Broad Street is the spine of Nevada City's historic downtown, a steep, curving street lined with brick and stone buildings from the 1850s and 1860s that are still in daily commercial use. It doesn't feel preserved so much as simply still alive — the buildings house restaurants, galleries, independent shops, and hotels rather than being converted to museums.
The Victorian streetscape here is remarkable for its coherence. Most Gold Rush towns either burned, decayed into dereliction, or were so thoroughly restored that they became theme parks. Nevada City managed a third path: actual continuity. Walking uphill from the bottom of Broad Street past the National Exchange Hotel, the Nevada Theatre, and the Firehouse Museum gives you the best single-street impression of what a prosperous Gold Country town looked like at its peak. The town's Christmas celebration — Victorian Christmas, held on weekends in December — brings out locals in period costume and draws visitors from across the state.