Downieville

The Mountain Messenger Building

The Mountain Messenger Building also dates from 1852. This native stone structure is also known as the Mackerman & Co. Building as Joseph Mackerman was its earliest tenant, using the building as both a home and brewery. It has also served as a drug store, a meat market, and as the office of California’s oldest weekly newspaper, The Mountain Messenger. It is one of the most fire-proof buildings left in town as in addition to the heavy iron doors, and three-foot thick walls, a four-foot thick mud and brick ceiling provided an extra measure of fire protection that was desperately needed during the fire years.