Stone Foundations: Rhyolite foundations uncovered in the lot next to the Library/Archives.
Two parallel lines of stone foundations nearly forty feet long were the subject of an archaeological study in the vacant lot being landscaped on Main Street. They are located between the Library/Archives and Hosford Realty and were uncovered two weeks ago by Ron Pitner of “The Greenery, Landscape & Design”, while developing the landscaping. The rows of rhyolite stones were clearly old and part of Mokelumne Hill’s past and Ron alterted the History Society. The archaeological study was carried out on Wednesday, June 9, by local archaeologist Julia Costello, assisted by Howard Little, Bill Villegas, and Paula Leitzell, while Mike Dell’Orto supplied memories of the site as a boy and during demolition of the building in the early 1960s.
Archaeologists: Working on the site were Bill Villegas, Julia Costello, Paula Leitzell, and Howard Little. Excavations took place between the two foundations and next to the stone wall on the north to see the history of construction and dirt was sifted for artifacts. Two classes of children from the Summer Arts program were given tours of the work in progress and shown the artifacts we were finding.
Arts Class Visits Site: Students at the Summer Arts Program visit the site to learn about the town history.
The story of the lot and its foundations, as we currently understand it, begins during the Gold Rush era when Mokelumne Hill was a booming town. This Main-Street location was in the heart of commerce and the building which occupied this site is marked by the stone wall now in front of the concrete-block library wall and by a companion rhyolite foundation retaining wall fronting Main Street – now mostly buried under an earthen slope. By 1890 this lot was vacant, as were many other former business locations in the now much smaller and quieter Mokelumne Hill.
1912 Map.: This 1912 Sanborn Fire Insurance shows the livery stable built by that date.
By 1912 a wooden livery stable had been constructed on the site. Measuring some 100 feet long and 40 feet wide, it filled the space between the present library and Hosford Realty buildings. The concrete foundation seen running eastward along the north side of this lot marks the rear extent of the main building. Mike Dell’Orto reports that a second story with a dance hall was said to have once been present, but was destroyed by a fire. By 1912, however, the building was only one story high and the floor – level with Main Street – was massively constructed of three layers of 2x12 lumber measuring 40 feet in length. We believe that the rhyolite foundations were built at this time. The floor for the livery was leveled down to bedrock (decomposing granite) and the footings were centered in the middle of the building. Mounted with heavy timber posts, they strengthened the center of the livery floor to support heavy wagons and other vehicles. The cut rhyolite stones were likely salvaged from ruins of other buildings around the town, a common practice then and in the decades to follow. The space under the livery floor was about 8 feet high and at ground level with Cottonwood Street (now China Gulch) to the east.
1912 Sanborn Map: Map showing the Livery Stable built between a saloon and an empty lot where the Library/Archives is today.
As the horse was replaced by the automobile, so livery stables were replaced by garages and by 1930 the lot’s building was catering to this new mode of transportation. By the 1950s, Roggenthein’s Garage” was operated by Mr. and Mrs. Roggenthein who lived in a small house to the rear, converted from its earlier use as a stable. Another fire brought down the front of the garage and by 1960 only the main floor remained. This remnant was torn down by 1964.
Artifacts found on the site included items dating from as early as the Gold Rush to recent times. There was a clay pipe stem from a miners’ tobacco pipe, pieces of a Chinese storage jar, and electrical fittings from the 1920s. Numerous olive-green fragments from square bottles that once were embossed with “J.T. Daly Club House” gin, and “Udolpho Wolfe’s Aromatic Schanpps, Schiedam.” Small white buttons came from men’s shirts while a fancy shell button was on a woman’s dress. The dominance of bottle fragments from and lack of table wares shows that drinking, not eating, were the primary pastimes of this neighborhood. 
Pieces from Glass Bottles: Fragments of glass contained portions of embossed words.
Gin Bottle: Some of the glass pieces from the site once belonged to a gin bottle like this, embossed with "J.T.DALY CLUB HOUSE."
This lot – from Gold Rush business to livery to garage – will now become the location of a small garden belonging to the Mokelumne Hill Library/Archives Trust. The old rhyolite foundations will remain exposed as part of the new landscaping and their role in the town’s history presented in a display. Everyone who peers over the fence on Main Street can enjoy this glimpse into the Town’s history.
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