The Stanford House is essentially intact from 1871, when Mr. and Mrs. Leland Stanford transformed the two-story Renaissance Revival brick house he had purchased in 1861 into an elaborate four-story Second Empire mansion. Its brick exterior was also treated with plaster scored to resemble stone.

The Stanford House is the only surviving structure significantly associated with Leland Stanford's career.

Stanford was one of the Big Four who completed the first transcontinental railroad in the 1860s. (The other three pwrtners were Collis Potter Huntington, Mark Hopkins and Charles Crocker.)

He was president of the Central Pacific Railroad from its incorporation in 1861 until 1890 and of the Southern Pacific Railroad from 1885 to 1890. These two corporations and their multiple subsidiaries dominated the rail industry in the West.

He was Governor from 1861 to 1863 and United States Senator from 1885 to 1893. Because California had no Executive Mansion in the 1860s, the house unofficially served that capacity during Stanford's term as Governor.

He was the patron of Stanford University.

The Stanford House is a National Historic landmark and California Historical Landmark 614.

Adapted from the NRHP nomination submitted in 1971.