If one is considering going away for the Spring break or has already had their Spring break reconsider staying in town. The Crocker has a beautiful way in which to spend springtime, inside viewing the marvelous works from Europe and the American artists bought by the crockers at the end of the 19th century.
These two traveled to Europe for thier Spring break during the Grand Tour season so many of the new rich took to flee America. It was felt in order to be properly educated or sophisticated in the modern sense, one must see the great architecture of the prior empires and view the masters in the famous art museums of Europe.
At the same time, many European aristrocrats were also fleeing thier own sorroundings in order to the last frontier or the great American western landscape. While the Crockers brought back works of art from Europe and built a house for them to be viewed, they also had many visitors from Europe and Asia to be entertained. For them, they collected an array of American masterpieces of landscapes such as Bierstandt's Yosemite and many other more typical genre scenes of the early days of California.
These can be viewed inside the new wing of the Crocker which now consists of the original house built for the Crockers and donated to the city of California when she died, and the second Victorian mansion built by him to house his collection of precious works,. The new wing enlarges this fine collection of both old European masters and more contmemporary American masterworks. It also house many exotic goods from the orient and modern adaptions of art works by Californians. The Californian Impressionists are worth the price of admission as is the Hudson River school artists.
This trip to view the European works of art or American landscapes should be taken on any day in Spring before the Summer visitors arrive from other areas of the state. The admission is about 10 dollars with discounts, the first floor has a store to walk through with 100 dollar wallets suggesting they are pieces of works themselves as well as a resturant with seating under the glass roof.
The trip begins on the third floor where many of the newer works of art are displayed in various sized rooms. Be careful as one winds around not to skip a room for it is a long journey back, and the tiny niches usually have astounding pieces to stop and stare, but not to long or the security officer might get restless.
The older structures are still accessible from the new wing, and be careful as one walks across the beautiful carpets and exquisite tiled floors not to trip on the 100 year old floors. These are reminesicent of the State Capital and they should be as they were built at about the same time. Crocker was one of the "big Five" who caused California to burst forth in commercial ventures after the gold rush made many rich but no place to spend their free cash. The Ballroom is a must see with its pink upholstered round settees for visitors to sit upon.
This area still has the original works of art, especially on the second balcony where one has to be careful not to back up to the low banisters of the past century when adults were much shorter than today. There is a small niche with a wall safe used by the man himself in the resident half of the pair of houses, and a double fireplace sitting room, not to be sat in by visitors. There is a large collection of fine porcelian from around the world to be gazed upon, but it is no longer in service or never was used except as conversation pieces. They did entertian foreign diplomats and a few American Presidents.
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