Hume Mansion and Wells Fargo

Greg

The other day a family came in to visit the Old Sacramento Museum, led by the matriarch. I had a nice conversation with the woman, the subject of which prompted me to write this post. We were discussing Black Bart, and we got on the subject of James Hume, Wells Fargo's Special Detective who brought Black Bart to justice after years of investigation.

She told me that she and her husband were caretakers of Hume Castle in Berkeley, California  back in the 1970s. I had no idea there was such a thing as Hume Castle in Berkeley — I wondered if it had anything to do with Wells Fargo's legendary Detective. I know Hume died in Berkeley in 1908, at age 77, after his retirement from Wells Fargo. But again, I never knew of a Hume Castle.

I started researching the castle and discovered there was a relation between Wells Fargo's Hume, and this castle in Berkeley. I discovered the castle was built in 1927, long after Hume's death. The original owners of the castle were Samuel James Hume and his wife Portia Hume. Samuel was James Hume's only son, born in 1885.

Samuel Hume was educated at Harvard and earned a degree in theater. He created the first exhibition of stagecraft   in the United States. By 1918, Samuel had returned to Berkeley as an assistant professor at the University of California , eventually becoming the head of the Greek Theater Department there. His wife, Portia Bell Hume , was a pioneer in the field of Psychiatry and lent her name to the modern Portia Bell Hume Behavioral Health and Training Center .

In 1927 the Humes engaged architect John Hudson Thomas  to build a replica of a 13th-century French Monastery . This became their home, known alternately as Hume Cloister or Hume Castle. The building still stands at 2900 Buena Vista Way in Berkeley, and has been listed as a historic landmark of Berkeley  since 1985.

There it is! Wells Fargo had a role in the history of this landmark! James Hume was headquartered in San Francisco, grounded in the area. The Humes resided across San Francisco Bay in Berkeley, home to the great new University of the West.

You can imagine conversations at dinner, with the elder Hume encouraging his creative child to go to college and holding UC as the model. The younger Hume took the advice and brought his talents back to Berkeley and established a monument to the family name.

Cool!