Admiral's Mansion

It was an amazing experience. The staff was so accommodating and helpful. The grounds are absolutely beautiful!!

We used the Mansion for our wedding and reception. Absolutely a beautiful location for an outdoor wedding. The process of booking the location was easy and the staff was really helpful.

Anyone who lives in Vallejo, or the Bay Area should come and check it out. Absolutely amazing. The history is outstanding. If those walls could talk....

RENTAL RATES:The Admiral's Mansion and Captain's Mansion are available for private events as follows: $1200 for 7 hours at the Admiral's Mansion and $850 for 7 hours of use at the Captain's Mansion. A wedding and reception combined, at either mansion would be an additional $200. For shorter time periods, there is a 3 hour minimum for events at a cost of $175 per hour.HISTORY:At over 143 years old, Mare Island Naval Shipyard is filled with wondrous history. And with that much history comes spooky ooky historical beings. Unfortunately the caretaker of the Admiral's Mansion set the tone by telling us and several other party goers that there is a "friendly ghost who resides in the home on the 2nd floor" (way to liven up a party, lady!).Gorgeous as this venue may be during Spring / Summer backyard weddings, this antiquated home WILL leave most people feeling inundated with heebie jeebies during evening events, especially in the dead of Winter. Despite the Admiral's Mansion being filled to the brim with the host's family, friends, and some of the bravest - most macho men I've met, several guests (self included) chose not to venture off into the second story of the home / go to the potty alone (guilty, again). Elegant charm aside, we (ok, I!) just didn't want to get intimately acquainted with the spooky ookies (in Filipino, they're referred to as Moo-Moos aka spirits, ghosts, beings of another realm). Perhaps dissuading visitors from loitering around the second story was the caretaker's goal? Well she wins, cuz her mindfcuk definitely worked (on me!).DIRECTIONS:Do yourself a favor and do NOT use the listed address of "800 Walnut" as the destination in your map app / GPS - it's guaranteed to get you lost. The intersection of Walnut Ave & 8th St. is far more accurate. Otherwise you will find yourself "arrived" per said vehicle GPS *AND* Google Map app - incorrectly in front of an abandoned warehouse, second guessing whether or not you should look further down the dimly lit ghost town or turn your ass around and trek the 80 miles + two bridges back home all for naught. After a game of paper, rock, scissors, I was forced to abandon my gut instinct and our family arrived irritatingly / fashionably late for said privately hosted (spooky) Winter evening event. Did I mention I was lightweight scared of the creepy vibe put off by the venue? € £ ¥ (for your reference, in case emojis aren't permitted in Yelp reviews, I've inserted the deer-in-headlights face next to the Snapchat ghost, and the monkey covering his See-No-Evil eyes).AFTERTHOUGHT:What if the elderly caretaker is the friendly ghost of Admiral's Mansion?! #PlotTwist

The Admiral's Mansion on Mare Island is an undiscovered treasure of a wedding venue in the Bay Area. If you're looking for something that's a little alternative (you drive through the ruins of the older Mare Island Naval Shipyard), a great price, and absolutely gorgeous venue, and easy driving distance from San Francisco and Sacramento, this is your place. They are not set up as a plug-and-play wedding venue, so you have to coordinate all your own vendors (including lighting and audio in addition to tables/chairs/catering etc), but you end up saving so much money it's worth it. For $1400, you can use the gardens all day and the house for 7 hours, plus any outdoors set up you need to do the day before. They like you to have cleaned up after your ceremony, so you need to have a plan for that. You can also pay a little extra to have the house for longer.Joyce (the head docent) and the tour guides Becky and Dave are happy to open up the venue any time during normal business hours if you need to do a walk-through with vendors or to show family and friends. We had our wedding the third weekend in June and the weather was perfect. You could hear the canons from the Pirate Festival across the water for most of the afternoon, which set the mood for being in Admiral Farragut's mansion!

We just attended our nephew's wedding here outside of the Admiral's mansion, in the garden area. The weather was rainy here and there, during the outdoor ceremony, and umbrellas were a must! Who would have thought that May is a time for rain. Luckily, the wedding couple planned in advance and rented a big tent for the meal and festivities! I even got to explore the rooms in the mansion as most of the restrooms were in the mansion. There are at least 5 bathrooms in the mansion. Apparently, some people got lost using their gps with the address but I bookmarked Admiral's Mansion at Mare Island on YELP and got the directions from there. No problem and we didn't get lost!

I came here for a friend's wedding, and the reception was held outdoors in the backyard area. Since the reception was on grass, my heels kept poking into the grass. I noticed a lot of the females had flip flops on, which was a really smart idea!There are a ton of gnats flying around before the reception started. The gnats tried to get on the food, so all the guests had to wave the gnats away. Since it was an outdoor wedding, it got pretty hot sitting in the sun. After the sun began to set, it got much cooler and comfortable. =)There are only a few restrooms for the guests. One is in the backyard. The rest are inside the mansion. It was a bit weird to go inside the mansion just to use the restroom.

This review is solely for our tour guide Dave Smith. He was very helpful, informative, and entertaining. He knows a lot of its rich history. Unfortunately this location can only accommodate smaller events and does not suit well for our needs. Currently there's a construction going on in front of the mansion and way too many mosquitoes flying around. Must see at the mansion is how big the house is - 10,500 sq ft. Must see at the chapel is the stained glass windows and learn its historical background.

We had our wedding reception at the Admiral's Mansion. It has backyard wedding vibes and it is a great place for a DIY wedding for those with a limited budget. We loved the historic significance of the mansion and our guests complimented us on how we used the various spaces -backyard (dinner), patio (cocktail hour), and front garden (tea ceremony). Also, it's a great venue if you have kids, since there's plenty of room for them to play. Jen, the venue coordinator was great and easy to work with. We are so grateful we were able to host our special day at the Mansion!

I cannot believe Admiral's Mansion has only 3.5 stars. This place is a true gem for weddings and other events. The 100-year-old construction is exquisite with details such as birds eye maple trim, stained glass windows, and period-appropriate furniture. The house is perfect for a group of ~60 for a sit-down dinner. But the backyard can accommodate WAY more - up to 1,000 people, but I imagine that would be logistically difficult for such a large crowd.The backyard garden is GORGEOUS. I cannot emphasize the natural beauty of this backyard enough. Minimal decorations were needed because everything is beautifully maintained and in July tons of flowers were in bloom. We did walk-throughs in February and May when things were exceptionally lush from all of the rain. We were expecting the backyard, especially the grass, to be much more brown in the peak of summer. We were pleasantly surprised at how well they maintain the garden year-round. Because of the beautiful setting, it looked like we spent *way* beyond our budget. We had 140 guests and were easily able to create 4 separate zones in the back yard to accommodate the various activities we planned. After dark on a summer evening mosquito control is needed. Overall it wasn't too bad (not bad enough for me to wish I had booked elsewhere) but a little bug spray and citronella candles will help. Joyce and Dave were unbelievably helpful and accommodating. Dave looked and sounded like my dad and was a joy for me and my new husband to interact with. As is likely to happen with any wedding, some things went not quite as we planned. Joyce was as pleasant and patient as could be. The day of the wedding Joyce helped many guests over the phone and provided much-needed on-site expertise. This venue is extremely flexible in the terms. There is a full kitchen available for caterers, but you could also have a friend or family member (crew necessary) handle the food. Business license and insurance not required, and you are not required to choose from a small list of (usually expensive) preferred caterers. Because we had our ceremony on site, we had access to the house and backyard the night before. We were able to load flowers and food into the fridges (we self-catered the appetizers) and ease the logistics and transportation burden on the day of the wedding. They gave us 24-hour access to a storage building in the backyard so we could store our decorations and decorate the day of the wedding before they opened the house. Overall, they have outstanding options available to accommodate a DIY event.The only challenge was garbage - no garbage on site so we had to haul it away after the party. This was written into our contract so we knew about it ahead of time and planned for it, but I think it would easily be worth an extra $200 per rental if they could figure out a way to include garbage disposal in the event rentals. I hope you will value the recommendation of a couple who chose this location for our wedding and interacted with Dave, Joyce, and Ken for 8 months over the experience of what sounds like a high maintenance wedding guest who probably could have googled his questions or asked the happy couple for assistance. Admiral's Mansion is not a full-service high-end wedding venue that will cater to you and your guests' every need. It is a DIY-wedding-on-a-budget dream come true. The crew that are keeping Mare Island Historical Park alive do this as a labor of love and I am so appreciative of their efforts.