For more on the house before the teardown and the work tearing it down Monday, click on Media Life: Etc. blogs in Staff Blogs.
Auburn’s Hawver House demolished for parking
Late 19th century dentist, archaeologist lived in house, left rich legacy
The building that served as home to one of Auburn’s iconic figures from the past was torn down Monday – two days after the building pioneer archaeologist Dr. J.C. Hawver once had his office in was being opened as a medical museum. The Gold Country Medical History Museum has its opening ceremony Saturday at the Maple Street building in Old Town Auburn. It housed Placer County’s first public hospital and later was occupied by the Hawver dental office. The Hawver House is off Highway 49, less than a half-mile away. Auburn historian Lorelei Hodkins said this weekend that Hawver likely moved into the house when he came to the city in 1880 and established a dental practice. He lived there until his death in 1914. The property is located on Highway 49, adjacent to Auburn’s In-N-Out Burgers. An Auburn dentist, Hawver dedicated much of his later years to exploring a limestone cave on the lip of the middle fork of the American River canyon – a cave that would reveal the fozzilized remains of several extinct mammal and bird species. Hawver sent most of his finds to the University of California at Berkeley, where the fossils are kept in the collection of the Anthropology Department’s Hearst Museum. The Placer County Museum has a permanent exhibit on Hawver and his discoveries. Last week, a tree service crew moved into an overgrown patch of land adjacent to the In-N-Out Burgers parking lot to clear brush and trees. Revealed as the clearing continued were the brittle remains of a house Hawver lived in before dying of a heart attack in 1914 at age 60. The house itself had been boarded up and outbuildings, including a chicken coup, barn and water tower were demolished on Monday. Auburn resident Jeff Fulweiler, whose family traces its roots to 19the century Auburn, watched the demolition work and took photos he will save for a friend, Jeff Best, who lived with his family in the home for many years. “It’s probably – or I should say, was probably – one of Auburn’s oldest houses,” Fulweiler said. “It’s a shame to see it torn down and who knows what else is there.” The Hawver House is to make way for a parking lot extension for the adjacent In-N-Out Burgers. The privately held business will be erecting a plaque on a boulder to commemorate the site, said Gene Lorance, who has worked with the State Parks Department to study the Hawver Cave in the Auburn State Recreation Area. Hawver’s local legacy is the discovery of a rich cache of fossilized bird and mammal bones that date back at least 10,000 years. Self-taught in science and nature studies, Hawver was sought out in 1906 by three local boys who had managed to climb 80 feet down to the cave floor. One of the boys had slipped and grabbed onto a fossil bone. Shining a candle on the wall, he had discovered bone fragments and a large vertebra in the rock. Hawver would work between 1906 and 1913 in the face of repeated vandalism to remove fossils from the cave, collaborating with nationally renowned experts but receiving little in the way of compensation. One of the first members of the Native Sons of the Golden West and an early Auburn school board trustee, Hawver would suffer his share of tragedy. He blew off most of his left thumb and index finger using the wrong chemicals while taking photos of a cave near Placerville in 1907. Four years later, his wife would die after her dress caught fire while their granddaughter was playing with Christmas candles. Hawver would marry again and lived in Auburn until his death. The Journal’s Gus Thomson can be reached at gust@goldcountrymedia.com.
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This is the typical stupidity the people of Auburn have grown to expect. Tear down the past and pave it over. Wonderful. Don’t try and preserve any of this……….pave it over.
AP,
Yes, it's too bad this house was demolished instead of preserved, but it's easy to understand why this historical gem was overlooked.
My daughter once knew people who lived in the old Hawver house, and although I went to there several times to drop her off or pick her up, I never really saw the house. In fact, until they removed all the trees and over-grown shrubber, right before the demolition began, you could not see the house. I drove by the site last Sunday evening and was shocked to see, for the first time, what a nice example of period architecture stood proudly on this knoll.
This was truly a case of "out of sight, out of mind". I doubt folks in Auburn would have knowingly watched as a treasure of this significance were destroyed if they had only been able to see this place for more than a couple days prior to its removal.
The people of Auburn have shown more than enough examples of sacrifice while preserving the past of this town. For you to simply label this as "typical stupidity" is wrong. I understand your frustration, AP, but this is probably just a case of lost opportunity, not one of laziness or indifference on the part of the City to recognize a historical site in time to save it.
I guess we should all start looking more intently at some of the places around town where bushes are thick and possibly hiding another one-time-great like the Hawver House.
I love all the history in the gold country, but to tear down a clearly historical building for a parking lot for IN & OUT no less a Southern California based company who has no clue how we treasure our history in this part of California. Surely, something could have been done t o preserve the building other than putting a plaque in a boulder. WOW IN & OUT do not put yourself out by helping the community that put you on the map in Northern California. Surely, there could have been a tax deductable compromise made.
In & Out bringing their so-called "Progress" Mentality to Auburn. Way to go. There is not much left of we treasure in the hills and what we definatley NEED is another parking lot!
Yes it is "typical stupidity"
It is sad to see history demolished, so where was the journal when plans were made for the destruction of the property? And where was the city when the property was sold? to preserve it?...its easy to cast stones after the fact...cant blame the restruant....
It was a dump and a danger to humans and dogs.
I saw it the day before it was torn down. If someone really cared they would have done something before it as demolished, not whine about it now.
Ginnyo usually historicall buildings are in need of repair. If they were not they would not be historical. DUH! I think people are more upset that there was no coverage of the intent to demo the house. YOU ARE A SHARP ONE! If the intention was known that it was to be demo'd steps could have been taken but the IN& OUT is need of more parking so who can argue with that.
duh..still a dump...My opinion...you have yours...Keep your comments nice.
We need more parking ..it's just awful during the busy hours....
I have never been Rude to other commenters....LG1976 you are out of line...SHAME on you!!
My opinion from an oldtimer/been in Auburn longer then dirt...GI
Once again GREED takes over ,the planning commision can care less about Auburn's history.
Ginnyo I was only pointing out the oblivious. I have nothing to be ashamed of, the ones who should be ashamed is IN & OUT and people like you who think that history or even habitats be destroyed so they can get into the IN & OUT with greater ease. Where I come from, we call that selfish. Surely, a compromise could have been met
I love people who cry over spilled milk. It's not like the dentist lived in the home and passed it on to future generations who then were "bought out" by a big mean burger chain.
The house was abandoned and the property sold out right...nobody cared about the property or house for years. It may have history, but so does Rome, New York, San Francisco.... all paved and repaved over as time moves on.
I'm over it.
LG1967..it's the attack on me personally ..the "duhhh" and the part "YOU ARE A SHARP ONE" that is in question nothing else...that in my opinion is an attack on me.
My wife and I get it...you were slamming me..did it make you feel better to do it? How sad.
You could have made your point without it....:) Old GI