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Building History

Banker George Payne Tallant, Sr., (born 03/1869 in Colusa County, CA-d. 11/06/1932 in Santa Barbara, CA) built this rustic, two-story lodge on the Tallac Historical Site in 1894. Tallant's father, Drury John Tallant (born 07/05/1812 in England-d. 02/13/1883 in San Francisco, CA) came to San Francisco from New Orleans in 1849 and soon after founded the banking house D.J. Tallant and Company. (See "Drury J. Tallant Dead,"Oakland Tribune, vol. 20, no. 39, 02/15/1883, p. 1.) D.J. Tallant married Elizabeth McCoy (born 04/29/1829 in Carlisle, PA-d. 10/21/1894 in San Francisco, CA) in Wheeling WV in 1852. She and D.J. had seven children by 1880 and maintained a large house on Bush Street in which all them lived, in addition to seven servants. (See Ancestry.com, Source Citation Year: 1880; Census Place: San Francisco, San Francisco, California; Roll: 75; Page: 242D; Enumeration District: 082, accessed 06/13/2022.) D.J. died in 1883. Elizabeth Tallant lived on for another eleven years, leaving George and his siblings a significant inheritance in 1894. (See "Left to the Family," San Francisco Examiner, 11/17/1894, p. 14.) At about this time, he completed construction of this Tahoe hideaway.

George Tallant, Sr., married in 1898 to Melita Isabel Robinson (born 02/12/1878 in CA-d. 03/06/1943 in Santa Barbara, CA), who may not have liked the cabin, as it was sold a year later in 1899. William Sanders Tevis, Sr., (born 08/21/1863 in San Francisco, CA-d. 08/03/1943 in San Mateo, CA), President of the Kern County Land Company and Bay Cities Water Company and the son of the banker Lloyd Tevis (born 03/20/1824 in Shelbyville, KY-d. 07/24/1899 in San Francisco, CA), an early President of the Wells Fargo and Company Bank, and his wife Mabel Ramona Pacheco (born 08/02/1864 in Sacramento, CA-d. 02/24/1921 in San Francisco, CA) purchased it. (Mabel's father was José Antonio Romualdo Pacheco [born 10/31/1831-d. 01/23/1899], California's twelfth Governor.) They enlarged the house to about 4,000 square feet, about double its original proportions. The Tevis Family bought the house in the year of Lloyd Tevis's death, 1899. Lloyd left an estate valued at about $30,000,000, meaning that William inherited a significant amount in that year. (See "Death Suddenly Calls Lloyd Tevis," San Francisco Call, vol. 86, n0. 55, 07/25/1899, p. 12 and "Death Claims W.S. Tevis, Sr.," Oakland Tribune, 08/04/1943, p. 4.) William Tevis retired in 1921, and he sold the Tahoe house about two years later.

Another wealthy San Francisco resident, George Andrew Pope, Sr., (born 04/26/1864 in CA-d. 10/16/1942 in San Francisco, CA) whose family was a part-owner of the Pope and Talbot Company, a large lumber and shipping concern based in San Francisco, CA, purchased the property in 1923. Pope and Talbot owned lumber mills in WA State, including a large facility at Port Gamble, WA, and owned a number of ships with which the company transported lumber. The Popes expanded their Tahoe property and maintained the house, outbuildings and grounds until 1965. At this time, they agreed to transfer title to the house and land to the US Forest Service.

Two other large estates, including that of Southern CA real estate owner Elias Jackson Baldwin (1828-1909), stood close by, totaling 150 acres, all managed by the United States Forest Service.

Building Notes

After 1971, the United State Forest Service (USFS) supervised the three large residences that comprised the Tallac Historic Site.

The USFS operated the Tevis-Pope House as its Interpretive Center c. 2013.

PCAD id: 19094