The Shurtleff House by Mabel Moores Frisbie
When I was sorting local artist Mabel Moorse Frisbie’s collection of drawings and paintings, a pretty watercolor of a large and interesting looking home piqued my curiosity. With a few exceptions, Turtle Bay’s collection of Mabel’s work focuses on local subjects with a particular interest in the town of Shasta, now known as Old Shasta, located a few miles west of Redding’s city limits.
Shasta, previously known as Reading Springs, was the original county seat when California attained statehood in 1850 and Shasta County took shape. Mabel’s drawings and paintings are a window into the past. Working from old photos, descriptions, still-standing buildings, and her own girlhood recollections, she recreated a world that was long gone by the time she was portraying it.
The house in this painting was built in 1851. It was the direct result of the California Gold Rush. Dr. Benjamin Shurtleff was a ‘49er. Like many gold-seekers, he wore many professional hats that had nothing to do with mining. Shurtleff was a physician, druggist, orchardist, brick maker, and a public official both under the Mexican and new American governments. While many miners struggled to make ends meet, men of means like Ben Shurtleff were able to import expensive building materials and furnishings from the East Coast and San Francisco. All of which had to be hauled up the valley on ox carts.
Having survived fires and other natural disasters, the home situated on Shurtleff Hill was the oldest residence in Shasta when it burned to the ground in 1967. The neighboring Bystle-Heffelfinger House, built in 1857 with a similar facade, took on the mantle of oldest standing residence until it burned in the 2018 Carr Fire. Nothing lasts forever, but at least it was captured for posterity.
Come see Artifact of the Month in person and learn more about Ben Shurtleff, his home – dubbed “one of the loveliest spots on the face of the earth” by a traveler, and Mabel Moores Frisbie.
The Shurtleff House by Mabel Moores Frisbie (1883-1979)
c. 1950s
1981.11.34 – Gift of Jean Beauchamp
