Confidence Hall

Confidence Hall
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
Confidence Hall (L) and Jane Stuart Building (R) are both part of the same NRHP listing.
Location:	487 Main St., Placerville, California
Coordinates:	38°43′47″N 120°47′59″W / 38.72972°N 120.79972°W / 38.72972; -120.79972Coordinates: 38°43′47″N 120°47′59″W / 38.72972°N 120.79972°W / 38.72972; -120.79972
Built:	1860
Architect:	Booth & DeVoe
Architectural style:	Italianate Style, Victorian
Governing body:	Local
NRHP Reference#:	82002174 [1]
Added to NRHP:	January 04, 1982

Confidence Hall is a historic Italianate Style, Victorian brick building in Placerville, El Dorado County, California. The building was placed on the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) on January 4, 1982.

History

The building was originally constructed as the Confidence Engine Company No. 1, a volunteer fire brigade.^[2] The brigade began as the Mountaineer Engine Company on May 22, 1857, but changed their name in June after they purchased a used fire engine called "Confidence" and found they were unable to remove the engraving.^[3][4] The original engine hall had been damaged by fire in September 1860, and the present building was built in fall of the same year.^[3] The fund-raising balls held by the company were very popular.^[2] In the late 1890s, the building was used for early meetings of Placerville's Seventh-day Adventist Church.^[5] The building has also served as the police department, jail and a justice court.^[6] When the El Dorado County Fair used to rotate the location of the event, Confidence Hall was one of its venues in Placerville.^[7]

In 1902, the building became Placerville City Hall.^[8] The Placerville City Library, the first public library in the county, was established in the upper floor of the building in 1906.^[9] The space was shared by the Placerville City Clerk's Office and separated by a gate which was opened only after the Clerk had finished his work. The library remained there until 1947.^[10] It remained Placerville City Hall until 2005.^[6]

The adjacent structure with a wooden balcony, the Jane Stuart Building, was built in 1861 and is on the inventory of the NRHP listing. Immigrant Jane Stuart funded its construction by driving a herd of horses across the Great Plains and selling them to a local dealer.^[8] The two buildings share a common wall and an internal hallway and door and have been utilized as a single tenant office building. The buildings have an estimated 6,360 square feet (590 m²), which does not include an unfinished basement and an upstairs loft area.^[6]

After the Placerville City Government moved to a new city hall in 2005, the buildings, zoned for a broad range of uses, went on the market for over $1 million, but remained unsold and were repriced in June 2009 for $799,000.^[6]

See also

• National Register of Historic Places listings in El Dorado County, California

References

1. ^ "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. 2009-03-13. http://nrhp.focus.nps.gov/natreg/docs/All_Data.html. 
2. ^ ^{a b} Ford and Ellen Osborn, Day Trip #1 - Exploring Main Street Placerville, El Dorado County Visitors Authority, May 2002, Accessed August 2, 2009.
3. ^ ^{a b} Sioli, Paolo (1883). Historical souvenir of El Dorado County, California. Oakland, California: P. Sioli. p. 217. ISBN 9780965876322. http://books.google.com/books?id=FRcVAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA217&dq=%22Confidence+Engine+Company%22#v=onepage&q=%22Confidence%20Engine%20Company%22&f=false. Retrieved August 2, 2009. 
4. ^ Fire District History: Placerville, El Dorado County Fire District, Accessed August 2, 2009.
5. ^ History, Placerville Seventh-day Adventist Church, Accessed August 2, 2009.
6. ^ ^{a b c d} Asking price drops on old City Hall, Mountain Democrat, June 14, 2009, Accessed August 2, 2009.
7. ^ History of El Dorado County Fair, El Dorado County Fair, Accessed August 2, 2009.
8. ^ ^{a b} Elliot H. Koeppel, Placerville City Hall/Jane Stuart Building, The Virtual California Gold Country: Highway 49 Revisited Online, 2000, Accessed August 2, 2009.
9. ^ History of El Dorado County Library, El Dorado County Library, Accessed August 2, 2009.
10. ^ History of the Main Library in Placerville, El Dorado County website, Accessed August 2, 2009.