Adventures in California History

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Kentucky House, on the old Coloma-Folsom Road

Photo: Placer County Museums

The Austin T. Leachman "Kentucky House," located on the old Coloma-Folsom Road, was one of the first roadhouses one would encounter when traveling east from Sacramento County into El Dorado County. The Coloma-Folsom road is now known as Green Valley Road, and this roadhouse stood on the south side of the road at the junction with a path that led south to Clarksville in the present-day El Dorado Hills.

Leachman came to California by wagon train from Quincy, Illinois, in 1850 and 1859 married an Irish lady named Mary Sullivan, purchased the hotel and roadhouse then known as the "Red House," as well as 220 surrounding acres near present day's "Browns Ravine."

The Leachman House or "Kentucky House" called that as it was Leachman's birthplace, operated successfully as long as traffic in the form of stages and freighters came along the old Coloma-Folsom Road. The Kentuck House continued until 1869 when traffic started to slow along the old road.