Camron-Stanford House, Restored

1971-Present

When the Oakland Museum of California opened in 1967, replacing the three earlier institutions (The Oakland Public Museum, The Snow Museum, and the Oakland Art Gallery), the fate of the deteriorating Victorian house was in question. A small group of individuals concerned about Oakland’s architectural heritage came together in a successful effort to save the building from demolition. The Camron-Stanford House Preservation Association raised more than $800,000 (equivalent to approximately $5.5 million today) in capital and gifts-in-kind to fully restore the city-owned building for the community. 

Restorers were faced with extensive alterations made during the museum years, falling ceilings, and defective electrical, plumbing and heating systems. Lacking photographs of the interiors, L. Thomas Frye, Frances Rhodes, Wayne Mathes and other researchers selected items such as the wallpapers and friezes after careful study of 19th century guides to interior decoration, photographs of other local houses of the period, and the interior decoration of the Alfred H. Cohen house in Oakland. Descendants of the original residents of the house generously donated items to decorate the house’s first floor period rooms. Other items were loaned from individuals and institutions, including the Oakland Museum of California.

The house was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1972. It is cited by the Historic American Building Survey, the California Landmarks Committee, and was given the honor of being designated Oakland Historical Landmark #2 in 1975 . Camron-Stanford House was opened to the public in May 1978 and has remained an active community space for learning about the city’s 19th century history for nearly 50 years.