{"nrhp_refnum":"10001191","name":"North Star House (Additional Documentation)","other_names":["Foote Mansion"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"12075 Old Auburn Rd","address_restricted":false,"city":"Grass Valley","county":"Nevada County","state":"CA","lat":39.19441987000005,"lon":-121.07632007999996,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"2011-02-01","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Architecture","Literature","Industry","Social History"],"significance_levels":["national","local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A two-story, 11,000-square-foot Craftsman residence on a wooded hilltop in Grass Valley, Nevada County, California, designed by architect Julia Morgan and built in 1905 for North Star Mine manager Arthur De Wint Foote and his family.","why_significant":"It is tied to the Grass Valley mining industry (Criterion A) as the home of North Star Mine manager A.D. Foote. It is also linked to author and illustrator Mary Hallock Foote, who did her later work there (Criterion B). It is an early major commission by Julia Morgan, a master of the First Bay Tradition (Criterion C).","narrative":"Built in 1905 on a hilltop in Grass Valley, this 11,000-square-foot house was designed by Julia Morgan for Arthur De Wint Foote, manager of the North Star Mine, and his wife, the author and illustrator Mary Hallock Foote. The U-shaped Arts and Crafts building has first-story walls of rough granite salvaged from the adjoining mine, redwood shingles above, a low gabled roof with wide eaves, and a large stone terrace facing west. Its significance rests on three links: the Grass Valley gold mining industry, Mary Hallock Foote's writing, including her memoirs, which she completed in the house, and Morgan's early independent work. The Foote family lived there until 1968, when it became a boarding school. It then stood vacant from the late 1970s and suffered vandalism and decay. Since 2003 the Nevada County Land Trust has worked to stabilize and restore it, and the building remains vacant.","period_of_significance":"1905-1932","architect_builder":"Julia Morgan","architectural_style":"Craftsman / Arts and Crafts","criteria":["A","B","C"],"status_note":"The building is vacant. The Nevada County Land Trust acquired it in 2003 and has stabilized it and removed later alterations, intending a community cultural center.","vacant_flag":true,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:54:29.793116-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_CA/10001191.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/10001191/0c250d1c1c-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/10001191/0c250d1c1c-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 2.0","author":"Alison Schmidt from Nevada City, Calif","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_North_Star_House_in_2008.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Alison Schmidt from Nevada City, Calif</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 2.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_North_Star_House_in_2008.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/123860150","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Star_House_(Grass_Valley,_California)","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q7056853"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/california/nevada-county/north-star-house-additional-documentation-10001191/"}