WALKING TOUR OF

HISTORIC MARYSVILLE

429 10th Street, Marysville, CA 95901530 743-6501

www.visityubasutter.com

Coordinates for the City of Marysville, California39° 8_57.64_ N

121° 35_7.96_ W

7 Stephen J. Field home at 630 d Street — The very first United States Supreme Court Justice from any western U.S. state was Stephen J. Field, who was also the first man elected to any office in the City of Marysville. On January 18, 1850, Field, a New York attorney who had been in town just three days, was elected Alcalde, a mix between judge, mayor, and justice of the peace under the Mexican form of government that still existed in California at the time. In his own words, he “exercised almost unlimited powers.” A major friend to commerce his entire life, his first order of business was to order the banks of the Yuba River graded to facilitate the landing of steamships. A Democrat, he was appointed to the Supreme Court by Republican Abraham Lincoln, and he served longer on the court than any other jurist. (Private residence).

8 lipp & Sullivan at 629 d Street — This building was originally located on the north side of 5th Street between E & High Street and was the beautiful home of the owner of Garrett Wholesale Grocery Company. After Garrett sold his company, the home was sold to Kelly Bros. Funeral Directors who in 1928 became Lipp & Sullivan Funeral Directors. In the mid 1940s the house was picked up and moved to its present location. The interior still shows the grand staircase and original rooms. Also on display are pictures of the original house and activities of early Marysville Funeral Directors.

9 Bronze monument at 527 d Street — California’s second courthouse was built in Marysville in 1854 at a cost of $45,000. It was torn down in the early 1960s. In the 1990s, this bronze monument was erected to mark the “home court” of attorneys like Stephen J. Field, who went on to become the longest-sitting judge on the United States Supreme Court.

Silver Dollar Saloon, Marysville

WALKING TOUR OF

HISTORIC MARYSVILLE

1 elliS lake — Bounded by Ninth, B, 14th & D Streets, this lake was originally a slough comprised of the low-lying areas of the Yuba and Feather rivers, and comprising a much larger area of the city. Ellis Lake was created in the early 20th century after W.T. Ellis sold the land around the slough for $1 to the City of Marysville. There were several community efforts to improve the lake, including important sidewalk cobblestone work during Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Depression era Works Projects Administration (WPA).

2 rideout houSe at 710 d Street — This modified Queen-Anne house features beautiful engaged and free-standing columns and three fireplaces with carved-wood mantles. Originally built three blocks south, it was moved here in 1913. Its original occupant was Norman A. Rideout, a relative of Norman D. Rideout, founder of the Rideout chain of banks that later became Bank of America.

3 Warren p. miller home/mary aaron muSeum at Seventh & d StreetS — Miller designed many of the most significant buildings in early Marysville. An itinerant journalist, Mark Twain called it, “The Most Well-Built City in California.” Miller also won acclaim as a mechanical genius who patented several exciting inventions, including the first tractor crawler built in the U.S. and an improved gun turret for Civil War ships. His home at the northwest corner of Seventh and D streets was later owned by the Aarons, who donated the building to the City of Marysville for use as a museum, in the name of Mary Aaron. The house is on National Register of Historic Places.

4 St John’S epiScopal church at 800 d Street — This

church was completed on Christmas day 1855. The

founding fathers included Stephen J. Field, future U.S.

Supreme Court Justice. The church has a rich collection

of stained glass windows dating from 1901 to present

time. Many other historical artifacts remain at the church,

including an historic silver communion set from the late

1800s and an historic bell. Stained glass windows are

of various styles and of rare construction design. Other

stained glass windows here feature historic buildings

from the early history of Yuba and Sutter counties.

5 okimoto houSe at 7th & d Street — A red brick

vernacular house built in 1869. It has some Italianate

details and interesting brackets, with anchors at the

windows as well as a fine porch on the front of the

building. A small brick structure to the rear was originally

a bathhouse. This building has been used as a residence,

ice cream parlor and a bordello. It is in current use for

weddings and special occasions.

6 St JoSeph’S catholic church at 7th and c StreetS — Catholic priests followed pioneer settlers

on the arduous journey to California. By 1852, there

were three such Catholic missionaries in the new town

of Marysville and they set about building a church. Irish

and German immigrants who came in search of gold

were pressed into service and constructed the existing

church in 1853. The church spire was designed by

Warren P. Miller (see next entry) and added later in the

decade of the 1850s.

Mary Aaron Home/Museum, Seventh & D Streets, Marysville

First United Methodist Church, 800 D Street, Marysville

Unite with the past through history and architecture as we explore Marysville’s historic downtown district through its unique landmark buildings, turn of the century homes and historic districts.

Founded: January 15, 1850

Incorporated: February 5, 1851

Named after a 15-year-old survivor of the Donner

Party, Mary Murphy, Marysville is California’s

Oldest Little City. Six California cities are older

than Marysville, but none of them could today be

considered a little city, by any means. Marysville,

once California’s second largest city, has been

constrained from growing by the very levees that

have protected it from flooding since 1875.

Its first elected leader, Stephen J. Field, instituted the

whipping post to deter crime (the new city could not

afford a jail), wrote the charters of several California

cities, and became the first U.S. Supreme Court

Justice from the bawdy American west.

Marysville became the dominant supply city to the

Northern mines and its founders hoped it would

become “The New York of the Pacific.” Mule traffic

was so heavy in and out of the city that Marysville

became known as “The Jackass Capital of the World.”

10 ForBeS houSe at 618 d Street — Built in 1856 in the Italianate style and occupied by Capt. Edwin A. Forbes, proprietor of The Appeal newspaper, District Attorney, and Capt. of the California National Guard. The simple columns still support the original front porch. The glass lights decorating the front doorway are original. The interior staircase in the front hall is original and a beautiful example of the stairways of the period. Several original fireplaces can still be seen. In 1915, Forbes helped start a military cadet corps at Marysville High School.

11 JoSe ramirez houSe/W.t. elliS home at 220 FiFth Street — Constructed in 1851, the Ramirez-Ellis home is often referred to as “The Castle.” It was built with beams, imported from Ramirez’ home country of Chile, and brick (its exterior is plastered over and scored to resemble stonework), with 30-inch thick interior and exterior walls holding up the second floor. It is an excellent example of residential Gothic Revival styling in California. Ramirez, who came to California in 1849 with 30 Chilenos he put to work mining gold deep into the Yuba and Feather river canyons, was an early owner of the city. Ellis, an expert on the city’s levee system and its lead citizen for several decades, donated the land for Ellis Lake. National Register of Historic Places. (Private residence).

12 FirSt and d StreetS/hiStoric doWntoWn — Marysville

has been open for business since 1843, when German

native, and Mexican citizen, Theodore Cordua built a Trading

Post made of adobe near here. Cordua sold animal skins,

salted beef and pork, hams, hog’s lard, tallow, candles, soap,

flour … to trappers and early settlers. Cordua, a grocery

clerk in Germany and a prosperous sea merchant in Central

America, gave Marysville its second name. Earlier, when it

was part of John Sutter’s land grant, it was known as New

Helvetia. Cordua named it New Mecklenburg, after his

native Mecklenburg. It was later changed to Nye’s Ranch,

and then Yubaville. Circumdoro, a Spanish word for “Gold

All Around,” was considered briefly. In a celebration on the

evening of January 18, 1850, following the first election in

the new city, excited residents drank French champagne

and named the town Marysville, after Donner Party survivor

Mary Murphy Covillaud. The entire Marysville Downtown

area, bounded by First and Sixth and C through E streets,

was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in

1999. (New Mecklenburg marker on the wall of The Silver

Dollar Saloon on 1st Street in Marysville).

13 Water company Building, 329-331 d Street — Originally constructed in 1857, this building was destroyed by fire in 1885. When it was rebuilt in 1886, the walls at the base were made four feet wide to support the weight of 230,000 gallons of water and the tank that supplied domestic water to the entire city.

14 hiS toric pack ard liBr ary at Four th and c S tree t S — John Q. Packard, who became a millionaire in Marysville running the House of Packard and Woodruff at Second and D streets, deeded his property at Fourth and C streets to the City of Marysville for a public library. Marysville opened the first public library west of the Mississippi in 1858. In October, 1906 the Packard Library opened in a ceremony with 1,500 guests. A new library opened at Third and C streets in the early 1970s. The Historic Packard Library now houses the Friday Night Live program. National Register of Historic Places.

15 321-325 d Street — Commercial vernacular with Italianate detail built in 1880. This building and the one north survived the fire that destroyed the Water Company building at the corner and spread south along D Street, gutting several buildings.

16 peri Building at 312 d Street — Built in 1878 Alberto Peri, an Italian Swiss emigrant who operated a dance

academy, and then an ice cream and candy store—giving Mr. Peri his nickname as the “Candy Man.” The original structure was damaged by fire in 1909 and rebuilt. This building once housed Scotts Ideal Bakery.

17 poole/Waugh houSe at 316 c Street — Built in 1870. Brick Italianate house, the porch with its cast iron railing and straight columns are typical of that time period.

www.visityubasutter.com

W A L K I N G T O U R H I S T O R I C M A R Y S V I L L E

18 chinatoWn and chineSe-american muSeum oF northern caliFornia at Second and c StreetS to FirSt Street — To Chinese immigrants, the bustling city

of Marysville was known as Sam Fow, or Third City, after

San Francisco and Sacramento. The remaining buildings

from what used to be a thriving Chinatown can be found

on First Street and C Street near this intersection. The

rival Suey Sing and Hop Sing societies thrived, Chinese

businesses flourished. In March of 2007, the Chinese-

American Museum of Northern California opened at 232

First Street during the 127th Bok Kai Parade and Bomb

Day celebration. The Bok Kai Parade, coincides on the

second day of the second month of the Chinese lunar

calendar, is the oldest parade in California.

19 toWer theater Building at 103 d Street — Originally

constructed in the late 1920s on the site of the Old

Marysville Theater by National Theater Enterprises, it

was remodeled in the Art Deco style in 1935. Has been

since remodeled into an office building. Builders kept the

exterior intact.

20 Bok kai temple — At the foot of D Street, through the

Chinese Pavilion and against the southern levee of the

City, is the Bok Kai Taoist Temple. Constructed in 1880

to replace the original temple (built in 1854 about two

blocks to the east) it is home to nine deities, the central

one being Bok Eye, the god of north who controls water

and floods. The exterior murals are extremely rare. They

are the only ones of their kind in the United States. The

only other example of this art form in the entire world is

said to be in Australia. Murals like these were destroyed

throughout China during the Cultural Revolution of the

late 1960s and 1970s. National Register of Historic Places.

(Sam Fow Chinese Community, 530-822-9988)

21 Front Street levee — Up the wooden stairs from the Bok Kai Temple you can access the levee along what used to be Front Street and The Plaza on the Yuba River, where steam ships from San Francisco and Sacramento brought thousands of passengers and thousands of tons of freight to the “Gateway to the Goldfields.” Hydraulic mining in the Sierra Nevada choked the Yuba River with debris, raising the bed of the river more than 20 feet and causing disastrous floods. More gold was extracted from the Yuba River than any river in the United States. The frequent flooding led to the development of the city’s ring of levees. With its strong levee system, the city has not flooded since 1875.

22 Silver dollar Saloon at 332 1St Street — Built in 1858, the two-story brick building is relatively unchanged from its original form. Once a warehouse for W.T. Ellis Jr. Company, its upstairs was used as a bordello into the 20th century. Presently used as a bar and restaurant, the outstanding back-bar was built in the 19th century by the Brunswick Co. of billiard table and bowling alley fame.

23 the heFFman houSe at 725 F Street—The Heffman House was designed by Julia Morgan in the 1930s. Doric columns support the roof of the portico. The portico was added later. (Private Residence)

24 the norman dunning rideout houSe at 707 F Street — Designed by Julia Morgan and commissioned by Phebe Rideout for her nephew, Dunning Rideout in 1915. This handsome two-story home has a recessed central entrance topped by a scroll pediment with pineapple fineal. Corinthean collonettes of wood with a rosette design adorn the wings. (Private Residence)

photoS: courteSy oF chuck Smith, a-d agency, appeal-democrat. Front cover, (clockWiSe From l) St. JoSeph’S catholic church, W.t elliS houSe, lion Statuary - Bok kai courtyard, chineSe meeting place, Supreme court JuStice Stephen J. Field houSe.

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Tower Theater(existing facade)1st Street, Marysville

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