The predecessor of the Old Sutter Creek Grammar School was built about 1857 and destroyed by fire in 187O. The present building is one of the last surviving buildings of its kind.

The schoolhouse shows the concern of a small California mining center for a quality educational facility in the latter part of the 19th century. With growth of hardrock mining in California's major gold producing region, the Mother Lode, a condition of economic prosperity favored the construction of this impressive two-story brick edifice for the education of the town's young.

Strong East Coast ties can be seen in the design of the original schoolhouse with its classical revival lines and symmetry, along with its low gabled roof, simple unornamented cornice and frieze, and small wooden belfry over the entrance.

The building, one of the last remaining two-story brick schoolhouses in the Mother Lode, is a strong statement of its type and period. Most schoolhouses in the region were small, simple wood frame structures; few were as imposing or substantial as that in Sutter Creek. To our knowledge, only one other extant school building in the Mother Lode, the old two-story brick school house in Columbia, can compare in terms of size, scale, materials and quality.

Adapted from the NRHP nomination.