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History · Placerville

Placerville’s post office opened in 1878, and 10% of its homes were built before 1940

1878first post office
0on the National Register
10%homes built before 1940
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Photo: Jeffrey Beall · CC BY 4.0
Quick answers

How Placerville began

When was Placerville founded?

1878

The Placerville post office opened in 1878, the earliest record of the town by name.

2020 census: 362148 years
Founding year: the first Placerville post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓

What stands out about Placerville’s past

Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.

A history waiting to be writtenNo old photos of Placerville are in the public archives yet. The rest are in attics and albums.
★ What stands out · Help out

Start Placerville’s collection

The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Placerville’s history is told.

Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
0 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.
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The story

How Placerville came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Placerville.

Read it all →

Placerville was originally established as a small mining camp, named after the placer gold mines located on the San Miguel River and Leopard Creek. The location became known as Old Placerville after the Rio Grande Southern Railroad constructed a depot and several passing sidings west of the original settlement, calling it Placerville.

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

By decade

Placerville, decade by decade

Today6 recent
Winter scene where the San Miguel River flows past Placerville, a tiny unincorporated village in San Miguel County, Col…2016Winter scene where the San Miguel River flows past Pl…Weathered structure2016Weathered structureGeneral store2016General storeWeathered structure2016Weathered structurePlacerville, Colorado2014Placerville, ColoradoPlacerville, Colorado2014Placerville, Colorado
Famous people

Famous people close to Placerville

Nobody well known was born in Placerville itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.

See all →
Dalton TrumboAmerican screenwriter · b. 1905
A
Al TaliaferroAmerican comics artist · b. 1905
Sievert Allen RohwerU.S. entomologist · b. 1887
I
Ingo SwannIngo Swann - pionier in remote viewing · b. 1933
S
Scott MercierAmerican bicycle racer · b. 1968
William Lee KnousAmerican jurist · b. 1889
Places that used to be

Places now gone

Placerville’s post office has been open since 1878.

Gone or out of use
Crescent City MinemineE Bar Placer MinemineGold Ledge Placer MinemineGrumwald MinemineGuthrie PitmineIronside MinemineLizzie G MineminePlacerville SchoolschoolPocahontas MinemineWhite Crow MinemineWilson and Chambers Minemine

US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).

Questions about Placerville’s history

What year was Placerville founded?

The Placerville post office opened in 1878, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).

Memory lane

What the archives can’t tell you, neighbors can.

Town Square →
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Sources

Where this page comes from

Founding dates: Wikidata, Wikipedia, the U.S. post office records of Blevins & Helbock (CC0) and the Census. Homes by year built: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register of Historic Places: National Park Service (list of May 22, 2026). Old photos, postcards and papers: Wikimedia Commons, the Library of Congress and other public archives, credited on each item’s page. Maps: U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (via Esri) and Sanborn fire-insurance maps (Library of Congress). History text and census tables: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). Places that used to be: USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021). How TownRatings grades history →

From Wikimedia Commons (2), the Library of Congress (4), Wikipedia, the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock) and the USGS Geographic Names Information System. Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.