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California Lodging News
www.calodging.comDating back to California’s Gold
Rush-era
, the 1859 Historic National Hotel
in Jamestown has long stood as a destination
and watering hole for travelers and the local
community. On any given night, the hotel’s
restaurant and saloon bustles with lively mix
of locals and visitors. Over the years, the his-
toric hotel has served as a gathering spot for
birthdays, anniversaries, and special events.
The hotel’s owner, Stephen Willey, has also
been committed to serving and giving back to
the local community.
The hotel has been in continuous opera-
tion for over 150 years, having survived two
fires in the early 1900s. Willey is only the
third owner of the hotel, which he purchased
with his brother and a friend in 1974. The
hotel’s saloon had been a place that he and
his brother would stop for drinks on their
way back from ski trips and backpacking
trips. When his brother learned the hotel was
for sale, he convinced Willey, who was in
graduate school in San Francisco at the time,
to move to Jamestown and run the hotel for at
least six months.
The original six-month commitment has
turned into a 42-year restoration and mod-
ernization project. When they purchased
Gold Country Hospitality
By Ranee Ruble-Dotts, Paper Moon Creative
the building in 1974, the aging hotel had 12
rooms and just one bath. Working room-by-
room, they tore the hotel down to the studs,
upgraded the electrical, plumbing, insulation,
and more, added bathrooms, and restored the
rooms in keeping with the vintage of the hotel.
Upgrades and modernization projects have
been ongoing ever since.
Instead of the original 12 rooms, the hotel
now has nine elegant guest rooms, each with
private baths. The rooms feature high coved
ceilings, dark-stained wood trim, and beau-
tiful period details. The rooms are furnished
with fine antiques, opulent wallpapers, and
lace curtains befitting of the era.
During the Gold Rush, paying for a night’s stay
at the hotel with a purse full of gold dust was
commonplace. Last year, Willey brought back
the practice for overnight guests bearing gold
flakes and nuggets. He purchased an old-time
brass scale with weights and backs it up with
the digital model required by county weights
and measures. The daily price of gold is noted
inside the hotel’s authentic Gold Rush-era
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