The John Pearson Soda Works, also referred to as the Placerville Soda Works, is a historic rustic vernacular Victorian brick building in Placerville, El Dorado County, California. The building, in 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 ...

region, 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 ...

(NRHP) on December 12, 1985. The building housed the Cozmic Café coffee shop and venue from 2003 until 2018.

History

19th century

The John Pearson Soda Works structure was built in several stages: The previous building on the site burned down in a devastating fire that affected most of Placerville in the 1850s.History
, The Cozmic Café, Accessed August 2, 2009. Scottish immigrant John McFarland Pearson built the lower portion of the building in 1859 as a commercial ice house.Elliot H. Koeppel
Placerville Soda Works
The Virtual California Gold Country: Highway 49 Revisited Online, 2000, Accessed August 2, 2009. He chose to build in front of an idle

mine shaft Shaft mining or shaft sinking is the action of excavating a mine shaft from the top down, where there is initially no access to the bottom. Shallow shafts, typically sunk for civil engineering projects, differ greatly in execution method from ...

so he could use the underground rooms and tunnels to store ice at controlled temperatures.Mija Riedel
In Placerville, nuggets of California's Gold Rush history
''Los Angeles Times'', September 14, 2007, Accessed August 2, 2009. In addition, the walls of this section were made thick to keep the ice cool in the storefront. Pearson later expanded into

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, ...

; his sons added the brick second story in 1897 to house the bottling operation. They added a water-driven elevator to transport the product from each level.Ford and Ellen Osborn
Day Trip #1 - Exploring Main Street Placerville
, El Dorado County Visitors Authority, May 2002, Accessed August 2, 2009. The store also sold other groceries such as eggs and beer.

20th century

The business changed hands several times, though the building remained in the Pearson family for some time. The Pearson sons sold the business in 1904 to the Scherrer Bros., who in turn sold it in 1934 to Robert Hook, who turned it into a Coca-Cola Bottling franchise. The structure held other businesses until the Pearson family sold the building in 1972 to antique collector Roger John Douvres, who restored the structure over a period of four years, using the lower section as an old-fashioned

soda fountain A soda fountain is a device that dispenses carbonated soft drinks, called fountain drinks. They can be found in restaurants, concession stands and other locations such as convenience stores. The device combines flavored syrup or syrup concentra ...

and the upper portion as an elegant dining hall decorated in early 20th-century style. Douvres' daughter had the building successfully placed on the

. The structure has also housed a theater, antique store, bookstore, music store and the Placerville Coffee House before becoming The Cozmic Café in 2003. Another nearby soda works building, the

Fountain-Tallman Soda Works 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 vernacul ...

, is also listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

References

External links

Official National Register of Historical Places in El Dorado County: website

{{National Register of Historic Places History of El Dorado County, California Buildings and structures in El Dorado County, California Placerville, California Ice trade Coca-Cola bottlers Industrial buildings completed in 1859 Industrial buildings completed in 1897 Industrial buildings and structures on the National Register of Historic Places in California Vernacular architecture in California Victorian architecture in California National Register of Historic Places in El Dorado County, California Drink companies based in California

History

19th century

20th century

See also

References

External links