Nathanial Brittan Party House

John Wesley Brittan (1812–1872), owner of Brittan & Holbrook, was a successful hardware store merchant during the gold rush in San Francisco.^[2][3] John Brittan bought 3,000 acres (1,200 ha) of the Rancho de las Pulgas, in what is now San Carlos, and it was named "Brittan Ranch".^[2] His son Nathaniel Jones Brittan (1848–1912) inherited approximately one third of his father's estate, an early settler in San Carlos where he kept his "country house".^[2][4][5]

Nathaniel Brittan co-founded the Bohemian Club of San Francisco in 1872, and by 1892 Brittan was the president of the club.^[5] He built the Nathaniel Brittan Party House in order to entertain his friends from the club and to use as a hunting lodge.^[2][5][6] The Brittan Manor House (1888), Brittan's former residence, is located about a half-block away at 40 Pine Avenue.^[7]

The Nathaniel Brittan Party House was built in 1872, as a Victorian-style, two-and-a-half story redwood framed structure with an octagonal folly.^[8] There is a shiplap exterior siding that appears to go in multiple directions.^[5][8] The building has steep gables and an octagonal windowed cupola.^[5] It is one of the few remaining examples of nineteenth century Octagon Mode buildings in the San Francisco Bay Area.^[8]

• National Register of Historic Places listings in San Mateo County, California
• McElroy Octagon House