Eureka is a Victorian styled city located at the coast of Northern California. Eureka is about an hour drive time South of Crescent City and about 7 hours away from Portland. The scenic Highway 101 actually does pass through this beautiful Victorian city. At the Old Town District of Eureka, there are many Victorian styled buildings that have been there since the 1900s. We were having vacation at Redwood National Park over the long weekend and happened to head further South and stumbled upon this beautiful Victorian city.
The most famous Victorian styled building at Eureka is Carson Mansion. It is located at the North end of the Old Town District. The Carson Mansion is the green building at the top of the hill. It has the iconic court yard at the front of the building with fence and gate around it. Since Carson Mansion is a privately held club location, it is not open to public visit. After doing some research, it looks like the club held at the Carson Mansion is a gentlemen's club where only gentlemen can attend. We actually wonder what it means to be a gentlemen's club. Although Carson Mansion is not open to public, it does have a web site that shows the interior of the building. From the images on the web, the interior of Carson Mansion still remained to be Victorian style.
Further down the street from Carson Mansion, many Victorian styled building can be seen along the street. During the July 4th Independence Day long weekend, festivals were held on the street with street food and music celebrating Independence Day. Even though many of these Victorian buildings have been there for a long time, the interior and exterior of the buildings are very well maintained. Many of the buildings have been transformed to become hotels, offices, and even restaurants.
From time to time, we also saw horse carriage running down the street and giving rides to people to take them from one place to another. To our surprises, we did not find any strong horse scent along the street, which is good.
Overall, Eureka is definitely an interesting city to visit while visiting Redwood National Park. Eureka is only an hour away and it is also nice to go into the city after spending few days in the forests with giant trees!
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