In 1904, a newly licensed young architect, Julia Morgan, designed North Star House to be a multi-use structure with several objectives – impressing Eastern investors and local leaders, providing an office for a working woman, and creating a home for a family. Morgan certainly achieved those objectives. What no one could have known at the time was the role North Star House would play in future events.
Mary Hallock Foote wrote her most impactful novels in her office at North Star House during the era of the New Woman, the first feminist wave. She had lived the life of a New Woman decades before – going to college, having two exceptionally successful careers, and postponing marriage. She wrote from that experience and her novels had a national impact. History had finally caught up with Mary Hallock Foote.
Julia Morgan used understated design elements that deviated from handcrafted embellishments of other architects in Arts and Crafts movement. Additionally, Morgan’s exceptional ability to integrate two opposing design elements – large groups vs. small at the same time, in the same room — is evident in her seamless design. These are spatial attributes that few architects develop even with years of experience. Morgan utilized the multi-functional concepts found first in North Star House as the standard for 127 World War I Hostess Houses, serving millions of servicemen and their loved ones.
We invite you to read more about the historic role played by North Star House. Architecture, gold mines, inventions, literature, women’s rights, World War I Hostess Houses, and so much more, are all woven into the tapestry of the North Star House history.
