The Noteware – Thomas House consists of two bedrooms, a living room, dining room, and kitchen. Behind the house is an outhouse and a well. The house was built in 1857 for J.C. N. Noteware and his family. Noteware was the new county recorder for El Dorado County. During his first year as recorder he counted 10,000 people living in the county.

The house was home to various families in the later 1850’s and 60’s. The Canfields lived here after the Notewares and the Trescotts moved in in 1862. During the 1860s homemade soap was cooked outside in a large pot and people could smell it for miles.

In 1875 Mr. and Mrs. John Price bought the house for $150. Mr. Price was the Coloma postmaster. He died in 1902, and the town asked his wife to replace him as postmaster. Sadly, she died just two weeks later. Their daughter, Cora, who married Fred Thomas in 1906, was the house’s next resident. Cora gave music lessons in the house and lived here until her death in 1946. Fred Thomas died in 1958, and in 1960 the State bought the house from Fred’s sister and began its restoration.

Today, the Noteware-Thomas House serves as a reminder of what everyday life was like in the historic town of Coloma, a window into a small slice of the past. The house is open for visitors only when volunteers are available to interpret the house.