Kohler Building
15454 Washington Road
Washington
Built 1861

Kohler's Merchant and Hardware Store carried supplies for the gold miners in the area. Kohler moved to Washington in 1854 and mined until 1861 when he opened his store. A copy of his store cash sales from August 23, 1914, shows he sold lobster, halibut, pike, salt, sardines, peanuts, a hauling car to Red Ledge Mine and received cash from Suey Chung.

Source: Washington Hotel website

A plaque on the front of the building reads:

Kohler Building

Built by Henry Kohler, pioneer merchant and miner born in Germany in 1825, he came to Washington from Indiana in 1854. He mined until 1861 when he opened a general merchandise store to supply groceries, hardware and miners supplies to the area.

Dedicated May 6, 1967
Wm. Bull Meek - Wm. Morris Stewart
Chapter No. 10
E Clampus Vitus
Nevada City, California

Gold Rush Stonemasons

Mining camps started as clusters of tents and other makeshift shelters. If the mine was productive, wooden buildings were erected and a town was born.

Conflagrations were a recurring curse. Often entire town were repeatedly destroyed by fire. Stonemasons, especially Italian immigrants from Liguria, began building "fire proof" banks and stores of stone or brick with iron doors and iron window shutters to protect the contents from fire.

Many of these stone buildings survive. Some of them, such as the Butte Store, are the sole reminders of a lost mining town.

Some of these buildings are: