National Hotel and Coffee Shop by National Hotel and H P Davis (PH 1-22a)(1925) (3 pages)

THs NATIONAL HOTEL AND COFFEE SHOP NEVADA CITY, CALIFORNIA The National Hotel is, and for many years has been, the headquarters for mining men and for tourists visiting the seat of the premier gold county of California, Adequately equipped to assure most excellent service, the National yet retains a charming atmosphere of the gold rush era when, as headquarters for stage lines connecting the county seat with innumerable gold camps of the Sierra Nevada, it was a famous center of gold mining activities. In the spacious lobby siill hangs the gong which announced the departure of the four and six horse stages for the boom camps of Red Dog, You Bet, Dutch Flat, Gold Run, Yankee Jims, Rough and Ready, Anthony House, French Corral, Timbucktoo, Alpha and Omega, Goodyear Bar, Brandy City, Oregon House and even io far away Virginia City, which in the early ‘‘sixties’’ was “only 18 hours by stage from the town of Nevada". In the lobby also may be seen the National Hotel register of 1869 replete with names of men who made mining history. In the lounge on the second floor and in many of the rooms are antiques, relics of pioneer days, which testify not only to the artistry but to the honest workmanship of the craftsmen. Excepting the wide veranda now extending the full length of the hotel, and an annex later added, the building stands today as it was erected in the early sixties. The substantial character of the construction is evinced by the depth of the telephone booth which now occupies space originally a doorway between the second and third sections in which the hotel was constructed. The National Exchange, as it was then called, in a new building built by loca! capital, opened its doors under the direction of Lancaster and Hassy in March, 1864. After several changes in management it was sold ‘with buildings and appurtenances” to Rector Brothers by whom it was operated until 1924 when the buildings and good will was purchased by F. C. Worth, whose estate constitutes the present ownership. Ray, NANNY Ab Wb9 , “a igft ** ate ow As A8b9 4S 4 4 . hy OUR 1869 HOTEL REGISTER A writer in ‘“‘Leslie’s Weekly, in 1903, stated: “One of the curious sights in California which every traveler goes to see is the bar in the principal hotel at Nevada City, made out of California laurel. The bar was placed there in 1864 (at the time of the erection of the hotel). The hotel has been rebuilt several times since, but the bar has been taken out and always put back in the hotel. L. D. Calkins, who went to California before the ’49’er days, says that over $8,000,000.00 has passed over the counter of this bar, the largest sum of money that has passed over any bar in the same period of thirty--five years. The wooden top of the bur was something like eight inches thick when it was first built. Now it is worn down to less than two inches.” Incorporated in the counter of the present coffee shop, which replaced the old bar, are sections of the laurel counter over which is said to have passed more than eight million in gold. CENTRAL LOCATION Within a radius of half a mile of the National occured events of vital interest and signifiance in the mining history of California. On the slope of ‘‘Aristocracy Hill’’, to the north is Trinity Church on the site of the first store of this community, was a canvas and ‘‘shake”’ trading post established by Dr. Caldwell in the fall of 49". Here in the spring of ‘50’’ was held the first town election and the name Nevada chosen for the little settlement which had sprung up on the bank of Deer Creek. The huge scar in Harmony Ridge directly north of the hotel is the famous ‘Manzanita Cut one of the richest of the stupendously rich hydraulic operations of Nevada County. Harmony Ridge is honey-combed with miles of long abandoned, but once highly profitable, drift gravel workings. Further to the west is the site of ‘“Coyoteville’ for a time a more populous gravel settlement than was Nevada, with which it was finally incorporated. “Coyoteville’ was so named for the fancied resemblance to coyote burrows of the little gravel pits ‘‘gophered” out by prospectors. In the area just north of the National was initiated the development of mining ditches and the inauguration of California's first company to sell to miners water to assist in mining operations. Here also A, Chabot made the first step in the development of hydraulicking. On the bank of Deer Creek just aboye the Pine Street bridge is the old dump of the Nevada County Mine the workings of which exiend under the National Hotel. Within a radius of five miles gold quartz mines have produced not less than $200,000,000 and the gravel workings a tremendous additional amount. In a twenty-five mile radius at least half of the total gold yield of the state of California has been produced. The highway entering Nevada City from the south, Route 49, passes through Town Talk, and four miles to the south is Grass Valley whose narrow streets and ancient brick buildings (now being rapidly replaced by modern structures) are reminiscent of the gold rush days at the very beginning of which this town was founded. Marysville, the flourishing seat of Yuba County, lies thirty-eight miles to the west, and Anburn, the picturesque seat of Placer County, twenty two miles to the south, both on excellent highways. These were boom camps in the early duys and are yet important commercial centers. Thirtyfive miles to the north of Nevada City, by a winding mountain road, lies Alleghany, famed for its spectacular gold deposits and an important center of “high grade’ mines. To the northeast is quaint old Downieville, seat of Sierra County, and beyond Sierra City where the Sierra Buttes tower to an elevation of more than $600 feet. UPSTAIRS LOUNGE

THs NATIONAL HOTEL AND COFFEE SHOP NEVADA CITY, CALIFORNIA The National Hotel is, and for many years has been, the headquarters for mining men and for tourists visiting the seat of the premier gold county of California, Adequately equipped to assure most excellent service, the National yet retains a charming atmosphere of the gold rush era when, as headquarters for stage lines connecting the county seat with innumerable gold camps of the Sierra Nevada, it was a famous center of gold mining activities. In the spacious lobby siill hangs the gong which announced the departure of the four and six horse stages for the boom camps of Red Dog, You Bet, Dutch Flat, Gold Run, Yankee Jims, Rough and Ready, Anthony House, French Corral, Timbucktoo, Alpha and Omega, Goodyear Bar, Brandy City, Oregon House and even io far away Virginia City, which in the early ‘‘sixties’’ was “only 18 hours by stage from the town of Nevada". In the lobby also may be seen the National Hotel register of 1869 replete with names of men who made mining history. In the lounge on the second floor and in many of the rooms are antiques, relics of pioneer days, which testify not only to the artistry but to the honest workmanship of the craftsmen. Excepting the wide veranda now extending the full length of the hotel, and an annex later added, the building stands today as it was erected in the early sixties. The substantial character of the construction is evinced by the depth of the telephone booth which now occupies space originally a doorway between the second and third sections in which the hotel was constructed. The National Exchange, as it was then called, in a new building built by loca! capital, opened its doors under the direction of Lancaster and Hassy in March, 1864. After several changes in management it was sold ‘with buildings and appurtenances” to Rector Brothers by whom it was operated until 1924 when the buildings and good will was purchased by F. C. Worth, whose estate constitutes the present ownership. Ray, NANNY Ab Wb9 , “a igft ** ate ow As A8b9 4S 4 4 . hy OUR 1869 HOTEL REGISTER A writer in ‘“‘Leslie’s Weekly, in 1903, stated: “One of the curious sights in California which every traveler goes to see is the bar in the principal hotel at Nevada City, made out of California laurel. The bar was placed there in 1864 (at the time of the erection of the hotel). The hotel has been rebuilt several times since, but the bar has been taken out and always put back in the hotel. L. D. Calkins, who went to California before the ’49’er days, says that over $8,000,000.00 has passed over the counter of this bar, the largest sum of money that has passed over any

bar in the same period of thirty--five years. The wooden top of the bur was something like eight inches thick when it was first built. Now it is worn down to less than two inches.” Incorporated in the counter of the present coffee shop, which replaced the old bar, are sections of the laurel counter over which is said to have passed more than eight million in gold. CENTRAL LOCATION Within a radius of half a mile of the National occured events of vital interest and signifiance in the mining history of California. On the slope of ‘‘Aristocracy Hill’’, to the north is Trinity Church on the site of the first store of this community, was a canvas and ‘‘shake”’ trading post established by Dr. Caldwell in the fall of 49". Here in the spring of ‘50’’ was held the first town election and the name Nevada chosen for the little settlement which had sprung up on the bank of Deer Creek. The huge scar in Harmony Ridge directly north of the hotel is the famous ‘Manzanita Cut one of the richest of the stupendously rich hydraulic operations of Nevada County. Harmony Ridge is honey-combed with miles of long abandoned, but once highly profitable, drift gravel workings. Further to the west is the site of ‘“Coyoteville’ for a time a more populous gravel settlement than was Nevada, with which it was finally incorporated. “Coyoteville’ was so named for the fancied resemblance to coyote burrows of the little gravel pits ‘‘gophered” out by prospectors. In the area just north of the National was initiated the development of mining ditches and the inauguration of California's first company to sell to miners water to assist in mining operations. Here also A, Chabot made the first step in the development of hydraulicking. On the bank of Deer Creek just aboye the Pine Street bridge is the old dump of the Nevada County Mine the workings of which exiend under the National Hotel. Within a radius of five miles gold quartz mines have produced not less than $200,000,000 and the gravel workings a tremendous additional amount. In a twenty-five mile radius at least half of the total gold yield of the state of California has been produced. The highway entering Nevada City from the south, Route 49, passes through Town Talk, and four miles to the south is Grass Valley whose narrow streets and ancient brick buildings (now being rapidly replaced by modern structures) are reminiscent of the gold rush days at the very beginning of which this town was founded. Marysville, the flourishing seat of Yuba County, lies thirty-eight miles to the west, and Anburn, the picturesque seat of Placer County, twenty two miles to the south, both on excellent highways. These were boom camps in the early duys and are yet important commercial centers. Thirtyfive miles to the north of Nevada City, by a winding mountain road, lies Alleghany, famed for its spectacular gold deposits and an important center of “high grade’ mines. To the northeast is quaint old Downieville, seat of Sierra County, and beyond Sierra City where the Sierra Buttes tower to an elevation of more than $600 feet. UPSTAIRS LOUNGE