{"nrhp_refnum":"72000216","name":"Bidwell Mansion","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"Sowillenno Ave.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Chico","county":"Butte County","state":"CA","lat":39.733019580000075,"lon":-121.84325326899994,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1972-03-24","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Agriculture","Education","Politics/Government","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["state"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"Bidwell Mansion is a brick masonry and wood frame Italian Villa style house in Chico, Butte County, California, built in the 1860s for Annie K. Bidwell and her husband John Bidwell. It is now a state historic park and home museum.","why_significant":"The mansion depicts and interprets the lives of General John Bidwell and Annie Bidwell and their influence on California's social, cultural, economic and political life. John Bidwell was a pioneer of 1841, founder of Chico, agricultural experimenter, state senator and 1892 Prohibition Party presidential candidate. Annie Bidwell taught Indian women and children at the mansion, which the form calls a nearly unique chapter in California American-Indian relations.","narrative":"Bidwell Mansion is a three-story Italian Villa style house in Chico, California, with a four-story tower, built of brick masonry and wood frame between 1865 and 1868. It was designed for Annie K. Bidwell and her husband, General John Bidwell, and served as their residence from 1868 to 1918. Interior features include a nine-foot central hallway, Italian marble fireplaces, original gas lighting fixtures and a cooling design that drew air up the stairwell to a skylight. John Bidwell arrived in California in 1841, founded Chico, ran experimental orchards on Rancho Chico, served as a state senator and ran for President in 1892. Annie Bidwell taught Indian women and children sewing, English and arithmetic at the mansion. Later the Presbyterian Church owned it, and then the State used it for the Normal School. Acquired by the state parks division in 1964, it is now a restored home museum open to the public.","period_of_significance":"1860s (19th Century)","architect_builder":"H. W. Cleveland (the form also gives the name Henry W. Clearland of San Francisco as architect of the original design)","architectural_style":"Italian Villa","criteria":[],"status_note":"Open daily to the public as a home museum within Bidwell Mansion State Historic Park; restoration work under way; condition marked excellent/good and altered.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:55:32.141596-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_CA/72000216.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/72000216/a43e566637-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/72000216/a43e566637-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 4.0","author":"Frank Schulenburg","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bidwell_Mansion,_May_2021.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Frank Schulenburg</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 4.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bidwell_Mansion,_May_2021.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/123858422","wikipedia":null,"wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q123050677"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/california/butte-county/bidwell-mansion-72000216/"}