EVENT DETAILS

AutumnFest 2023 has been expanded to a Family Event with games and craft activities for children. Come enjoy the afternoon with us.

CHILDREN’S CRAFTS AND GAMES

• Face painting
• Paint your own Bird House and/or a Rock
• Make cute critters from paper
• A First! Pumpkin bowling

DEMONSTRATIONS AND PERFORMANCES

• A professional florist will show us how to plant succulents in a pumpkin to make a stunning addition to your home decor. (The finished arrangements from the demonstrations will be available for sale.)
• Chris the Bard, a wonderful Magician from the Nevada County Magician’s Guild, will entertain both children and adults.
• Enjoy the music of Rhonda Lynn & Edgewood Station.

TOURS: Both the Historic Julia Morgan-designed House and the Heritage Garden will be open with docents. We also offer a landscape tour. Bring your cell phone and follow the map and information as you walk about the property and see some of the heritage trees on the property. (Sturdy shoes recommended.)

ARTISAN CRAFT SHOP:  A wide variety of hand-made items by members of Soroptimist and North Star. Get a start on your holiday shopping.

FOOD AND BEVERAGES for sale

• Coco’s Confections (dba Lazy Dog Ice Cream), Dr. Sarah’s Pies, and Grajeda’s Mexican Food
• Beer, Wine, Mimosas, soda, water

All proceeds of AutumnFest benefit the North Star Historic Conservancy and Soroptimist International of the Sierra Foothills, both of which are non-profit organizations.

Julia Morgan was a remarkably talented architect. After receiving a Civil Engineering degree from UC Berkeley, she went to Paris and became the first female admitted to and graduated from the most prestigious architecture school in the world, L’Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris. Dr. McNeil will discuss this period of Julia Morgan’s life, and how it gave her a strong foundation for her amazing career.

Returning to California, Miss Morgan became he first licensed female architect in California in 1904. She is best known for designing the massive Hearst Castle estate in San Simeon (built 1919-1947). One of her first commissions after starting her own business was designing the North Star House, completed in 1905.  It is a historical house and is considered an excellent example of Arts & Crafts style.

AUTHOR:  Karen McNeil, PhD

Dr. McNeill is an expert on Julia Morgan. Her latest publication, “Julia Morgan in Paris”, is available in the recently-released book Julia Morgan: The Road to San Simeon.  Karen’s scholarship focuses on women and gender in the architectural profession as well as how Progressive Era women used the built environment to expand their roles in society as consumers, reformers, educators, and professionals. Her work has been supported by the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Autry National Center, the Bancroft Library, and the University of California Humanities Research Institute. Karen has also taught history and architectural history at colleges and universities in the San Francisco Bay Area and had been involved in historic preservation, authoring several context statements for major surveys and successfully nominating a range of buildings to the National Register of Historic Places. She is currently Senior Family Historian at Ascent Private Capital Management of U.S. Bank and a trustee on the board of the Beverly Willis Architecture Foundation (WAF).

The North Star Self-Guided
Legacy Landscape Tour
Now Posted Online

Our online tour will guide you through:

Part 1:  Heritage Garden
Part 2:  Walk About the Property

With descriptions and pictures, the tour starts in the Heritage Garden, which is a tribute to the horticultural skills of Arthur De Wint Foote, North Star Mine Superintendent and avid horiticulturalist. This portion is level, with parking available very close.

Then take a walk around the property and see some of the surviving legacy trees and shrubs on the property. Many were planted by Mr. Foote, but some pre-date him. This will be over uneven terrain.

Click here to get to the Tour Guide.

The Tour Guide can be viewed on a computer, tablet, or on your Smart Phone (as you walk around the tour).

Note: The Heritage Garden will generally be open from 10am-12pm on Tuesdays and Thursdays. It will be locked most other times to keep deer and other critters from eating everything.

The Heritage Garden is closed December 1 – March 1 for winter maintenance.

Become a North Star Volunteer

Join our team and help us restore this historic House as a resource for the community.

NOTE: You can scroll down below the Volunteer Form to see a brief description of what the various jobs entail.

Fill out the following form to let us know what you are interested in. You will be contacted by one of our volunteer coordinators.

Current Volunteer Opportunities:

House Construction / Reconstruction:  We have some very skilled craftsmen working on the house. We also need people to help with sanding, painting, cleaning up, getting rooms ready for work.

Maintaining Heritage Garden:  The Heritage Garden honors the legacy of Arthur De Wint Foote, who was an avid horticulturalist as well as excellent mining engineer. People needed for pruning, planting, weeding, watering, maintaining hardscape, and maintaining irrigation system.

Landscaping and Grounds: Maintain several acres and restore grounds around the house to be similar to the previous landscaping.

Docent / Tours: Learn basic information about the North Star House and its history, then welcome visitors to the house, answer questions, and offer to show them around if they would like a brief tour.

NSH Events – Planning Committee:  Attend monthly meeting to plan events; work on logistics of events between meetings and take responsibility for some aspects of some events.

NSH Events – Day-if-event Support: Help with setup, during event, and/or cleanup.

Social Media / Marketing: If you love social media and marketing our organization and events, this one’s for you.

Graphic Designer: Experienced graphic designer to produce high-quality flyers, ads, etc. for our organization.

Fundraising – Program Management: If you have experience with fundraising campaigns for nonprofit organizations, please get in touch with us.

IMPORTANT:  If you filled out the form and did not hit the SUBMIT button, please scroll back up to the end of the form and SUBMIT it. The form will be replaced by a submission acknowledgement when it has been submitted.

UPDATE April 6, 2021:  We are cautiously optimistic about being able to have some outdoor events this summer. 

Sunday, October 17 will be a new, fun event which we are developing in partnership with Soroptimist Club of the Sierra Foothills. We’re still in the planning stage, but mark your calendars. We’ll have the Soroptimist Garden Shop, tours, and more.

We might be able to have one or two of the “Friday Nite Locals” concerts. Still working on that.

It has been a long year for all of us and we are anxious to resume relaxing and “enjoying company” at the House.

Previous Post:

The North Star House continues to be closed due to safety precautions and government regulations during the pandemic. Even though we cannot open to the public right now, we are continuing with house restoration and planning for the future.

• The construction volunteers are utilizing the house closing to spread out into all of the first floor rooms with restoration and finish work … using masks and social distancing.
• The garden crew is maintaining the Heritage Garden, which is growing and filling in nicely. It will look gorgeous when we are on the Soroptimist Garden Tour May 22-23, 2021.
• We are revamping the Open House and Docent program, plus adding a new Landscape Tour that will be available in 2021.
• We have interesting speakers lined up for a 2021 Speaker Series.
• We plan to launch Friday Nite Locals concerts in the summer, featuring established local artists and introducing new talent.
• And we have learned to have Board meetings via Zoom!

We look forward to welcoming you back to the House when we are able to host the public again.

The STAR Newsletter is published Quarterly by North Star Historic Conservancy. The Spring, 2021 issue was published in March, 2021. You can view or download it online at:

https://thenorthstarhouse.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/Newsletter-2021-03.pdf

In this issue:

• Article: “Julia Morgan and the Hearst Estates: A Contrast in Styles”. For about 25 years, Julia Morgan and William Randolph Hearst worked together creating two major estates: the well-known Hearst Castle and the little-known Wyntoon. Follow along that journey with the words and pictures in this article.
• President’s Message
• Sherian Kutzera joins the NSHC Board of Directors
• Taming the Hawthorn Hedge — the volunteers undertook a major pruning effort to start restoration of the hedge that separates the driveway from the front lawn.
• Transporting a 23-ton piece of equipment from the train station in Colfax to the Central Shaft on Allison Ranch Road.