Gonna walk around the (half) block
This is not the kind of block you’d want to walk all the way around — at least not for pleasure. More than half of it is a Chico State University parking lot. The only reason you might want to make the effort is to bear witness to the encroachment of the university upon what was once Chico’s finest residential neighborhood.
There was a time when the geographical line between town and gown was clear. First Street was the boundary. Over the years, the university laid claim to most of the blocks between First and Second and a couple of the blocks between Second and Third.
The block you are about to walk, bounded by Normal Avenue and Third, Chestnut and Second streets, falls entirely within the university’s domain.
For about 40 years, you could have looked up Normal Avenue and seen the main building of Chico Normal School, which eventually became Chico State. The massive structure, which had three stories, a basement and a tower, burned down in 1927. But even if it were still standing, the view from Normal would be blocked by the Performing Arts Center and Taylor Hall, which unfortunately aren’t much to look at.
The northwest corner of Normal and Third would still be recognizable to a time traveler from the 19th century. This house, which the university now calls Sapp Hall and uses for alumni and parent relations, was built in 1884 for Carnot Courtland Mason, a doctor. He lived three blocks away from another doctor, Oscar Stansbury. Both physicians had their houses built in the popular Italianate Victorian style.
The house was bought in 1891 by Maj. Timothy Barnard, a Civil War veteran and state legislator who helped spearhead the campaign to bring the Normal School to Chico. In the early 1910s, he added the classical revival portico to the front of the house, which is its most distinctive feature.
Join me next time and we’ll finish this walk around the block.