National Register of Historic Places in Stanislaus County
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Kingen Hotel and Levaggi Saloon
On a pleasant weekend afternoon, you will see motorcycles hitched in front of every saloon in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada.
Don't be afraid to join the bikers for a drink. You're not likely to meet Hell's Angels or Wild Ones. You are more likely to meet twenty-something millionaires from Silicon Valley, forty-something investment bankers from San Francisco, and Boomers of a certain age reliving the Summer of Love.
7 October 2007
(Click Photos to Zoom)
Levaggi Saloon
AKA La Grange Saloon
30048 Yosemite Boulevard
La Grange
Built 1897
The L. Levaggi Saloon is an unusual structure, stylistically and technologically. It is an idiosyncratic design for the late l890's, and may represent the personal flair of the patron.
Built to replace a wood saloon that had burned to the ground, the L. Levaggi building is furthermore an early example of the use of concrete construction for socially prominent structures. Concrete was not used with any frequency prior to the early twentieth century; little was known about the medium and when it was employed, it was usually for utilitarian purposes.
One of the earliest attempts to use concrete in a building of architectural pretension was that of Percy and Hamilton in their Stanford University Museum of 1890. The L. Levaggi Saloon represents another interesting example of early usage.
Excerpted from the NRHP nomination dated 28 February 1979.
A plaque reads:
La Grange SaloonThe original saloon on this site burned on January 13, 1897 as a result of a fire in the adjacent Coulter Hotel. The saloon owner Louis Levaggi, erected the present building the same year for 13,000. It was known as the "Metropolitan." The back bar and counter were purchased from a saloon in Hornitas, Ca. Levaggi paid for the building in one year by selling 86,670 shots of whiskey at 15 cents per shot. The saloon catered mainly to miners and workers on the La Grange Dam, but has always been a place where all are welcome.
A patron said, "I feel we are so lucky to live near a town you can visit and see how it looked 100 years ago. You step into a building that looks, smells and feels much the same as it did during the Gold Rush."
Previous Owners were the Levaggi, Mallosetti, Mullins families and MTC. It is currently owned by Jim and Dee Duarte.
Jesse Passalaqua
Noble Grand Humbug 6006
Estanislao Chapter No. 58
E Clampus Vitus
Dedicated April 21, 2001
What Say the Brethren
"Satisfactory"