Hotel-Style Rooms, Downtown Views, and All-Day Brews
Photos by Crystalline Lens
The door to The 1856 Speakeasy Suites, a Nevada City hotel-style short-term rental with private rooms, ensuite bathrooms, and gold rush charm, is hidden in plain sight––a bit like Harry Potter’s Platform 9¾, The Chronicles of Narnia, or if you’re a gambling man, Let’s Make a Deal. This red portal rests between Communal Cafe’s two street-level front doors facing what is inarguably the most frequented intersection downtown, and yet, it’s so easily overlooked, affording guests both privacy and access to local restaurants, boutique retail, and their morning Joe.
Owners Whitney and Anthony Lichtl, entrepreneurs and proven visionaries, purchased the near 12,000 square foot property just shy of two years ago, ready to transform the two neglected upstairs floors (think green carpet, no floorboards, no walls, and lots of debris) into a 9 room, 10 bed, 8.5 bath professionally designed stay, restoring a 150 year-old-building to the heart of this small town. And, in a turn of fate (just to keep things interesting for this young family of five), the pair became quick owners of the downstairs coffee shop, transforming it into a central hub for both coffee and conversation known as Communal Cafe.
“We were looking for a new project,” begins Anthony, whose background in commercial real estate laid the bedrock for these brave buyers, adding their names to a bold and gutsy group of building owners in Nevada City inspired by both history and hereafter. “Our Airbnb’s at that time were simply a side-hustle, but we were gaining traction with a few properties in Tahoe and Lake Havasu and realized quickly this might be a real business for us. Communal wasn’t in our purview, that came about very naturally and out of necessity to keep the vision for both the building and our staying guests, but we really feel like Nevada City chose us, in a way. Being from Southern California, nothing is 200 years old. I’d seen the building online, and after driving past I immediately felt some sense of responsibility to this town, and this corner, to reopen the shuttered windows and bring it back to life, and I think we’ve done that.”
Formerly Fur Traders, Eddies Bank Club, a rumored brothel, and a rotating door of liquor, coffee, beer, and restaurants, this former site of the U.S. Hotel, known as The Flagg Building, has been rebuilt, redesigned, and reimagined, surviving fires and generations before falling into the arms of Whitney and Anthony who have transformed it into the chic victorian-inspired autonomous hotel and brick-walled 4,000 square foot coffee shop it is today.
The 1856 Speakeasy may afford guests a step back in time, but it’s Whitney and Anthony’s investment into Nevada City’s long history that leaves the largest impact on the broader county, providing a community center for conversation, accommodations for tourism, and an updated landmark in Nevada County’s infrastructure that drives interest, intrigue, and enthusiasm from the “big cities” to Broad st. and beyond.
233 Broad St, Nevada City, CA 95959
