Le Petit Trianon, Historic mansion at De Anza College, Cupertino, United States
Le Petit Trianon is a two-story mansion on the De Anza College grounds that displays French baroque revival architecture with classical columns, pilasters, and wooden shutters throughout. The entire structure uses redwood, a durable local material that characterizes its exterior appearance.
Charles Baldwin built this mansion in 1892 as part of his wine estate, which produced premium wines under the Beaulieu label. The wines were exported as far as New York and London, making the property a symbol of California's prosperity in the late 1800s.
The mansion once housed a prosperous wine merchant and reflects the wealth that the region's wine industry brought to early settlers. Today it shows how European architectural tastes took root in California and shaped ideas of refinement among those who built grand homes here.
The mansion sits on the De Anza College campus and is accessed through the California History Center, which regularly hosts exhibitions, lectures, and workshops. Visitors should check ahead to see what programs or events are scheduled during their visit.
This is the only surviving example of a distinctive V-shaped rustic redwood construction method found anywhere in the Santa Clara Valley region. This unusual building technique has nearly disappeared and makes the structure an important record of how craftspeople worked in that era.
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