Pardee Home Museum — Attraction in Oakland

TL; DR: Great place to experience a tea party (by group reservation only). Interesting Victorian home museum in which to learn about local history, including that it was home to the first fulltime CA governor. House is chilly in cold months so wear layers, but the dinning room has a space heater during tea. Don't forget to bring cash for the donation box, it'd be appreciated :) I visited here with a group for tea service. The entire thing from the set up, baking, and serving was beautifully orchestrated by friendly museum volunteers who delighted us with a lovely spread of tasty tea and baked goods in the historic home's dinning room.

Tea parties are the home museum's main source of income and a great place to celebrate special occasions or just have an outing with a group of friends. The service is hosted by reservation for groups only. There's a minimum number of attendees required. In the winter the max number of tea guests per party is limited to 12 (the size of the dinning room table). In warm weather, the max is closer to 40 people and its hosted in the patio. Check their website for info.

Our visit was concluded with a docent led tour of the house covering the story of the 3 generations of Pardees who lived there. The family was influential in politics, and was also active in medicine. The house is filled with thousands of family artifacts and collections, including some artwork by the talented Mrs. Pardee. There's definitely plenty to see and learn here.

For the sake of time, our tour didn't include a view of the room with old toys and human specimens (remember that least one Pardee was a physician). If you're curious, you could request a view from the docent. I actually was not aware of this room at all until a fellow tour goer...

The Pardee Home Museum (Italianate architecture) was built by the Pardee family. Three generations lived lived there from 1868 to 1981. The last survivor put the home in a trust that is run by a Board of Trustees. It's self-supporting and run by volunteers. The father (made money in the mines, was an eye doctor and a California State Senator) and his son was Governor of California who made the poppy flower CA's state flower; reformed prisons; and established the EBMUD. All furnishings and collections are original and left intact. The tour is about 1.5 hours. Tour was educational and interesting - it covers the entire residence of 3 floors. The tour guide was nice and knowledgeable. She kept the tour intense so you wanted to know more. She gave insights and tibits of the family. All questions were answered.

The afternoon tea is delightful. The food is prepared from scratch with lots of love from the volunteers. They were friendly, personable and thoughtful. Since it was the day before Easter, they put some Easter bunny theme to the tea. Just lovely people who made a delcious three course of food assortment.

I definitely recommend the tour to learn about Oakland history and to visit one of the last standing historical mansions. Tea was authentic - no crust on...

Parse Family Museum was like a time capsule with incredible detailing and collections inside. Our work group was able to secure a private garden afternoon tea with 3 courses of goodies and all the english breakfast tea you could ask for. The women there were lovely and patient with us and even gave us each a thank you gift to take home. Following the tea and treats we took the tour which lasted a little over an hour sharing the homes history across 3 floors of unique treasures and facts. There is plenty parking both free and paid on both ends of the street just not directly out front. The ease of access as you come across the overpass made it all the better to get too! Definitely a place I will return to...