Summer Pastimes

San Francisco is notorious for its summer fog, so the wealthy sought escape from the clammy weather. Many went to the Hotel San Rafael, the Del Monte Hotel in Monterey, or Sulphur Springs in the Napa Valley.

In 1903, Hellman built a magnificent Shingle-style mansion on the shores of Lake Tahoe. Known as Pine Lodge, it was one of the first mansions on the lake and it sat on a 2,000-acre parcel along a two-mile stretch of shoreline. The Hellmans used to spend most of August there, fishing on the lake, picnicking in the woods, or racing around on one of their boats. The house and grounds are now a state park called Sugar Pine Point.

Hellman’s son Marco bought a 37-room Edwardian Colonial house in Oakland in 1906 for his summer home. He named it Oakvale for the towering, gnarled oak trees that spread over the property. The home is now known as the Dunsmuir Hellman Historic Estate and is open to the public




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