Chichizola Family Store Complex

Along Jackson Gate Road, two miles north of Jackson, a 20-acre complex records the growth of a family-run general store that served gold miners. Augustino Chichizola, an Italian native, began trading in 1849 and built a two-foot-thick schist store in 1850. Additions in 1904 and 1912 expanded it, and its interior counters, shelving and ladders remain in place. The district also holds a livestock barn from 1860, a lumber barn from 1875 that stored lumber from the family sawmill, a Queen Anne family home from 1903, a smaller 1911 house with Neo-Classical and Craftsman elements, garages, a hot house, a pigpen, and concrete powder and cap houses from 1905. Most buildings were built for function rather than style. The complex is considered significant for its link to commerce supporting mining in Amador County between 1860 and 1942, and it has changed little since 1942.