Caroline A. Williams, a Black woman, who came to California from Massachusetts in 1850 and known in the community as “Aunt Carrie,” was the proprietor of the private hotel called the Clarendon House. The hotel opened on December 12, 1855 on Second Street between K and L Streets in Sacramento. Williams was an experienced caterer and had a “flattering reputation” in Sacramento the previous 4 years where she had helped manage the Sacket Hotel and Grand Hotel. The Clarendon House was at a prime location near the steamboat landing and the B.F. Hastings Building, which housed the California Supreme Court. The weekly rate for a room at the Clarendon was 12 dollars. In 1857, however, the Clarendon closed and the furniture was sold at public auction. In 1861, Eugenie Dumas bought the Clarendon House and renamed it the Hotel de France, the fourth hotel by that name the city and owned by Dumas. Williams later rented rooms at the Fashion Saloon on J Street. On January 10, 1872, Williams trad...