The mansion that is the original part of the Crocker Museum was built in
1853 by banker Benjamin Franklin Hastings and purchased in 1868 by Edwin B.
Crocker, former California Supreme Court Justice, lawyer and elder brother of
Charles Crocker, of Central Pacific Railroad fame. Born in 1818 in New York, by
the 1840’s Edwin was practicing law in Indiana and was a former member of the
Liberty Party and an abolitionist. He was selected as a delegate from Indiana to
the Free Soil Party convention. He and his wife moved to California in 1852, and
he chaired the first meeting of the California Republican Party in 1856. He was
appointed an Associate Justice of the California Supreme Court in 1863 by
Governor Leland Stanford and stepped down in 1864 after Justices were elected.
In 1865, he became counsel to the Central Pacific Railroad of which his younger
brother Charles and Stanford were owners along with Collis Huntington and Mark
Hopkins. He was the Central Pacific’s legal counsel while the Transcontinental
Railroad was being built.
A month after the driving of the Golden Spike at
Promontory Point, Utah in May of 1869, EB Crocker suffered a stroke and retired
from his legal practice. With his legal practice at an end, Crocker, his wife
Margaret, and his family traveled Europe and began collecting art. After two
years, the Crockers returned home with over 700 paintings and 1344 drawings. In
1871, Crocker commissioned Seth Babson, architect of the Stanford Mansion, to
design a building to house his art collection. The gallery building was
completed in 1874, and originally contained a bowling alley, skating rink, grand
ball room, a natural history museum, and a library. At the time, Crocker’s
collection was the largest private collection in the United States and held more
paintings than the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Edwin Crocker died of
complications from his stroke in 1875 and left the gallery and mansion to his
wife and daughters. The gallery became a social hub in Sacramento and Mrs.
Crocker hosted many luminaries of the era including Queen Lili’uokalani,
President Ulysses Grant, and Oscar Wilde. In 1885, the gallery was given to the
City of Sacramento and the California Museum Association to be held in public
trust.
The Crocker Art Museum underwent an expansion in 2010 with the addition
of the Teel Family Pavilion. Today, the museum not only holds an extensive
collection of European art, but also extensive collections of California, Asian,
and art from Oceania, as well as as a ceramics collection ranging from the
Neolithic to the modern. Of special note are The Fandango and Sunday Morning at
the Mines by Charles Christian Nahl as well as works depicting California by
Thomas Hill, Edward Deakin and Albert Bierstadt. Notable among the European
works are several portraits and religious paintings by Dutch and Flemish masters
such as Pieter Brueghel the Younger..
The museum located at 216 O Street in
Sacramento and is open from 10:00 am to 5:00 pm, Wednesday through Sunday and
10:00 am to 9:00 pm on Thursdays. Tickets are $15.00 for adults, $10.00 for
college students, seniors and the military, $8.00 for youth ages 6-17, and free
for those 6 and under. For more information about the museum and special events
please visit the museum’s website at: https://www.crockerart.org/
GETTING THERE:
From 414 Mason Street. Get on Interstate 80 East from 5th Street. Continue on
I-80 East to US 50 toward Sacramento/South Lake Tahoe/Capital City Freeway. Take
Exit 3 to Downtown Sacramento/Jefferson Blvd. Keep left onto CA-275/Calbadon
Parkway. Turn right onto 3rd Street and then turn left onto O Street.
