Plan of the Village of Grass Valley is the earliest and most important true map of Grass Valley. It shows the approximate layout of the town about 2 years before the fire of 13 September 1855, which destroyed much of the commercial quarter of the town between Mill and Main streets, and down Main from Church to below Auburn. By the time of the fire, two major downtown streets had been renamed to the names by which they are known today.

The map was commissioned by the Grass Valley Mining Company, which was formed on 25 July 1851 by founders who resided in San Francisco, "with $100,000 in capital stock and the option of increasing to $250,000" (Note 1). It was drawn by Sarony & Major, a firm based in New York, owned by the lithographer and portrait photographer Napoleon Sarony (1821-1891), born in Quebec in the British colony of Lower Canada, and the England-born lithographer Henry B. Major (1820-1887). Many late 1840s and early 1850s lithographies are signed by Sarony & Major. During 1853, the firm name changed to Sarony & Company, which suggests that the map had been printed by then or thereabouts.

The map shows Walsh's Mill on Mill street, on land later owned by the Hodge family, which built the stone house that still stands at 183 Mill today. The map also shows -- across Mill street to the west and a few meters to the north, the building -- built in 1851 -- that served as the office of the Grass Valley Mining Company and the residence of its foreman, Meredith Gilmore, who oversaw the mine's daily operations. In August 1853, a month after she arrived in Grass Valley with her new husband, Patrick Hill, who had known Gilmore in San Francisco, Lola Montez began living at Gilmore's office-cum-cottage as his guest.

At the time of Montez's arrival, the mining company was changing hands, and Gilmore was preparing to leave, on account of the mine changing hands and giving way to newer developments. By the fall of 1853, Gilmore had sold the cottage to Montez. Montez added a second story to the cottage, which she later sold to S. D. Bosworth, for many years Grass Valley's post master.

By the time of the 1855 fire, several streets on the map had been renamed. Walsh became Neal and Peckam (Peckham) became Bank. Walsh became the namesake of a new street, starting off Mill just north of Walsh's mill and along the south side of the perimeter of Montez's home. Bank was extended east of Auburn through China Town and on to Bennett, and Bank Alley was opened from the west side of Mill to Church.

The major roads leading out of Grass Valley were the most important spokes of its economic wheel -- the "Road to Sacramento" via Marysville, where one could continue south by road or river; the "Road to Nevada", from where one could continue to many mining towns and camps along and between the forks of the Yuba river; and the "Road to Auburn", another route to Sacramento, and by land or water to San Francisco. And not to forget the "Road to Steep Hollow" near Bear river, the future Race street and Colfax highway.

Note 1 -- Maureen A. Jung, "Capitalism Comes To the Diggings: From Gold-Rush Adventure To Corporate Enterprise", Chapter 3, pages 52-74 in James J. Rawls and Richard J. Orsi, editors, A Golden State: Mining and Economic Development in Gold Rush California (Berkeley, Calif: University of California Press, 1999, xii, 313 pages), page 54 and end note 36 of Chapter 3 ("Grass Valley Gold Mining Company, Charter, New York: Printing Office, 1852).

Author: Sarony & Major, N. Y.
Publisher: Grass Valley Gold Mining Company
Published: Circa 1853, nlt 1854
Subjects: Walsh Sawmill (james Walsh, D1894), Peckam [peckham] (bank) Street, Walsh (neal) Street, Colfax Road, Highway), Main Street (within Village), Road To Nevada (nevada Road, 1852-1854
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