Grass Valley, California
Culture, History, Historic House
The Lola Montez House was originally constructed in 1851 for the office of Gilmor Meredith’s Gold Hill Mining Company. It was on this site the year before that the first election in town was conducted. Beneath a large oak tree, a cigar box held the ballots as the miners elected a justice of the peace and town constable. The building also served as the first schoolhouse for a short while in 1852. Lola Montez purchased the house in 1853, and in the front yard started what was probably the first cactus garden in the state by transplanting different plants she found while horseback riding through the countryside. The current structure is a duplicate of the original, built from a sketch originally published in 1854. It is located at 248 Mill Street, near the center of downtown Grass Valley.