About Piety Hill Cottages

Piety Hill Cottages is a quiet retreat just to the south of Nevada City’s historic downtown district. Here you’ll find comfortable accommodations for couples, friends and families. Spread across an acre of park-like grounds, our spacious rooms and ample gardens offer guests plenty of room to breath. A ten minute stroll down Pine Street and across picturesque Deer Creek bridge, you’ll find the dining, shopping, nightlife and historical attractions of Downtown Nevada City.

Our History

The Piety Hill Cottages was first built in 1933 and named “Rude’s Auto Court” after its original owner. The property sat directly on CA Route 49, also known as the Golden Chain Highway, which carried travelers from south of Yosemite, through the Sierra foothills and a string of charming mining towns, all the way to the High Sierra town of Vinton, CA. Since those early days, Highway 49 has been diverted onto a busy four lane highway east of town, and Sacramento is street now a quiet, residential avenue. 

In its early days, Piety Hill Cottages not only comprised the quaint cottages you’ll find today, but also a large tenement building at the back of the property which housed migrant farm workers and the last generations of hopeful gold miners. The garden area at the center of the property was offered to guests as a campground, with the shed between Daphne and Chestnut cottages (now our laundry facilities) serving as an outhouse. The property, at times throughout history, has also housed a service station, a soda fountain and cafe, as well as a small general store in what today is the office.