Cold Storage Room - Shasta, CA
N 40° 35.835 W 122° 29.421
10T E 543122 N 4494174
This ruin was once a cold storage room for Peter Hoff's Butcher Shop in the mid 1850s.
Waymark Code: WMP8VR
Location: California, United States
Date Posted: 07/21/2015
Views: 2
Located in Shasta and within the Shasta State Historical Park is an architectural ruin of a former cold storage room which comprises a brick dug out room in the side of a hill. There's a placard which hangs on the gate in front of the cavity which reads:
COLD STORAGE ROOM
Peter Hoff's butcher shop stood on this site. It was a wood frame building built in 1855. The establishment, known for awhile as the City Meat Market, was destroyed by fire in 1878. The cavity in the hill side was the cold storage room. Snow was brought down from the mountains and used to keep the meats cool. Each year, after the first frost the 10-foot by 14-foot dug-out was used as a smokehouse for a month or so.
The town of Shasta was known as the 'Queen of Northern California' during its heyday when the Gold Rush was in full swing in the mid-1850s. The town started to decline after the nearby city of Redding became the county seat in 1888 and the buildings along Main Street fell into ruin by the 1930s. Fortunately, the State Preservation Board of California took over ownership of the downtown section and made it into a state park. Many other preserved architectural remnants and ruins exist along this street with interpretive displays that highlight each former building's history. This former cold room storage is one remnant of many that visitors can appreciate and get an idea of how grand this town once was.