North Star House

About this property

North Star House (alternate: Foote Mansion) is a mansion located roughly a mile south of Grass Valley, Nevada County, northern California. In 1904, James Hague, president of the North Star Mine, commissioned Julia Morgan, a newly licensed California architect, to design the 11,000 square foot building. The house served as a residence for mine superintendent Arthur DeWint Foote and his wife, Mary Hallock Foote, a noted author and illustrator, as well as to impress visiting investors from the East Coast. It was Morgan's first significant commission after receiving her license. From the 2025 amended nomination: The nomination to the National Register of Historic Places was amended to document national level of significance under Criterion B in the areas of Literature, Social History: Civil Rights, and Social History: Women’s History with an expanded discussion of Mary Hallock Foote’s importance and influence. At the national level of significance under Criterion C in the area of Architecture, the nomination was also amended to document Julia Morgan’s association with design and construction of 127 Hostess Houses on military camps during World War I, for which North Star House is perceived as the prototype. The property remains eligible at the local level of significance under Criterion A in the area of Industry. Julia Morgan was brought in by the YWCA in WWI to be the lead architect and construction supervisor for 127 Hostess Houses on 32 nationwide training camps. Under an agreement with the War Department, the houses provided a place for almost 5 million men and their loved ones to meet for a day, enjoy a meal, and say their final goodbyes before shipping out. Not small operations: many of the houses saw upwards of 1700 visitors a day. The perceived prototype was North Star House. The similarities can be immediately seen in the architectural designs and details, including large windows, wide porches, exposed posts and beams, paneling, multi-functional designs and use of local materials. In many camps, black servicemen suffered under horrific racism: not enough toilets, having to hike to creeks to bathe and not allowed in mess tents for meals. 17 black commanders requested a hostess house. Because of Morgan, they were identical to the white hostess houses. Civil Rights historians point to the good and bad of WWI as the roots of the Civil Rights movement of the 50s and 60s. Mary Hallock Foote wrote two significant novels in her office at North Star House, following the birth of four granddaughters. It was the era of the New Woman and Foote had lived that life. She knew it intimately and she wrote with a renewed passion. The novels were totally different from anything she had previously written. The Valley Road encouraged young women to postpone marriage, go to college, graduate, have a career, and then marry the man she loved. This was unheard of at that time period when women married the men their parents chose and college and careers were reserved for men. The novel had 5 reprintings and was a bestseller. The second novel, Ground-Swell, was one of the first novels about lesbians -- go to college, graduate, have a career and be with the woman you love. The literary critics had a field day with both books, wondering about these "western women" who stood up to men, had a voice and opinions, and talked about their (female) husbands.

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Property data from the National Register of Historic Places, National Park Service (public domain).

Description adapted from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

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