Bidwell Mansion State Historic Park

Important Tour Update! Bidwell Mansion State Historic Park will be moving from reservation based tours back to our traditional first come, first served programming. In addition, we will be adding a second indoor mansion tour to our daily rotation. The schedule will be as follows: ... Visitor Center Hours Saturday and Wednesday 11am - 3pm Mansion Interior Tours Saturday and Wednesday 12pm and 3pm Properly worn masks or face-shields are required to attend the mansion interior tour. We look forward to seeing you!

Its persimmon season once again here at Bidwell Mansion! Stop by our visitor center when we're open on Saturday and Wednesday and take a persimmon home! Our persimmons are of the hachiya variety, and are great for use in baking.

In this 1907 photograph Annie Bidwell stands on the stairway to the second floor of the mansion with Ida and Julia Lathers, compared with the same location today. Bidwell Mansion was host to a broad range of guests during John and Annie's lives, many of whom spoke to the pairs interests and convictions. Notable figures include General William Tecumseh Sherman, President Rutherford B. Hayes, naturalist John Muir, and women's rights activist Susan B. Anthony.

Today's historic Chico home, located on Normal Street, is almost identical to its neighbor. Both were constructed for Jennie McIntosh sometime around 1903. The minimal changes made to the building over the intervening years are a testament to its sound design and construction.

Today Park Aide Murphy takes us to the second and third floors of the mansion in the third installment of her Structure and Function tour!

According to the City of Chico's Historic Resources Inventory this unassuming home located on W. 3rd street has the distinction of being one of Chico's oldest extant buildings. Estimated construction dates places it's origin around 1869, just a year after the Bidwell Mansion was completed.

Today Park Aide Murphy takes us through the second part of the structure and function tour, teaching us about various components of the mansion's first floor!

Bidwell Mansion is now available to be virtually toured from the comfort of your home! We are excited to digitally provide you with all three floors of the home in a 360 degree panorama. Explore room by room and feel the mansion come alive. Learn about local history by examining artifacts with their own detailed descriptions, and immerse yourself on the first floor with sound effects, including a vintage phonograph recording and the mansion's original piano!

Today's historic Chico home is a Queen Anne built around the turn of the century for Thomas Bicknell. Two and a half stories high, its size is complimented by a raised brick basement. Today it serves as a fraternity house for Phi Kappa Tau, as it has since 1960.

Join us today in the mansion's library to learn about early recording technology and listen to a wax cylinder played on our phonograph!

Today, join Park Aide Murphy for the first installment of a new virtual tour, focusing on the structural and functional components of the Bidwell Mansion!

Virtually join the Bidwell Mansion Association on December 18th for some festive fun!

We are back today with another historic Chico house! This 1875 home was constructed by Jefferson Walker, who established a brickyard that provided construction materials to many local projects.

The majority of the books stored in the mansion's library are originals that were owned by John and Annie, who frequently wrote their names on the inside cover or first page. In this copy of the United States Register or Blue Book, John's signature sits above an advertisement for fire extinguishers.

Our last post about corsets elicited a number of questions, so today we have more information and clarification on this garment! It is important to note first a few things: corsets in various fashions and forms were used before and after the Victorian period, for differing reasons and to different effects. Often the primary purpose was to raise and shape the bust, improve posture, and provide support. During the Victorian era when the aesthetic of the wasp waist was in fashio...n a corset could help constrict the abdomen to provide the desired look, however the ideal of an 18 inch waistline was just that, an ideal. Similar to a glossy edited photo in a magazine, an 18 inch waist simply wasn’t attainable for most. Furthermore, misshaped skeletal structure didn’t happen from wearing a corset once: in order to cause misshapen ribs and compressed organs, a corset would need to be worn consistently and tightly laced over a period of years, a form of extreme corseting which was by no means the norm. The Victorian corset allowed for tightlacing due to metal eyelets which let an individual tighten their lacing to a greater degree without danger of tearing their garment. Alleged longer term effects of tightlacing (such as strokes) are difficult to link directly to corsets; during the time period doctors blamed a number of far-ranging illnesses and effects on corsets that have later been disproven. There is also debate over the accuracy of the notion of a fainting couch being specifically designed for the purpose or simply co-opted for use in an area where one may need to catch their breath; in either case it’s positioning on a stairway landing would be prudent. Attached photo: Fashion illustrations would often display an exaggerated vision of the effect of a corset on ones figure. Photo Credit: Emma E. Goodwin, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Today we look at how a home like Bidwell Mansion would be kept cool in a time before air conditioning through physics and architectural design; Park Interpretive Specialist Elijah takes us to the tower of the mansion to view the structure that regulated temperature in the house.