Mary Mesick's home at 517 8th Street in Sacramento, California, rises in front of you. This historic home was built in 1875 and wears the mixed hallmarks of Second Empire and Italianate Victorian architecture: look for the characteristic mansard roof that marks it as one of only four High Victorians remaining in Sacramento to display that feature. The others are the Stanford Mansion, the Heilbron Mansion, and the Governors Mansion.
The house carries the name of its original owner, Mary Mesick, a name stamped into the city’s built fabric. As you stand here, let your eyes travel over the layered ornament, the vertical emphasis, and the roofline that once signaled modern elegance in Sacramento. Imagine the choices that produced this particular blend of styles in 1875, when architects and owners mixed Second Empire and Italianate details to shape a distinctive domestic silhouette.
This is a neighborhood piece of Sacramento’s Victorian story, one of the few surviving examples with that distinctive mansard roof. Notice the Mesick House and the layered ornament and roofline lining this Sacramento street.