{"nrhp_refnum":"82002174","name":"Confidence Hall","other_names":["Placerville City Hall"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"487 Main St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Placerville","county":"El Dorado County","state":"CA","lat":38.72982340800007,"lon":-120.79942567699999,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1982-01-04","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Politics/Government","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A two-story Victorian Italianate red brick building at 487 Main Street in Placerville, El Dorado County, California, built between October 1860 and January 1861 as a fire station and library.","why_significant":"The nomination cites its simple Italianate design and its role as home of the Confidence Engine Company Number One, a well-known fire company. It also argues the hall symbolizes Placerville's shift from a rowdy Gold Rush town, once known as \"Hangtown,\" to a modern, progressive city.","narrative":"Confidence Hall is a two-story red brick building on Main Street in Placerville, California, constructed between October 1860 and January 1861 by Booth and DeVoe. It was first used as a fire station and library and now holds the city offices. The design is simple Victorian Italianate, with an arched doorway and window, a large segmented-arched center window, plain pilasters, a bracketed eave, and a pediment above a projecting second-story facade with a narrow arched window. The hall was the home of the Confidence Engine Company Number One, whose members included John Studebaker and Stephen Gage, and early county fairs were held in a wooden hall at the rear. It was built after a fire partly destroyed the company's earlier firehouse. The nomination also presents the building as a reminder of Placerville's change from the Gold Rush town nicknamed Hangtown into an incorporated, orderly city, where the City Council began meeting in the 1860s.","period_of_significance":"1800-1899 (specific date 1860)","architect_builder":"Booth and DeVoe","architectural_style":"Victorian Italianate","criteria":[],"status_note":"Occupied and in good condition; now houses the Placerville City Offices, with some exterior and interior alterations.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:55:32.086373-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_CA/82002174.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/82002174/9df272d3cf-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/82002174/9df272d3cf-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY 3.0","author":"Bobak Ha'Eri","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:2009-0724-Placerville-ConfidenceHall.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Bobak Ha'Eri</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY 3.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:2009-0724-Placerville-ConfidenceHall.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/123858604","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confidence_Hall","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q5160077"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/california/el-dorado-county/confidence-hall-82002174/"}