Grass Valley
Lola Montez 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.
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