Sutter Creek, California

The Fires of 1862, 1865, 1870, 1875, 1877, and 1888 took turns destroying portions of Sutter Creek, the last one wiping out most of the downtown business section. The damage was always quickly repaired; however, because gold never sleeps. It's always working, or creating work, causing things to happen. It caused this town to boom, to build, to prosper and to last. It's responsible for the many buildings and homes here that have survived from the 1800's. They were built well, built to last, because they thought the gold would last. And as it turned out, it did, although in a slightly different form. Lumbering, and more recently, tourism, now provide Sutter Creek and much of the Mother Lode with its gold today.

The Richards Building is believed to be built in 1898. The balcony was in the original construction of the building which is of Victorian design.

The two-story front of this building, known as the Klima-Levaggi Building, was actually built in 1888, and the opera house in the rear was added in 1892 and used until 1957. The balcony was added c1980.

The Native Sons Hall also known as the "Sutter" is dated back to the mid 1860's. The earliest building known dates back to 1851 which was a General Store owned by Hanford and Downs.

Philip Goodman was a doctor-surgeon in Sutter Creek from 1895 to his death in 1927. He set up the Sutter Creek Sanitarium in a two-story building on Main Street. The top floor was the hospital and the ground floor combined offices, a laboratory and surgery.

More on the Sanitarium

Information, historical photographs courtesy of the Amador County Archives, The Historical Marker Database, and the Chronicling America Database