SURVEY OF BUILDING STRUCTURES OF THE SIERRAN GOLD BELT, 1848-70 HEIZER AND FENENGA 



145 



PLACERVILLE 



Placerville, a thriving community situated on one of the main trans- 

 Sierran highways (Highway 50) and supported by lumbering, mining, 

 and farming, is, like Auburn and Sonora, a city which has survived and 

 flourished even after the gold placers ' ' played out. ' ' Old Dry Diggins or 

 Hangtown, as it has been variously named, contains many of its 1850- 

 1860 period buildings. Many of these are brick such as the famed Ivy 

 House (1861), the Federated Church (1861), and home at 343 Washing- 

 ton Street. The P. G. and E. building (1852) is made of talc schist with 

 brick-trimmed facade. The quarry from which the stone was excavated is 

 the cut directly behind in the hillslope. The Title Building is of similar 

 construction with brick face and talc schist walls. The building at 849 

 Main Street (built 1861), one door east of the Library, has brick sides, 

 talc schist foundations, and rhyolite tuff facing. The El Dorado County 

 Chamber of Commerce building is made of dressed blocks of rhyolite tuff, 

 probably derived from the Diamond Springs area a few miles to the west. 

 This building was the Pony Express office. Perhaps the nicest of the old 

 buildings is the Wilcox Warehouse (Fig. 126) built of carefully selected 

 blocks of andesite conglomerate and schist. 



Hangtowners are conscious of their history, and the visitor will find 

 them and the Chamber of Commerce gracious and helpful hosts. Most of 

 the store windows on the main street contain Gold Rush period antiques. 



SHINGLE SPRINGS 



Shingle Springs is located about six miles west of El Dorado on High- 

 way 50. The two-story Wells Fargo Building (Fig. 127) made of meta- 

 andesite and semi-dressed granodiorite, both materials common in the 

 immediate vicinity, is the outstanding building of the late 'fifties at 

 Shingle Springs. Just west of town near the railroad crossing, a well 

 preserved house of meta-andesite fieldstone, talc schist, and white quartz 

 float laid with mud-lime mortar can be seen (Fig. 128). South of there a 

 few hundred yards on the French Creek road are two old building ruins 

 made of meta-andesite and serpentine (Fig. 129). 



At the beginning of the road from Shingle Springs, which goes north 

 from Highway 50, to Lotus are several old building remnants. A few miles 

 north of Shingle Springs, the first side road to the left leads to Rescue, 

 beyond which, at a distance of two miles on the McDonald (now Reamer) 

 Ranch, are the ruins of an old winery built in the late 'fifties. The con- 

 struction, of granite fieldstone set in mud-lime mortar, has held up well 

 (Fig. 130). Back on the main road, the next side road to the right takes 

 one east on the Green Valley road, along which are abundant evidences 

 of placer activities for about two miles to the first lane to the right. Two 

 hundred yards down this and to the left are the remains of an earth dam 

 with meta-andesite fieldstone facing, built by miners in the early 'fifties 

 to impound water for placer mining (Fig. 131). 



FIG. 126. Wilcox Warehouse, Placerville, DMBS Eld-H9. 





FIG. 127. Wells Fargo building, Shingle Springs, DMBS Eld-HlO. 



