Would you like to own a piece of history in Truckee?

Written by David Caraccio and published in the Sacramento Bee

A historical Truckee home that was built around 1887 and massively restored and upgraded with attention to period details has hit the market for just over $1 million.

The two-bedroom, two-bath residence sits at 10037 SE River Street off Old Brockway Road, near the Truckee River and across from another huge piece of the town’s history: the Chinese herb shop building.

The little herb shop, built in 1878, is the only structure left standing from Truckee’s historic Chinatown. The brick, fireproof building with iron metal shutters has survived many fires. Chinatown existed between the years 1878 and 1886, and the historical home for sale was built shortly afterward.

You might say the 1,020-square-foot house is all about location, location, location. The property is walking distance to most of Truckee’s attractions: the regional park, which is the site of the summer concert series, the train station, restaurants, shops and bars.

But it’s also all about history, history, history.

“It’s part of the old Chinatown section of Truckee, and is directly across from the herb shop that was a Chinese herb shop back in the day,” said listing agent Jennifer Gomez of Dickson Realty Truckee. “And that property where it is built was originally encampments, so you can find older photos where it shows all of these tents in rows there. It ‘s been a home for a really long time, and I believe there was a livery stable attached on the side which is now the yard. So that part has been gone for ages. The original structure is actually as it was.”

The owner upgraded the entire home from the foundation to the roof to the electrical, Gomez added, but “when you walk in, (you can see) they’ve also kept a lot of the historic.”

The seller — Diana Alouise, who owns Shampoo Hair and Makeup Studio and the house across the street — took advantage of the Mills Act, a program that offers economic incentives for the restoration and preservation of historic buildings by private property owners.

Gomez said in the renovation process workers found old coins and medicine bottles at the site, as well as metal beer signs that had been used as shingles for the old roof. The building was taken down to the studs but a lot of the historical material was able to be reused in the rebuild, she added.

“The whole front porch and ceiling is original wood,” Gomez said. “It’s just such a cool place.”

The exact listing price is $1.098 million.

Like elsewhere in the state, Gomez said the Truckee area housing market is on fire, too, fueled by historically low inventory and a historically high number of buyers. There’s “fierce” competition, she added, with several competing offers on homes and the need for escalation clauses on some properties.