Quest-Shinns?

Tracking down those urban legends, Shinn myths, fun factoids, ghost stories, and more!

Got Questions for us?  We've got answers! (at least soon we will have answers)

• Commonly seen "fact." James and Lucy Shinn and son Charles came to California. Daughter Annie was born in California. Annie was actually born in Texas according to most sources. See the timeline for their travel to California. There are a couple of sources that say only Charles came with mom and dad. Many say that Annie came, too.

• Didn't the roses on the arbor come from Texas? Sorry to disappoint! They are modern roses.

• Is this garden really the oldest Japanese Garden in the US? Someone came to the park some years back and told the docents this "fact." However, there are so many questions. The current day Japanese Garden was dedicated in 1983 in one half of the Shinn's "Circle Garden." Today's garden is a true "Japanese-style Garden" with a garden viewing room, Japanese plants, a Japanese lantern, a rock waterfall and dry ponds.  The oldest operating public Japanese garden is the 1894 garden at Golden Gate Park. The oldest Japanese Garden in America is considered to the garden at the 1876 World's Fair in Philadelphia. But perhaps they meant a private garden? True that in the 1870s the Shinn family was importing Japanese plants and planted many in their garden next to the 1876 Big House.  There would be no comparison between this nursery garden and the one at the World's Fair!  Just planting Japanese plants does not a Japanese Garden make! 

• It is written that Milicent Shinn retired to the Shinn Ranch after her PhD and didn't do anything else other than take care of her parents. Really? Christine Von Oertzen's paper Science in the Cradle: Milicent Shinn and Her Home-Based Network of Baby Observers, 1890–1910 (in library) filled in some of Milicent's activities and Elissa Rodkey followed with "Far More Than a Dutiful Daughter." She continued her studies of child development, published a paper, was active in several organizations, schooled her nieces and nephews, had her own house built on the property, and more. Milicent was trying to publish another book in the 1930s according to papers at the Bancroft.

• "The sundial in the garden is a memorial for Patty Shinn who died falling out of a window." However, Patty died from the worst double pneumonia the doctor had ever seen.  See Is the Shinn House Haunted? Please be respectful of the people who lived here. An unfortunate Halloween event might have started this rumor and once they get started, watch out. No the sundial is not broken! It is on Standard Time, not Daylight Savings Time. 

• Is the Shinn House Haunted? We are often asked this question or told that it is haunted! Finally in February 2024 we came across the Vice Admiral Allen M. Shinn's request that the docents should stop telling this story at the January  1998 meeting .  "Allen Shinn was here for the Saturday, Christmas open house and told us that he does NOT want the ghost story told. He said that it is pure fiction and not appropriate." (199801MIN)

• "A sundial northwest of the Big House, said to have been a navigation tool belonging to John C. Fremont, is in three parts: a circular grindstone at the base, a sculpted stone baluster on the grindstone, and a bronze sundial on top." Where is this from? Whatever this is from, this is no longer true. See Patty Shinn's sundial.

• "The construction of the "Big House" was started in 1865 and completed by 1876." From the latest docent manual. Perhaps it was a typo from this below photo where someone copied "House built 1875-76" and wrote "House built 1865-76"? It is highly unlikely that it took eleven long years! Even barns could be built in a day!  Can you imagine a partially built house going through eleven winter rains, filling the open house and basement with water, and hot summers?  see Joseph Shinn's rainfall book for amount of rain. The Alameda County Independent reported on the Shinns construction of the tankhouse in 1875. They reported on the Shinn House construction in 1876.
  "Mr. James Shinn of Centreville is building a large tank house for the purpose of irrigating his nurseries, etc." reported the Alameda County Independent on July 24, 1875.
  "The Alameda County Independent September 2, 1876 reported that "Mr Shinn is putting up a fine looking, spacious dwelling house""
  Lucy's brother Dr. J.W. Clark funded the construction.  Lucy's letters from 1873 to 1882 only mention the house construction in 1876.

• Fong Gan taught Florence Shinn how to cook Chinese food? Would love to think that this is true. Where is it written? Florence was married in 1905 and lived in the Big House until the Bungalow was built. She and Joseph moved in 1910 into the bungalow. Fong Gan stayed behind to work in the Big House for Lucy and Milicent and whoever else lived there at the time. Lucy Shinn died in 1915. 
  The Big House kitchen during this time was different than the kitchen today. Was there electricity? Or did they still rely on wood? Was there running water?  After the kitchen was remodeled in 1917, there was electricity and maybe running water. The family was able to eat in the kitchen at the breakfast nook and Florence could cook for her family with an electric stove (?) and running water (?). 
  Someone must be thinking about Americanized Chinese food? Scratching our heads on this.

• Fong Gan cooked food for the Chinese workers in the Big House kitchen?  Not sure why he would need to do this since the cook in the China Camp had been cooking food for the workers since the 1860s.  Would he have cooked 3 meals for 50-60 workers in the Shinn kitchen? Don't think so.

• The Shinn House was built from 1865 to 1876? Lucy Shinn annotated this old photo "Home built 1875-1876"  Was the docent manual a typo of 1865 instead of 1875? It would be highly unusual to take 11 years to build a house! It would be exposed to the elements until it had sides and a roof. Uncle Dr. financed the house and was involved in the building.  Where did this information come from? Read more about the building of the house on the online tour.

• Florence and Joseph met in college? Florence was born in 1880. Joseph went to Berkeley for a short time around 1880.  They married in 1905. You decide.