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Born of a golden era, the history of The Claremont dates back to the early days of the Gold Rush, when a Kansas farmer by the name of Bill Thornburg "struck it rich." He came to California with his daughter and his wife who dreamed of living in an English Castle. Thornburg purchased 13,000 acres (part of the old Peralta and Vicente Spanish grants) to fulfill his wife’s dream and built the castle and several stables, which housed pedigreed hunters and jumpers. He hired Cockney grooms to care for them and raised English foxes for hunting parties.Shortly after Thornburg's daughter married a British Lord and moved to England, Mrs. Thornburg died. Bill Thornburg subsequently sold the "castle" to a family by the name of Ballard. While the Ballard family was out on July 14, 1901, a dry and windy day, tragedy struck and the castle burned to the ground. As the municipal water supply was not well regulated, the volunteer fire department was helpless when the hot, dry summer winds blew flames across the Berkeley Hills, also destroying many other homes in the area. Only the Ballard livery stables, barn and some of the costly furnishings survived the fire. The destroyed property fell into the hands of Frank Havens and “Borax” Smith, a famous miner. They planned to erect a resort hotel on the property with trains running directly into the lobby. However, these plans were abandoned. One night, Havens, Smith and John Spring, a Berkeley capitalist, played a game of checkers in the old Athenian Club of Oakland with the stakes being the property. As legend goes, Havens won. |
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