John Pearson Soda Works
John Pearson Soda Works or Placerville Soda Works is a historic building on Main Street in Placerville, California in the United States. The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places ( NRHP) on December 12, 1985.
The building was built in several stages. One older building on the site burned in the 1850s down in a devastating fire that covered the largest part of Placer Villes. The Scottish immigrant John McFarland Pearson Built in 1859 the lower part of the building as a commercial ice house.
He chose the site so before the opening to a disused mine shafts that he could use the underground rooms and tunnels for storage of ice at controlled temperatures. In addition, the walls were 22 inches thick walled to keep the stored inside ice cold. Pearson expanded its activities later on the production of soda water; his sons in 1897 added to the building to the second floor of brick added to accommodate the bottling plant. They added a generator driven by water power lift to transport the products from one level to the other. In addition, other foods were sold, such as eggs and beer.
The business changed hands several times, the family Pearson but retained ownership of the building for a long time. Finally, the sons sold the operation in 1904 to Scherrer Bros. This sold in 1934 to Robert Hook, who converted it into a bottling plant of Coca -Cola Bottling Co.. In the building, other businesses were housed until the family Pearson in 1972, the building was sold to the collectors of antiques Roger John Douvres. This could renovate it over a period of four years away. He sat on the ground floor a Sodawasserzapfstelle old style and equipped the first floor with an elegant dining room, which is furnished oriented at the beginning of the 20th century the style. Douvres ' daughter took care of the registration of the building in the NRHP. The building includes a theater, an antique shop, a bookstore, a music store and the Placerville Coffee House were housed before Opened in 2003, which today is situated there Cozmic Café.
The building another soda-water, Fountain - Tallman Soda Works, is close and is also listed in the NRHP.