Mitchler Hotel

The hotel keeps a register and the register is the landmark. The 1948 plaque lists who signed it: Mark Twain, Horatio Alger, Thomas Lipton, Henry Ward Beecher, the Rothschilds, Grant, and C. E. Bolton, who was Black Bart. It has been open since the mid-1850s under three names, Sperry and Perry, Mitchler, Murphys. The two plaques on the wall disagree about the year it was built, and the older one names the Murphy brothers the town's own plaque will not.

What the plaque says

OLD SPERRY HOTEL THIS HOSTELRY ORIGINALLY BUILT IN 1855 BY J. L. SPERRY OF SPERRY FLOUR FAME AND HIS PARTNER JOHN PERRY. AMONG EARLY GUESTS WHOSE NAMES APPEAR ON OLD REGISTER ARE MARK TWAIN, HORATIO ALGER, THOMAS H. LIPTON, HENRY WARD BEECHER, THE ROTHCHILDS, GENERAL U. S. GRANT, AND C. E. BOLTON (BLACK BART). THE QUAINT OLD HOTEL, ACCORDING TO TRADITION, IS THE ONE REFERRED TO IN BRET HARTE'S "A NIGHT IN WINGDAM". MURPHY'S CAMP FOUNDED IN EARLY '49 BY JOHN AND DANIEL MURPHY, BROTHERS. MILLIONS OF GOLD TAKEN FROM CAMP AND VICINITY. TABLET PLACED BY CHISPA PARLOR No. 139 HISTORICAL LANDMARK COMMITTEE NATIVE SONS GOLDEN WEST RUBY PARLOR No. 46 NATIVE DAUGHTERS GOLDEN WEST JULY 24 1948 MURPHYS HOTEL JAMES L. SPERRY AND JOHN PERRY OPENED THE SPERRY AND PERRY HOTEL AUGUST 20, 1856. IN 1881 HENRY ATWOOD AND THEN HARVEY BLOOD OWNED IT. IN 1882, THE MITCHLER FAMILY RENAMED IT THE MITCHLER HOTEL. IN 1945, THE McKIMINS' CHANGED ITS NAME TO MURPHYS HOTEL. IN 1963, A COLLEGE OF THE PACIFIC GROUP PURCHASED IT. ONE OF THE OLDEST OPERATING HOTELS IN CALIFORNIA. CALIFORNIA REGISTERED HISTORICAL LANDMARK NO. 267 PLAQUE PLACED BY THE STATE DEPARTMENT OF PARKS AND RECREATION IN COOPERATION WITH MURPHYS A & Q. INC. (OWNERS), SEPTEMBER 1980. THIS PROPERTY MURPHYS HOTEL HAS BEEN PLACED ON THE NATIONAL REGISTER OF HISTORIC PLACES BY THE UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Columbia State Historic Park — 7.0 mi
  The Gem of the Southern Mines, still open for business on a car-free Gold Rush main street.

More markers nearby

• Peter L. Traver Building — steps away
• Murphys — steps away
• Site of Brownsville — 1.4 mi
• Douglas Flat — 1.6 mi