Queen Anne mansion built circa 1899 for prominent Sacramento attorney Philip Driver, now operating as the Vizcaya wedding and event venue with an eight-room bed and breakfast in Midtown Sacramento.
2019 21st Street, Sacramento, CA 95818
Age
All Ages
Cost
$$$
Operating wedding and event venue with eight-room B&B; pricing varies by service. Public access primarily by event booking or B&B reservation.
Access
Wheelchair OK
Restored mansion and pavilion event venue; interior has historic stairs to upper floors.
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1899 · Home of Sacramento attorney Philip Driver · Queen Anne residential architecture with Victorian tower · State-designated historical site · Operating wedding venue and B&B for over two decades
The Driver mansion was built in the late 19th century (variously cited as 1889 or 1899 in current venue and venue-directory materials) at 2019 21st Street in what is now Sacramento's Midtown. The 6,500-square-foot Queen Anne-period mansion features a Victorian tower, a columned front entrance, and the white-painted colonial-revival exterior typical of upper-middle-class turn-of-the-century Sacramento residential design. The original owner was Philip Driver, a prominent Sacramento attorney whose practice was an established part of early-20th-century legal Sacramento.
The mansion remained a private residence through much of the 20th century, with the surrounding Midtown neighborhood developing through various stages of urban density. In its current era, the property has been restored as the Vizcaya Sacramento wedding and event venue, which has operated as a full-service hospitality property for more than two decades. The mansion houses an eight-room bed and breakfast with en-suite bathrooms in each room, and the adjoining pavilion provides large-event capacity for weddings and corporate functions. The property is a state-designated historical site within the Midtown Sacramento neighborhood.
The Vizcaya property is associated in current commercial use primarily with weddings and special events rather than with public historical-tour programming. The Driver-family history and the 1890s Queen Anne residential design are part of the venue's marketing identity, but detailed primary-source historical interpretation of the property is not part of its public-facing program. Verifying year-of-construction details for the building (1889 vs 1899) and tracing Philip Driver's biographical record would benefit from additional archival research that we have not been able to complete from the publicly accessible sources.
Sources
The Vizcaya/Driver Mansion does not have the volume of paranormal coverage that other Sacramento sites (Stanford Mansion, California State Library, Old Sacramento) attract. The paranormal record is concentrated in two strands. The first is its inclusion in regional Sacramento haunted-locations lists at a mid-tier confidence level, with most sources noting the property's historic-residence character without offering specific paranormal claims.
The second strand is a more specific set of B&B guest accounts compiled by AllStays. According to AllStays coverage, guests have reported an immediate 'eerie' sensation upon entering the property despite no prior knowledge of any haunted reputation. The most consistently reported phenomenon is on the third floor — guests climbing the narrow and steep staircase to the third floor have reported their hearts pounding hard and shortness of breath, sensations that persist at the top of the stairs and through their stay. Some accounts speculate that the activity may be tied to a person who fell on the stairs, though no documented historical incident has been independently identified.
The Vizcaya venue itself does not promote a paranormal reputation as part of its wedding-and-events marketing identity. Publicly documented first-hand paranormal reports remain thin and the available accounts trace primarily to AllStays' compilation; without independent corroboration this entry sits at the lower end of the paranormal-evidentiary spectrum for Sacramento, and is included primarily because its historical-residence status and Midtown location make it a recurring stop in regional haunted-location compilations.
Media Appearances
Stay in one of the mansion's eight bed-and-breakfast rooms, each with en-suite bathroom, within the restored Queen Anne-period Driver mansion. The mansion adjoins the venue's pavilion event space.
Every HauntBound history is researched from documented sources. We clearly separate verified historical fact from paranormal folklore.
St. Francisville, LA
Myrtles Plantation in St. Francisville, Louisiana was built in 1796 by General David Bradford on land he received after fleeing federal prosecution following the Whiskey Rebellion. The property changed hands multiple times throughout the 19th century, accumulating a documented history of violent deaths including the 1871 murder of attorney William Winter on the entrance staircase.
Pass Christian, MS
The Blue Rose Mansion in Pass Christian, Mississippi, was built in 1848 as a private residence on Scenic Drive overlooking the Mississippi Sound. Philip LaGrange and Herbert Pursley purchased the property in 1990 and operated an antique store, restaurant, and gift shop. The five-star restaurant did not reopen after Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast in 2005.
Butte, MT
The Copper King Mansion was built between 1884 and 1888 by mining magnate and U.S. Senator William A. Clark, one of Montana's three Copper Kings. The 34-room Victorian mansion in Butte operates today as a bed and breakfast and a guided-tour destination, still privately owned by descendants of the family who purchased it in 1953.