The gem of Santa Clara, located at 981 Fremont St., is the 5,500-square -foot, Morse Mansion. It was built in 1892 for Charles Copeland Morse, founder of the Morse Seed Company. The House "that seeds built" is a beautiful Victorian, Queen Anne building with faceted glass windows, lovely doors, woodwork, fireplaces, a turret, a full basement, and a glassed-in porch.
Morse was a house painter who decided to return to farming. In 1877, he and a Methodist minister pooled their money to buy a seed-growing enterprise. Then known as Morse & Co., it started in Santa Clara, expanded to Sunnyvale, Gilroy, the San Juan Bautista area and kept growing. It became the Ferry-Morse Seed Co. and it led the world in flower and vegetable seed productions.
In about 1975, Caroline and Vaughn Nixon bought the house and raised money to restore the building to its original grandeur. In 1978, it was named State Historical Landmark No. 904. The Nixons sold the house in 1981. The Morse Mansion still stands proudly in Santa Clara amid dozens of homes from earlier eras. Many of the houses are still residences; the Morse Mansion is now attorneys' offices.

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