Cohn House in Folsom: Historic Mansion Guide

The Cohn Family and Folsom’s Early History

A native of Poland, Simon Adolph Cohn was born in March of 1830. When he was only about 11 years old, he moved to Prussia and became a journeyman tailor for six years. By 1852, he came to the United States by passage across the Atlantic aboard the vessel “Samuel Lawrence.”

The eight-week journey was the first step toward a new life. Once in the United States, Simon traveled to California by way of the Nicaragua route.

Simon’s story is also part of Folsom’s early Jewish history. Western States Jewish History notes that he settled in Folsom in the 1850s and was connected to the Hebrew Benevolent Society of Folsom, which helped establish what was then the Folsom Jewish Cemetery, now part of Lakeside Cemetery.

Cohn Overcomes His Early Misfortunes

In San Francisco, Simon began working for a gentleman known as Mr. Krichavski, earning $50 per month. After saving $1,800, Simon took his money and went to buy out the interest in the St. Charles Hotel on Davis Street. Just as soon as he invested his money in that venture, the unthinkable struck.

The hotel burned to the ground that very night.

Although devastated, Simon pushed on. After returning to his former employer to save money again, he eventually took $2,000 to purchase a store near Michigan Bar with his new business partner, Mr. Frankee.

That business also burned to the ground shortly after he purchased it.

After two brutal losses, Simon tried again in Folsom, opening Cohn’s general store in 1856. This time it would be a great success, and it would last for the rest of his lifetime.

By the early 1860s, Simon Cohn had built the first house and barn on the Scott Street property. The sources do not spell out exactly why he chose that hilltop location, but the timing makes sense: after opening his Folsom general store in 1856 and establishing himself in town, Cohn built a modest residence and working household property during Folsom’s early growth years.

A later Folsom Telegraph ad and business-notice shows the Cohn name still tied to local groceries, merchandise, and town business activity around the turn of the 20th century.

From Simon to Philip Cohn

Simon continued to live in the home with his family, and eventually his daughter Alice married another businessman named Philip Cohn. Philip was not Simon’s son, despite the shared last name. He became Simon’s son-in-law after marrying Alice Martha Cohn.

Historical sources spell his name both ways: Philip and Phillip. This article mainly uses Philip, while preserving Phillip where older source language uses that spelling.

Philip Charles Cohn was born in New York in 1854. A 1905 biographical history says he came to California in 1874, worked in Sacramento, later became a traveling salesman, and arrived in Folsom in March of 1884. That same year, he married Alice.

After marrying Alice, Philip went to work with Simon Cohn. In 1893, they filed a certificate of co-partnership with the county for the business S. Cohn & Co.

The partnership continued until Simon’s death in 1895. After that, Philip purchased the widow’s interest in the business and continued operating the store. The 1905 source also describes Philip as having real estate and mining interests, including work connected to a gravel mine on the American River above Folsom.

That detail helps explain why Philip Cohn was more than just the man connected to a large house. He was part merchant, part investor, and part civic figure in a growing town.

Philip’s business and civic life eventually extended far beyond the family store. The City of Folsom notes that he became the only Folsom resident elected to the California State Senate, served on the State Highway Commission, helped represent Sacramento County at the Panama-Pacific Exposition, and was involved with the Bank of Folsom, the Orangevale Water Company, and several fraternal organizations.

Philip was elected to the California State Senate in 1912 and served during the 1913 and 1915 sessions. That matters because his business record was not just part of his private life. It became part of his public identity as he moved into state politics.

Family Life, Social Events, and the Mansion Years

The Cohn House was not just a beautiful residence. It was the home of one of Folsom’s most prominent families.

In 1895, the newspapers noted that Simon Cohn passed away from an attack of apoplexy. His obituary described him as one of the “leading citizens” of Folsom and a “pioneer merchant,” and noted that his death was “deplored” by the community.

He was survived by his wife, Henriette, and their two daughters, Rosa and Alice. He was remembered by the A.O.U. Workmen, Odd Fellows, and Natoma Lodge No. 64.

A 1960 Sacramento Daily Union feature listed seven Cohn children in the household: Dora, William, Mabel, Selma, twins Charles and Simon, and Henrietta.

The mansion also became a social setting. According to the National Register nomination, the Cohn House hosted gala events attended by prominent Northern Californians, including members of San Francisco’s famed Bohemian Club.

The same 1960 Sacramento Daily Union article gives that social history more texture. It described the Cohn House as a meeting place for society in the 1900s and remembered the home as a constant center of activity.

The article also drew on memories from Charles P. Cohn, Philip and Alice Cohn’s son, which helps explain why later accounts remembered the mansion less as an empty haunted house and more as a lively family home.

The home stayed in the Cohn family until the 1960s, completing what the nomination describes as a six-generation span of Cohn residence in the house.

Western States Jewish History also described it as the Cohn family home for more than 70 years, and family memories collected from Dora Cohn Jacobs help give the old house a warmer human side: children climbing into the cupola, family holidays in the dining room, and small memories of the porch and garden that make the mansion feel lived in rather than frozen behind a historic plaque.

The house eventually passed out of the Cohn family and into the care of later owners. Its modern preservation story is closely tied to Glenn and Sharon Fait, who purchased the property in the 1960s. At the time of the National Register nomination, the Faits owned the property and were rehabilitating the house with plans to restore its original appearance without exterior changes.

In 2024, the City of Folsom considered a bronze plaque recognizing the Cohn-Fait Mansion, the Cohn family as builders, and the Fait family as preservers.