Bidwell Mansion in Chico on Dec. 14, three days after fire destroyed it. (Image: Kathryn Reed)

Some structures are more than a building. They stand as a symbol, define a community, and evoke emotion just by mentioning their name.

Bidwell Mansion. It was all of this and so much more to those who had anything to do with the city of Chico.

In the early hours of Dec. 11 this iconic centerpiece of Chico was reduced to charred rubble after fire destroyed most of it.

Three days later it was still smoldering. A chain link fence keeps people out, with caution tape extending the perimeter a bit farther. Still, it’s possible to walk all the way around these remains.

This former home of John and Annie Bidwell, the founders of Chico, was a 26-room, three-story mansion. It was completed in 1868.

It was undergoing renovations at the time the fire started. The scaffolding out front looks like crumpled playground equipment. That debris will be removed first in order to allow investigators easier access.

Bidwell Mansion has been an icon of Chico since the mid-1800s. (Image: California State Parks)

On site are investigators from the Sacramento-Sierra Regional Arson Task Force. It was definitely arson. Why? Who? How? Those questions remain unanswered.

The building itself looks like something out of ancient Rome or Athens—historic remains of a bygone era.

In many ways that is what the mansion was. Something from the past. Only now it is literally a shell of itself.

A large percentage of the artifacts were from the Bidwell era, not actually theirs. Even so, there are reports of some of John Bidwell’s original writings blowing about town.

The loss is monumental—physically and emotionally. It was a building I drove by most every time I went to my sister’s. I actually don’t remember being inside, though it’s possible I was as a kid. I tried to visit once since living here, but reservations weren’t possible and the time slots were full the day I went with others. The plan was to go back post-renovation. Dang.

We toured the museum, which was chock full of information. Another time I participated in an excursion to see all the various trees on the property.

California State Parks has owned the land and building since 1964 when it took possession from what was Chico State Teacher’s College (now Chico State). The college acquired the property in 1923 from the Presbyterian Church. Annie Bidwell had left it to the church upon her death in 1918 in hopes it would be used as a religious school.

What its next incarnation will be remains to be determined.