Historic Homes Tour: 2515 Capitol Avenue

 An architectural analysis done by the City of Sacramento for acceptance onto the Historic Registry in 1975 described 2515 Capitol as: “An expansive house in a curious style that includes elements of the Colonial Revival, Queen Anne, and perhaps Craftsman and Art Nouveau Styles. The front elevation is balanced by bays on either side of a central porch with a paneled balcony. The upper bays are carried on unusual brackets and the lower bays have curved glass with leaded designs in the upper sash. The details of this house are better than its design. A prominent member of an imposing group of houses on this block.”
The Schroth House has many notable features that reflect a Classical Revival style. The house has a ‘forced asymmetry’ with 2 large, buttressed bays but of different shapes divided by an offset balcony and porch. Doric Columns support the front balcony and flank the ovate front of the dining room. Brackets around the easterly curved turret feature serpentine acanthus scrolls. Upper window sashes all feature geometric divided glass with copper caming and all the windows have a reversible feature new in architecture at the time. The front porch is flanked by prominent parapets that frame a Terrazzo marble staircase leading up to a porch of encaustic tiles with geometric octagons bound by an Athenian key. A marble and hex tile landing leads to a mahogany door with beveled glass insert and flanking sidelights of geometric beveled glass also built with copper caming. 

William Conrad (W.C.) Stroth was co-president of the Phoenix Milling Company one of the largest and most lucrative merchant mills in Sacramento. He married Maggie Fraser in 1892. Aspiring to own a home on prominent M street, W.C. purchased the lot in 1909 from the estate of Calvin Farnsworth (2527 M Street). The transaction required any structure built thereupon to be at least 2 stories but no taller than his property and no closer to the street than the ‘Nicolaus’ house to the West (2509 M). W.C. commissioned Rudolph Herold to build a house based on the cover design from a book of plans. The original contract for construction by G. Edward Hook & Son called for the work to be done in 110 working days at a cost of $12,193. The land was $5300, and Herold’s fee was $5283.10 for a total of $22,776.10. Rudolph Herold was known for “bold combinations of past and very new motifs into architectural interpretations uniquely his own.” Famous Herold buildings include Sacramento City Hall (915 I street), the Masonic Temple (1123 J street), the Capitol National Bank Building (700 J Street) the Sacramento County Courthouse, County Jail, and County Hospital. He built mansions for a few local Sacramento families including McClatchy (2112 22nd Street), Briggs (2209 M Street), Keyes (2315 M Street), Schroth (2515 M Street), Larscheid building at 2609 Capitol and the ‘Didion House’ 2009 23rd Street.
Since purchasing the home in October of 2013, the owners have engaged in extensive and sensitive renovation. The original paint colors have been restored as have the details and materials of the windows, doors and exterior detail.