Confidence Hall is a historic Italianate-style Victorian brick building in Placerville, El Dorado County, California. The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) on January 4, 1982.

History

The building was originally constructed as the Confidence Engine Company No. 1 volunteer fire department. The brigade began as the Mountaineer Engine Company on May 22, 1857, but changed its name in June after they purchased a used fire engine named “Confidence” and found they could not remove the engraving. The original engine room was damaged by fire in September 1860, and the current building was constructed in the fall of that year. The fundraising balls held by the company were very popular. In the late 1890s, the building was used for early meetings of the Placerville Seventh-day Adventist Church. The building also served as a police station, jail, and courthouse. When the El Dorado County Fair rotated venues, Confidence Hall was one of its locations in Placerville.

In 1902, the building became the Placerville City Hall. The Placerville City Library, the first public library in the county, was established on the top floor of the building in 1906. The space was used by the Placerville City Clerk’s office and was separated by a gate that opened only after the Clerk finished his work.

An adjacent structure with a wooden balcony, the Jane Stuart Building, was built in 1861 and is listed on the NRHP. Immigrant Jane Stewart financed its construction by driving a herd of horses across the Great Plains and selling them to a local dealer. The two buildings share a common wall, interior corridor, and door, and they were used as an office building for a single tenant. The buildings have an approximate area of 6360 square feet (590 m 2 ), which does not include an unfinished basement and an attic upstairs.

After the city of Placerville moved to a new city hall in 2005, the buildings, which are intended for a wide range of uses, were listed for over $1 million, but remained unsold and were re-evaluated in June 2009 for $799,000.