Hayes Mansion, San Jose
California
The sprawling Mediterranean Revival mansion in south San Jose was built in nineteen oh five for Mary Hayes Chynoweth, matriarch of one of the most powerful families in Gilded Age California. Mary had made her family wealthy through iron ore mining in the Midwest, moved to San Jose, and built a large Victorian estate, only to watch it burn to the ground in eighteen ninety-nine. She commissioned architect George Page to design a replacement: a forty-one thousand square foot structure.
Mary died in nineteen oh five, the same year the mansion was completed. Her sons carried on: Everis Hayes served fourteen years in the United States House of Representatives, and Jay Hayes founded what became Sunsweet Growers, the prune cooperative. The family also owned the San Jose Mercury and the San Jose Herald.
The estate passed through several owners and uses over the century, and today the mansion operates as a hotel within the Curio Collection.
