Bourn Mansion

The Bourn Mansion is distinguished by its dark, brooding facade of red clinker brick, an aesthetic choice that separates it from the surrounding light-colored Victorian houses. Completed in eighteen ninety-six at twenty-five fifty Webster Street, this twenty-eight-room residence was commissioned by William Bowers Bourn II, a mining magnate and president of the Spring Valley Water Company. Architect Willis Polk designed the building as an English-style townhouse, utilizing heavy stonemasonry and dramatic chimneys that contrast with the more airy styles common in the neighborhood.