National Hotel
KIAL JAMES PHOTOGRAPHY
NEVADA CITY
WALKING TOUR
• Start on Broad Street near the freeway
and in front of the National Hotel (#1).
• Walk up Broad, turn left on South Pine
Street, go one block (#2).
• Return and continue up Broad to the
split, cross street and head back (#3-5).
• Continue back down Broad (#6).
• At York Street, turn left to Chinese
Quarter and right on Commercial
Street (#7).
• Continue down Commercial to end and
Union Street and plaza (#8-9).
2. POWELL HOUSE: 203 S. Pine Street.
Dating from 1860, building was once home
to a soda works which manufactured carbonated drinks.
3. CITY HALL: 317 Broad Street. First built
on the site in 1878, replaced with “modern
building” in 1937 constructed by WPA.
Completely renovated.
4. NEVADA THEATRE: 401 Broad Street.
Opened in 1865 making it the oldest theatre
building in California.
5. HOMES OF INTEREST: 449 Broad Street is
believed to date from 1885 and at one time
housed a doctor’s office and a jail. Plaque on
the property (near corner) honors Senator
Aaron A. Sargent, author of the Anthony
Amendment to the U.S. Constitution which
gave women the right to vote. He built a
house on the property in the 1850s.
Charles E. Mulloy home built in the late
1870s sits between East and West Broad
Streets. Mulloy, a successful businessman,
shocked residents when he hanged himself.
Emil Ott home, 450 Broad Street, was
built in 1910. His father was a wellknown assayer.
Mulloy House
6. NEW YORK HOTEL: 408 Broad Street.
Dates from 1880, fire destroyed original
hotel built in 1863.
7. CHINESE QUARTER: Commercial and
York Streets. Existed from the beginning of
the Gold Rush to about 1879. Many buildings date from mid-1800s, some of the
oldest in Nevada City.
8. SOUTH YUBA CANAL BUILDING: On plaza
at Commercial & Union Streets.
Headquarters for largest network of water
flumes and ditches in state. Office used from
1857 to 1880. Holdings later became part
of the PG&E hydroelectric system.
9. OTT’S ASSAY OFFICE: On plaza. James J.
Ott made historic assay of silver ore in 1858
which started the rush to the Comstock
Lode in Nevada.
ANDREW WRIGHT / LIGHTHAWKPHOTO
1. NATIONAL HOTEL: 211 Broad Street.
Opened its doors in 1865 and has been
going ever since. Popular with important
mining people and miners, thousands of
dollars in gold passed over the bar which
had been shipped ‘round the Horn.
ANDREW WRIGHT / LIGHTHAWKPHOTO
• Take Union back to National Hotel.
Nevada Theatre
N E VA D A C O U N T Y G O L D . c o m
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