Black Diamond Mines Regional Preserve, Contra Costa County

Black Diamond Mines Regional Preserve - This park contains the remains of what was once a prosperous mining area. At one time, this area originally known as the Mount Diablo Coalfield was home to 12 active coal mines: The Black Diamond, Mt. Hope, Cumberland, Eureka, Independent, Pittsburg, Star, Corcoran, Central, Union, Manhattan and Empire. Just up the hill to the west sits the old Rose Hill Cemetery which has close to 200 former residents interred there.

ALL PHOTOGRAPHY IS COPYRIGHTED BY THE PHOTOGRAPHER, ROLAND BOULWARE
 (Copyright 2020 - Roland Boulware) 

The McHenry Mansion, Modesto, California

The McHenry Mansion, located at 906 15th Street in Modesto, is a Victorian-Italianate home originally built in 1883 for Robert McHenry (Robert Henry Brewster) who was a rancher, banker and eventually a politician. Robert lived here with his wife, Matilda.

After Robert died in 1890, and Matilda died in 1896, their son Oramil and his wife Louise decided to live there with their children. Eventually Oramil and his wife would divorce. Oramil would end up keeping their sons, while Louise took their daughter. Sadly, their little girl died from burns she suffered in her hotel room at the Hollenbeck Hotel in Los Angeles. Oramil later remarried in 1902 but lived only 4 more years, dying in 1906. Afterwards, his 2nd wife inherited it.

The house would go through several transformations, from the Elmwood Sanitarium in 1919, to the Langdon Apartments, named after Oramil's 2nd wife's 2nd husband, William Langdon. Eventually the home had went into such disrepair over the years until the Julio R. Gallo Foundation purchased the home to preserve it back to the way it was when Robert McHenry lived in it.

ALL PHOTOGRAPHY IS COPYRIGHTED BY THE PHOTOGRAPHER, ROLAND BOULWARE

(Copyright 2020 - Roland Boulware) 

Sutter Creek Grammar School

The original Sutter Creek Grammar School was built in 1857 but burned down in a fire in 1870. This second structure built on the same site was constructed in 1871. This is said to be one of the last two-story brick schoolhouses of this size and scale left in the Motherlode, the other being the schoolhouse in Columbia. 

ALL PHOTOGRAPHY IS COPYRIGHTED BY THE PHOTOGRAPHER, ROLAND BOULWARE

(Copyright 2020 - Roland Boulware) 

Dunsmuir House, Oakland, California

Located in a secluded spot in Oakland, the Dunsmuir house was built in 1899 by J. Eugene Freeman. Built for Alexander Dunsmuir, the son of a rich coal baron from Vancouver, British Columbia.

The house was a "wedding gift" to his bride, Josephine, but he never got to enjoy it as he passed away on January 31, 1900 on their honeymoon while in Manhattan. His wife came back to the home to live out the rest of her days,which was only about a year later, when she also fell ill and passed away on June 23, 1901.

Rumors that the newlywed couple dying so quickly after building the home has sparked legend and lore around the home's history. The truth of the matter was, the couple were not really newlyweds at all. Josephine and Alexander had been "playing house" for over 18 years before they actually married. He was afraid of his father's disapproval of the union so he kept it a secret. Alexander waited until his father died to allow their affair to be announced.

It was said that he was also afraid his mother, and that she too would disinherit him if she knew about his union, so he had planned on keeping it a secret indefinitely. Somehow, word got out so he made it official and married her properly. Sadly, the two never got to enjoy proper married life together.--

ALL PHOTOGRAPHY IS COPYRIGHTED BY THE PHOTOGRAPHER : ROLAND BOULWARE

(Copyright 2020 - Roland Boulware)