The Camron-Stanford House

Welcome to the Camron-Stanford House, where your tour of Samuel Merritt's neighborhood begins!

The Camron-Stanford House was built as part of Dr. Merritt's planned community of lakefront homes. The house was first purcased by Alice and William Camron. The Camerons were the first of four families to call the residence home before the site was sold to the City of Oakland in 1908.

The city of Oakland transformed the house into the site of the Oakland Public Museum, which housed the city's history and ethnography collection. The Oakland Public Museum was the first teaching museum west of the Mississippi and prided itself in its education programs. The collection eventually grew out of the Camron-Stanford House and moved to the site of the new Oakland Museum of California in 1969.

After the Oakland Public Museum closed, the fate of the Camron-Stanford House was in limbo. In the 1970s a group of preservationists rescued the house from demolition and set to work to restore it to its 1870s splendor. After several years of work, the house opened as a museum once more in 1976. Today, the Camron-Stanford House is a vibrant historic house museum, wedding venue, and community gathering space. Different exhibits throughout the year illuminate Oakland's 19th century history and meticulously decorated period rooms transport visitors to Oakland's early days as a thriving California metropolis. We hope that you can visit us soon!