Piru Mansion
Coordinates: 34°24′54.58″N 118°47′36.93″W / 34.4151611°N 118.7935917°W
The Piru Mansion is a Queen Anne Style home located in Piru, California.
Also known as the Newhall Mansion or Cook Mansion, the Piru Mansion was built in 1886 and is Ventura County Historical Landmark #4. It was built by Piru's founder, David C. Cook, a wealthy publisher of Sunday School tracts and supplies from Illinois, who had wanted to establish a "Second Garden of Eden," specifying, tradition says, the planting of Biblical apricots, dates, figs, grapes, olives, and pomegranates. Cook's house became known as the Piru Mansion because of Sunkist's "Mansion Brand" valencia oranges, which can still be found in the area. The mansion originally utilized natural gas as it possessed no electricity or running water.
In 1968, the Mansion was purchased by the Newhall family. Scott Newhall began restoring it after the earthquake of 1971, during which the two chimneys were knocked down. In February 1981, a spark from a painter's blow torch ignited the house while it was being painted and burnt it to the ground. The owners, seeking to reconstruct their home, utilized old photographs and the assistance of people who had restored the house during its lifetime. The new mansion was completed in December 1983.
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