Wednesday, June 25, 2014

Sutter Creek & The Preston Castle

The third thing we did while I was on vacation with my mom was head to Sutter Creek, California. If you've never heard of Sutter Creek it's home to the Gold Rush that took place in Northern California.
Sutter Creek is home to tons of fabulous old buildings and numerous antique stores. One thing my mom absolutely loves to do is browse antique shops. Naturally that's what we did...
Beezy had never really been antiquing so it was a new experience for him. I know my mother very well and already knew what we were in for because she could spend hours in one store if you'd let her. In one of the stores I found this cute little glass whale. It became mine.

 
The town itself isn't large but they've kept that 1800s feeling.

And then there's the fascinating J. Monteverde General Store.
The general store opened in 1898 and kept their doors open well into the 1970s. When the owners in the 1970's decided to put a sign in the window saying the store would be closed for a few days. A few days turned into forever. The owners just never came back. The store has remained completely in tack with all of the stuff remaining inside from the day the store was closed. I found it so odd and fascinating that the owners just never came back. Where did they go? Why would you leave an entire store?




 
Once we left Sutter Creek we stopped at Preston Castle.
Preston Castle is located in Ione, California and was built in 1890 to originally house juvenile offenders who were being rehabilitated. We kept seeing signs through the town that it was open for touring and since it only happens on certain Saturdays we were excited that it was open. However, once we got there it turns out they weren't open for inside tours. The state had shut them down from letting people inside because they don't have a sprinkler system. They were waiting on some kind of new ownership to allow them to be able to offer tours again.
 The outside however was interesting....

 I peeked inside and it desperately needs some TLC.
Hopefully the next time we are in Ione it'll be open for touring again!

3 comments:

Why Girls Are Weird said...

Woah that place is SO COOL!

Anonymous said...

The town looks great and ooohhhh, a castle!

Unknown said...

Holy cow that building is beautiful! What a place to be rehabilitated in, huh?