The historic North Star House of Grass Valley invites you to join us on Wednesday, June 14th at 4pm to welcome Stacey Guill, PhD, author of “The Stone House in the Cañon”.  This book details the Boise home of Arthur and Mary Hallock Foote, the first residents of The North Star House. Her beautifully crafted and uniquely designed book tells of the Footes’ life in Boise, Idaho, where Arthur had a vision of creating a canal system that would one day serve to irrigate the entire Boise Valley. From 1885 to 1889, the couple built and lived in the house overlooking the Boise River, 10 miles outside of town.

Guill spent 20 years researching the Footes and their remarkable home. Arthur’s design of the floor plan and the building’s structure were not a typical style of the period. Her research became a key element in developing The Foote Park Interpretation Center near the site of the original home.

In 1895, the Footes moved their family to Grass Valley when Arthur became the superintendent of The North Star Mine. Mary continued her career as an illustrator and author. In 1905, the family moved into the newly constructed North Star House, which was designed and built by the then young architect, Julia Morgan. Morgan was a very talented architect who gained recognition for the Hearst Castle, Asilomar, and hundreds of other buildings. The Footes lived in Grass Valley for almost 40 years.

Stacey Guill earned her Master’s Degree in English from Boise State and her Ph.D. in Literature and Criticism from Indiana University of Pennsylvania. She and her husband Ron are long-time residents of Boise. The possibility of discovering new information about the Footes and their Idaho home inspires Guill to continue digging through library archives, pouring over old letters, photos, and newspaper clippings. She believes there is more to tell!  Ron Guill is a mining engineer and retired mining contractor will add his thoughts about mining in the past and mining today during the presentation.

Purchase of “The Stone House in the Cañon” and book signing will follow the presentation.  Please join us in welcoming the Guills June 14th at 4pm at the historic North Star House, 12075 Auburn Road, Grass Valley.

Docents will be present after the talk for tours of the house, including a permanent display of Julia Morgan’s Life and Legacy. This event is part of the historic North Star House Speakers series. For more information about upcoming events, go to thenorthstarhouse.org.

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.