The People of the North Star House
Arthur DeWint (AD) Foote b. 1849, Gilford, CT d. 1933, MA
Yale University, Sheffield Scientific School
Civil engineer & surveyor
Horticulturalist & photographer, acquainted with Luther Burbank
Designed and built North Star Powerhouse & 30 ft. Pelton water wheel (compressed air power)
Mining Engineer (hydraulics & deep mining techniques)
◦ New Almaden Quicksilver Mine, Santa Clara – cinnabar
◦ Leadville, CO
◦ Morelia, Michoacan, Mexico
◦ Idaho Mining & Irrigation Co., Boise, ID
◦ North Star Mine, Grass Valley
Engineered the building of Foote’s Crossing Road in 1911 (to access a mine he later owned)
Mary Hallock Foote (Molly) b. 1847, Milton, NY d. 1939, MA (buried in Grass Valley)
School of Design for Women, Cooper Union, NYC
Married AD Foote in 1876
Illustrator of books & magazines (including “Scarlet Letter”, 1877)
Author of short stories on “American New West” for Atlantic Monthly, Scribners, Century Magazine
Author of memoir: “A Victorian Gentlewoman in the Far West”
Children of AD & Mary Hallock Foote:
Arthur Burling (AB) Foote (Sonny) b. 1877, New Almaden, CA d. 1964, Grass Valley, CA
Boston Tech (MIT), Civil Engr. m. 1913, Jeanette Hooper of San Francisco
North Star Mine, Assistant Mine Manager – 1904, North Star Mine, Manager – 1913
Raced his Model T over the summit with George Starr in 1911
Purchased North Star House in 1929. His children sell house in 1968.
Elizabeth Townsend Foote Swift (Betty) b. 1882, Milton, NY d. 1949, Hingham, MA
Married North Star Mine engineer Rodman (Tod) Swift. Daughter Agnes born at The House.
AD and Molly go to live with them in Massachusetts in 1932.
Agnes Foote b. 1886, Boise, ID d. 1904, Grass Valley
Died at age 17 at North Star Cottage four days after appendicitis surgery.
James D. Hague b. 1836, Boston, MA d. 1908 Stockbridge, MA
Harvard, Frieberg, Germany, Geologist, Mining Engr.
President, North Star Mine Company, 18 Wall St. NYC 1887 – 1908
Resided in New York City and San Francisco
Married to AD Foote’s sister, Mary Ward Foote
Son, William, North Star manager after James’ death, commissioned Robert Peabody, Boston, MA. to build Hague House in 1911. William died of pneumonia in France in 1918 during WWI.
Julia Morgan b. 1872, San Francisco, CA d. 1957
UC Berkeley in 1894, Civil Engineering
Ecole Des Beaux-Arts (Paris) in 1903 – first woman to earn degree in architecture
First licensed female architect in California – 1904
Embraced the First Bay Area Tradition Arts and Crafts movement w/ Maybeck, John Howard Galen, Brown, Polk
Favored reinforced concrete just prior to 1906 quake – reputation-making
Designed the North Star House in 1905
Designed Phoebe Apperson Hearst’s Women’s Gym at UC Berkeley, went on to design for Wm.R. Hearst
Designed Hearst Castle, Wyntoon (Shasta), Asilomar, YWCAs in California, Utah, Arizona & Hawaii, and many more private residences & public buildings.
