The Fountain-Tallman Soda Works is a historic building in
Placerville,
El Dorado County, California. It currently houses the Fountain & Tallman Museum, which is owned and operated by the El Dorado County Historical Society. The rustic vernacular
Victorian stone and brick building, of the
Gold Country
The Gold Country (also known as Mother Lode Country) is a historic region in the northern portion of the U.S. state of California, that is primarily on the western slope of the Sierra Nevada. It is famed for the mineral deposits and gold mines ...
, was placed on the
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...
on September 13, 1984.
The two-story masonry structure was built as a
soda water
Carbonated water (also known as soda water, sparkling water, fizzy water, club soda, water with gas, in many places as mineral water, or especially in the United States as seltzer or seltzer water) is water containing dissolved carbon dioxide gas, ...
factory by John Fountain & Benjamin Tallman in 1852. The stone walls of the building are more than thick so ice and soda supplies could be kept cool. These construction materials also have protected it from fires that destroyed surrounding buildings (3 fires occurred in 1856 alone), and as a result it is one of the oldest buildings in Placerville.
[Ford and Ellen Osborn]
Day Trip #1 - Exploring Main Street Placerville
, El Dorado County Visitors Authority, May 2002, Accessed August 2, 2009. Water was pulled through a small wood framed hole in the wall from a spring out back in the hillside. An odd-looking contraption (a small pressure vessel) housed inside the building, added carbon dioxide () to the water. A replica is currently on display. Bottles were then filled and pressure caps added with wire twists to hold the caps in place.
After the close of the soda water factory, the building served many different purposes for many different owners. At one time it was the town jail, the Pacific Gas & Electric Company office (1927-1961), and has had other associated uses and owners. When the building was donated to the El Dorado County Historical Society in 1981 by Fay Ripley Cannon, it became a museum upon the contingency that it be preserved for public benefit as a historical landmark, which was an earlier stipulation originating with the PG&E's sale. When the building was renovated, lifting up the stone floor revealed a bowie knife (handle long since rotted away), flakes of gold, and pieces of broken glass soda bottles with the original building owner's mark intact. These items are still on display inside.
The building was converted into a museum by the generosity of many donors including using funds from the estate of Placerville native Stella Tracy. Originally called the Placerville Historical Museum, it contains some of Tracy's turn-of-the-century furniture and photos as well as other exhibits of 19th- and 20th-century memorabilia.
[Marlene Goldman]
Placerville: Old Hangtown
SF Gate, October 22, 1999, Accessed August 2, 2009.
Another nearby soda works, the
John Pearson Soda Works, is also listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
See also
*
External links
Fountain & Tallman Museum- El Dorado County Historical Society
References
{{National Register of Historic Places
History of El Dorado County, California
Museums in El Dorado County, California
Placerville, California
Drink companies of the United States
History museums in California
Industrial buildings completed in 1852
Industrial buildings and structures on the National Register of Historic Places in California
1852 establishments in California
Victorian architecture in California
National Register of Historic Places in El Dorado County, California