Collection: Directories and Documents

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Title: Historic Context Statement for the City of Grass Valley, Nevada County, California (2010) Collection Type: Directories and Documents # of Pages: 57 Download PDF: User Login Required Download OCR Text: User Login Required

Date Scanned: 2024-07-14 05:48:48 Item Sourced From: PDF First Created: 2025-03-17 03:18:11 Last Updated: 2025-03-17 03:18:11

Original Held At: Searls Historical Library Location: 161 Nevada City Hwy, Nevada City, CA 95959

Page: of 57  

City of Grass Valley, Historic Context Historic Resource Associates, 2008 PREFACE In the summer of 2008 Historic Resource Associates contracted with the City of Grass Valley to prepare a historic context, inventory buildings and structures in the 1872 Townsite, develop a historic preservation ordinance, and prepare preservation design guidelines. The process of developing the context statement was integral to defining the city’s architectural heritage and later planning efforts. Grass Valley embodies the characteristics that represent the success experienced during the late nineteenth century by California miners, merchants, and citizens. Discovered in 1849 along Wolf Creek, the community’s gold placer diggings quickly evolved into capitalized industrial gold quartz mines. Grass Valley, and its neighbor Nevada City, played a significant role in the economic and social development of Nevada County. Nevada County was established and named after the city by an act of the state legislature on April 25, 1851.! The physical composition of Grass Valley, lying in the Sierra Nevada foothills at an elevation between 2400-2600 feet, reflects its natural setting, nestled between two mountain ridges and bisected by several creeks that are tributaries to the Bear River. At first, settlement occurred randomly throughout the valley, particularly along Wolf Creek. By the 1860s when gold quartz mining became the principal occupation of most of the community’s residents, the population was booming. William Frederick Prisk’s Pictorial History of Nevada County, described Grass Valley as “nestled among the pine clad hills, whose sunny slopes are dotted with the fragrant gardens and cosy homes of the industrious miner . . . its narrow streets, lined on either side with handsome cottages and elegant residences, gives it a picturesqueness and an air of romance, which can never be attained by the well-planned, straight-avenued modern town.” * Prisk’s rather eloquent description of Grass Valley glosses over the hardships faced by the city’s working class population, as well as the upturns and downturns in the economy associated largely with a single industry hardrock mining. Notwithstanding the difficulties faced during the city’s rise to prominence in the nineteenth century, it clearly was one of the most important and successful gold rush era communities. Its success can be seen in its architectural heritage featuring a wide-diverse range of buildings and structures dating from the 1850s through the 1940s. The visual character of Grass Valley was and is reflected in its cultural history, a theme that is discussed repeatedly throughout the following historic context. 1 Erwin G. Gudde. California Place Names: The Origin and Etymology of Current Geographical Names. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1969; p. 219. 2 William Frederick Prisk Jr. comp. 1895 Pictorial History of Nevada County, California. Grass Valley: Grass Valley Daily Morning Union, 1895.