Good morning. Tina here.
Today I am sharing some photos and postcards of views of Placerville.
Below is a photograph which shows a banner which once greeted visitors on the west side of Placerville. It hung between two huge cement columns, which are gone now, but the rocky lower base of one still clings to the side of a hill between Myrtle, Fairview, Canal & Hilltop Streets and our current Highway 50. You can see part of the railroad tracks on the lower right.
Below is an old postcard looking north on Main Street. The Round Tent store and Opera House jut out into Main. Off in the distance in the center is the large walnut tree which used to stand next to the IOOF building, and you can see the top of the bell tower just above the bay window on the old post office building.
I was thrilled to find this great old photo below, which shows the building on the east corner of Main and Bedford Streets. This Gospel Mission took over an old saloon! On the right of the mission is one of the many old homes which used to line Main Street.
Here is the mission again, and Courthouse stands to the left. Looks like a small parade is going by.
Below is the Placerville Foundry and Machine Works, circa 1920. I am not sure where it was located, the hill behind looks like Sacramento Hill to me, but I am not sure. If anyone knows please let me know!
Below is a great old postcard from before the Cary House morphed into the Placerville Hotel, Raffles Hotel, and back to the Cary House. The Ohio House is still standing and in the far off middle two old homes stand which I wish I could go explore!
One last old postcard below looking north on Main Street from the intersection of Sacramento and Main Streets. Quigley's Groceries on the right. The interesting painted post on the far right is holding up the Ohio House.
I hope you enjoyed seeing Placerville once upon a time.
2 comments:
LOVE all of these, as I always do when you write these kinds of posts!
Would that be what is now Forni Rd, top pic? I know how much it's changed...has changed just since I moved up here in 2000. Forni, west of P'ville, was the old Alternate 40 or Lincoln hwy. I can remember entering P'ville, Dad driving, via old Hwy 40. My did loved to drive through P'ville, even after Mr. Ugly Hwy was bulldozed through (That isn't allowed to happen any longer. Now hwys must bypass historic towns. )
p ~~~
Mission, Main & Bedford...Where the P'ville Xmas tree is now? Oh yes, there's the courthouse. Wasn't that where a post office building was built, still a post office when you were young'ns? Buildings like the mission and Round Tent Store stuck right out into the street, didn't they?
p ~~~
Placerville Foundry and Machine Works. Likely Sacramento Hill. George McKee said a foundry sat on the site where the Shell station is now ("George McKee Remembers Placerville" -- Video). George spoke of a brewery, a bit of which still remains (much more remained until ANOVA), that stood where the the Buttercup Pantry sits now. Before ANOVA I climbed up old steps to the old cemetary. A Long's druggist, perhaps a generation younger, as I remember, was living in the Fausel House. He'd come out on the the top porch and tell me about things long gone.
p ~~~
Ohio House: Alice Ramsey, the first woman to drive across the United States from coast to coast, 1909, drove down Main St. and spent the night at the Ohio House. At that time, women were not encouraged to drive cars, thus much publicity. There's a wonderful book about that journey, c. 2008. I thought there would be some sort of celebration when a woman & team traced her route in a rebuilt identical car in 2009. It wasn't even mentioned by Christina Mendonza. People forget that their "rights" were hard won--very hard won.
p ~~~
"On the right of the mission is one of the many old homes which used to line Main Street." A few of the old homes remain. One, across from today's Colonel Sanders' (don't think it's called that anymore) is much older than I guessed it was. It shows up in a very old photograph of men working on, or around, what is now Forni Rd, photographed westward, old Forni a very rough dirt road climbing steeply. There's low rock-work (curb, decoration?) in the old photo that remains today. I believe the home is now a social service center of some kind. I haven't been there in a while. I sent Tina a picture of the beautiful old home.
p ~~~
Jim in Cedar Grove
Post a Comment