Mableton, later known as the McDonald Mansion, was built in 1879 as the McDonald family's summer home in Santa Rosa, named in homage to Ralphine North McDonald's Mississippi family home. Colonel Mark L. McDonald, a Kentucky native who came west as captain of a wagon train in the early 1850's, built roadways serving gold and silver mines, gained wealth and influence through ventures including a seat on the San Francisco Stock Exchange, and by the late 1860's invested heavily in Santa Rosa. His projects included the purchase and subdivision of 160 acres that became McDonald's Addition, the development of McDonald Avenue as Santa Rosa's premier residential street, a streetcar line, tree planting with Luther Burbank, Santa Rosa's first library, the first steam railroad brought to the city, the Santa Rosa Water Works Company, Lake Ralphine, and local fruit packing and drying operations. Summering at Mableton became a family tradition, and the house and grounds hosted civic occasions and family celebrations. Architecturally, the house is an unusual California example of a large-scale Raised Southern Cottage with a single main living level over an above-ground basement, attic-level second-story rooms with sloping ceilings and dormer windows, and Stick/Eastlake styling distinguished by extensive California redwood ornament, all set within a landscape of specimen trees, spacious lawns, and a balance of formal and informal organization. Part of Walt Disney Productions' 1960 film Pollyanna was filmed on the grounds and exterior of the house. The mansion survived the 1906 earthquake, decades of neglect, threats of demolition and redevelopment, and a serious 1977 fire, and between 2006 and 2011 it was completely rehabilitated, with exterior restoration, historically appropriate interior renovation, restoration of the missing two-tiered cresting, and reconstruction of the original gazebo. Listed in the National Register of Historic Places, Mableton remains a single-family private residence.