Sutter's Row Preservation Society Donate

Nevada City, California

Adopt a plaque.
Anchor a story.

Every building on the row holds a story that would otherwise slip quietly away. A cast brass plaque keeps it. Sutter's Row Preservation Society casts them, mounts them and maintains them — and there is one waiting for a name.

See available plaques Book a walking tour
  • Guided walking tours
  • Restored-building prints
  • Oral history recordings
A blank brass plaque with beveled edges mounted on a dark stone wall
Cast brass, mounted, and not yet engraved

The wall

Each plaque waits for a name.

Cast in brass, mounted on the building it keeps, engraved with the sponsor who made it possible. Choose an open plaque and your name is fixed to the stone from the day it is set.

No. 01 Available
No. 02 Adopted
No. 03 Available
No. 04 Available
No. 05 Adopted
No. 06 Available
No. 07 Available
No. 08 Available

Plaques are added as buildings are documented and restored. Each is cast in brass, mounted on the building it keeps, and maintained by the Society.

Adopt an open plaque →

The work behind the brass

What a plaque carries.

Adoption is not a souvenir. It is the work itself — the research that establishes what happened in a building, the casting and mounting of the plaque, the recording of the people who remember it, and the archive that holds it all together.

When a plaque is adopted, the building's history is documented and kept by the Society, and the sponsor's name is engraved into the row alongside it.

  • 01

    Casting & mounting

    A plaque cast in brass and fixed to the building's face, kept level and kept legible.

  • 02

    Building research

    The record of who built a place, who kept it, and what happened inside its walls.

  • 03

    Oral history

    Recordings made with the people who remember the row, kept in their own voices.

  • 04

    Archival care

    Photographs and documents catalogued, stored and held for good.

A restored gold-rush-era brick storefront on a quiet historic main street
A restored storefront on the row
Archival photographs laid out on a dark table for cataloguing
The collection, laid out for cataloguing

Tours, prints & recordings

Take the row home with you.

Five things are arranged directly with the Society: guided walks through the historic district, prints of the buildings that have been restored, the recordings that keep first-hand memory in circulation, class visits, and permission to reproduce the archive.

A small group walking a historic main street with a guide at golden hour
A walking tour on the row
  1. 01

    Walking tour tickets

    Guided walks through the historic district, booked in advance.

  2. 02

    Restored building prints

    Prints of the buildings the Society has restored, made for the wall at home.

  3. 03

    Oral history recordings

    First-hand accounts from along the row, recorded and made available to listen to.

  4. 04

    School field trip bookings

    Class visits arranged with the Society for schools studying local history.

  5. 05

    Archival photo licensing

    Permission to reproduce photographs from the Society's collection.

Tickets, prints, recordings and licensing are all arranged through the Society in Nevada City.

Arrange a tour or an order →

Adoption levels

Three ways to hold a place in the row.

Every level supports the same work — research, casting, mounting, recording and care. Choose the one that matches the story you want to keep.

Plaque Sponsor

One plaque, one story.

  • Your name engraved on a building's plaque
  • That building's history, researched and kept
  • A print of the restored building
  • Word from the Society when your plaque is mounted
Adopt this level

Building Steward

A building, held whole.

  • Everything at the Plaque Sponsor level
  • The oral history recordings made in that building
  • Archival photographs of the building catalogued and kept
  • A print from the restored building series
Adopt this level

Row Keeper

The whole row, kept together.

  • Several plaques along the row
  • Prints from the restored building series
  • Support for the archive and its care
  • A school field trip booked in your name
Adopt this level

Not ready to adopt a plaque? A gift of any size keeps the research, the casting and the recordings moving.

Give to the row →

Adopt & give

Your name here.
Their story forever.

Choose an open plaque and the Society begins the work — the research, the casting, the engraving and the mounting. Or give to the work behind every plaque. Sutter's Row Preservation Society is a nonprofit organization, and gifts of any size are put to work on the row.

See available plaques Book a walking tour

Where a gift goes

  • 01Plaque casting & mounting on the building
  • 02Research into the building's history
  • 03Oral history recordings with people who remember the row
  • 04Cataloguing and care of the archive

Adoptions, gifts, tour bookings and print orders are arranged directly with the Society in Nevada City, California.