Visit Dates: May 31 AND July 23, 2021
Sometimes (often?) I run into problems finding these old buildings. Despite the picture in Geologic Guidebook, use of old maps, internet searches, and the like, I just can't always find the old structure. Usually this happens when searching out in the countryside, where the survey authors might describe the location as a half-buried stone house that sits just past a grove of oak trees about a mile and half north of town sitting on the left side of some long ago re-routed side road. The buildings in town are almost always easier to find. That said, I didn't think I would have such a problem finding the Wilcox Warehouse in Placerville.
Surprisingly, despite there being photos of over 100 buildings in the 1948 Building Structures Survey, there is only one image for Placerville. In the authors' description of Placerville, they mention the town's many fine brick buildings and houses, a quarry, and they even call out the El Dorado County Chamber of Commerce building which was an excellent structure "made of dressed blocks of rhyolite tuff." However they judged the Wilcox Warehouse as "the nicest of the old buildings...built of carefully selected blocks of andesite conglomerate and schist." Sounds like a really great building, however I'll never know. It seems to have been torn down in the late 1980s or 1990s, to make way for a super great office/retail building, which you can see above. A building that I am sure people will be writing about 100 years from now.
Unfortunately the inventory was just the start of my confusion about where to find the warehouse. The City of Placerville was probably too busy trying to work out that whole "Old Hangtown" issue to notice that the Wilcox Warehouse was on the south side of Hangtown Creek (approximately where "Takeout Delivery" appears on map below) and near where the lost marker had been placed. And the Blair Lumber Company was at a completely different location altogether. On the map below, I believed the Wilcox Warehouse was located at corner of Washington and Spanish Ravine, kitty corner from the Placerville Police Station, while the Thai restaurant is at the corner of Broadway and Mosquito.
Anyway I took my photo of the location that the city told was correct and assumed the building was destroyed and at the location was where they said. However in putting together the post, I did a little more research on the building and found out I was in error about my discovery, as well as confirming that the City had bad info about the location of the building noted in their inventory. But I was just as wrong as the City. Trying to place the building by using an 1910 Sanborn Fire Insurance map, it just did not make sense. The building at the inventory's location was made of brick (red) and used for fuel wood storage. The white building above I figured out was facing completely the wrong direction. Through more digging, I determined that the Wilcox building was south of my incorrect location, across Hangtown Creek. It was at that time identified as a vacant stone building (blue), as seen in the maps below.
The exact location of the Wilcox Warehouse is difficult to precisely identify. Comparing the Sanborn (below) with current days maps it appears that the old Washington Street has been re-routed and is now known as Mosquito Road. Assuming the current-day Washington Street that runs south from the intersection of Main and Spanish Ravine is still located that in the same location as in 1910, then the Wilcox Warehouse was actually sited northeast of the Police Station and the second the two new business buildings. All that said, this image is of that building and was taken while coming back from vacation at South Lake Tahoe, just so I could correct my mistake. Why couldn't they have just picked the Chamber of Commerce building?!?
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Visit Date: May 1, 2021The one thing that always gives me joy is to drive through the California foothills in the spring. The green hills with all of the different blooming wildflowers though can make me a danger on the road. I have tendency to swivel my heads trying to identify as many of the flowers and shrubs as I drive these backroads. This was what made my trip to Fiddletown in Amador County doubly enjoyable. Tons of wildflowers as well as a number of historic stone buildings, including the Schallhorn Blacksmith and Wagon Shop. For historic structures, Fiddletown is certainly more well-known for its buildings associated with the Chinese, in particular the Chew Kee herbalist shop (which we will eventually get to). These Chinese buildings are at the western end of town. The Schallhorn building thought sits at the eastern end, amongst a number of other beautiful historic buildings. The building is exceptional in its solid construction and integrity. As much as any of the buildings I've visited, it looks like it last for generations to come. According to the marque on the front of the building, it was constructed in 1870 for C. Schallhorn as a blacksmith and wagon shop. After a little searching, it's not surprising that Christopher Schallhorn invested in building such a fine structure. He seems to have been a true innovator. Enough so that shortly after having the building constructed, he filed for and received two patents. With his partner Frederick Knapp, in 1876 they received a patent for a safety-guards or cock-eyes for a harness. He was really big on safety. The following year, they again put their heads together and came up with a better way. This time they patented a way better Buckle and Snap-Hook. Don't believe me, check this out. According to the authors of the Bulletin 141 Building Survey, the blacksmith shop was constructed "of rectangular hewn blocks (measuring 12 by 18 by 10 inches) of Valley Springs rhyolite tuff which is easily worked when first quarried but hardens after exposure." I've left myself some work to do in the future since they also wrote that it was taken from a quarry "about 1.5 miles east of Fiddletown (that) may be seen across a field to the south of the road." I didn't take the time to track the quarry down on this trip so I need to return and do my best to find it with just that sketchy description. (Maybe this is it!) Hopefully it'll a beautiful spring day.
Visit Date: May 16, 2020The Covid pandemic has been awful. Truly awful. Not good for anyone. Like many others, our family really hunkered down at the start. Limited trips to stores. Short or no visiting with family and friends. One personal small casualty was the aim of the blog, finding buildings featured in the 1949 Division of Mines Geological Guidebook along Highway 49. After two months of staying at home, I finally had enough and headed back to the Gold County. The destination was Murphys in Calaveras County and its bounty of freakin' awesome buildings. The Victorene Compere Store is no longer a store but instead serves as a very nice personal residence. It seems that few of the other stone buildings in the guidebook have been treated as well. Too often they are in extreme need of repair, if they still exist. Murphys has many nearly as well preserved buildings that could have been featured. Like the Volcano photo from a previous post, the authors used an existing image of the Compere Store instead of taking their own photograph. The problem with them using that photo is that it was taken during the Depression and not on their building survey in 1948. The photo below was probably taken in 1934, as part of a New Deal work projects. The benefit for me though is that the Library of Congress collection contains these photos and the quality is better than the scan of the image in the Guidebook. Main Street Murphys is one of the best spots to visit if you want to go back to the Gold Rush Days. Many, many fine old buildings, quite a few of them stone, line the street. The town retains a sense of history while still feeling evolved. The Compere Store sits on the north side of Main Street as you enter Murphys along the old road from Altaville. In its day it must have been a striking site as you arrived in Murphys. In the upper corners of the Compere Store are decorative metal work flourishes. I don't think that they provide any structural help but they really finish off the building. They aren't all of the stone and brick buildings, but I have seen a few, probably because you had to pay extra for this detail work. The examples below are from Copperopolis (left) and Plymouth (right).
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AuthorMy name is Jeff and I am on a hunt to find historic brick and stone structures along Highway 49. Archives
January 2022
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