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History · Placerville

Placerville’s post office opened in 1863, and 34% of its homes were built before 1940

1 place in town is on the National Register, among them a historic district with 32 buildings. Below: 9 old photos and papers, maps from 1957 on, and the census since 1880.

1863first post office
1on the National Register
34%homes built before 1940
9old photos & papers
Add an old photoShare a memory
From Placerville’s archive · credits on each photo
Quick answers

How Placerville began

When was Placerville founded?

1863

The Placerville post office opened in 1863, the earliest record of the town by name.

First census: 426 in 18802020 census: 48163 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.

Shrank, then grewLost two-thirds of its people between 1880 and 1960, then grew 4-fold.A historic districtThe Placerville Historic District takes in 32 historic buildings.Mystery photos9 old photos have no date. Neighbors can guess the decade.Old housesHalf of Placerville’s homes were built before 1949.
★ What stands out · People over time

Placerville, census by census

010020030040018801900192019401960198020002020426 in 1880Low: 12

Lost two-thirds of its people between 1880 and 1960, then grew 4-fold.

13 censuses, 1880–2020.

U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Placerville’s Wikipedia page.

On the National Register

1 listing protects 32 historic buildings

The country’s official list of buildings and places worth saving.

place listed
1
National Historic Landmarks
0
none yet
historic buildings protected
32
each building in a district counts
first listed
1984
Placerville Historic District
Placerville Historic District
Districts

Architectural styles listings

Queen Anne Colonial Revival1
All 1 listings
Placerville Historic DistrictDistrict · listed 1984

National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places. Photos from Wikimedia Commons, credited on each place’s page.

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.
Date a photo9 archive items have no date. Guess the decade.+2Retake an old viewHiatt Property, West bank of Woof Creek…: stand where they stood+15Share a family photoSign in to add one+10
The story

How Placerville came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Placerville.

Read it all →

Placerville received its name because of placer mining in the vicinity. The ghost town is located 17 miles east of Horseshoe Bend. The townsite was selected December 1, 1862; and by December 16 there were six cabins in the camp. By the early summer of 1863, the town had 300 buildings and a population of 5,000. At the meeting of the first legislature held in Lewiston in 1863, the citizens obtained a charter for their city. Father Mesplie, a Catholic priest, held the first church service January 4, 1864, and in that same year a stage line was established between the Basin and Wallua to carry Wells Fargo express. It ran every other day from Placerville and went through in four days. By July 1864, 4500 claims had been recorded in the district.

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

Timeline

Placerville, 1863 to 1967

Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.

  1. 19th century
  2. 1863Post officeThe Placerville post office opens
  3. 1880CensusPopulation peaks at 426
  4. 20th century
  5. 1957On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
  6. 1967Post officeThe Placerville post office closes
By decade

Placerville, decade by decade

Date unknown9 to date
Hiatt Property, West bank of Woof Creek, 400 feet northwest of intersection of U.S.F.S. Roads 651 & 349Date?Hiatt Property, West bank of Woof Creek, 400 feet nor…McKenzie Property, North Bank of Sailor Gulch 750 feet northwest of intersection of U.S.F.S. Roads 651 & 349Date?McKenzie Property, North Bank of Sailor Gulch 750 fee…Hiatt Property, Barn, West bank of Woof Creek, 400 feet northwest of intersection of U.S.F.S. Roads 651 & 349Date?Hiatt Property, Barn, West bank of Woof Creek, 400 fe…Hiatt Property, House, West bank of Woof Creek, 400 feet northwest of intersection of U.S.F.S. Roads 651 & 349Date?Hiatt Property, House, West bank of Woof Creek, 400 f…McKenzie Property, Barn, North Bank of Sailor Gulch, 750 feet northwest of intersection of U.S.F.S. Roads 651 & 349Date?McKenzie Property, Barn, North Bank of Sailor Gulch, …McKenzie Property, Garage, North Bank of Sailor Gulch, 750 feet northwest of intersection of U.S.F.S. Roads 651 & 349Date?McKenzie Property, Garage, North Bank of Sailor Gulch…Hiatt Property, Privy-Outhouse, West bank of Woof Creek, 400 feet northwest of intersection of U.S.F.S. Roads 651 & 349Date?Hiatt Property, Privy-Outhouse, West bank of Woof Cre…McKenzie Property, House, North Bank of Sailor Gulch, 750 feet northwest of intersection of U.S.F.S. Roads 651 & 349Date?McKenzie Property, House, North Bank of Sailor Gulch,…McKenzie Property, Retaining Wall, North Bank of Sailor Gulch, 750 feet northwest of intersection of U.S.F.S. Roads 651…Date?McKenzie Property, Retaining Wall, North Bank of Sail…
Today2 recent
Placerville-idaho-cemetery2020Placerville-idaho-cemeteryIDMap-doton-Placerville2004IDMap-doton-Placerville
On the map

Placerville on the map, 1957 to 1998

Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Placerville. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.

Placerville on the 1957 USGS mapPlacerville on the 1976 USGS mapPlacerville on the 1998 USGS map1957Placerville sheet · 1:24,000

U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Placerville.

Then & now

Stand where they stood

No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as an old one and they appear here side by side.

Hiatt Property, West bank of Woof Creek, 400 feet northwest of intersection of U.S.F.S. Roads 651 & 349
Retake this viewHiatt Property, West bank of Woof Creek, 400 feet northwest of intersection of U.S.F.S. Roads 651 & 349

Find the spot, match the angle, and add your photo. It becomes the first then-and-now pair on Placerville’s page.

Retake this view · +15
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 →
Aaron PaulAmerican actor · b. 1979
Torrie WilsonAmerican professional wrestler · b. 1975
Brad LittleGovernor of Idaho since 2019 · b. 1954
Kristine SutherlandAmerican actress · b. 1955
James Jesus AngletonChief of the CIA's counterintelligence (CI) sta… · b. 1917
Frank ChurchAmerican politician and lawyer · b. 1924
Places that used to be

Lost post offices, places now gone and burying grounds

Placerville had its own post office from 1863 to 1967.

Placerville
1863–1967
18601940today
Gone or out of use
Halley Placer Minemine
1cemetery inside Placerville
Placerville

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 1863, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).

What is on the National Register in Placerville?

One place: the Placerville Historic District (listed 1984).

Memory lane

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

Town Square →
Start a conversation
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 (9), the National Register of Historic Places (1), Wikipedia, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, U.S. Census counts (via 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.