St George Hotel

The original building at the site was the Eureka House, a boarding house built around 1852. The building burnt down and was re-built as the Empire Hotel. That building was burnt down a second time and rebuilt as the George Hotel. It burnt down a third time and was rebuilt with brick in 1863. The hotel was reopened as St. George Hotel.

Whiskey Flat Saloon

Added to the St George Hotel in the 1930s.

Kelley and Symond's San Francisco Store

The Kelley and Symond's San Francisco Store was built in 1855 and became a Wells Fargo Express Agency the next year (1856). The site only has some of the stone facade still standing. Nature is reclaiming the site.

Clute Building

The Clute Building was originally built in 1855 as one building on two lots, each divided by a partition. The Sash & Door Factory was on one side of the divide and a saloon on the other. In the same year, the first public law school in California was housed in the basement. Only the limestone facade of the building remains and was acquired by the Volcano Theater Co. in 1980.

Volcano Post Office and Volcano Telephone Co.

The 1930s terra cotta building once housed the Volcano Post Office (operational since 1851) and the Volcano Telephone Co. (established in 1903).

Bixby's Butcher Shop

The frame building was erected in the 1850s and has been burnt down and rebuilt several times. The present building was built aound the 1870s.

Adolph Meyers Cigar Emporium

The Adolph Meyers Cigar Emporium building was built in the 1855. It became Lavezzo's Wine Shop after the Civil War. Except for the sturdy stone walls, the building was burnt down in 1900, fueled by a cellar of high-proof spirits. The building was restored in the 1960s as an art galley and later became the Cobblestone Theater.

General Store

Sign outside store claims to be the oldest continuously operated store in Calilfornia having opened in 1852. The general store in Knights Ferry makes the same claim. The store was originally two stores: the wood built store was Sacramento while the stone one was Burleson's.

Jug and Rose Confectionery

Built in 1954 on the site of Buck Huey's Salon (1880s), the Jug and Rose Confectionary is a frame building with a tufa rock facade. The tufa came from the ruins of the "Stone Jug Saloon & Fandango Hall" in Upper Rancheria (one of the Mother Lode gold camps that have vanished without a trace, located somewhere between Volcano and Fiddletown). Currently the home of Kneading Dough Bakery.

Assay Office

This rather unsturdy looking building is the Assay Office, built in 1871.

Old Jail

The old Volcano jail was built in 1872 (one site had it as early as 1857). It was escape proof, having its walls being built with steel plates sandwiched between wood planks. Local legend has it that the first prisoners were the men who built the jail.

Masons' and Oddfellows' Hall

Built in 1854, the Masons soon acquired the building along with the Oddfellows. This enabled the Masons to relocate their meetings from the caverns just south of town (we were not able to get in the Masonic Caverns on our last visit). The Masons' and Oddfellows' Hall is just across the street from the Old Jail.

Sing Kee Store

Built in 1854, this building began as the Johnson & Rose Volcano News Depot. The Volcano Weekly Ledger published from Octover 27, 1855 to April 11, 1857, whereupon it relocated to the town of Jackson. In 1856, the building conained the Adams Express Agency. In the 1860s, the building changed ownership and became the D.S. Boydston Drug Store. The store changed hands again in 1871. Sing Kee and his wife operated a Chinese Store until 1905, selling herbs, opium, and general merchandise.

Old Abe Cannon

The Old Abe cannon is located in a storage shed next to Sing Kee Store and in what is called Union Square. The cannon was forged in 1837 by the Cyrus Alger Foundry of Boston.

Astronomical Observatory

There's a plaque noting the Astronomical Observatory built in 1860 next to Old Abe's shack. We figured that the observatory once stood in the empty lot next to the cannon. The rubble at the back of the lot could be all that remains of the observatory.

Armory Hall

Armory Hall was built in 1912 to replace Mahoney Hall, the original building on the site. Mahoney Hall burned in 1865 and was rebuilt twice more.

Starr King Bell

The bell was donated by Unitarian Preacher Thomas Starr King in 1862 in gratitude to the town for supporting the Union and election of Abraham Lincoln. The bell was originally located at the Protestant Cemetery, but now sits high on this tower.

Bavarian Brewery

One of three breweries in Volcano and the last one standing, Bavarian Brewery was established in 1856. It is now a private residence.

Volcano Union Inn

The Union Inn was built in 1880 as a boarding house for miners and locals until the 1920s. The inn was revived in the 1950s, after which it was vacant, then a private residence. The Union Inn was restored in 2000 as a destination with some lodging and seasonal pub food.

Judge Peter Jonas House

The house was originally constructed in the 1850s for the Judge's family. As we took pictures, some uninvited guests overran the yard.

Volcano Schoolhouse

Built in 1855, the Volcano Schoolhouse educated the young of Volcano until 1956. The bell tower was not part of the original structure. It was added at a later date.

St Bernard's Catholic Church

Built in 1908, the St Bernard's Catholic Church replaced St. Bridget's Church which had been located in what is now the Catholic Cemetery. The old church was destroyed by fire in 1868.

Volcano Cemeteries

Volcano has two adjacent cemeteries, the Volcano Catholic Cemetery and the Volcano Pioneer Methodist Cemetery. The latter is the larger of the two and has a great view of the surrounding countryside. Not surprisingly, those tombstones indicating membership in the Masonic Order or Oddfellows are not found in the Catholic Cemetery.

The Catholic Cemetery was the site of the first Catholic Church in Amador County. St. Bridget's was built in 1854, destroyed by fire in 1868. It was rebuilt again in 1861 and destroyed again by fire in 1868. The earliest grave in the cemetery dates back to 1852.

The earliest grave at the Pioneer Methodist Cemetery dates back to 1850.