This Old House
Homes That Carry Redding’s Story Forward…
There is history packed into Redding’s oldest homes, Mike Dahl says, which is why they need to be preserved whenever possible. Conserving that history “is preserving our legacy for the future,” adds the former president of the Shasta Historical Society.
When a century-old home is restored to its former grandeur, the neighborhood and the entire community benefit. “It creates a cumulative impact,” Dahl says.
Steve Woodrum, who resides in a 134-year-old home on Chestnut Street, can speak to the value history adds to a house. The two-bedroom house was built in 1891, four years before construction of the Behrens-Eaton House Museum that sits catty-corner on West Street.
Frank and Anna Rose, the grandparents of Woodrum’s late wife, Barbara, purchased the home in 1918. Frank Rose, the former manager of the Headlight Mine on Coffee Creek in Trinity County, was a skilled furniture maker and carpenter who expanded the home.
Rose’s daughter, Frances, married a West Point graduate and was stationed with him in the Philippines during World War II when she delivered Barbara. When fighting on Corregidor forced an evacuation, Frances and her 6-month-old daughter sailed across the Pacific and spent the war years in the house on Chestnut.
Not only is the house filled with history – having members of the same family in the house for more than 100 years “adds a totally different dimension,” Woodrum says – but the yard is, as well. A big Washington palm in the front yard is a reminder of the early 1900s when the Southern Pacific Railroad planted palms along the tracks by Library Park. “The railroad was promoting Redding, saying ‘the climate is so good even palms grow here,’” Woodrum says.
The front yard also was where Barbara Woodrum, who was a skilled gardener, delighted in growing irises. Woodrum recalls working alongside her when she would share memories of gardening with her grandfather in 1945. Woodrum was tending to the flowers in 2021, some 12 years after his wife had passed, when a substitute letter carrier stopped to comment.
“I told the mailman my late wife could remember gardening with her grandfather out front and it was my time to do it now. He was so moved he was about to cry,” Woodrum says, choking up himself at the memory. Society today, with its rapid pace and emphasis on relocation, “doesn’t allow us to live like that,” Woodrum says.
The McCormick Mansion at 1452 Oregon St., built in 1879, was home to James McCormick, the co-owner with Rudolph M.F. Saeltzer of the McCormick-Saeltzer Co. The two men operated a store on Market Street (occupying an entire block between Yuba and Placer) that was reportedly the largest retail establishment between Sacramento and Portland.
History also is ever-present at the Thompson House at the corner of Pine and Butte streets. Built in 1871, six years before Redding was incorporated, it is believed to be the oldest home still standing in
the city.
Formerly the tasting room for Moseley Family Cellars, it was home for the Thompson family for decades. The brothers Russell and Harry Thompson established Thompsons’ Clothing in 1926 and operated a
store in the Odd Fellows Hall on Market Street until the 1970s before relocating to Butte Street. In 1999 the store was moved to the historic family home, where it stayed until it closed in 2006.
Moseley Family Cellars opened a tasting room inside the home in late 2022, joining New Clairvaux Vineyard, the Grape Escape and Westside Wines & Hops in cultivating a fine wine environment in downtown Redding.
The Crowe House at Placer and Orange streets was built in 1938 for Frank Crowe, the superintendent of construction at Shasta Dam. Crowe, who also presided over construction of Hoover Dam and other notable projects in the West, retired in 1944 and died in 1946 while working on his 20,000-acre cattle ranch.
The two-story Frisbie mansion on East Street was built in 1887 by businessman Edward Frisbie and is one of Redding’s few remaining examples of Victorian era architecture. According to the late historian Dottie Smith, Frisbie helped establish the Bank of Northern California, had a lumber business on the Pit River and a 920-acre cattle ranch in the Bald Hills. The home currently hosts professional offices.
The well-known Behrens-Eaton House Museum at 1520 East St. was built in 1895, acquired by newly elected Shasta County Sheriff Charles Henry Behrens in 1898, and ultimately became the lifelong home of the Hon. Richard B. Eaton. As per Eaton’s wishes, the home is now operated as a Victorian-era museum.
