Features in the four-floor, 55,360 square foot mansion include the stately dining room, the 28 by 61 foot mirrored ballroom (in the Versailles tradition) and sun-parlor. Modeled on the Paris Opera House an "opera box" gallery encircles the grand staircase leading to the second floor. Between the parlor and the dining room there is a complete wall of etched glass which Ralston would dramatically elevate before dinner, revealing the sumptuously laid dining table. The foyer with its classic columns and crystal chandeliers anticipated in design the famous court entrance to the Palace Hotel, current Sheraton Palace Hotel, San Francisco, which Ralston completed in 1875.

Ralston's Wife

In style, Ralston Hall is a modified Italian villa. The interior incorporates many features of 19th century "steamboat Gothic" construction and design, reminiscent of Ralston's early days on the river boats of the Mississippi before his coming to California. Also in the style of a river boat, all doors in the guest area of the mansion slide sideways or up into the walls, or open flat against the walls to permit an unimpeded flow of guests. The double sun-parlor also resembles the promenade deck of the river boats. Skylights are used throughout the house to add light to inner rooms.

A fourth-generation American of Scottish-Irish descent, Ralston was born in Plymouth, Ohio, in 1826. He arrived in San Francisco in 1854, and ten years later, when he organized the Bank of California, he had become one of the most important and powerful men in the West. Using the riches of the silver which poured from the Comstock mines in Nevada, he devised many financial schemes to develop San Francisco. The building of the Palace Hotel and the California Theater were among his projects. His empire was shattered in 1875 when rivals broke his hold on the mines and the Bank of California collapsed as a result of a crash in mining stocks. The following day, Ralston's body was found in the San Francisco Bay.

In 1864, Ralston purchased from Count Leonetto Cipriani an estate located in the rugged Canada del Diablo, twenty-five miles south of San Francisco. Around the modest villa on the estate, which dated from the 1850's, Ralston began construction of an increasingly grand house which ultimately had over eighty rooms. Many of its features suggest that John Painter Gaynor, Irish-born architect/engineer for the Palace Hotel completed in 1875, also worked closely with both Mr. and Mrs. Ralston on plans for the interior of Ralston Hall. There were extensive outbuildings including water and gas works. A massive stone carriage house has been renovated. Ralston named his estate "Belmont."

Ralston entertained the great and near-great who came to San Francisco in his home, using the beauty of the setting and the opulence of his home to impress visitors with the potential of California. Among prominent visitors were Admiral David Farragut, Vice President Schyler Colfax, as well as the first Japanese diplomatic delegation to the United States--with a retinue of one hundred. Noted California guests included Leland Stanford, Mark Hopkins, Anson Burlingame, and James Flood.

William Chapman Ralston 1826-1875

After Ralston's death, the estate passed to his former partner, United States Senator William Sharon, whose family lived in the house until his death in 1885. Visitors during these years included former President Ulysses S. Grant in 1879. Sharon's daughter Flora's wedding to Sir Thomas Fermor-Hesketh of England was one of the last elaborate social events of the time in the mansion. It then became Radcliffe Hall, a girls' finishing school and later, the Gardner Sanitarium (1900-1921). Since 1922, Ralston Hall has been the home of Notre Dame de Namur University, formerly College of Notre Dame.

Now called Ralston Hall, the mansion was dedicated as a historical landmark by the Native Sons of the Golden West in 1963, and in 1968, during the centennial of the College, became a NATIONAL REGISTERED HISTORIC LANDMARK. In 1972, the 50th anniversary year of the purchase of the estate by the College, it was officially designated a CALIFORNIA REGISTERED HISTORICAL LANDMARK.

Over the years, since 1922, both state and national leaders as well as foreign ambassadors have enjoyed, as they did in Ralston's day, the elegance and grace of the mansion.