Step into history: Sacramento area mansion hits the real estate market for $2 million

Hi, I'm David Caraccio with the Sacramento Bee, and we are in Folsom, California on a rainy day, but we have a beautiful house to show you. This house is on the market for $1.995 million. It has five bedrooms, three bathrooms, and it spans 4,750 square feet. One of the most incredible things about this property is it sits on a parcel that spans three city lots, which is a rare size. So let's go inside and show you. So we are in the library, and I'm with the owner, Mike Brinkowitz. Tell us about when you bought the place in 2010, and some of the renovation. You know, it's a lot of work that has been done. We've done pretty much a fairly, you know, good remodel. Most of the electrical has been replaced. Most of the plumbing has been replaced. And also, of course, extensive inside. There's, you know, new floors, and height, and carpet, and stuff. Sure, and as we were walking through the house, the details are period. Some original, some just keeping with the era. Who was your expert behind this? That would be my wife, Shannon. So she's very, very good at historic details, and it was extremely important to her that when she restored the house, it was restored as close to how this house would have been. So that's what we did was she researched that. She did a lot of, spent a lot of time finding the product, period wallpaper, period lights, period flooring, you know, everything that we could possibly do to put it together right. As we walked in, gorgeous entryway with the new flooring. To the left is where the women would, the ladies' parlor, ladies' parlor, where they would gather. And then we came through these pocket doors, and here's where we're sitting in this room. Point out some of the details of this room, because I thought this was a very special spot. There's a couple of interesting things here. The fireplace is ironic because it's a back-to-back fireplace, but it is coal burning on one side and wood burning on the other. The marble fireplace itself was actually original to the house. From what we understand, it was shipped around the horn and installed here. There's also the same example on the other side, same piece on the other side. Windows, everything, are original. As far as we know, the light is not necessarily original, but it is period to there. We think it was probably installed, and this is kind of a guess, sometime around the turn of the century, because that's when the power came up to about 1890, 1995 is when Folsom finally got power. That was probably wired at that point. But the interesting part about the light is it has the original gas lamp that you would have poured the oil into. Then it went to a settling gas. Then it was wired for electricity. You have actually three things there that was updated. The original light was updated through the years as the technology would allow. You walk through the smoking room, the library, on the other side you said there was the wood burning fireplace, and that brings us to the dining room. Correct. And that has an identical marble fireplace on the other side. My wife spent a lot of time researching wallpapers in that room. Originally, the room needed some work. It was painted, I think, blue. She actually went to Bradbury & Bradbury out of Oakland and actually purchased, that was our considerable expense, purchased some wallpaper for that wall. The trim around the top of the wallpaper was actually out of a 17th century hunting lodge in Scotland. It's all reproduced from them. All the period is wallpaper, but it's extra special in there. The wallpaper actually has a gold tone to it so that when you turn the lights down, and you put a little nice candles, the room kind of glows. Yeah, that's lovely. That's great. Served by a butler's pantry. That's correct. Yeah, and then the kitchen though has been, it's pretty modern. You have multiple appliances in there. Yes. The kitchen was in bad shape and it was dated in the 70s, and so that was the first thing we knew needed to go. It was yellow, it had cabinets hanging on these big long bolts. So we actually took it right down to the studs. This gave us an ability to run new wire plumbing up into the attic and rewire and plumb the rest of the house. So it was really convenient to do both. When we put it back together, of course, we put on brand spanking new custom built cabinets. I love it. It carries through the tall ceilings. The house was built by Carly and Carly, the same people that actually built the Davenport's mansion in Sacramento. So you'll notice a lot of similar details in the banister and around the windows because it was, of course, the same design that they used. When you get upstairs there, you have basically two large bedrooms on one side and then two smaller bedrooms on the other side. So in essence, it would have been kind of a ladies' mess. Remember, this is 1881. But the good news is you have two large rooms. So you could actually use either one as a master if you wanted to. And the two rooms connect by a small little closet. Yeah, yeah. Things are a little different these days. The 1884 addition actually included a large room, about approximately 1,679 square feet, that was put onto the house and a deck that went around and a large two-car garage. We actually put the pool in ourselves. That was put in probably seven years ago. So we actually put that pool on the outside. But the nice part about it is it has a modern feel to it. So it kind of has that in-between. But at the same time, we've put a few, my wife's put a few touches in there that actually takes it back. The fireplace mantle has a nice carving on it. There's a beautiful bar, a beautiful white bar. There's a wine cellar. So we've actually just done quite a few things to try to make it, that's kind of a comfortable, very comfortable area for families to be and watch TV. We are in the parlor just off the entry. And I'm here with Kendra Bishop of the Bishop Real Estate Group. Give me your three or four favorite features. Well, first and foremost, it's the location. It is absolutely an incredible location. The history of this house in the heart of Folsom, a block from Center Street, a triple wide lot. The owners have lovingly restored the house. There is so much to love about the home in the area. The location is great. I mean, Center Street is what, a block? One block. Yeah. One block away. So you can walk down to the farmer's markets and nightlife, the restaurants, an ice skating rink during the winter months. I mean, the river is there. There is so much to do and see all across. The lot, you mentioned the big lot. Tell me about that and how rare is it? So it's a half acre lot, just under a half acre lot. As we said, there are three city lots within the half acre. And it is incredibly rare. There is only one other property in this vicinity that is of similar size. And so it is a very rare jewel to have here in the heart of Folsom.