Sampling the History and Charm
of Golf Rush California
Bed & Breakfast Inns

By George Medovoy, Editor

Gold Rush California is an historic setting for a number of very nice bed-and-breakfast inns in Grass Valley and Nevada City.

The drive up pine-studded California Highway 49 provides for a taste of the history and charm of B&B’s.

And lest we forget – this is also Mark Twain country.

In October of 1866, the writer was on a speaking tour of Nevada City and Grass Valley, where a reporter saw him preparing himself with "copious doses of gin…"

Well, somewhat in Twain’s footsteps, but without the gin, here’s a sampling of 11 inns selected at random.

U.S. Hotel:
First stop — the seven-room U.S. Hotel, located on the second floor of an old brick building on Broad Street, Nevada City’s main thoroughfare. In 1856, the same building brought good cheer to many as the Eternal Saloon.

Could Twain have stopped here for a drink…or two? Maybe?

Upstairs, Roy and Brooke Evans, the husband-and-wife owners, were busy in the kitchen.

"We’re more set up like a hotel," said Roy, "with the comforts of a B&B."

Brooke, the cook, waxed eloquent about her breakfasts: "We serve omelets made to order. There are 15 to 20 things you can have put in them – tomatoes, sausage, bacon, and ham, always served with potatoes."

The hotel’s windows overlook Broad Street, as in the cozy "Broad Street Room," with its four-poster bed, claw-foot tub and two French doors that opened to a bird’s-eye view of a horse-drawn carriage below.

Red Castle Inn:

Meanwhile, at Nevada City's Red Castle Inn, an imposing pre-Civil War landmark rescued in 1960 to become one of the first historic bed and breakfast lodgings in California, innkeepers Conley and Mary Louise Weaver offer specially-arranged teas with Mark Twain himself (played by local actor Chris LeGate, of course).

Yummy breakfasts at the Red Castle Inn may include: spiced oranges with creme anglaise, three-cheese soufflé, gingerbread muffins, English rice custard, and James Beard's cheese bread, or ham and cheese blintzes, barley with mushrooms, rosemary popovers, apple tarte tatin, and ginger broiled grapefruit, or the inn's signature mushroom crepes, fresh strawberry and banana compote, granola with cream, blueberry sour cream muffins, and tomato potato foccacia.

For more information, contact the inn at (800) 761-4766 or visit www.redcastleinn.com.

Emma Nevada House:
Thespians also found welcoming audiences in these foothills as early as 1865, when the Nevada Theatre – California’s oldest existing theater – opened its doors on Broad Street.

Which brings us to famed opera singer Emma Nevada, who lived as a child in an elegant home, now the Emma Nevada House, at the top of Broad Street.

Built in 1856, the six-room inn is lovingly operated by Laura Du Pee, a Grass Valley antique dealer. Emma’s father, Dr. William Wixom, was a physician at a nearby mine in the town of Nevada – the word "City" was added later. The Wixom’s eventually moved to Austin, Nevada, and Emma adopted the name of her state and the town of birth as her own.

Large trees shade the lovely house, and a wrap-around porch is a good spot for a cup of coffee. A garden area, including 150-year-old fruiting cherry trees, extends to a little creek.

Emma studied voice at Mills College in Oakland, earning the nickname, "The Mother Lode Nightingale," and later performing for Queen Victoria.

The B&B’s rooms are named after Emma’s opera roles or members of her family, like "Nightingale’s Bower," with sumptuous Italian bedding, bay windows, fireplace and Jacuzzi tub and shower.
The music room contains a 1903 piano, on which Due Pee learned to play.

Upstairs, a secluded room called "Emma’s Hideaway" connects to two adjoining attic rooms sprinkled with teddy bears.

Breakfast is served in the dining room and the "Sun Room" and can feature quiches, scones, baked pears, oven-roasted apples, and special entrees like French toast.

Deer Creek Inn:
Down by a Nevada City creek is an air of tasteful sophistication in a blue-and-white two-story Victorian called Deer Creek Inn. The inn’s gold-hued public rooms are decorated with lovely antique furnishings.

In Gold Rush times, they called the creek "pound-a-day creek" for its reputation of amply filling miners’ gold pans.

You can walk down the steps to the water’s edge and try your hand at gold panning yourself. Others have used the charming garden for weddings.

Rooms come with private verandas and either creek side or town views, four-poster and canopy beds, claw-foot baths and overstuffed pillows.

Chuck and Elaine Matroni, originally from New York, are in their eighth year as innkeepers.

"We absolutely love it," says Chuck. "We have lots and lots of fun with it."

Nevada City’s postmaster, a Teddy Roosevelt appointee, built the house in the late 1800s.

Chuck proudly pointed to the Queen Anne grand petite piano, smaller than a baby grand, built around 1927. "It plays beautifully," he said. "We had a concert pianist here from Tokyo, and for three days she just filled the room with beautiful music."

The sitting room always has a light brandy, usually an apricot or a peach, "so our ladies can enjoy a little after-dinner drink as well as the gentlemen," noted Chuck.

Deer Creek serves a large gourmet breakfast in the formal dining room.

"We always, always serve breakfast by candlelight," said Chuck, "so we keep it very romantic for everyone right from the get-go in the morning."

A recent Italian-themed breakfast seemed fit for royalty: coffee, teas, hot chocolate; country orange juice with pulp, or white grape-peach juice; Italian baked omelet with sweet Italian sausage, zucchini, eggs and several cheeses with Italian spices; Italian garlic-and-herb roasted red potatoes with garlic overtones; Elaine’s homemade cheese Danish with an apricot jam filling; a very moist raspberry-peach upside down cake; poached pears in apricot nectar.

"Unlike most bed and breakfasts," Chuck said, "we welcome our guests into our kitchen. Not that we allow them to cook, but, indeed, while we’re preparing breakfast, they can sit around, have coffee or tea, and talk about last night’s adventure…."

Grandmere’s House:
The final sampling of Nevada City inns is Grandmere’s House, a stately two-story built by Aaron A. Sergent in 1856 on a half acre of gardens on Nabob Hill.

A U.S. Senator, Sergent is remembered as a champion of the Transcontinental Railroad. With his wife Ellen, he also initiated a bill giving women the right to vote.

You could easily nap in the two big leather parlor chairs, one with a gold foot warmer slung over its back.

"We try to have a relaxed atmosphere here," said innkeeper Sharon Rose.

Among the inn’s six elegant, high-ceiling guest rooms is the "Diplomat’s Suite," with four-poster bed, large living area, and bath with deep soaking tub and shower.

Homemade pastries and herbal tea or lemonade are served at check-in time. Breakfast includes special entrees like stuffed French toast, Grandmere’s quiche or chicken crepes.

Outside Inn

The Outside Inn in Nevada City is a motel with themed rooms located in a quiet residential neighborhood just two blocks from downtown. The motel sits under tall pine trees and is a short walk from the center of Nevada City.

The Outside Inn has King & Queen sized beds, wood floors, knotty pine walls, air conditioning, kitchenettes and extra beds available, picnic tables, barbecues, summer swimming pool, DSL Internet connection in rooms, plus wireless DSL network. Dogs welcome.

Elam Biggs:
In nearby Grass Valley, Peter and Barbara Franchino operate Elam Biggs Bed & Breakfast Inn, a charming Queen Anne Victorian with a rose-covered picket fence built in 1892 by Elam Biggs, the owner of the largest hardware store in Northern California during the Gold Rush.

The inn is filled with antiques that Barbara, a nurse, has collected over the years. Upon entering, you will be taken by the big baby carriage and a life-sized antique doll.

"I always liked the old houses," Barbara said, "I liked the character… I always thought this would be great fun, and it would be a way that you could have… people come and enjoy it."

Barbara, in fact, gives tea parties for Brownie troops to adults, reliving, it seems, the fun of her own childhood. Peter, on the other hand, is an amateur magician.

"We’ll do 10 or 15 minutes worth of magic tricks while people are sitting at the breakfast table," he says, "card tricks, stuff with the breakfast napkins, salt and pepper shakers, the silverware… just to have a good time with our guests."

Out back, near the inn’s lovely garden, Peter shows off his pet rabbit - yes, it’s part of his repertoire.

The inn’s hearty breakfast is served in the spacious dining room or on the private porch, shaded by big trees.

Rooms at Elam Biggs are named after - wouldn’t you guess? - famous mines, including the "Empire Mine," where the big, comfy bed displays a lovable old doll. The Northstar attic room is a real charmer, with a lovely quilt and a knitted American flag with the words "God Bless America."

Downstairs, there’s an old Xenith radio console that still works!
"My idea of a bed and breakfast," explains Barbara, "is to make it like grandma’s house…It’s not stiff, it’s not formal, but it might be like grandma’s house."

IF YOU GO….
Grass Valley Inns
Elam Biggs B&B, 220 Colfax Ave., (530) 477-0906; Risky Business, 304 S. Church St., (530) 477-5310; Swan Levine House, 328 S. Church St., (530) 272-1873.

Nevada City Inns
Deer Creek Inn, 116 Nevada St., (800) 655-0363, www.deercreekinn.com; Emma Nevada House, 528 E. Broad St., (800) 916-EMMA, www.emmanevadahouse.com; Flume’s End, 317 S. Pine St., (800) 991-8118, www.flumesend.com; Grandmere’s House, 449 Broad St., (530) 265-4660, www.grandmeresinn.com; The Kendall House, 534 Spring St., (888) 647-0405; Piety Hill Cottages, 523 Sacramento St., (800) 443-2245, www.pietyhillcottages.com; The Red Castle, 109 Prospect St., (800) 761-4766; U.S. Hotel, 233 "B" Broad St., (800) 525-4525, www.ushotelbb.com.

Nevada City Motel
Outside Inn, 575 E. Broad St., (530) 265-2233
www.outsideinn.com