The Hotel Léger, in Mokelumne Hill, California is one of the oldest

hotel A hotel is an establishment that provides paid lodging on a short-term basis. Facilities provided inside a hotel room may range from a modest-quality mattress in a small room to large suites with bigger, higher-quality beds, a dresser, a re ...

s still operating in

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

. The hotel and courthouse building are registered as

California Historical Landmark A California Historical Landmark (CHL) is a building, structure, site, or place in the U.S. state of California that has been determined to have statewide historical landmark significance. Criteria Historical significance is determined by meetin ...

#663, and located in present-day

Calaveras County, California Calaveras County (), officially the County of Calaveras, is a county in both the Gold Country and High Sierra regions of the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 45,292. The county seat is San Andreas. Angels ...

History

George Léger, a

Frenchman French people () are a nation primarily located in Western Europe that share a common French culture, history, and language, identified with the country of France. The French people, especially the native speakers of langues d'oïl from nort ...

who came during the

California Gold Rush The California gold rush (1848–1855) began on January 24, 1848, when gold was found by James W. Marshall at Sutter's Mill in Coloma, California. The news of gold brought approximately 300,000 people to California from the rest of the U ...

, opened his Hotel de France in 1851, as a wood-framed tent. Next door was the Calaveras County Courthouse, as Mokulemne Hill was the

county seat A county seat is an administrative center, seat of government, or capital city of a county or parish (administrative division), civil parish. The term is in use in five countries: Canada, China, Hungary, Romania, and the United States. An equiva ...

at the time. When the county seat was moved to San Andreas in 1866, Léger bought the court building and incorporated into his hotel. One reason was that it was made of stone and thus had survived two fires that had ravaged the town previously. After restoration following another fire in 1874, the hotel became known as the Hotel Léger, and it has been in operation ever since. The bar, which features a stained-glass back bar with the date 1851 in it, reportedly came around Cape Horn and has been in continuous use. The former courthouse building was also the location of the

county jail A prison, also known as a jail, gaol, penitentiary, detention center, correction center, correctional facility, or remand center, is a facility where people are imprisoned under the authority of the state, usually as punishment for various cr ...

, and remnants of the jail cells can still be seen in the building's cellar.

In popular culture

The hotel was refurbished by local volunteers in September 2012 for an episode of

Travel Channel Travel Channel (stylized as Trvl Channel since 2018) is an American pay television television channel, channel owned by Warner Bros. Discovery, who previously owned the channel from 1997 to 2007. The channel is headquartered in Manhattan, with ...

's ''

Hotel Impossible ''Hotel Impossible'' was a reality television series from Travel Channel in which struggling non-chain hotels received an extensive makeover by veteran hotel operator and hospitality expert Anthony Melchiorri and his team. The show premiered on ...

'' series. The episode featuring the hotel aired on January 7, 2013. It was also featured on an episode of

Ghost Adventures ''Ghost Adventures'' is an American paranormal television, paranormal and reality television series that premiered on October 17, 2008, on the Travel Channel before moving to Discovery+ in 2021. An independent film of the same name originally ai ...

on June 16, 2018.

References

External links

Hotel Léger
official website {{DEFAULTSORT:Hotel Leger History of Calaveras County, California Companies based in Calaveras County, California California Historical Landmarks Leger Leger Buildings and structures in Calaveras County, California Leger Leger 1851 establishments in California