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GEOLOGIC GUIDEBOOK ALONG HIGHWAY 49 



[Bull. 141 



FIG. 41. House with stone basement, between Sonora 

 and Jamestown, DMBS Tuo-H4. 



SONORA 



Sonora was named for the first gold seekers who settled here, Yaqui 

 Indians from the State of Sonora in northwestern Mexico. It survives 

 today as one of the largest and most vigorous towns of the Mother Lode 

 country. It is an important center for lumbering as well as gold mining 

 activity. Most of the evidences of the early town are concealed on the 

 main streets by the practice of facing buildings with stucco, vitreous 

 brick and other new materials but the same buildings viewed from side 

 streets and alleyways reveal abundant evidence of early architecture. 



As the visitor enters Sonora from Jamestown, a number of quarries 

 in the schist bedrock can be seen along the right side of Highway 49. 

 These are the sources of the town's favorite stone building material. 

 Across the road to the west shoring and retaining walls made of dry -laid 

 flat schist slabs channel the stream of Woods Creek. 



The favored construction pattern in Sonora was that of making the 

 sides and rears of buildings of flat laid schist slabs, the fronts of brick, but 

 there are some all-brick buildings as well as some all-stone buildings and 

 the influence of the Mexicans is to be seen in surviving adobes. 



The building now known as the Opera Hall Garage was once the 

 theater for Sonora. It still contains a stage and dressing rooms once 

 used by the players. It has a brick front, and side and rear walls of 

 schist slabs. The hillside behind the opera house was quarried to provide 

 the building materials. At 919 Washington Street there is a two story 

 building with a brick front and schist sides (Fig. 44). It was built in 

 1851 and is known as Rother's Tin Shop. Two adjacent buildings at 

 803 Stewart Street are of similar style but one is constructed of brick 

 and the other of schist slabs with a brick front (Fig. 42). These were 

 built by Americans and later sold to Chinese. Modern Sonorans refer to 

 them as the "China Stores." At 905 Shepard Street there is a two story 

 brick building resting on a foundation of schist slabs (Fig. 43). There is 

 an all schist building opposite the Purity Store on Stewart Street (Fig. 

 46) and the old schist wall can be seen in the alleyway on the side of the 

 Gem Cafe. Between the offices of the Sonora Daily and the police court, 

 the ruins of the walls of an adobe building can be seen. The adobe blocks 

 measure 13 by 6.5 by 3 inches. In 1850, Sonora had numerous adobe 

 buildings including Captain Green's Hotel, a two story, 40 by 100 foot 

 structure. The historic Italia Hotel, still in existence in Sonora (Fig. 45), 

 contains at least one interior adobe wall of the original structure. 



FIG. 42. Building at 803 Stewart St., Sonora. DMBS Tuo-H5. 



