John Pearson Soda Works

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The building of the former soda water factory in 2009

John Pearson Soda Works or Placerville Soda Works is a historic building on Main Street in Placerville , California in the United States . The structure was listed as a memorial on the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) on December 12, 1985 .

The structure was built in several stages. An older structure on the site burned down in a devastating fire in the 1850s that affected most of Placerville. The Scottish immigrant John McFarland Pearson built in 1859 the lower part of the building as a commercial ice house .

He chose the location in front of the opening to a disused mine tunnel so that he could use the underground rooms and tunnels to store ice at controlled temperatures. In addition, the walls were built 22  inches thick to keep the ice stored inside cold. Pearson later expanded into the production of soda water ; his sons added the second floor of brick to the building in 1897 to accommodate the bottling plant . They added a hydro- powered elevator to move the products from one level to the other. Other foods were also sold, such as eggs and beer.

The business changed hands several times, but the Pearson family retained ownership of the building for a considerable time. Finally, the sons sold the operation in 1904 to Scherrer Bros. This sold in 1934 to Robert Hooke, which in a bottling plant of Coca-Cola Bottling Co. transformed. The building was also used for other businesses until the Pearson family sold the building to antiques collector Roger John Douvres in 1972 . This would have it renovated over a period of four years. He set up an old-style soda water tap on the ground floor and equipped the upper floor with an elegant dining room, the furnishings of which were based on the style of the early 20th century. Douvres' daughter took care of the registration of the building in the NRHP. The building also housed a theater, antique store, bookstore, music store, and the Placerville Coffee House before the Cozmic Café, now located there, opened in 2003.

The building of another soda water factory, Fountain-Tallman Soda Works , is nearby and is also registered in the NRHP.

supporting documents

  1. ↑ Entry in the National Register Information System . National Park Service , accessed May 23, 2016
  2. ↑ a b c History ( English ) The Cozmic Café. Archived from the original on August 4, 2009. Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved March 22, 2010. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.thecozmiccafe.com
  3. ^ A b Elliot H. Koeppel: Placerville Soda Works ( English ) In: The Virtual California Gold Country: Highway 49 Revisited Online . 2000. Retrieved March 22, 2010.
  4. ↑ Mija Riedel: In Placerville, nuggets of California's Gold Rush history (English) , Los Angeles Times. September 14, 2007. Archived from the original on March 12, 2009. Retrieved on March 22, 2010. 

Web links

Coordinates: 38 ° 43 '43 "  N , 120 ° 47' 48"  W.