The dining room fireplace mantle with its enormous mirror, plus the dining room sideboard with its own massive mirror are on permanent display at the Crocker Art Museum in Sacramento, CA where I am a docent. I was thrilled to see this video, which fills in a lot of questions I had about the origin of these pieces. I'm sharing the link with the rest of our docent pool, and look forward to our conversations from it. Thanks!
That's really decent that you're a docent.
This home was absolutely beautiful. So elegant and lavish . Homes aren't constructed like this anymore. Such a sad ending for this beautiful home . The work and detail is lost to time because of ignorance.
Your videos are very informative and interesting. I would see them colorized. I think it would add to the experience of the viewer
Wow I pass by it a lot that’s awesome to know
I believe the "inheritors" sold the mansion to James Flood. That's an old world building from the previous civilization.
That's a a false theory that was invented by a two bit author.
And people call Sara Winchester “crazy” for her home just over in Santa Clara! The Hearst family had “modest”;homes in the area too.
It's surprising that donating the house to the university was not a safeguard. Converting it to a casino/hotel might have worked better, considering SF's reputation at the time.
Imploded? That was just stupid was what came out of my mouth without thought.
That home was a masterpiece.
wow I always wondered about the mansion across the street from the Fairmont Hotel on Nob Hill! I think it's part of a society now but I knew it had an interesting history. It's still there but not really sure what they use it for. So fascinating and so sad that they knocked it down.
Made from stone it was the only Mansion to survive the fire up there on Knob hill in 1906 … but the interior was completely gutted . Was renovated and became an exclusive private club . There is another fabulous Flood Building at Market and Powell ( where the cable cars turn ) built by Flood’s son only two years before the Great Quake it also did not burn and miraculously did not fall down either as many brick and stone buildings did . Most of the structures lost after the earthquake were burned ( many intentionally ) or dynamited in an attempt to stop the firestorm when they were unable to put out the many fires .
That mansion looks way massive and better looking than the city in a place where i live.😅
What an amazing story! You simply cannot make stuff like this up!
Mark Suckurbird would definitely buy it if it were still around
My family’s house was the one just south from linden. It was called homewood. Now it’s menlo-atherton high school. The folger estate is in woodside. It has a 140 foot living room.