Villa Montezuma: The Opulent, Ghostly Victorian Palace of Sherman Heights
The Villa Montezuma: San Diego's legendary Queen Anne palace of music, art, and Victorian spiritualism. Most visitors wandering through San Diego stick to the craft breweries of North Park or the surf breaks of Ocean Beach, completely oblivious that just east of downtown sits one of the most eccentric, architecturally breathtaking Victorian palaces in North America. Tucked away on the corner of 20th and K Streets in historic Sherman Heights, the Villa Montezuma is a kaleidoscopic marvel that looks like something dreamed up in a feverish collision of Gothic romance, Arabian Nights, and pure California boomtown ambition. Built in 1887 during the giddy heights of San Diego's railroad boom, this wasn't just another ostentatious home for a wealthy railroad baron. It was conceived as a secular cathedral for one of the Gilded Age’s most enigmatic figures: Jesse Shepard, a charismatic concert pianist, mystic, author, and professional eccentric who claimed he could channe...