The beautiful mansion at Main and Giddings streets was the far west entrance to the little town of Visalia when it was completed in 1917 by prominent businessman Benjamin Dudley for his bride, Helen Brown.
The home was impressive with stained glass windows, mahogany inlaid floors, big fireplaces and a dazzling dining room completely paneled, including the ceiling.
Kitty corner from Visalia (Redwood) High School and adjacent to Visalia’s famous “Smallest Park in the World,” the Dudley House was the scene of many social events. There are even stories that the Dudleys hid Japanese Americans through an opening in the basement during World War II to keep them from being sent to internment camps.
The beautifully restored home is now used by various businesses and will be open for guided tours on Saturday, March 22 by Visalia Heritage, the nonprofit group dedicated to preserving historic structures and planning to turn the old Depot Restaurant into a Visalia museum.
History of the Dudley House
The impressive Dudley House was built just west of the Parkside Tract, a subdivision established in 1909 north of Visalia High School by three local entrepreneurs.
Benjamin Dudley was one of the businessmen who financed the housing project. One of the neighborhood streets is named for him. The developers wanted to ensure the tract was of high quality so they required that the houses had to be valued at a minimum of $800.
Benjamin and his brother thrived in one of the first real estate companies in Visalia, Golden West Reality Company, and also made money in the oil business. They discovered the Lost Hills oil field near the Kern/Kings County line.
So when Benjamin found a bride at the age of 37, money was no object. He and Helen, 38, were married in San Francisco, and after a two-week honeymoon returned to the new house. They had no children, but their many nieces and nephews spent many hours there.
The Dudleys were both from pioneer families. His parents founded the 2,000-acre Sunny Slope Ranch north of Elderwood. Helen was the daughter of one of the original residents who lived in Fort Visalia.
No detail was spared in creating the 8,000-square-foot Mission Revival style house at a cost of $35,000 (over $1.3 million today). The front library, closed by multi-paneled sliding doors, had an unusual corbeled arch fireplace flanked by stained glass windows. The huge living room had wainscot molding and a massive fireplace. The breakfast room featured a stained glass window with a scene of the Dudley Oil Fields. A beautiful wood stairway to the second floor had an unusual stained glass Palladian window at the landing. Upstairs, windows in the master bedroom could be lowered into the walls on beautiful days.
Smallest park in the world
The Dudley House had the distinction of having the “Smallest Park in the World” practically in its front yard. Visalia was famed for its beautiful oak trees. When west Main was paved in 1900, a huge oak which was nearly 100 years old sat right at the intersection of what is now Main and Giddings streets.
The women of Visalia’s Improvement Club asked to preserve the tree, so curbing was placed around it, and it became Lone Oak Park. The 10×10-foot “park” was billed as the “Smallest Park in the World.” When the city of San Rafael challenged that claim, the park was made even smaller. It was written up in national magazines and brought much publicity to Visalia.
When the Dudleys moved into their new house, they instructed their groundskeeper to maintain a lush bed of flowers around the tree, and it was watered daily.
But sitting out in the street as it did, the park caused many accidents. After three accidents in a one-month period sent people to the hospital, the park was removed in 1936.
Later years and restoration
Ben and Helen lived in the home until 1949, when they sold it to Ben’s doctor and good friend Dr. Irvin Schor and his wife, Dr. Deborah Pineles.
A decade later the Schors sold the house to the Methodist Church, which was located across the street. The Methodists used it as their Wesley Hall, named for John Wesley, the Methodist church founder.
From 1958-1991 Wesley Hall was the office, meeting place and youth center for the church. When the church moved out to Caldwell Avenue, Frank Cavale bought and restored the home to use as his company office, Financial Credit Network.
Cavale had a love of historic homes and brought in a Bay Area historical architect and the local John Peters Construction Company to restore the home to its original beauty. Peters recalls spending up to two years on the project. First he had to strip all the paint that was covering much of the beautiful interior wood. He used over 1,000 gallons of industrial-strength stripper to remove all the paint that covered the beautiful wood.
The original roof was made to look like terra cotta tile, but it was actually painted tin. It was designed to be curved like terra cotta tile. Because there was roof damage, Peters had to replace the tin roof with real terra cotta tile because the tin could not be saved or replaced. So although original pictures of the home look like it has a terra roof, it is actually painted tin.
Peters found the original carriage house door embedded between two other walls on the front of the home’s carriage house. Cavale wanted everything restored back to the original look, so Peters restored the doors and returned them to the front of the carriage house. If you look closely, you can see the original footprint on the exterior.
Today the home looks much like it did in the early 20th century. The only real difference is that the huge living room has been divided into several rooms for use as offices. But all the original features, the rich wood and even the original push button light switches remain as a testament to the home’s elegant design.
