An Act of Desperation

By Paisley Kirkpatrick

I'm sharing a couple of my photos and stories of the life in Placerville, California during the gold rush era that began around 1849 and, in some circumstances, is still alive now. These two buildings have quite an interesting history as one gave immediate gratification in the form of a drink, and the second in the form of lust fulfilled. The Soda Works building was constructed in 1852, and is one of the oldest buildings in Placerville.

Soda water was bottled using a carbonation machine, which is still on display, and sold to miners because it has seen many different types of businesses inside its doors. I had the opportunity to enter the tunnel that still remains open at the back of the building. It is narrow and has cold rock along the edges. I had to stoop over to keep from banging my head. There is a cool draft as you proceed deeper into the dark. I can imagine it might have been an unnerving experience for the men who headed to the other end to find the Chinese bordello. Up until a couple of years ago, when there was a rock slide at the bordello end of the tunnel, it was still fully functional. The tunnel started at one end of town and went nearly the entire length of Placerville's Main Street, inside a mountain of rock. If you didn't know about it, you would never suspect it was there.

I stepped inside the bordello several years ago to have a video copied. That was the current business that was operating in the building. The owner showed me their historical holes in the wall. I wish I had taken photos, but at the time didn’t think to do so. Along a hallway there are niches cut into a rock wall that were about five-foot long and maybe 2 ½ to 3 feet deep. Apparently, when the men finished with their drinks, they would walk the length of the tunnel from the Soda Works to visit the bordello. I am not sure how long that walk was, but I'd guess at least a quarter mile. When the gentleman reached the end of his walk, he was expected to shower before spending time with the girl in that small cubbyhole cut int the wall. What can I say except that they had to be tough, and they had to be a bit desperate. The saving grace of visiting the girls in that manner is that nobody knew they were there, if that was something they wanted to keep to themselves.

Gold Rush Buildings of Stone and Bricks

By Paisley Kirkpatrick

During the 1849 gold rush, mining camps started as a cluster of tents and other makeshift shelters. If the mine became productive, wooden buildings were erected and a town was born.

Fires were a recurring curse. Often entire towns were repeatedly destroyed by fire. Stonemasons, especially Italian immigrants from Liguria, began building "fire proof" banks and stores of stone or brick with iron doors and iron window shutters to protect the contents from fire. Many of these stone buildings still survive. The Cary House in downtown Placerville, California is one of those buildings with the huge iron doors that were closed and saved the building more than once from burning.

The Placerville Soda Works, also referred to as the Pearson Soda Works Building, is another classic Gold Rush structure and perhaps the most interesting building in town. It was built in stages, a mixture of fieldstone, rectangular blocks, bricks, and assorted rubble. John McFarland Pearson, a Scotsman, arrived in Placerville during the early 1850’s and built the lower portion of this building in 1859, with walls twenty-two inches thick.

Pearson was an ice merchant. He would cut ice from mountain lakes, haul them into town by horse and wagon, and then sell the blocks to the various places that had need of ice. He then branched out into the soda business, producing soda water, cream soda, and syrups which he sold to the townsfolk. Spring water was carbonated, bottled and sold to the miners. The soda water was an important product as the river and creeks were polluted from mining activities which made that source of water unsafe to drink. Pearson’s sons added the brick second story in 1897 for use as a bottling room.

Several interesting features are incorporated into this unique structure. Underground rooms, mine tunnels used to store ice and soda, iron doors which help support part of the upper floor, and a water driven elevator which once transported the heavy cases of soda from the bottling room to the storage areas all combine to create one of the most unusual buildings of the Gold Rush. This property is a significant reminder of one of the city's important 19th century economic activities. The building of Victorian architecture is a notable local example of its type and method of construction, with an 1859 lower story of cut stone and an 1897 upper story of stone and brick; it remains as one of the city's oldest commercial buildings without major alterations.