Historic Sites and Points of Interest in El Dorado County
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13 December 2013
(Click Photos to Zoom)
6249 Main Street
Georgetown
Built 1859
Three small and somewhat contradictory markers are mounted on the building:
I.O.O.F. Hall
Formerly the Balsar House 1859
Historic Site
El Dorado County
No. 17
Balsar House
A hotel built in 1859 by
Madam Balsar.
Remodeled for an opera house in 1870.
Restored by the Independent Order Odd Fellows and used as a meeting place by fraternal orders.
Dedicated by El Dorado Parlor 186
Native Daughters of the Golden West
April 13, 1935
Balsar House
Erected 1859 by a butcher Joseph Olmstead
Erected at a cost of $15,000.00
In 1889 It was bought by I.O.O.F.
Dedicated August 26, 1978
By Growlersburg Chapter 86
E Clampus Vitus
5983
The Independent Order of Odd Fellows (I.O.O.F.) is an altruistic fraternal organization derived from the similar English Oddfellows service organizations which came into being during the 1700s....Although in Britain the Odd Fellows tended to meet in pubs, in the U.S. the lodges often built their own facilities. Many of these are now on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places....
From Wikipedia entry for Independent Order of Odd Fellows
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