Newest articles on The Sacramento Press tagged as "history"

Local man part of inspiration for 'Red Tails'

2012-02-03T01:43:23Z

Cuba Gooding Jr. might grab the spotlight in the new film “Red Tails,” about African-American fighter pilots in World War II, but one of the men behind the character Gooding plays* was a pilot with Sacramento ties.

George Roberts served as the operations officer in the 99th Pursuit Squadron in World War II, and he was one of the first five graduates out of the group that would later be known as the Tuskegee Airmen.

Roberts came to Sacramento with his wife, Edith, in the 1960s, where he worked for Wells Fargo. Though he died in the 1980s, Edith, 92, still lives in the area, and she proudly visits local schools and civic groups to educate them on the history of pilots.

“It was a different time back then,” she said Wednesday. “The government had actually done a study after World War I to determine if black people were capable of leading men in combat.”

Battling deep-seeded institutional racism, the young cadets training to be fighter pilots at an airfield in Tuskegee, Ala., wore their uniforms with pride and dreamed of the day they would take to the skies to fight the enemy, Edith Roberts said.

The “washing out” rate was high, with only five of the 13 in George Roberts’ class graduating, and those who graduated continued to train.

George and Edith Roberts married the day he graduated from pilot training, March 7, 1942. George then moved off the airbase to live with Edith, but that wasn’t easy, either.

“There were no places for blacks to rent houses, so we had to stay in a house with another local black family,” she said.

The 99th Pursuit Squadron was put on alert in January 1943, and none of the men were allowed to leave the base, since the order to ship out could come at any moment. But those orders didn’t come until April.

“They stayed on alert there forever,” Edith Roberts said. “The Army didn’t know what to do with them because they were black, and they were fighter pilots.”

George Roberts missed the birth of his first child since he couldn’t leave the base, and it wasn’t until a brief trip home in 1944 that he was reunited with his family.

When the Tuskegee Airmen did eventually get the call to go fight the Germans, they arrived in Morocco, in North Africa, where British Royal Air Force pilots trained them further on combat techniques.

Occasional letters home and stories in African-American publications were the only communications Edith Roberts and the other families of the African-American fliers got.

The Army – at the time, there was no U.S. Air Force, just the U.S. Army Air Corps – was reluctant to send the pilots into combat, and it took top squadron officers appealing to Congress to get the men into action.

“They had terrible equipment,” Edith Roberts said, mentioning that the squadron flew the outdated P-40 Warhawk plane made famous by the Flying Tigers several years earlier. “When they got their new planes – the P-51 Mustangs – well, they loved those planes more than they loved their wives.”

Edith Roberts said that the airmen were being tested – with many in the Army hierarchy looking for an excuse to can the program and take the pilots out of action because of their race.

To counter that, the men had strict orders to stay with the bombers they were assigned to escort and not go chasing German fighters across the skies, leaving the bomber formations open to attack.

At the time, American bombers flew daylight raids on strategic targets, dropping explosives on munitions plants, oil refineries and other targets essential to the German war effort.

The British, by contrast, flew at night, preferring to bomb entire cities and use the darkness to hide from enemy fighters. For the Americans flying in the day, raids could be disastrous if the Germans could shoot down the bombers without American fighters flying close for protection.

Every bomber shot down meant its crew of 10 Americans didn’t return to base.

“One of The Tuskegee Airmen’s claims to fame is that they never lost a bomber they were escorting to enemy fighters,” Edith Roberts said.

She added that the film, “Red Tails,” has a scene in which bomber crews see the 99th Pursuit Squadron’s red-painted tails and nose cones. The crews are surprised to see that the fighter pilots are African Americans.

It was after the other fliers began to respect the African-American pilots that their stories started appearing in Life Magazine and other prominent publications.

“The film is good,” Edith Roberts said. “It takes some liberties, but overall they did a good job with it.”

She was invited to the home of George Lucas, who bankrolled the film, and spent a weekend with some of the other people who lived through the time to help the young actors understand what it was like.

“They asked us all sorts of questions, and we spent a lot of time with them,” she said.

Edith Roberts said she was happy to talk to the actors and share the story, and that February – Black History Month – is always a busy time for her. Part of her collection of newspaper clippings is on temporary display at the California Museum, 1020 O St. The rest, she said, she needs to keep as she goes to schools and other functions to share the story.

“When I tell kids today about segregation and the racism we lived through, most of them are shocked,” she said. “It’s good that they’re shocked, because they’re not living it. But we lived it, and it’s important to tell them about it so they know how things were.”

“Red Tails” is currently in theaters. For more information on the film, visit the website by clicking here.

For more information on the Tuskegee Airmen, click here.

*Gooding's character is named Major Emanuelle Stance, the same name as an African American soldier who was awarded the Medal of Honor in the late 1800s, according to the National Park Service.

Brandon Darnell is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press. Follow him on Twitter @Brandon_Darnell.

Mather Field author talk at Historical Society, Tuesday Jan. 24

2012-01-23T06:28:36Z

Sacramento County Historical Society Presents

Images of America, Mather Field by James Scott and Tom Tolley

Tuesday, January 24, 7:00 PM
Sierra Sacramento Valley Medical Society Building, 5380 Elvas Avenue, Sacramento

Join us on January 24th at 7:00 pm, as historians James Scott and Tom Tolley present a history of Mather Field from prehistory
to closure and introduce their book: Images of America, Mather Field. Born from America’s need to train aviators for the Great
War, Mather Field has sat sentinel to the east of Sacramento for nearly a century. Overnight, the base transformed a lonely domain of cattle and vineyards into an aerie where fledgling “man-birds” were taught to fly and kill. Although readapted to focus on fire control and mail delivery between the wars, Mather still inspired, and was home to 1930 Air Corps maneuvers. World War II renewed Mather, as training bomber crews and repatriating veterans of the Pacific War helped create what was becoming a self-sustaining city of churches, schools, and burgeoning neighborhoods. Through two world wars and the tense years of the Cold War, this base has changed into a suburban mélange of aviation, business, and housing in the shadow of California’s capital city. Copies of the book will be available for sale and signing.

A native of Portland, Oregon, James Scott has been a librarian at the Sacramento Public Library for the last 11 years. He is a graduate of Marquette University and holds Master’s degrees in European history and library science. He is currently studying to become a certified archivist, and speaks and writes on antebellum Sacramento and the Central Valley’s World War One experience.

Tom Tolley has worked for the Sacramento Public Library for over 25 years, the last 12 as a library technician in Special Collections. A Sacramento resident since 1964 with an active interest in the region's popular culture and social history, he collects books and information on a variety of topics including motion picture history and genre fiction.

For more information about Sacramento County Historical Society, visit http://www.sachistoricalsociety.org

Disclosure: William Burg is vice-president of Sacramento County Historical Society.

Sacramento Diggins

2012-01-17T05:15:12Z

For those of you not in the know, "diggins" is an old term used in reference to a mine, wash, or other site where gold rush era mining or prospecting took place. Old treasure maps, as we called them anyway, had the name of a previous claim holder or another reference before the term "diggins". It was often accompanied by the customary pick and shovel in an x formation. I remember reading these old treasure maps as a kid, because back in 1960 or so, we were planning a trip to Alaska for hunting, fishing, and of course, treasure hunting. I wish I still had one of these maps for nostalgiac purposes, but it was not among the various collections of items from my grandparents belongings when they passed. We did make it to Alaska, but not until 1966, and unfortunately, we did little treasure hunting because the sacred treasure map got left behind. There was rock hunting though, and of course lots of fishing and hunting along the way there and back.

Treasure hunting never got left behind as I grew up, and I made time for it now and again, although not so much prospecting as it was more like archeology. All the digging, sifting, and and examining we did as kids in preparation for the big Alaskan treasure hunt did not go to waste, as I put them to use right at home searching for artifacts of an antique or archaic nature that were covered up by time, growth, or progress. Sacramento had numerous locations where the previous generations used to discard the basic unneeded, unwanted, and sometimes, the lost, items of human condition. These locations became the new "diggins" sites, and old bottles, ceramic plates, coins if you were lucky, and some things you spent the next year trying to figure out what they were, were the treasure.

My treasure map was all in my head, because I knew where the diggins sites were, and didn't ever figure I'd forget them. Unfortunately I have forgotten the precise locations of a few, but moreso, I have lost them to development. It's pretty hard to get to your favorite diggin's spot when a building or parking lot is over the top of it. One such spot was the the site of the old Bateson building downtown. I still have a ceramic bottle I dug up from that site, most likely an old beer or wine bottle. I was told that the state retrieved some artifacts from there when the construction took place, and I'm not surprised at all. I don't know what was there before, but from the few things I retrieved, it most likely was a camp of some sort. Aside from the Bateson site, many other diggins have been paved over or are otherwise now out of reach. Old Sacramento before it got its' makeover held several diggins sites when I was young. There's probably still quite a bit of artifact down there, but you'll never get to it now. Actually, you probably better not. The river was another good place, but the best part of it went off-limits sometime in the 80's I think. We used to dive in 5 different sites, usually for bottles, but occasionally other antiquities as well.

It's no secret how artifacts end up in a diggins site. More often than not, it's a former trash dump from a bygone era. In the old days there was no trash service, and there were mainly two ways of dealing with refuse; burn it or bury it. There was a third way, and that was to just leave it, but that normally saw its' destruction when left to the elements and passer's-by. The burning method still left artifacts behind, although not in the best condition, but some things don't burn, and even glass bottles can survive a poorly crafted campfire. This leaves the burying method as the most fertile ground for a treasure hunter, and happening upon a good dump site from the late 1800's or even early 1900's saw your best chances for a treasure trove of Sacramento history.

The pictures included with this piece are all items I unearthed during the 1960's through around 1980 in Sacramento. As stated earlier, the ceramic bottle was from the Bateson building site, and the milk bottles came from three different diggins sites. I was always impressed by the big milk bottle with the 5 cents molded right into it. If you think about it, that's the same refund you get on a plastic bottle today, so our previous generations were way ahead on the recycling curve. The others are basically old medicine bottles, which often had better survival rates due to their smaller size. Those little white porcelain plugs are old bottle tops, usually from beer bottled in the late 1800's through 1920 or so. I've found many of these with the original "Buffalo Brewing Company" embossed into them. The wire retainer is of course rusted away, but it always impressed me that the dye they made back then lasted for nearly a century, and while underground. I still recall the very first coin I unearthed at one of my diggins sites. It was brass, and I thought I'd found a gold coin. It had 4 eyes around the outside, and a plain etched star in the center. After speaking with an old timer of the era, I was advised that many of the saloons, brothels, and other business establishments used tokens instead of currency, and that this was the most likely explanation. I lost that coin somewhere along lifes way, but it always stood out among my finds.

Although I haven't treasure hunted much in the past two decades, I still think about it from time to time, and set out last summer to see if there was even the slightest chance one of my old sites was still available. After visiting 6 of those I remembered, only one was still accessible, and still offered a slight opportunity. I grabbed my hand pick, folding shovel, and sifter, and set out for short search. In less than an hour, I turned up two of the porcelain beer bottle tops, one with the embossed name and location still somewhat readable. I'm not sure what the name was, but Stockton, CA was definately the bottler's location. As light was getting low, I ended my treasure hunt for the day, Feeling somewhat satisfied that there was still a bit of open lands available for a treasure hunter to practice his craft. Sacramento still has a lot of buried history out there, some just aching to be on display in that empty corner shelf of your home, and with you waiting for the next guest you have over to ask "Hey, what the heck is that?"

Mark Your Calendar - “Sacramento Museum Day” Returns February 4!

2012-01-05T22:50:56Z

After a record-breaking attendance of more than 115,000 visitors last year, 28 Sacramento area museums will offer free or half-priced admission all day on Saturday, February 4, 2012, during the 14th Annual Sacramento Museum Day. New this year, 26 of the 28 museums will offer free admission whereas two destinations located in residential areas -- the Sacramento Zoo and Fairytale Town -- will offer half-priced admission to offset parking control and security costs. This hugely popular community event is presented by the Sacramento Association of Museums (SAM) and proudly supported by Umpqua Bank. Sacramento Museum event hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. (with the last guests admitted at 4 p.m.).

Sacramento Museum Day, a popular Sacramento cultural tradition, is designed to encourage all members of the community to experience the Capital City’s incredible wealth of art, history, science and wildlife -- at little or no cost.

“After our record-breaking attendance last year, the momentum continues as more and more community members are discovering the amazing array of arts, culture and museum offerings available in the Sacramento region,” said Sacramento Association of Museums Chair Roxanne Yonn. “Due to the overwhelming popularity of Sacramento Museum Day, we’ve made some changes this year that we hope will encourage visitors to explore a museum they haven’t been before to gain a new perspective and appreciation for what our diverse and rich community has to offer.”

Event coordinators suggest that guests plan to visit no more than two or three different museums on this day in order to allow adequate time to enjoy the experience and to travel between individual sites. And, since some museums must limit the number of admissions for safety reasons, guests are asked to check out detailed Sacramento Museum Day information online at www.sacmuseums.org prior to the event.

More detailed information about participating museums, suggested parking and public transit options is available at www.sacmuseums.org (click on “Events”), or by calling the Sacramento Convention & Visitors Bureau at (916) 808-7777.

Sacramento Museum Day 2012 is proudly supported by active and engaged community partners. In addition to title sponsor Umpqua Bank, other sponsors include FOX40, KSEG 96.9 FM, Outword Magazine, the Sacramento Convention & Visitors Bureau, Sacramento Regional Transit and STAR 106.5 FM.

Participating Museums for Sacramento Museum Day 2012:
Aerospace Museum of California – California Automobile Museum - California Foundry History Museum – California State Military Museum – California State Capitol Museum – The California Museum – California State Indian Museum – California State Railroad Museum – Center for Contemporary Art – Crocker Art Museum – Discovery Museum Science and Space Center – Don & June Salvatori California Pharmacy Museum – Fairytale Town – Folsom History Museum – Governor’s Mansion State Historic Park – Heidrick Ag History Center (Woodland) – Leland Stanford Mansion State Historic Park – Museum of Medical History – Old Sacramento Schoolhouse Museum – Old Sacramento State Historic Park – Sacramento Children’s Museum – Sacramento Zoo – Sacramento Historic City Cemetery – Sacramento History Museum – Sojourner Truth Multicultural Arts Museum – Sutter’s Fort State Historic Park – Wells Fargo History Museum (Capitol Mall) – Wells Fargo History Museum (Old Sacramento)

About the Sacramento Association of Museums (SAM):
Comprised of 28 greater Sacramento area museums working in partnership with the Sacramento Convention & Visitors Bureau, SAM’s mission is to raise awareness of local museums by giving the community the opportunity to discover California’s fine art, history, science and wildlife treasures. SAM achieves its mission through implementing cooperative promotions and developing strategic marketing alliances, by encouraging sharing of knowledge and resources among its partner institutions, and by conducting Sacramento Museum Day each year.

Disclosure: Traci Rockefeller Cusack represents a number of businesses and organizations throughout the greater Sacramento area including the Sacramento Association of Museums.

I Street Bridge turns 100

2011-12-23T02:16:48Z

The 75-year-old Tower Bridge connecting Sacramento and West Sacramento may be one of the area’s icons, but the more industrial steel-truss I Street Bridge is older – built 100 years ago.

“The I Street Bridge is a very important part of our business today,” said Aaron Hunt, spokesman for the Union Pacific railroad, which owns the bridge. “We run trains across it every day of the year.”

The I Street Bridge is 363 feet long and weighs about 7 million pounds, according to a fact sheet distributed by Union Pacific.

When it was built, the swinging center of the bridge was the heaviest of its type in the world, and though it no longer holds that distinction, it remains the heaviest in the United States, according to the Sacramento Old City Association.

The bridge swings about 90 degrees on a central pedestal that is 42 feet in diameter and 84 feet high. Opening it allows boat traffic on the river, and Hunt said a Union Pacific staffer stays on-site every day to operate it. The swinging operation takes about two and a half minutes, he added.

When the bridge was renovated in 1993, some major components were replaced, including the disc upon which the bridge rotates. The controlling mechanisms were also changed over from direct-current electrical systems to hydraulic ones.

The first bridge on the site was a wagon bridge built in 1858, which was replaced in 1869 by the area’s first railroad bridge, built by the California Pacific Railroad. It, too, allowed for wagon traffic.

Construction on the current span began in 1910 by the American Bridge Company, and it was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1982, according to Hunt.

Union Pacific took ownership of the bridge when it merged with Southern Pacific in 1996, Hunt said, and the cities of Sacramento and West Sacramento maintain the highway portion of the bridge.

Though dated, the bridge still pulls its weight, handling about 80 trains per day in addition to vehicular traffic on its upper deck.

Brandon Darnell is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press. Follow him on Twitter @Brandon_Darnell.

Local whiskey bottle collection sheds light on social history

2011-12-01T01:39:51Z

A slice of life in pre-Prohibition Sacramento was on display at the Sacramento County Historical Society’s monthly meeting Tuesday night as saloon ware collector Steve Abbott gave a presentation on artifacts from the 1860s through the 1920s.

The Sacramento Press caught up with Abbott Wednesday for a more in-depth look at his collection.

“I come from a family of collectors,” the 73-year-old retired English teacher from Rancho Cordova said. “One day I was in Old Sacramento in an antique store, and I saw an old whiskey bottle for $7. That was when I got into it – about 30 years ago.”

While whiskey was made back east, in states such as Kentucky, Ohio, New York and Indiana, it was shipped to Sacramento in 50-gallon barrels, where local distributors would bottle it with their own labels and sell it.

“It’s more than just a collection,” said Sacramento County Historical Society Vice President William Burg. “These are artifacts either produced here or used here, and they provide some insight into Sacramento’s social history.”

Whiskey bottles are the focus of Abbott’s collection – and he has about 95 whiskey bottles from Sacramento – but the range of other objects associated with the whiskey bottles, known as “go-withs” in the collecting world, includes serving trays, tip trays, advertisements and shot glasses.

Abbott said collecting Sacramento’s whiskey bottles really got going in the 1960s, as people dug them up in Old Sacramento and brought them to flea markets and antique stores.

“There used to be good flea markets in Old Sac and in Folsom, but they’re gone now,” he said. “Most of the good stuff is in collections, but you find something every once in a while.”

Abbott said he recently purchased a shot glass collection, hoping to add one of a few missing items to his collection, but he came up empty and plans to sell off the duplicates.

His oldest artifact is a paper sign advertising WM. T. Cutter Jr.’s Whiskey, made in San Francisco in 1862. In excellent condition, it was preserved by the fact that someone used it as backing for a photo and a lithograph in a picture frame.

The sign, he said, is the oldest one known to exist in the west, and he declined to speculate on its value.

“Most of these sorts of things – it’s amazing they survived Prohibition,” Abbott said.

Many of his items are rare. A set of Snow Flake Whiskey bottles includes an example that is one of 15 known to exist. Snow Flake Whiskey, he added, was named after a racehorse.

Smaller bottles, known as “picnic flasks,” or “pumpkin seeds” due to their shape, were produced by six Sacramento companies.

Decorations on the bottles range from paper labels to embossing, where the name of the distributor is shaped in the glass.

Several years ago, Abbott expanded his collection to include beer glasses and memorabilia, and he has numerous artifacts from the Buffalo Brewing Company and Ruhstaller Beer, a brand recently reintroduced to Sacramento.

From a historian’s perspective, Burg said, it’s interesting to see everyday artifacts used in times past.

“It’s something that is identified with an experience people can relate to,” he said. “It’s the idea of the history of everyday life, rather than thinking of history as a series of dates and important people doing important things. History is also made up of regular people doing regular things.”

Today, for example, if someone goes to a restaurant, being handed a plastic tip tray with a bill on it is common. The only change from 100 years ago is that, in the past, the tip tray might have been a painted metal tray made in Germany – worth several hundred dollars on today’s market.

Abbott said collectors collect for a variety of reasons, including interest in history or as an investment. Some, he said, enjoy knowing they have something other collector’s don’t.

For Abbott, however, the draw is mostly decoration.

“I like the look of the stuff,” he said. “Plus, it’s a lot more manly than collecting china or something.”

Those interested in antique saloon ware can see more of it at the upcoming 34th annual bottle show and sale put on by the 49er Historical Bottle Association in Auburn Friday and Saturday.

Those interested in learning more about Sacramento’s beer history can view the KVIE documentary “On Tap” here.

Brandon Darnell is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press. Follow him on Twitter @Brandon_Darnell.

A walk in Alkali Flat is a step back in time

2011-11-05T03:04:58Z

Alkali Flat is the oldest standing residential neighborhood in Sacramento, with homes and businesses that date back to the early 1850s. The story of Alkali Flat is etched in the constantly shifting cultural and socioeconomic climate and the homes and buildings themselves.

Alkali Flat is nestled between Midtown and downtown. It lies within the boundaries of H Street and North B Street and extends from Seventh to 13th streets.

I have lived in Alakli Flat with my husband for nearly six months. Curious about the history of the buildings that I walk by regularly, I started researching the stories behind the homes and businesses that surround us.

Tom Tolley and James Scott’s book, “Sacramento’s Alkali Flat,” published in 2010, offered me a glimpse into the dynamic history of the neighborhood. I spoke extensively with co-author Tom Tolley about the neighborhood’s past. From this research and expert insight comes this glimpse into the history of Alkali Flat.

“It is a treat and a treasure to have something like the Alkali area so close. The unique architectural style and the number of incredible homes that are all in such close proximity makes it a time capsule worth appreciating,” said Tom Tolley, co-author of, “Sacramento’s Alkali Flat.”

I live in a home built in 1865 in the heart of Alkali Flat. It is a Victorian that has been broken up into apartments. My kitchen table slants downward with the tilt of the floors and the single-pane windows look out on old orange trees and the J. Neely Johnson Mansion, formerly home to the fourth governor of California. When we walk up the stairs in the front of our house, they creak with wear, and the vaulted ceilings are of a different age. Charm and history meet in these homes that tell of a time when our city first began.

When my husband and I first started looking for homes in the Midtown and downtown areas, we knew that we wanted to live close to shops and restaurants, but most of all, we wanted to live in a home with character.

We parked at random in Alkali Flat when we started our apartment search and immediately fell in love with the neighborhood. Within the first weeks of living in Alkali Flat, we met our neighbors, who passionately told us about the long history of the area and pointed to the homes that they occupied that date back to the mid-19th century. It was at that point that we knew that we had made a great decision in moving to Alkali Flat.

Alkali Flat is a neighborhood that reveals a part of Sacramento when it was in its formative years. Named for the alkali residue left when the streets used to flood annually before the re-channeling of the American River, Alkali Flat has been a part of this city from the beginning.

Alkali Flat can claim many of the “firsts” of Sacramento. The first African American Church on the West Coast was established in 1850 in Alkali Flat. The first grocery store in Sacramento was built in 1868 at 10th and E streets. Additionally, the Royal Chicano Air Force, first known as the Royal Chicano Art Front, originated in Alkali Flat in the late 1960s. According to Tolley, 1910 was when the last new residence was built in Alkali Flat, all of which reveals the historical significance of this neighborhood.

From J. Neely Johnson, California’s fourth governor, to the Crockers, this neighborhood grew into a neighborhood of the elite in the mid- to late 1800s. Alkali Flat shined with grand Victorian homes and large hospitals and schools.

Some of the original homes and businesses still stand.

The Llewellyn Williams House at 917 H St. was built in 1882. In 1907, the home was turned into a funeral home, and today it serves as a youth hostel.

A photo of the home as it stood in 1895 can be found here.

The S.H. Farley Grocery Store located on the corner of 12th and F streets was built in 1897. Today it serves as a kickboxing studio with apartments above.

A photo of the grocery store in the early 20th century can be found here.

The J. Neely Johnson Mansion was built in 1854 at 1029 F St. and was home to California’s fourth governor. According to Tolley and his co-author, James Scott, the J. Neely Johnson mansion is one of “Alkali’s best-known and oldest-standing structures, built in the Greek Revival style.” Resurgence of classic Greek architecture is termed as the Greek Revival style and was popular in the 19th century.

In 1856, the Isaac Martin Hubbard House was built at 1010 F St. According to “Sacramento’s Alkali Flat,” the home is often called “the castle.” Issac Hubbard and his father were responsible for building the first railroad bridge across the American River, and Hubbard was instrumental in creating America’s first transcontinental telegraph. “The Castle” now serves as law offices.

A walk through the streets of Alkali Flat reveals the beautiful old homes that still stand.

With the rise of the Central Pacific Railroad in the mid-1880s, later the Southern Pacific Railroad, the neighborhood became increasingly industrial.

In the late 19th century, the railroad and Ruhstaller’s brewery were the growing industries in Alkali Flat, Tolley said. By the 20th century Crystal Cream and Butter Co. and Globe Mills were the main industries in the area. Other businesses also started to emerge, such as the Porter-Sprague auto-body business in 1917 and a machine shop in 1925.

With the growing industrialization of Alkali Flat, many of the elite moved out, and the mansions they used to occupy were divided into apartments for the working class. There was an increasing number of Mexican-Americans moving into the neighborhood as well as Irish immigrants.

“By the time the depression hit, the homes were old and needed much repair, but the industries surrounding the area and the close proximity to downtown made for cheap rent,” Tolley said.

Businesses continued to move into the area despite economic hardships. In 1932, Burnett & Sons Lumber Co. opened at 214 11th St., and Yerby Brake Supplies opened in 1949, according to Tolley.

By the 1950s, a spirited Mexican-American community had developed in the neighborhood. In 1969, the Royal Chicano Air Force became one of Alkali Flat’s most dominant and influential groups.

The homes aged, and the neighborhood was in need of restoration from the decades that had passed since the homes had been built.

“By the time the 1970s rolled around, the area was in need of much repair. There were larger numbers of drug houses and gangs, but people came in and started renovating and preserving the homes,” Tolley said.

In 1972, the City Council adopted a redevelopment plan for Alkali Flat. According to the The Sacramento Housing and Redevelopment Agency, between the years 2000 and 2009, $60 million in private and public funding was invested in the neighborhood in an effort to restore its charm and rebuild a sense of safety for locals.

Today, many of the homes have been resuscitated, and preservationists have restored much of the neighborhood to its original grandeur. Alkali Flat remains a place with mixed socioeconomic classes and racial diversity, just as it has been characterized by from the beginning.

Since moving to Alkali Flat, I have learned that the complexities of the neighborhood’s past are extensive. The homes and businesses that remain in the neighborhood tell the story of Sacramento in its early days. The dairies have ceased to exist and railroad workers are no longer the majority of neighborhood’s occupants but the structures that remain from long ago offer a glimpse back in time while the neighborhood continues to develop and change.

Historic Maydestone building opens after renovation

2011-10-13T01:11:06Z

A 100-year-old building on the border of downtown and Midtown Sacramento officially reopened Wednesday after about a year of renovation work in what proponents said is an example of redevelopment at its best.

More than 100 businesspeople, developers, city staff and government officials were present at the opening of the Maydestone building as Mayor Kevin Johnson cut a chain with bolt cutters in a twist on the traditional ribbon-cutting ceremony.

“This is something that we’re very proud of in Sacramento,” Johnson said. “(In 1912, the building) had people that lived upstairs who were architects, it had small businesses, there were waiters and waitresses – it was affordable. You fast-forward 100 years, and it’s doing the exact same thing.”

Sacramento-based D&S Development, Inc., handled the $7 million affordable housing project that includes 32 apartments on four floors as well as a basement common room with recreational and relaxation facilities.

Sacramento Housing and Redevelopment Agency Executive Director La Shelle Dozier said the Maydestone’s redevelopment helps Sacramento give off a positive image.

“(Sacramento) shouldn’t be known for coming out of the Memorial Auditorium and seeing vacant and boarded buildings,” she said. “It should be known for projects like the Maydestone.”

Dozier added that similar projects are under way at La Valentina, the Hotel Berry and the 700 block of K Street.

Speaking as a board member for the Sacramento Municipal Utilities District, Rob Kerth said the building is a model for redevelopment with a green focus, as LED lighting is prevalent, solar panels were installed on the roof, heating and air-conditioning systems are energy-efficient, and even the elevator generates power as it descends.

Bay Miry of D&S Development said it was the Maydestone building that brought the downtown developers into redevelopment work in partnership with CFY Development, Inc. The two businesses are currently working on the massive project on the 700 block of K Street.

Johnson spoke in favor of redevelopment – a controversial funding mechanism whose future is currently being determined in the California Supreme Court.

“When you have double-digit unemployment figures, anything we can do to create jobs, and this project produced 200 jobs,” he said. “This is a win, win, win on all accounts.”

The 32 apartments in the building on the corner of 15th and J streets range in size from 300 to 700 square feet, and Miry said they are currently being rented out, with more than 30 applications already received.

Sixteen units are available at $729 per month, 13 in a range from $800 - $1,300 per month and three at about $1,500 per month.

Where possible, Miry previously told The Sacramento Press, original built-in storage, furniture and flooring was retained, keeping the building true to its historical character.

Brandon Darnell is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press. Follow him on Twitter @Brandon_Darnell.

Historic Home Tour in Marshall School Neighborhood

2011-09-12T19:57:35Z

Sacramento Old City Association 36th Annual Home Tour
What: A tour of 8 historic buildings in the Marshall School neighborhood, and street fair at 27th and J Street.
When: Sunday, September 18, 10:00 AM-4:00 PM
Where: Marshall Park, 27th & J Street, Sacramento
How Much: $20 in advance, $25 day of event

On Sunday, September 18, the Sacramento Old City Association (SOCA) presents its 36th annual tour of historic homes in Sacramento’s central city. Each year, we offer an inside look into the beautiful and historic buildings that line Midtown and Downtown streets, and some of the newest infill development projects in the city. This year’s tour of the Marshall School neighborhood, in the northeastern quarter of the central city between F and J Street, features homes in the Queen Anne, Craftsman and Neoclassic styles. In addition to seven residential buildings, this year's tour includes a rare inside look at the Sacramento Eastern Star Temple, a National Register listed 1925 Romanesque Revival building.

The tour starts at Marshall Park, at the corner of 27th and J Street. A street fair at the park features local contractors, architects, builders and artisans specializing in historic home rehab and remodeling, local businesses, artists and crafters displaying their wares, local nonprofits, advocacy and local history organizations.

Local musicians Tender Cinders, Garage Jazz Architects, The Freebadge Serenaders, and Emile Dalkey will perform at the street fair in the center of Marshall Park, starting at 11:00 AM.

Those attending the tour will get an inside, guided tour through each building, provided by volunteer docents, including members of the Marshall School New Era Park Neighborhood Association, SOCA, and the Sacramento Art Deco Society. Tour participants can also show their tour wristband for a 15% discount in the restaurants of the nearby Sutter District. The tour costs $25 on the day of the event, or $20 in advance via www.brownpapertickets.com. The street fair is free and open to the public.

Started in 1975, the SOCA Home Tour was created to showcase historic homes in neglected central city neighborhoods. Members showed off their home-repair projects and shared techniques, tools and advice. As these neighborhoods became the Sacramento region’s favorite destination for culture and entertainment, the home tour has grown into a celebration of central city life, including art, culture, business, transportation and transit, entertainment, history, downtown living, and the irreplaceable beauty of Sacramento’s historic neighborhoods. The tour is also a fundraiser that helps SOCA carry out its mission to preserve and enhance a high quality of life for Central City residents, businesses, working people and visitors.

Tickets can be purchased online at https://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/187298
For more information about SOCA, visit http://www.sacoldcity.org

Sponsored in part by Midtown Monthly Magazine, The Sutter District restaurants, and Midtown Business Association

Disclosure: William Burg is a board member of the Sacramento Old City Association.

Longtime pastry shop continues to please

2011-08-13T00:47:31Z

Snow cones are a seasonal favorite of the Osaka-Ya pastry shop and market, but it’s taken more than snow cones to keep the shop in business for almost 100 years.

A vestige of Sacramento’s former Japantown, which sat in the area around L, N, Third and Fourth streets, Osaka-Ya still provides traditional Japanese sweets, hot food and other edibles near the corner of 10th and V streets downtown.

“My mom and dad took over this business in 1963,” said owner Linda Nakatani. “A friend gave them the recipe for the snow cone syrup, and they used a hand-crank snow cone machine to shave the ice.”

Her father installed a motor, and the snow cones have been a summer favorite at the business ever since.

On sale from April 1 until whenever the weather gets too cold, there is a line most days at the walk-up window at 2215 V St.

Twelve traditional shaved ice flavors are offered, including cherry, strawberry, orange and vanilla, and a Japanese version is offered as well, which includes azuki beans layered in the shaved ice. If customers want, they can have azuki beans and syrup flavors.

Another popular variation is to have the shaved ice atop a scoop of ice cream.

“We make all of our own syrups here,” Nakatani said. “We have lots of sizes. Some people say our large is as big as a baby’s head.”

Prices range from $2 to $4.25, with four sizes available.

Daryl Leisey, 30, said he has been eating shaved ice from Osaka-Ya since he was about 8 years old.

“I’ve probably been eating those for 20 years, but last year, I really started venturing out into the other things,” he said, standing in line Friday holding a pair of watermelons.

“I get the raspberry mochi for my niece and nephew, too,” he added. “They love the fruit-flavored ones.”

Mochi is a rice cake pastry made from pounded sticky rice and filled with either azuki beans, lima beans or the more-popular peanut butter.

“We mainly specialize in those types of pastries,” Nakatani said. “I enjoy the art of making it and doing it in different styles.”

Special mochi pastries are made for traditional Japanese celebrations, including the Lunar New Year.

Other specialized pastries, such as omanju – a type of cake – are made on Girls’ Day (March 3) and Boys’ Day (May 5), Nakatani said.

Hot foods are served on Fridays and Saturdays, and they consist of Japanese favorites such as spare ribs, Teriyaki rice bowls and oden, a complicated-to-make fish cake.

“We make oden for a lot of the elderly single people who live around here,” Nakatani said. “And we have sushi every day except Sunday and Monday, and we make it here from scratch.”

Betty Nagano, 94, said she has been frequenting the shop for decades, since before Nakatani’s family took over the business.

The omanju drew her and her daughter in on Friday.

“I used to come here before the war, when it was in Japantown,” Nagano said.

Originally from Wyoming, Nagano grew up in Sacramento and kept going to the business through its various moves, including the current spot, where it has been for 14 years.

Japantown was in an upheaval during World War II, when it was illegal for people of Japanese descent to own businesses in many parts of California, said William Burg, president of the Sacramento County Historical Society.

“They were kicked out,” he said. “Essentially, the properties came up for sale during World War II, and they were fire sale prices. At the same time as the Japanese were sent to internment camps, African Americans working in waterfront industries bought the properties.”

After the war, the area around 10th and V streets became a sort of substitute for the old Japantown.

In the mid-1950s, the West End was the densest part of the city, but the residents had to move when the Capitol Mall area was reconstructed. The building of Interstate 5 wiped out the remains of the area in the 1960s.

“The Latinos went to Alkali Flat, the African Americans went to Oak Park and the rest of the Japanese went to Southside,” Burg said.

Over the years, Osaka-Ya has managed to stay in business under the same name.

Nakatani said the recession has made business tough, but she hopes to be able to keep going and possibly hand it over to her sons one day.

Her boys, ages 9 and 11, come into the pastry shop and help out from time to time, but after about 10 minutes, they get bored, she said with a laugh.

Leisey, who still buys snow cones at the street-front window after 22 years, said there’s a reason he keeps coming back.

“They’re always friendly,” he said. “It’s a great place to come, and they’ve got a lot of things for a small place.”

Brandon Darnell is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press. Follow him on Twitter @Brandon_Darnell.

Equality Action NOW Applauds Signing of the Ending of DADT

2011-07-23T02:20:27Z

Friday, members of the newly elected Board of Directors of Equality Action NOW announced their elation about the signing of the certification by President Obama that all branches of the U.S. Military are fully ready for the end of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell and the long-standing policy of kicking perfectly good solders out of service just because of their sexual orientation.

Ken Pierce, Chairman of the Board of Directors sent this statement on behalf of Equality Action NOW. “Our organization has always led the way in speaking out about civil rights and the fair treatment of all. With the signing of this very important certificate LGBT people can now lift their heads high and be even more proud of serving our country. We know gays and lesbians have always served and died to keep us free and it is past time that they can do so without lying about themselves and who they love. In 60 days this country will be just a little closer to what our founding fathers intended us to become.”

“As a US Navy veteran and from a military family I can truly say that I am proud of President Obama's decision to sign to end the military ban on its members who may not be heterosexual. Vihil Heather Vigil, Vice-Chairperson went on the say, “I experienced the loss of too many friends and colleagues in the military, not from losing their lives on the battle field, but from losing their respect as a member of the military based on sexual orientation discrimination and receiving a dishonorable discharge. I wonder now will those individuals receive their honor?”

Board member Enrique E. Manjarrez exclaimed, “Today we have taken another step closer to full equality. As someone who knows personally the unfairness that DADT inflicted on the people who served our country bravely, I am glad to see that it has finally come to an end. I commend the pentagon, President Obama, and the men and women of the US Military for their embrace of social change, and the evolution of our backward policies. This is also an embodiment of the freedoms that the US military fight for on a daily basis to ensure justice and liberty for all people.”

Emily Bender, EAN Treasurer said, “We begin a 60-day countdown toward achieving equality in the treatment of our soldiers...those who have defended our country for decades. It is now our turn to stand up and defend them.”

As a mental health professional, Nicola Simmerbach said, “A big wrong in American history has been righted. LGBT service members can let us look them in the eye and say ‘thank you for your service to our country’. There are not "LGBT" or "straight" soldiers anymore; there are just Equal soldiers. We can't forget their spouses, however, who still need to receive the full equality all service spouses deserve.”

Concerning the recent signing of the FAIR Education Act, author of “In Celebration of Harvey Milk”, teacher and Equality Action NOW board member, Angela F. Luna wrote, “The burial of DADT has been long overdue. This heinous sort of discrimination toward LGBT military members who unselfishly serve our country is history. Thankfully, we will be able to teach that part of American history to students in public schools in order to ensure it never happens again."

Equality Action NOW Youth Spokesperson and member of the board, Benancio Garza (20) said, “Having a policy that dishonorably discharges gay men and lesbian women is just as bad as slavery, and the ‘old unequal’ women's rights. It also went against the First Amendment, of freedom of speech, and expression. I know there will be more youth who will consider military service now that they can serve openly.”

Tina Reynolds, co-founder and Executive Director of EAN wrote, "The long awaited repeal of antiquated thinking - thank you for doing the right thing, President Obama!"

For more information about Equality Action NOW, visit their website at: http://www.EqualityActionNOW.org.

"The Greenest Building" Film Showing at Crest Theatre July 25

2011-07-18T06:55:43Z

What: The Greenest Building Documentary Film, followed by a panel discussion on the connections between historic preservation, green building and economic sustainability.
When: Monday, July 25 at 7:00 PM – 9:00 PM (Movie 7:00 PM, discussion panel 8:00 PM)
Where: The Crest Theatre, 1013 K Street, Sacramento
How Much: Free!

Over the next 20 years, Americans will demolish one third of our existing building stock (over 82 billion square feet) in order to replace seemingly inefficient buildings with energy efficient “green” structures. Is demolition in the name of sustainability really the best use of natural, social, and economic resources? Or, like the urban renewal programs of the 1960’s, is this well-intentioned planning with devastating environmental and cultural consequences?

On Monday, July 25th, “The Greenest Building,” a new hour-long documentary by Eugene, Oregon film producer Jane Turville, will be screened at the Crest Theatre, 1013 K Street, Sacramento. The film presents a compelling overview of the important role building reuse plays in creating sustainable communities. Narrated by David Ogden Stiers, “The Greenest Building” explores the myth that a “green building” is a new building and demonstrates how renovation and adaptive reuse of existing structures fully achieves the sustainability movement’s “triple bottom line” - economic, social, and ecological balance. The film reveals: (a) how reuse and reinvestment in the existing built environment leads to stronger local economies that can compete on a global scale, (b) that sense of place and collective memory, while intangible, are critical components of strong sustainable communities, and (c) the direct correlation between reuse of existing buildings and a significant reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, degradation of the natural environment and overuse of precious natural resources.

If you are interested in buildings, community development, sustainable communities or just plain want to find out if existing buildings really are worth keeping, plan to attend this special event. “The Greenest Building” starts at 7:00 pm. The panel discussion starts at 8:00 PM, and will feature Matt Piner of Pinerworks Architecture, Roberta Deering, LEED AP BD+C, Senior Planner for Historic Preservation, City of Sacramento Community Development Department, Bay Miry of D&S Development, Ray Nalangan of SMUD, Susan Rainier, AIA, LEED AP, of USGBC and UC Davis, and Craig Hausman, AIA, Hausman Architecture. This panel will help relate the ideas presented in the film the film to recently completed and upcoming preservation projects in Sacramento.

From the film's website:

"At the start of “The Greenest Building” narrator David Ogden-Stiers poses the question “Might it be that the greenest building is the one that is already there?” The answer at the end of the film is true for buildings, as well as all consumer products – “Reuse is key to triple-bottom-line sustainability.” Why? When we reuse any consumer product, whether it be a plastic milk jug or a ten story building, we automatically reduce our consumption of natural resources as well as recycle that item either for its original purpose or for a new purpose. An item doesn’t necessarily have to change physically (as in plastic bottles into carpet) in order to be recycled. In fact, synonyms for “recycle” include “reprocess”, “salvage”, “recover”, and “reuse”. In building reuse, it’s often called “adaptive reuse.”"--Jane Turville, producer

This film is presented by the Sacramento Old City Association (SOCA) in conjunction with Wagging Tale Productions and the assistance of the Crest Theatre.

For more information, visit http://www.sacoldcity.org or www.thegreenestbuildingmovie.com.

The Sacramento Old City Association promotes actions that preserve and enhance a high quality of life for Central City residents, businesses, working people and visitors. The organization works to achieve balanced and harmonious relationships among residential, commercial and employment uses in the Central City.

Disclosure: William Burg is a board member of the Sacramento Old City Association.

We Won the Vote! 100 Years of Equal Suffrage in CA Exhibit Inspires

2011-07-11T17:04:58Z

“Freedom has not come as a gift, but as a triumph.” –Alice Paul

The 1911 victory for California women made California the sixth state to win equal suffrage for women. The California win doubled the number of women who could vote in the United States, building electoral power and support for the 1920 passing of the 19th amendment, which would give all women in the country the right to vote.

The Sacramento History Museum has unveiled a unique and wonderfully elaborate exhibition detailing the long struggle women fought to win the vote, not only in California but in all of the United States, aptly titled “We Won the Vote! 100 years of Equal Suffrage in California.”

The exhibit displays true gems of a different time, including original letters from Susan B. Anthony, original artwork by Selina Solomons, a variety of women’s suffrage posters and many examples of anti-suffrage paraphernalia, which, from a modern perspective, seems humorous in its stereotypically pre-feminist ideology, but it serves as an important reminder of where modern day society has come from. One such example, a vintage valentine, affectionately inscribed, “Some long for votes & women’s rights, and shout with great ado; I’d be content with a cozy home, a fireside, and you.”

As you make your way through the many displays, you are faced with pictures of early feminist heroes: Alice Paul, Lucretia Mott, Elizabeth Cady-Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, Sojourner Truth and many others. An original photograph from the Seneca Falls Convention of 1848 hangs in a case, immortalizing the women who began the over-70-year struggle to gain the right to vote. It is alongside original pamphlets, banners, sashes and buttons which accessorize the display beautifully.

While the entire exhibition is inspiring, perhaps the most moving displays are the audio bits from movement greats Helen Valeska Bary, general secretary for the Political Equality League of California during the 1910-1911 campaign; Jesse Haven Butler, investigator for the U.S. Department of Labor; Miriam Allen de Ford, a soap-box speaker from Philadelphia; and Ernestine Hara Kettler, arrested for picketing in front of the White House in 1917.

The recollections of the movement, told by voices affected by time, spoken by women who truly dedicated their lives to a movement, and in some cases martyred themselves for the cause, leave quite an impression.

This exhibition should serve not only as a visual history of the women’s suffrage movement, but also as a reminder that the freedoms we enjoy today and oftentimes take for granted, were won by the hard work and organization of many, the dedication of lives and truly the blood, sweat and tears of our foremothers and forefathers. See for yourself and be inspired.

The We Won the Vote exhibition will be on display at the Sacramento History Museum through mid-September and will then move to the State Capital Museum, where it will be on display from Oct. 1 to Sept. 30, 2012.

Revamping Old Sacramento

2011-06-24T02:15:09Z

Wednesday evening, the Department of Parks and Recreation presented plans to expand Old Sacramento’s excursion train and further explore the underground ruins to provide visitors a more exciting learning experience of the Gold Rush, commerce and river transportation. The preliminary general plan for Old Sacramento State Historic Park would span 20 years.

The project is currently set to develop the Front Street area between J and I streets.

Capital District Superintendent of Capital District State Museums and Historic Parks Catherine Taylor explained that the project will educate visitors on the Gold Rush era. The underground ruins will feature active archaeological digs and exhibits and the above street level will showcase the reconstructed buildings of the 1860s and 1870s.

The plan also includes waterfront development, in which the existing sunken ship will be lit up for viewing. Taylor said they would also like to bring in a 19th- or 20th-century ship that can be docked in the area and/or have a water taxi for tours. She said that each of these exhibits would be a great way to allow people to reconnect with the river.

Taylor said they want to expand the excursion train operation to the Hood neighborhood.

Upon completion, there would be two train rides. The first would run from Old Sacramento to the Sacramento Zoo, stopping at the Crocker Art Museum, Miller Park and the town of Baths. The second would begin in the Pocket/Meadowview area and extend into Hood and would include a Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta trip with dinner or brunch or other themed excursion rides.

Several Planning Commission members applauded the presentation, including Anna Molander, who said, “It is a fantastic vision and I can’t wait to see it implemented.”

Taylor and Allen Folks, AECOM planning consultant for the project, said they want to finalize the plan by spring of 2012.

The general plan has been in the works since the summer of 2010.

Taylor and Folks told the Planning Commission that they have worked hard to incorporate the voices and opinions of the local community, especially those directly affected by the potential changes to the area.

Since last October, three public workshops were held to gather input.

Folks said that during those workshops, the public expressed support for the Gold Rush, transportation and commerce themes, but were also concerned about the physical adjustments being done to the area.

The plan will therefore address issues such as bike trail improvements and minimal use of trains through the Land Park and South Land Park neighborhoods, he said.

The preliminary plan will now go through public review once more before being submitted for approval by City Council.

For more information on the project, click here.

Empress Hornblower sails into the past

2011-06-13T04:35:37Z

About 250 formally and historically dressed guests gathered at the L Street Dock on Front Street in support of the preservation and exploration of Sacramento’s historical legacy Friday evening. Under the guidance of the Historic Old Sacramento Foundation, party-goers traveled through the 1850s, 1960s and back to the present on the Empress Hornblower along the Sacramento River for the hour-long cruise Casino Royale on the River: Where Old Sacramento Meets Monte Carlo.

This was the second year HOSF had hosted the event to raise funds for its educational and interpretive programs, including the historical exhibitions in the Sacramento History Museum on I Street.

Last year the event was held on the Delta King, and while “the whole thing was a hoot and wonderful success,” the foundation wanted to spice things up a bit, deputy director Kristina Swanson said. Not only did this year’s vessel allow for about 100 more passengers, it provided people with the wonderful experience of a leisurely ride down the river that started the city of Sacramento.

As guests made their way to the boat, they were encouraged to spin a wheel for prizes before being warmly greeted by the captain and crew. Upon entering the ship, they were immediately transported into an 1850s casino room with the help of the live folksy music of Claudia’s Kitchen.

With feathers, petticoats and top hats abound, several members of the Old Sacramento Living History Program were fully dressed in authentic 1850s garb, manning the floor and at least 14 gaming tables. Set both port and starboard, the volunteer gang was more than ready to help guests gamble away their complimentary bag of playing chips.

Not only did the members look the part, they acted it as well. At the Faro card table, working women Flora “Lily of the West” and Miss Bud, “A Flower-in-Training,” refused to leave character. With Derringer pistols visibly placed in their bosoms, anyone could see this was serious play.

Flora reported having to pull her piece out on a cheating party-goer, and Miss Bud wasn’t too shy either, threatening another guest who dared to question the “period appropriateness” of her husband’s costume.

After a bit of nudging and lots of winning on their part, the two women revealed themselves as Catherine Hanson, Flora, and Mary Aye, Bud, and discussed their passion for history, especially Sacramento’s. Hanson works for the California State Library in the history section, and Aye is a docent, leading local school groups on historical tours.

“History is so important, especially that of Sacramento’s,” Aye said. “You really need to learn about the past to know where you’re headed. Most people don’t realize it, especially these days with the focus on standardized testing topics, but Sacramento was such an important part in the development of the West Coast and America.”

If party-goers needed a break from the excitement downstairs, they went up to the second floor, with specially-made Gold Rush drinks in hand, to where James Bond-themed cuisine awaited them. While guests were served hors d'oeuvres on all levels, here they could feast on “The Man with the Golden Bun” mini-burgers and “Aston Martini Mashed Potatoes,” while bidding on various displayed auction items.

As guests finished emptying their pockets and filling their stomachs, they were able to dance their way up the stairs and back into the present day to more contemporary tunes spun by a live DJ on the third floor. On the rooftop, guests were able to take advantage of the warm weather, slight breeze and gorgeous view of Sacramento as the boat glided along the Sacramento River during sunset.

Executive director Marcia Eymann, explained how the boat ride is both a fun experience and great way to remind and share with people how important the Sacramento River is to the history of the city.

“Location, location, location,” Eymann said. “Outside of Sacramento’s part in the Gold Rush, because of this river, Sacramento was and is such an important part of history. For example, historically speaking, because of the river, Sacramento was once San Francisco’s No. 1 trading partner, as well as the ‘fruit basket’ of America.”

Prior to the ship’s voyage, VIP ticket holders, which included a number of former and current elected officials and local dignitaries, attended a reception at the Sacramento History Museum, where Former Mayor Burnett Miller was honored as the first ‘007 Hero of Historic Old Sacramento’ for his continued contribution to the preservation and development of the area.

After the honoree was roasted and toasted by a few of his friends and colleagues, Miller talked to The Sacramento Press about his investment in the history of Sacramento.

“Myself, my father, my grandfather, great-grandfather and great-great-grandfather all lived in Sacramento,” Miller said. “So there is obviously a personal interest, but mostly I’m invested because I enjoy it so much.”

“The history of Sacramento is important, and people of Sacramento should be invested, if not because of that, then simply because it is their community and thus their history.”

The Historic Old Sacramento Foundation has been providing historical programming for Sacramento since 1985.

For more information on their mission and various events and programs, check out their site.

Photos by event photographer Tia Gemmell, Riverview Media Photography

Rebirth of Marshall School in Midtown

2011-05-10T19:14:41Z

“Well you roll on roads over fresh green grass. For your lorry loads pumping petrol gas. And you make them long, and you make them tough. But they just go on and on, and it seems that you can’t get off…

Well you’ve cracked the sky, scrapers fill the air. But will you keep on building higher til there’s no more room up there? …

I know we’ve come a long way, Were changing day to day, But tell me, where do the children play?”

Cat Stevens

In the rush to make Sacramento a big city we seem to concentrate on the expanding bars, restaurants, basketball arena, high rises, and other superficial aspects of a big city. We forget that key components to a successful revitalized city are the children and good schools.

A major step to bringing good schools back to downtown occurred last Saturday at Old Marshall School at 28th and G Streets. The California Montessori Project, Capitol Campus, a public charter grade school, had a ceremonial march of over 250 students, parents and neighbors from their old leased space at Pioneer Congregational Church at 28th and L Streets to their new home at Historic Marshall School at 28th and G Streets.

Marshall School, built in 1903 and designed by Rudolph Harold, a locally prominent architect who designed City Hall, was used as a grade school until 1976. In the 1960s and 70s, the great exodus of families from the central city led to the conversion of Marshall School into an adult school. Gradually, as pioneer restoration people began to return to the central city in the 1980s with their families, changing attitudes about living in Midtown, Metro Square and other housing developments began to set the foundation for bringing the school back to Midtown.

On August 17, Old Marshall Adult School will be reborn again into a quality grade school, renamed to California Montessori Project, Capitol Campus at Historic Marshall. This historic moment is brought into perspective if we consider that the establishment of a public grade school in the central city is the first in 70 years.

Let’s take this opportunity in the economic recession to reestablish our priorities and make sure we make room for children in our city’s growth. If we ignore this critical element we will fail.

Editor's note: This article was temporarily removed and reposted again. All reposted articles appear at the top of the story feed.

"Jane's Walk" Urban Planning Walks

2011-05-04T05:27:47Z

Sacramento Jane’s Walk 2011: Saturday, May 7 and Sunday, May 8

Jane’s Walk USA is a series of free neighborhood walking tours that helps put people in touch with their environment and with each other, by bridging social and geographic gaps and creating a space for cities to discover themselves. Since its inception in 2007, Jane’s Walk has happened in cities across North America, and is growing internationally. Sacramento’s Jane’s Walk series incorporates elements of urban planning, neighborhood advocacy, urban history, and architectural history, to demonstrate how a neighborhood’s physical form promotes its walkability, sustainability and economic and social vitality. All tours are free of charge; show up at the starting point at the designated time in comfortable walking shoes. No RSVP is necessary.

In 2010, Sacramento's first Jane's Walk series took place on May 1 with four simultaneous tours. This year, five total tours are being held over two days; except for the Oak Park and Southside Park tours, the tours are held at different times, so people can attend more than one.

Sacramento Jane’s Walk Schedule

Saturday, May 7

Alkali Flat
10 AM – Noon
Tour Guide: Luis Sumpter, Sacramento Old City Association Board Member
Starting Point: Shine Coffee, 1400 E Street
SOCA and Alkali Flat Neighborhood Association board member Luis Sumpter will lead a tour of Sacramento’s oldest surviving residential neighborhood, Alkali Flat. This tour will visit local architectural landmarks, neighborhood businesses, adaptive reuse projects, and new mixed-use projects under construction.

Midtown
2 PM – 4 PM
Tour Guide: William Burg, Sacramento Old City Association Board Member
Starting Point: Mondo Bizarro, 1827 I Street
William Burg, historian and author of Sacramento’s Streetcars, will guide this tour of Midtown’s mixed-use business corridors and adjacent residential neighborhoods, from the days of Sutter through the streetcar era to the present day. The tour will focus on walkability, transit, mixed-use neighborhoods, and Midtown’s legacy as a regional epicenter of creativity and art.

Sunday, May 8

Southside Park
10 AM-Noon
Tour Guide: William Burg, Sacramento Old City Association Board Member
Starting Point: Callahan Bandstand, 7th and T Street, Southside Park
William Burg, historian and author of Sacramento’s Southside Park, will lead this tour, focusing on the neighborhood’s rich cultural diversity, transportation, landscape and urban design, neighborhood activism, and adaptation to changing neighborhood roles.

Central Oak Park Walking Tour
10 AM-Noon
Tour Guide: Tom Sumpter, Oak Park Neighborhood Association
Starting Point: Guild Theater, 2828 35th Street
Neighborhood activist Tom Sumpter will lead a tour of Oak Park’s historic business district along Broadway and nearby landmarks, designed by Sacramento State geography professor Robin Datel and using a tour brochure published by the Center for Sacramento History.

Downtown: From the Railroad Tracks to the Civic Center
2 PM – 4 PM
Tour Guide: Melisa Gaudreau, Sacramento Heritage Inc. Board Member
Starting Point: Sacramento City Hall, 915 I Street
Historic architect Melisa Gaudreau will lead a tour of downtown Sacramento, focusing on Sacramento Heritage Inc.’s new tour of the Civic Center area along H, I and J Street between the historic Southern Pacific passenger depot and City Hall.

About Jane’s Walks
Jane’s Walk USA honors the legacy and ideas of urban activist and writer Jane Jacobs who championed the interests of local residents and pedestrians over a car-centered approach to planning. Jane’s Walk USA helps knit people together into a strong and resourceful community, instilling belonging and encouraging civic leadership.

All Jane’s Walk USA tours are given and taken for free. These walks are led by anyone who has an interest in the neighborhoods where they live, work or hang out. They are not always about architecture and heritage, and offer a more personal take on the local culture, the social history and the planning issues faced by the residents. Jane Jacobs believed strongly that local residents understood best how their neighborhood works, and what is needed to strengthen and improve them. Jane’s Walks are meant to be fun, engaged and participatory – everyone’s got a story and they’re usually keen to share it.

Thousands of people have taken part in a Jane’s Walk USA. Past walks have explored a wide range of urban landscapes, from social housing slated for redevelopment to areas with a rich architectural and cultural heritage, to teen hangouts and secret gardens. Walks are led by individuals and small groups. Some are focused around historical themes more than geographical areas, for instance, some strolls have been built around ideas like the history of the bicycle, gay and lesbian history, places of relevance to the homeless, the history of ‘skid row’, and urgent planning matters facing certain neighborhoods.

About the Sacramento Old City Association
The Sacramento Old City Association promotes actions that preserve and enhance a high quality of life for Central City residents, businesses, working people and visitors. The organization works to achieve balanced and harmonious relationships among residential, commercial and employment uses in the Central City. To achieve these goals the Sacramento Old City Association works to:

•Increase public awareness of the irreplaceable historic, architectural and cultural resources of the Central City
•Gather and disseminate information useful in the preservation of structures and neighborhoods of Sacramento.
•Advocate the policies and positions of the organization to the appropriate public agencies and private parties.
•Build and strengthen coalitions with other organizations working to achieve similar goals.
•Promote a quality urban environment through the encouragement of compatibly designed and constructed housing, commercial and office buildings.

For More Information about Jane's Walk or the Sacramento Old City Association:

http://www.sacoldcity.org
http://janeswalkusa.wordpress.com/

Disclosure: William Burg is a board member of the Sacramento Old City Association.

Panel to Explore California’s Political Gridlock

2011-04-27T20:15:07Z

On Wednesday, May 4th, the Center for Sacramento History, in association with the Sacramento History Foundation, will host a panel discussion with the authors of the recent book, Remaking California: Reclaiming the Public Good. The panel will delve into the causes of California’s governmental gridlock, the effects on its citizens and environment, and prospects for restoring a healthy democracy. The event, Remaking California: Breaking Political Gridlock, will be held at the Jean Runyon Little Theater in Memorial Auditorium (1515 J Street, Sacramento); doors open at 6:30 p.m. and the presentation begins at 7:00 p.m. The event is open to the public; a $5.00 donation is requested at the door.

The panel includes: Dr. Jeffrey Lustig, emeritus professor of government, California State University, Sacramento; Dan Walters, political columnist for the Sacramento Bee; Lenny Goldberg, executive director of the California Tax Reform Association; and Osha Meserve, a Sacramento attorney specializing in environmental matters.

The speakers will examine the problems of how California is governed – from the constraints of the state’s current constitution and the implications of Proposition 13, to the ails of the Delta and the challenge of meeting the needs of a diverse population. The evening will shed light on why reforming California state governance is important; how it should be done, and why Sacramentans should care about these issues.

The authors will sign copies of the book, Remaking California, at the conclusion of the presentation. The book will be available for purchase that evening; cost is $15.00, cash or check only please.

This project was made possible by financial support from the Sacramento History Foundation and the Sacramento Convention Center. For more information please call (916) 808-7072 or visit www.centerforsacramentohistory.org.

CSH’s mission is to foster, stimulate, and promote the study and appreciation of Sacramento’s regional history. Since 1953, it has served the community by acquiring, preserving, exhibiting, and providing access to the documentary and material culture of the region. CSH is administered by the City of Sacramento and is jointly funded by the City and County of Sacramento.

Local Roots Food Tours offers an opportunity to experience Sacramento's culinary scene and learn about the city's historical roots

2011-03-31T05:20:16Z

Sacramento’s Local Roots Food Tours are a fun way to experience Sacramento’s culinary scene by sampling different restaurants and learning new recipes, like homemade pasta noodles.

The tours began in February, and were created by Lisa Armstrong who is the owner and only tour guide at the moment.

“My first experience on a food tour was in Seattle,” Armstrong said. “After coming home from Seattle I couldn’t stop thinking about how much fun I had and what a great idea it would be to put together a tour for a city like Sacramento.”

At 11:15 a.m. on a Tuesday, Armstrong conducted her first official three hour tour with a group that included eight people.

“We are hoping to attract anyone who likes to eat, who likes to have fun meeting people: chefs, store owners and individuals who would like to learn more about the culture of Sacramento,” Armstrong said.

The group started the tour with a meet-and-greet at César Chávez Park in front of the fountain.

After introductions, Armstrong announced that the group would be sampling foods from seven different locations including Shine Coffeehouse, Sugar and Spice Speciality Desserts, Sampino’s Towne Foods and 524 Mexican Restaurant.

“Our tour locations vary anywhere from a farm-to-table upscale restaurant to a small and special bistro to a funky coffeehouse off the beaten path to a mom and pop deli market,” Armstrong said.

The second location was 524 Mexican Restaurant on 12th Street, where owner Jose Gomez served the tourists Albondigas, a fresh daily soup with meatballs, potatoes, carrots, tomatoes and rice in a tomato broth.

“This restaurant is over 100 years old, and a lot of the recipes are from the 1950s,” Gomez said.

In addition to 524, the tour also stopped at Sugar and Spice Specialty Desserts on F and 10th streets.

Carissa Jones, who owns the bakery, allowed the tourists to sample chocolate-covered mints and cream puffs.

“I started this bakery because it’s a great opportunity to offer people something other than just cakes,” Jones said.

The tour also includes several different historical neighborhoods such as Alkali Flat and Mansion Flats.

“We pause here and there to talk about a particular house or some funky fact about a person who lived in the home at some point,” Armstrong said.

The Sterling Hotel, Charles Lai Mansion, Sacramento International Hostel, Hubbard-Upson House and the Governor’s Mansion are just a few of the historical homes that are a part of the tour.

“George Pardee was the first governor who lived in the mansion,” Armstrong said. “It was built in 1877 and is now being used by the state and public for ceremonies and events.”

Armstrong said she received most of the historical information from the Sacramento Room located within Sacramento’s Central Library where she spent several hours of researching and reading publications. She also was able to find some history by talking with the locals in the communities where the tours pass through.

“Now I know about places I can go to when I come to Sacramento,” said guest Anne Winbush, who lives in Lathrop, but works in Sacramento.

“My favorite stop was Ambrosia Café I liked the southern red velvet cupcake samples. They were delicious and are one of my favorite cakes.”

Armstrong said that Local Roots Food Tours works closely with local farms, vineyards, orchards and businesses that promote farm-to-table food in their restaurants and supports other local businesses.

Tours are conducted every week on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays, but will be expanded by this summer to offer more times and days.

“We plan on offering food tours in Midtown, as well as local farms and vineyards in the upcoming months” Armstrong said.

Tickets are $58 and can be purchased here.

The next tour will be on Saturday, April 2, at 11:15 a.m.

Photo essay: Tequila Museo Mayahuel; soft opening Friday

2011-03-30T05:06:49Z

Monday night, a huge Dia de los Muertos caricature welcomed guests to Tequila Museo Mayahuel on 12th and K streets.

Inside, sugar skulls, candles and marigolds transformed the new tequila museum and restaurant into a Dia de Los Muertos party, called “Subterraneo” put on by Jose Cuervo Tradicional tequila.

The party was a sneak preview of the not-yet-open Tequila Museo Mayahuel. Only those in the restaurant and bar industry were invited.

Jose Cuervo Tradicional is touring cities around the country with the Dia de los Muertos party and selected Sacramento to host Monday’s event.

According to Gina Castillo, tequila ambassador for Jose Cuervo and Don Julio Northern California, Tequila Museo Mayahuel was chosen because Sacramento is an important tequila market and it’s a brand new restaurant that has a tequila museum in it.

This is the first time Jose Cuervo Tradicional has hosted an event in Sacramento.

“(Mayahuel is) a place that’s going to stick to Mexican culture and since Dia de los Muertos is such a Mexican holiday, we wanted to make sure that we had it in a place that made sense,” Castillo said.

Some of Sacramento’s restaurateurs came to check out the new K Street restaurant and bar, including Ali Mackani, owner of Lounge on 20; Billy Ngo, owner of Kru and Red Lotus Kitchen & Bar; and Andrea Martin, who owns Bulls.

TJ Bruce, who owns Badlands and Hot Rods, was also there and said he was enjoying the party.

“It is very rustic. The food is wonderful,” he said. “It’s very clubby. I think a restaurant would do well (having) a club” atmosphere while it was serving food.

“I have a feeling it’s going to be a lot more low-key” normally, he added.

Small bites, or bocadillos, were served from the menu, including

Bruchetas de Rajas con Crema (french bread slices topped with strips of poblano chiles marinated in sour cream);
Dobladitas de Camaron y Queso Manchego (tortillas stuffed with shrimp and ricotta cheese sautéed with onions);
Molletitos de Chorizo y Queso Monterrey (baguette with black refried beans and chorizo and crumbled cheese);
Brochetas de Pollo y Nopal al Guajillo (chicken with cactus, Guajillo chile and mushrooms);
Tostaditas de Chile Ancho y Nopales (tostadas with Ancho chiles, guacamole and cactus);
Tostaditas de Tinga de Pollo (shredded chicken breast cooked in chipotle sauce, served on a tostada);
Panuchos de Cochinita Pibil (pulled pork that’s been cooked in Ancho chiles and citrus sauce on a soft tortilla with refried black beans).

For dessert, they served Mosaico de Flan de Chile Ancho (flan with pasillo peppers) and a mango mousse cake.

Nate Radabaugh, David Tyler and George Boeger came all the way from Chico to see Tequila Museo Mayahuel.

Radabaugh and Tyler said they do security for Chico’s Normal Street Bar, which Boeger owns.

“This is my first time in Sacramento,” Radabaugh said. “It’s a great city – a walking city – I didn’t know what to expect. I like the celebration.”

On display behind the bar were hand-painted Jose Cuervo Reserva de la Familia tequila boxes.

“Each box is different – different artist, different art,” Mayahuel owner Ernesto Delgado said. “They hired a Mexican artist to paint their box, and each year, they select a new artist to paint the box, and now it’s a series.”

The tequila boxes are the current display for the “museo” (museum) part of the restaurant. The history and culture of tequila will continue to be reflected in the rotating exhibits planned for Mayahuel.

“The idea is that the whole place is going to function and work like a museum,” Delgado said. “(The) one (behind the bar) is obviously the main exhibit, but throughout the entire restaurant we’ll have different exhibits on different walls that will coordinate with events, programs, venues (and) tastings.”

The exhibits will rotate every three months or so, he said.

Bartenders stayed busy serving specialty drinks, which included Trad Fresco, made of Tradicional Silver, simple syrup, grapefruit juice, muddled cucumber and mint leaves; Paloma Mayahuel, which mixed Tradicional Silver, grapefruit juice, agave syrup, lime juice, seltzer water and a pinch of salt; El Beso Ardiente, made of Tradicional Silver, agave syrup, lime juice, Serrano pepper and muddled pepper wheels; and others.

El Beso Ardiente means "the fiery kiss," according to Castillo.

Nicole Novoa, an analyst for the California Department of Consumer Affairs, said she came Monday because she is friends with the restaurant’s manager, Javier Valdez.

When asked what she thought of Mayahuel, she said, “It’s different from what I’ve seen. It doesn’t compare.... It’s culturally diverse. It has a really good ambiance.”

More than 200 people took part in the celebration throughout the night, according to Delgado.

DJ Alex Trujillo and DJ Will Rodriguez played music all night, getting the Day of the Dead caricatures on the dance floor along with many painted faces in the crowd.

Delgado said Tuesday that he was very pleased with the event.

“I personally loved it. It was a great reflection of what I’m trying to showcase – the culture.... Dia de los Muertos is a day of appreciating the past with the present – the people that have been here – their life and history. In Mexico, we celebrate our past by celebrating the deaths of people that were close to us,” he said.

The grand opening of Tequila Museo Mayahuel is scheduled for the weekend of Cinco de Mayo. However, the restaurant and bar will be open well before that, with a soft opening at 3 p.m. Friday. Delgado said they will serve small plates and a limited cocktail menu.

Tequila Museo Mayahuel is located at 1200 K St. For more information, read Suzanne Hurt’s recent article here or Brandon Darnell’s original article here.

Photos by Chris Brune and Colleen Belcher.

Review: Eight Views of the Tower Bridge

2011-03-10T07:11:43Z

Sacramento City College's theater department, City Theatre, presents a program of eight short plays at the West Sacramento Community Center "Black Box" Theatre, at 1075 West Capitol Boulevard. The plays all center on Sacramento's iconic Tower Bridge, ranging from the historic to the fantastic.

Because the City College's campus theater is currently undergoing renovation, they have moved their 2011 program to the "Black Box" Theatre, a new facility in West Sacramento. This location provides a most fitting setting for plays with this subject--chances are good that those who attend will cross over or pass within view of the Tower Bridge on the way to the theater.

Eight playwrights composed short one-act plays inspired by the bridge, but each evening is just half of the total program, with four plays per night--Program A and Program B. This review is of Program B (I didn't get a chance to see Program A.)

"Fishing on the Sacramento River", the first play of Program B, introduces the audience to the history of the Tower Bridge via a family fishing together within sight of the bridge. The family's patriarch tells stories of when he worked on the bridge and details of its inaugural day, while his family alternately battles, bonds and tries to catch a fish.

"The Mason Jar" is the story of a group of eccentric friends on a short trip to the Tower Bridge to pay tribute to an old friend, and on the way, make a new one in an unexpected place.

"The Bridge Committee" is a fantasy explanation of the Tower Bridge's origin, portrayed by a group of strange creatures from beneath the earth's surface, attempting to restore their dwindling powers of levitation.

"Roland of the River" is a day in the life of the Tower Bridge's first bridge operator, and a resident of the nearby riverbank, and the bridge operator's lunch.

All of the plays are comedies, featuring a lot of well-delivered and snappy dialogue and more than a few laughs. The student actors were all quite skilled, and the play seemed without technical flaw--if anyone flubbed a line, they covered it well enough to be unnoticed by the audience. Costumes and props were simple and minimal, relying mostly on the audience's imagination to make up for a junior college props budget, but enhanced by projections of the Tower Bridge on the back wall of the theater. There is some adult language and one simulated gunshot in the production, but nothing particularly shocking. All of the stories were themed around bridging the distances between people--between family members, between friends in conflict with each other, between strangers on the street, and between communities who must work together for a common goal. The Tower Bridge's beauty, classic design, utility and history are all acknowledged and celebrated, but all are secondary to the bridge's purpose--to span a gap, and allow people safe passage to the other side.

This weekend is the last weekend of the play's run: schedule is below.

Eight Views of the Tower Bridge: A Local Playwrights Festival

West Sacramento Community Center Black Box Theatre, 1075 West Capitol Blvd., West Sacramento

Program A: March 11, 8:00 PM, March 12, 2:00 PM

Program B: March 12, 8:00 PM, March 13, 2:00 PM

Tickets are $15 general and $12 discount (student ID, seniors, disabilities and SARTA members) for Friday and Saturday evenings, $13 general and $10 discount for Saturday and Sunday 2 PM matinees.

http://www.sacramento365.com/event/detail/441129192/Local_Playwrights_FestivalTower_Bridge_Eight_Views_of_the_Tower_Bridge

City Cemetery tour celebrates Black History Month

2011-02-24T06:43:06Z

In celebration of Black History Month, the Old City Cemetery Committee will be giving a free tour at 10 a.m. on Saturday detailing the fascinating history of African-Americans during the 1800s.

Bob LaPerriere will be the main tour guide Saturday along with other members of the committee.

“I was involved in starting the Old City Cemetery Committee,” LaPerriere said. “ Now I’m the tour coordinator for this particular tour”.

LaPerriere has been giving tours for 25 years. Every year he conducts a tour at the old cemetery, which covers the extensive history of physicians and medicine from the 1800s.

This tour celebrating Black History Month is not shown every year. It’s been at least eight years since the committee has been able to do this type of tour.

“It’s just a matter of volunteers,” LaPerriere explained. “If we get more volunteers, we can have these tours on a more regular basis. It takes an awful lot of work to put these tours together, a lot of research and a lot of work”.

Laperriere said the main purpose of this tour is, “ to make people more familiar with the history of African-Americans in the 1800s”.

Some of the key individuals being discussed include: Edwin Crocker (an abolitionist), Vaardmen Bullard (a former slave), Ernest Houston Johnston (an African-American graduate of Stanford University, first graduating class), Sarah Jones (a prominent African-American educator), and Henry Yantis (a church deacon and champion of education).

“It’s important that people realize the struggles that African-Americans went through in the 1800s for independence in the time of slavery, even though California was a non-slave state,” LaPerriere said.

“You have to research old burial records and old written records from the area, and sometimes it is very difficult to find any information on a particular person,” he said.

The Old City Cemetery is located at 1000 Broadway, between Muir Way and Riverside Boulevard. Parking is free and is located across the street from the cemetery.

Sutter's Fort Hospital Doctors

2011-02-16T23:53:12Z

In a History of the Sacramento Medical Center, dated April, 1976, it is stated that, "On October 6, 1849 ~~1949~~ , Drs. W. Deal and J. S. Martin opened Sutter’s Fort Hospital - within the fort." We know that General Sutter had sold the fort to William Bayly in late 1849 ~~1949~~ and moved to his Hock farm. Another recent article on Sutter’s Fort says that the hospital was in operation during 1849-1850 in the southeast bastion of the fort. The wording “within the fort” must be to distinguish this from a small, separate adobe building used by Sutter as a hospital.

In December, 1849, the Sacramento Union newspaper carried the following ad:

Sutter’s Fort Hospital

Inside the Fort, formerly conducted by Drs. W. Grove Deal and James S. Martin, is now under the superintendence of Drs. James S. Martin and Benjamin R. Carman.
The Hospital has undergone necessary repairs for the comfortable accommodation of invalids this winter.

Like Dr. James S. Martin, Dr. W. Grove Deal was a practicing physician from Baltimore, MD, but he also was a Methodist preacher on Sundays, went hunting for gold and had other business activities. It is apparent that, by December, the job of running the hospital had fallen to Drs. Martin and Carman. Dr. Martin also had other interests, running for City Council in March of 1850 on the Rancho Ticket, but this probably was a strategic move to protect his hospital. He lost and a Dr. Volney Spaulding, who ran a competing hospital, was on the winning ticket. There were a number of such hospitals by 1850.

These were pretty rough days in Sacramento, cholera was rampant and it must have been difficult to keep a hospital in good shape. In the summer of 1850 a new ad appeared in the Transcript:

Sacramento Transcript, Volume 1, Number 53, 2 July 1850 — Page 5

SUTTER'S FORT HOSPITAL, - inside the Fort, by Drs. James S. Martin and B. R. Carman, having been thoroughly repaired, is now ready for the comfortable accommodation of patients. The salubrity of the location is evident to every one. The Hospital being in a large adobe building, it is exempt from that extreme heat which is incident to this climate during the summer. Terms moderate. References—Dr. T. G. Chapman, Dr. J. B. Bridgman, Dr. S. McClure, Dr. S. P. Thomas, Dr. L. A. Birdsall, Dr. Deal, Dr. W. Bryarly.

So Dr. Deal was still used as a hospital reference.

In August of 1850 there was a revolt by newcomers to Sacramento against holders of land titles given by General Sutter (in his book “Notes of a Voyage to California via Cape Horn”, Samuel C. Upham considers the newcomers to be squatters). Shots were fired and people were killed. The sherriff, the mayor and Dr. Bryarly (see above) were all involved. The state of medicine in those days is shown by the case of Mayor Bigelow, who had to have his thumb amputated and then, when “mortification” set in, was sent to San Francisco where his whole arm was amputated.

All this had occurred in the vicinity of Fort Sutter and it seems quite possible that the hospital was damaged. Doctor Martin may well have been away at the time. Pencilled notes by a grandson of his, Dr. James Lay Martin of Baltimore, state that “He lost everything when someone had taken his hospital and fort when he had gone by clipper ship to Panama to obtain medical supplies.”

This interpretation is supported by the fact that, in November, Drs. Martin and Carman opened a free dispensary:

Sacramento Transcript, Volume 2, Number 12, 7 November 1850 — Page 1

SACRAMENTO CITY DISPENSARY, K STREET, in " Transcript" Building. In anticipation of there being a great deal of distress in our community this season by sickness, the Subscribers, who have been Physicians of the Sutter's Fort Hospital since the first settlement of this city, have opened a FREE OFFICE or General Dispensary, where those who are not able to pay the fees of an attending physician, and all others who may patronise our Establishment, can obtain Medicines at a low rate, and Advice Gratis. JAMES S MARTIN, M.D. and BENJN R CARMAN, M.D.

An adjoining advertisement for a San Francisco dispensary contains a list that may well describe what was meant by “Medicines”:

Drugs and Medicines: Lemon Syrup, Stoughton’s Bitters, Sarsaparilla Mead, Essence Peppermint, Holden’s Disentary Cordial, Fever and Ague Remedy.

Meanwhile the Sacramento City Hospital run by Dr. Vonley Spaulding had gotten into a heap of trouble for its terrible treatment of indigent patrons and had been cited by a local grand jury – a charge that was denied by Spaulding. The City Council sent a committee to investigate and this was Dr. Martin's testimony to the Council as reported in the Sacramento Transcript of Friday November 15, 1850:

DEPOSITION OF DR. JAS. S. MARTIN.

Questions:
1. Please inform me if you were the attending Physician to the City Hospital from the 24th of October, 1850, to the 1st day of Nov., the day on which the visiting committee of the Council made their visit for the purpose of investigating the charges preferred by the Grand Jury ? Ans- I was.
2. Was the report of the Grand Jury sustained by the facts presented to their Committee, when they visited that institution the latter part of October ? Ans-They certainly were to the fullest extent.
3. What was the condition of the beds, bedding and personal vestments of its inmates during your stay there ? Ans- The beds and bedding were in a very filthy condition, generally, in the adobe ward. The beds, bedding and clothes of many of the inmates, and indeed the entire ward itself, were infested with vermin, from the filth that prevailed and general want of cleanliness. Of these facts I spoke to Dr. Stansbury — one of the proprietors — and he said it could not be remedied at that time.
4. Were there bathing establishments connected with the City Hospital, or bathtubs; or was it customary to use ablution and sponging the cutaneous surface of patients in that institution? Ans- There was no bathing establishment whatever in the Hospital, and only one bathing tub, which was used for other purposes. — Less than half the patients were supplied with sheets, and they in a filthy condition, as before remarked. The air in the entire ward was quite offensive, and insalubrious, and unsafe not only for patients but medical attendants. There being no ceiling, and the wall of the building only about nine feet high, of course ill-ventilated and unhealthy in the highest degree.
5. Was it customary to change the linen of patients, and bed clothes, oftener than once in seven or eight days ? Ans- Such was the custom, as the proprietors told me, but they were not changed at all whilst I was there.
6. Did the proprietors, very soon after the visit of the Grand Jury, change the bed clothes and clothing of the inmates? In a word, was there not a general cleaning up a day or two before the visitors sent by the Council came out? Ans. There was a general renovation at that time.
7. Were you, for a time, in the Baltimore Alms House, as one of the resident physicians? Ans- I was.
8. Did you ever observe there, or do you know of any Hospital in Europe or this country, conducted on such principles as above detailed? Ans. I never have, nor do I believe any one else ever did, here or elsewhere.

JAMES S. MARTIN, M. D. Nov. 13, 1850.

So we see that James Stansbury Martin was working at the Sacramento City Hospital by the end of 1850 and it is probable that the Sutter’s Fort Hospital was now closed for business. The record is not clear where he was working for the remainder of his stay in California but we know that he remained in Sacramento and made application to the State Assembly in 1854 for reimbursment for losses he incurred by running the Sutter’s Fort Hospital for the poor and destitute:

THE DAILY UNION
California Legislature – Fifth Session
Sacramento, March 16, 1854
Senate

"Mr. Colby presented a petition from J. S. Martin, M.D., stating that during the years ’49 and ’50 he had suffered a great loss of time and money in attending to destitute sick in the Sutter’s Fort Hospital estabished by him. His losses amounted to $33,124.27, and he received only $8,684, leaving a balance of $22,440.27 due him by the State. Referred to Committee on Claims."

The final Senate Report on this claim states that: "The claimant, at the time of the dispensation of these charities, was a practicing physician and surgeon, and was a member of the Council of Sacramento City. The claim of James S. Martin is for the sum of $22,440.27, and may be readily understood by the examination of the following bill, the same being for the cost, maintenance and charges of a private hospital, kept at Sutter's Fort in 1849." The costs are then itemized.

The document does not say what happened to the hospital and the claim was turned down by the Senate committee because, "they were unanimously of the opinion, that it would be improper for the State to compensate individuals for losses in their business, even though the business should have partaken somewhat, in its nature, of a public benefaction."

The California Farmer San Francisco, May 3, 1855, has the following item, “We have received from the Purser of the Sonora, J. S. Martin, Esq., MD, a fine specimen of coca pod, containing the seed from which the Mexicans make their chocolate. It was brought from Acapulco.” Dr. Martin apparently remained in California until some time after May of 1855, when he returned to Baltimore and married Lucretia Griffith Warfield on April 18, 1857.

The Journal of the American Medical Association, Volume 34, p 1084 provides the following biography:

James Stansbury Martin, M.D., died in Baltimore, Md., April 14, aged 76. He was born in that city April 2, 1824, being the son of Dr. Samuel B. Martin, a surgeon of the War of 1812. He was educated at the Baltimore College, took his M.D. at Washington University, Baltimore, in 1844, and was resident physician to the Baltimore Almshouse, 1846-7. He resided in California from 1849 to 1855, and was surgeon to the Pacific Mail Steamship Company, and founder of Sutter's Fort Hospital. He returned to Baltimore in 1859, where he remained until 1861, when he removed to Brookeville, Md., and practiced there four years. He then returned to Baltimore, where he remained until his death. He was one of the oldest members of the Medical and Chirurgical Faculty.

Given the fact that his father, Samuel Blair Martin, MD ~~Samuel Baird Fox, MD,~~ had been a ship’s surgeon for much of his career, the Pacific Mail Steamship Company was certainly a very logical job opportunity for his oldest son. An uncle named Isaac White Martin was a clipper ship captain and the family must have had excellent connections in the maritime industry. What is a little unclear is whether James Martin left Baltimore before or after he knew of the discovery of gold and whether he maintained a connection with the Pacific Mail Steamship Company after he got to California. A little history of the company seems in order.

The Pacific Mail Steamship Company had been founded with the idea of providing mail and cargo service from San Francisco to Panama, where the goods would be transported to the Atlantic side to be picked up by other steamships bound for ports on the East Coast. Remember that the treaty with Mexico had been signed on March 10, 1848 and California was now U.S. Territory. The first three ships of this line were the California, the Oregon and the Panama. All were new, wooden-hull, side-paddle-wheel steamers, about 200 feet long, that had come around Cape Horn. The California left New York on October 6, 1848, before news of the discovery of gold had gotten to the East Coast, and arrived in San Francisco on February 28, 1849, having picked up hundreds of gold-seekers in Panama who had gotten the word in December, while the California was en-route. Most of the passengers and crew decamped immediately for the gold country, so service back to Panama had to be delayed.

General Smith, new commander of US Army forces in the Pacific was on the California and William Tecumseh Sherman – who had already been in California for several years - boarded the ship to greet him. All this is in Sherman’s Memoirs.

The Oregon left New York on Dec. 8, 1848 and arrived in San Francisco Bay on April 1, 1849. Captain Pearson moored his ship in Sausalito, would not let his crew desert the ship, loaded on coal and made the first of many scheduled mail trips down to Panama and back. The Oregon carried a number of Army and Navy personnel who picked Mare Island for the Navy base and Benicia for the Army arsenal. The Pacific Mail Steamship Company also selected Benicia as their depot, avoiding the hundreds of idle ships moored off San Francisco.

The Panama left New York on Feb. 15 and arrived in San Francisco (presumably at Benicia) on June 4, 1849 and there were now three ships in the mail service to Panama and back. Actually the Panama would have been second to arrive but had to turn back to New York because of an engine failure.

It seems probable that Dr. James Stansbury Martin knew of the Gold Rush and was on either the Oregon or the Panama as ship’s surgeon. His biographers say that Dr. Martin held this position from 1849 through 1855 but we now know that he had many other duties in Sacramento. How he managed to do this is a mystery but it is known that the Pacific Mail Steamship Company did maintain a service to Sacramento during this period and he must have had an understanding with them.

Dr. Martin had a younger brother, William H. Martin, who came to California in December, 1849, as an 18 year old messenger for the Adams Express Company, subsequently making many trips back and forth from San Francisco and New York. He then remained in California and, in 1868, became Land Commissioner for the “California Immigrant Union”, a colonizing effort that brought many new settlers to the state. In 1872, he wrote the introduction to All About California, a book put together by the California Immigrant Union that received very wide distribution.

Dr. W. Grove Deal was also a physician from Baltimore, arriving in California in the Spring of 1849 by way of Panama. The Century Illustrated Monthly Magazine, Volume 42, p 477, has the following description:

"Among those who came to Auburn in May, 1849, was Dr. Deal of Baltimore, a physician and a Methodist preacher. He was very enthusiastic in stating his purpose to become one of the " honest miners," and calling a gathering together with a long tin dinner-horn, he expressed his intention to dig with them, and to institute divine worship the next Sunday, and he closed by making the hills echo with a cheery hymn. Monday morning's sunrise saw the doctor in the mines with tin pan, pick, and shovel. Eleven o'clock saw him with his shovel battered, his pick broken, his hands bruised and blistered, and his clothes muddy, placing his tools and tin horn in a wagon bound for Sutter's Fort. It was well he did, for together with another good Samaritan he leased a part of Sutter's Fort for a hospital, and when the forlorn bands of immigrants reached the Fort they found medical attention and care, which in many cases saved life or eased the passage to the grave."

Dr. Deal was quite an orator and served as an Assembly Member during the first session of the California Legislature. Apparently, he also went back East later on since he served honorably as a Surgeon during the Civil War. His son, W. E. F. Deal, came to California in 1859 and made quite a name for himself as a lawyer, establishing a practice in both California and Nevada, according to the History of the Bench and Bar of California.

Joseph M. Fox, III
February, 2011

Black history in Sacramento

2011-02-10T09:20:34Z

February is Black History Month, and Sacramento Press staff reporters Brandon Darnell, Kathleen Haley and Suzanne Hurt interviewed local historians and city staff to highlight some of Sacramento’s movers and shakers in the black community.

Those who have visited Folsom’s Historic District may have driven by or through Leidesdorff Street, which intersects with Riley Street and Folsom Boulevard. But most probably don’t know about the man it was named after.

William Alexander Leidesdorff was a major landowner in the 1840s, in what is now the Folsom and Rancho Cordova area. Leidesdorff, of African-Carribbean and Danish descent, was originally from the Virgin Islands, according to author Sue Bailey Thurman.

He arrived in California around 1841, after spending time in New Orleans, according to an article by Thurman published on the San Francisco African American Historical Society’s website. He lived in San Francisco even though he owned property in the Sacramento region.

Leidesdorff died in 1848, at the age of 38, from typhus. During his lifetime, with help from landowner John Sutter, Leidesdorff was “able to acquire about 36,000 acres of land in what is now Rancho Cordova and Folsom,” said Clarence Caesar, a retired historian with the California Office of Historic Preservation.

– Kathleen Haley

The Crocker family is well known for its museum, especially now after its $100 million expansion.

However, one of the Crockers also had a hand in fighting slavery.

Before the Civil War, when American states were split between those that allowed slavery and those that didn’t, California was one of the free states.

Despite that, commerce laws allowed slaveowners to bring their slaves through the state as long as they didn’t stay for too long, said local historian and board member for the Sacramento County Historical Society William Burg.

One such slave was Archy Lee, whose owner was from the slave state of Mississippi. Burg said his owner stayed in the Sacramento area and founded a school, thereby establishing himself.

When he decided to leave around 1858, Lee refused to go, demanding freedom.

Burg said laws at the time forbidding any non-white from testifying against whites made Lee’s case daunting, but he eventually succeeded and was awarded his freedom.

Lee was aided by E. B. Crocker, who was one of his attorneys.

According to Burg, Crocker was a member of the Republican party, which was the anti-slavery party, and Crocker also helped President Abraham Lincoln get votes in California.

– Brandon Darnell

One of Sacramento’s first black attorneys, Nathaniel Colley, set up a practice in the West End and worked on many cases for the NAACP.

Colley came to the area from Alabama in the 1940s, according to Caesar.

One of his accomplishments, according to Burg, was when he won a court case that integrated the city-owned housing projects of New Helvetia and Seavey near the city cemetery south of Broadway. One had formerly been reserved for whites, and the other for non-whites.

Another case he won was the integration of a public swimming pool not far from the housing projects.

“He was a pretty significant local figure,” Burg said. “People don’t associate Sacramento with Civil Rights.

When Colley died in 1992, the New York Times did a story about him, which can be read here.

Burg added that there are numerous stories of Sacramento’s history on the Sacramento County Historical Society website.

One of the most recent pieces uploaded to the website tells the story of the struggle for education equality in Victorian Sacramento. To read the story, click here.

– Brandon Darnell and Kathleen Haley

Bill and Kathryn Lee have been the driving forces behind The Sacramento Observer for nearly 50 years.

The weekly got started at their kitchen table a year after they were married, when Bill Lee and two partners founded the Observer in 1962. Lee became the publisher, and Kathryn joined as assistant publisher a few years later after one partner died and the other sold them his interest.

The Lees recruited talented, aspiring journalists from the community to write for the paper and financed the operation with their own incomes – his as a real estate broker and hers working at Gov. Pat Brown's office in the Capitol.

With its first office at 21st and X streets, the paper covered issues important to African Americans, from civil rights and discrimination in housing and jobs to health care and education. The Lees pushed for the first blacks to be elected to political office and hired as journalists at area dailies and television stations.

The Observer has won more than 600 awards, including the National Newspaper Publishers Association's Russwurm Trophy for the country's best African-American newspaper six times. Now both 75, the Lees have turned over management of the paper to their son, Larry Lee. The newspaper is located at 2330 Alhambra Blvd.

– Suzanne Hurt

Sacramento got its first African American fire chief, Ray Charles, in 1986.

Charles became a firefighter with the Sacramento Fire Department in 1960. He was based at a downtown fire station and became a fire investigator after about seven years. He then became head of the department's Fire Prevention Bureau.

Charles was promoted to assistant fire chief before being named fire chief in the mid-1980s. He was a role model for minority firefighters and a "gentleman" with a heart for firefighters and their widows, said Loran Wolcott, a retired fire truck driver.

He has remained active at fire department functions since retiring in 1989.

"He's a very nice man," Wolcott said. "Skinny as a rail. I don't know how he does it."

– Suzanne Hurt

Share your stories about noteworthy Sacramentans below.

Museum Mayhem

2011-02-08T01:45:21Z

You know what's better than a museum? A free museum.

You know what's better than a free museum? Twenty-six free museums.

Saturday, two baker’s dozen of the best museums in Sacramento swung open their doors and let in every Tom, Dick and Harry, free of charge. Gratis. Complimentary. On the house. Floated.

Now, my motto has always been "If it's free, I'll take three," so I fought through a wicked head cold and really bad sniffles (I know, I know. Maybe I did take the Waaaaaaaambulance. So what?), and headed down to Old Sac to take my reward. And I took my reward.

I may have to change my motto to the far less catchy, but way more accurate, "if it's free, I'll take six."

The lucky half dozen, in chronological order: The California State Military Museum, Old Sacramento Schoolhouse Museum, Sacramento History Museum, California State Railroad Museum, California State Capitol Museum and The California Museum.

California State Military Museum-
My first stop on this beautiful Saturday morning, it was heavily guarded by a variety of military vehicles parked out front. One of them appeared to be a military fire truck. Be still my beating heart.

I ventured inside and was pleased to be greeted by guns, guns and more guns. For my money, as far as weaponry goes, there may be nothing cooler than the multi barrel machine gun. Maxim guns, battery guns, they have a plethora of these mean looking SOBs on display therein. I wanted to call them all Gatling guns, but it turns out I was mistaken. Volunteer Tom Burke was happy to explain the difference.
The Gatling gun is hand-operated, and the Maxim is self-powered – using the energy from the recoil to eject the spent cartridges. The Gatling gun can fire up to 200 rounds a minute. The Maxim, 600. A multi-barrel gun with an outside power source? 3,000. Dang.
Have you ever seen a .50 caliber machine gun? I have. Have you ever held a Russian submachine gun? Ditto. Thanks to the California Military Museum.

The Schoolhouse Museum-
Whereas the military museum had been well-peopled, the schoolhouse was packed, mostly with children (makes sense, if you think about it). They seemed to all be having a good time, which is something of a coup, considering they were in a schoolhouse on a beautiful Saturday afternoon. I think the free cake may have had something to do with it. The volunteers, all schoolmarmed-out, were exceedingly friendly. They had a peach basket set up on the wall in the corner where a few kids were shooting hoops. I didn't see any of them make it. I'll be honest, I was in and out like a jewelry heist. I like kids fine, but not 30 at a time. God bless those schoolmarms.

The Sacramento History Museum-
Next, I walked across Old Sac to the History Museum, stopping only to grab a free sample of saltwater taffy at the candy store. I'd also stopped there on the way to the schoolhouse. Like I said, if it's free...

I passed the greedy hordes out front panning for gold and entered the museum. I was struck immediately by the old-time printing press to the right of the entrance. There is a certain magic to the care with which the printed word used to be created. What is now so simple was once so labor-intensive (typesetting!). I spent a few minutes watching the old fellows work in the print shop before venturing into the museum proper.

Probably my favorite part of the museum was the section with the old farm tools, like the "Sure Pop Almond Huller" and the "Simpson Butter Cutter." (If you're like me, next time you go up to Apple Hill, be sure to check out the Larsen Pioneer Farm Museum. It's fantastic.)

I also really enjoyed the exhibit on Sacramento landmark Dunlap's D ining Room. . . they just don't make places like that anymore, and it's a shame.

By the time I left, the museum had reached capacity, and a small line had formed out front.

California State Railroad Museum-
A couple of my most vivid early childhood memories involve trains: playing with my grandfather’s train sets in the attic of their home in Portsmouth Ohio; and a family train ride I took from New York City to Ohio, during which we played canasta and I saw a man open a beer bottle using his eye socket.

I also used to take the train up to school in Eugene, Ore. I love trains. If it were economically and logistically feasible, I would do all of my traveling by rail. It's really the only way to travel.

Of all the museums I visited, I was probably most excited to visit the Railroad Museum.

It did not disappoint. I even really enjoyed the educational film that plays on the half hour, at the end of which the screen rises to unveil a massive steam engine, barreling through a tunnel blown through solid rock. Pretty dramatic.

I could, and one day will, spend hours meandering through the myriad railroad-related exhibits, but on this day, and in my weakened state, the museum was a bit too crowded for me to fully enjoy it.

Many of the train walk-through exhibits had good-sized lines to get in, and once inside, the people were packed in shoulder-to-shoulder. Neither of these situations was very appealing to me, so I chose to fight another day, and did only a cursory walkthrough, consciously not looking at anything too thoroughly so as to save it for next time. Man, that is nerdy.

I'll be back soon.

State Captiol Museum-
I'll admit it, I was just padding my stats here. I was walking to the California Museum, and this was en route. I spent maybe 10 minutes inside. I was hoping it would be a shortcut, but the doors on the south end weren't open. Doh. Don't get me wrong, it's well worth the visit, but I'd been there fairly recently with some friends from out of town.

The California Museum-
With the Railroad Museum, this was my co-favorite of the museums I visited. The California Hall of Fame is very cool and eclectic (James Cameron, Charles Schultz, Merle Haggard, Barbara Streisand and Mark Zuckerberg are all in the 2010 club. The California Hall of Fame makes for strange bedfellows, apparently.), but my favorite exhibits were the "Uprooted! The Japanese Americans during WWII" and the "Psychedelic Poster Art 1965-1975."

Both exhibits are awesome.

The Japanese Internment during World War II is one of the more embarrassing acts in American history, and it is an episode that is oft-overlooked or glossed over. I remember it being discussed very briefly, maybe in a sixth grade American History class, but we certainly didn't dedicate an entire class period to it, or even a large portion of one. I think, in our history books, we had maybe one secondary paragraph devoted to the internment, set aside in the corner of a page with a different color background.

The exhibit does a great job of showing what internment was like from a Japanese-American perspective, and the volunteers like Sacramento native Mas Hatano, who spent three of his teenage years in Tuli Lake Internment Camp on the Oregon border, do even better.

Said the still spry and extremely sharp Hatano: "The more people know about this, the less likely it is to happen again." It's hard to believe that something like this could have happened here such a short time ago, but a lot less so when speaking with a man who lived through it. I wish I'd had an opportunity to visit such an exhibit, and speak with such a man, when I was a sixth grader.

The Psychedelic Poster Art Exhibit was awesome... ’cause it's psychedelic poster art. I mean, a poster for The First Annual Sacramento Pop Festival, Oct. 15, 1967 featuring Jefferson Airplane and Strawberry Alarm Clock at Hughes Stadium? "Donation $3.00 in advance, $3.50 at the stadium Box off. Come and go as you please, visit psychedelic shops at the festival." Don't mind if I do. If you don't get a kick out of that, I'm not sure we should hang out anymore.

Six museums in just under five hours: I absolutely owned Free Museum Day. And so did many of you: The Sacramento History Museum had 3,233 visitors on Saturday, up from an average Saturday attendance of around 200. The California Museum had approximately 4,000 visitors, up from the same Saturday average of around 200. And the Railroad Museum, which brings in somewhere between 800 and 1,000 visitors on an average Saturday, pulled in 13,742.

As Paul Hammond, museum director for the Sacramento History and Railroad Sector, put it: "This event is a wonderful opportunity for the spotlight to shine on museums in the region. There are so many museums right here in the greater Sacramento area, and this event gives the community an opportunity to sample the many possibilities and become more familiar with them."

And sample we did, voraciously.

Consider my appetite whetted.

Documentary shows civil rights-era history of Sacramento

2011-02-03T01:33:52Z

The civil rights movement of the 1960s is often viewed as centralized in the South, but blacks in Sacramento faced similar challenges, and a KVIE documentary tells those stories.

“It was just a really horrific time in Sacramento,” said Bryan Shadden, a producer at KVIE who worked on the film, “African Americans in California’s Heartland: The Civil Rights Era.”

The documentary first aired four years ago, but is being shown again Feb. 17 to coincide with Black History Month.

Shadden worked on a story about busing African-American students out of Oak Park after Stanford Junior High School burned in 1963.

Students were bused to almost all-white schools in an effort to integrate the races. Unfortunately, unintended consequences led to racial tensions, which contributed to shootings and other violence in the following years, according to the film.

“You can still see scars from decisions that were made a long time ago,” Shadden said, adding that even though the decisions were made with good intentions, they still sometimes led to strife.

He said one of the people he interviewed in the film, Kim Harrington, told him that trees were cut down in Oak Park in 1967 to give police officers better shooting lanes after they raided the Black Panther headquarters and a gun battle ensued.

Newspaper articles from the time show a trend of violence between “snipers” and officers in the area, with one June 16, 1969 article reporting more than 100 shots exchanged in one night.

A Sacramento Bee article from May 11, 1970 tells the story of the shooting of Officer Bernard Bennett, who was hit in the head by a sniper and later died.

In 1973, an African-American teenager from Del Paso Heights was accidentally shot and killed by police, and a citizen-led effort to improve relations between police and the community.

Other stories in the documentary shed light on housing discrimination, and even burial discrimination.

“A lot of funeral homes wouldn’t accept African Americans to bury,” said Marinda Johnson, who was also a producer on the documentary.

Vincent Thompson, an African-American embalmer, started the first African American funeral home, Thompson Funeral Home.

“He really became a voice for the African-American community,” Johnson said. “He helped start the Oak Park Community Council.”

Though the stories tend focus on struggle, not all are that way.

In a time of racial turmoil across the country Grant Union High School had an all-African-American men’s track team.

“This relay ended up winning the championship, and even though they had all these race issues going on around them, there were no racial tensions at this school,” Johnson said. “Everyone just thought of them as champions ... the achievement, the success was all they focused on at the school.”

Both Shadden and Johnson said the memory of the 1960s and 1970s tends to be lost today, and the documentary is a reminder of how far the city has come.

“There was a Time Magazine article in the early 2000s that said Sacramento is one of the most diverse cities, and that’s the short-term memory,” Shadden said.

“We almost kind of turn our eye to it in a sense,” Johnson said. “We hear about it and we think, ‘oh it couldn’t be that bad. It’s Sacramento ... It’s not as bad as the South, so it can’t be that bad.’ That’s the mentality.”

The documentary is paired with another, which explores the history of African Americans in the Central Valley and Sierra Nevadas from the Gold Rush through the 1950s, which will air at 7 p.m. Feb. 9. and at 6 p.m. Feb. 13 ~~9 p.m. Feb. 15~~.

The documentary on the civil rights era in Sacramento will air at 11:30 p.m. Feb. 17.

For more information about the documentary and more stories on the civil rights era in Sacramento, click here.

Brandon Darnell is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Editorial note: The time of the encore has been corrected to Feb. 13 at 6 p.m.

Maydestone renovation halfway done

2011-01-29T01:14:24Z

Apartments in the Maydestone building downtown are starting to look more like homes as work progresses in the historic building’s restoration.

“It’s a very urban project, it’s a very prime location,” said Bay Miry of D&S Development. “There’s been a lot of people already inquiring about it.”

Renovation work on the century-old building at 15th and J streets started in September.

“Our whole goal was to do it in 10 months, and we’re still on that path,” Miry said. “We expect to have tenants in here by early summer.”

A previous article showed the progress made up to Nov. 17, and workers have made significant strides since then.

Miry added that the project has received funding from the Sacramento Housing and Redevelopment Agency.

“If it weren’t for SHRA, this wouldn’t have come together,” he said. “Without redevelopment (funds), there’s no way this could have happened.”

Most noticeable from the street is the exterior progress, in which bare wood has since been covered with wood siding and painted.

The paint scheme will reflect the building’s original colors, and much of the molding and other parts are original, including the fire escape facing 15th Street. The stucco covering on two of the sides is original, and has been restored in places. A steel staircase on the rear of the four-story building has been finished and meets modern fire code, Miry said.

The interior is being restored to include 32 units ranging in size from 450 - 750 square feet. They will qualify as affordable housing, and Miry said he is anticipating having tenants ranging from young professionals to empty-nesters looking for a downtown spot.

Rents will range from approximately $700 - $1,300 per month, Miry said, which will qualify as affordable housing for those earning approximately $30,000 - $60,000 per year.

Construction is being done in four stages of eight units each, and the first eight have had their walls covered, with detail work well under way.

Miry said workers are taking care to keep the historic character of the building intact, with the crown molding being restored or redone, and original fixtures – dressers, kitchen countertops and pull-out beds – are being restored and incorporated into the new spaces.

In that vein, original radiators will also remain in the units, but each one is equipped with modern central heating and air conditioning, Miry said. Also new to the units is a fire sprinkler system to meet fire code.

The interior walls will be smooth, with paneling in some areas. Curved joints between walls and ceilings in some areas preserve the older architectural feel of the building.

Insulation has been added, and the original windows have been restored. Miry said they are not multi-pane windows, but single-pane. They retain the rope-and-pulley systems, and the original counterweights are being used.

When constructed, the building’s walls were lath and plaster, and where there has been demolition work, sheetrock has been installed.

The basement will feature a fitness room, about 20 storage spaces tenants can rent and a lounge area with a kitchenette. All units in the building have their own kitchens, and Miry said the kitchenette in the lounge is included for convenience.

Washers and dryers will not be installed in each unit, but will be available in the basement.

Also in the basement is the original elevator equipment, which will not be functional, but will remain, with signs providing historical information, Miry said.

Eco-friendly materials are being used where applicable, and solar panels will be placed on the roof. LED lights will also be used in the building.

“It’s a bigger up-front cost, but it saves energy and money in the long run,” Miry said.

“We’re not taking any shortcuts,” he added. “(It’s a) really quality apartment project. Given how high-profile this is.... As far as our reputation, we want to make sure we do something that makes a statement.”

Brandon Darnell is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

French composer to add life to time-tested film

2011-01-22T02:10:57Z

Kicking off its 10th year, the Sacramento French Film Festival has invited French composer Raymond Alessandrini to direct an orchestral accompaniment for its first film/concert, which will be performed by the Sacramento Philharmonic Orchestra.

“It’s something we’ve never done before. It’s quite exceptional,” said French Film Festival Executive and Artistic Director Cécile Downs.

The show will be held at the Crest Theatre on Jan. 29 and 30.

“It’s a very big event for us,” Downs said. “We (often) have guests, but usually they are just coming to present a film that is already finished. Having the composer of the score coming is more exceptional.”

The film to be shown is a 1928 silent film, “Un Chapeau de Paille d’Italie” (“An Italian Straw Hat”), directed by René Clair. It was originally based off the play by Eugène Labiche.

“This film is extremely funny,” Downs said. “It goes at a very, very fast pace ... in France, it is one of the most famous silent films.”

When the film was originally shown, it would have been accompanied by a pianist in a theater, Downs said.

In 1986, when the Cinémathèque Française (France’s national film center) celebrated its 50th anniversary, several composers were asked to write scores to original silent films that had been restored, Alessandrini told The Sacramento Press.*

Alessandrini was chosen to write the score to “An Italian Straw Hat” and another film.

“The challenge is always to respect the character, the style and the spirit of the director,” Alessandrini said in an e-mail. “For ‘The Italian Straw Hat,’ the difficulty was to be musically funny with the most subtlety possible, all the while staying true to the occasional surrealism of René Clair, as well as the rapidity and precision of the film editing.”

He added that in addition to needing to write the music so it is both precise and detailed – akin to the music of a cartoon – a lot of the difficulty comes in directing the orchestra so the sounds are at all times synchronized with the film’s images.

“The film is one of the great classics of French cinema and is very much appreciated by the film lovers in France and those interested in René Clair,” Alessandrini said. “It is also one of the great theater works of the 19th century.”

Alessandrini said Labiche wrote the play as a mockery of the stupidity of his contemporaries.

“It is a very funny film that puts everyone in a good mood,” he said. “The duration is 1 hour and 24 minutes, but it gives the impression that it’s over in 10 minutes. The music contributes enormously to the humor of the scenes, and it is always a sight to see these films on a big screen with a live orchestra.”

Alessandrini said he has not spent much time in the United States, but did a similar show in the early 1980s at a film festival in Colorado, also working with American musicians.

He has performed “An Italian Straw Hat” in England, Belgium, the Netherlands, Spain and all the large cities in Italy. He has also done two show tours in Russia, and one on the Middle East, he said.

He got his start in the industry as a classically trained musician, and it was when he worked as a pianist that he met filmmakers and producers, who led him down the path to eventually composing scores to accompany restored films.

“It’s an honor to me to be able to work with the musicians of the Sacramento Philharmonic, and I hope that this will be a pleasant experience and will bring much pleasure and joy to the people of Sacramento,” he said.

“Everywhere you go in the world, this music and this film are a success,” he added. “It’s a rare show, and it’s a shame if you don’t take advantage of it.”

The film will be shown twice – at 8 p.m. Jan. 29 and 2 p.m. Jan. 30.

Tickets are $30, or $25 for friends of the film festival, philharmonic subscribers and members of the Alliance Française or Tempo. Tickets can be purchased at Tickets.com, by phone at (800) 225-2277 or at the Crest Theatre box office.

“I think, to me it’s kind of a historic moment in Sacramento,” Downs said. “We’re bringing a French composer, it’s a very very famous and funny film, and it’s just gonna be fun. I can’t say when we’re going to do that again, so it’s not to be missed.”

*Interview with Raymond Alessandrini conducted in French and translated to English by Brandon Darnell, staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

A year's activity on K Street

2010-12-30T01:19:45Z

The downtown portion of K Street saw a lot of activity in 2010, from streetscape improvements to community debate over the redevelopment of troubled portions and the construction of new nightlife venues.

At the beginning of the year, portions of K Street were still torn up from the previous year’s streetscape improvement project. A Sacramento Press article from February covered the ongoing improvements, which have since been completed.

By late March, the city was discussing the next step in the process and considering four proposals for the 700 and 800 blocks of the street.

The plans for K Street were the subject of significant public debate, with historians, developers, residents and businesspeople all involved. Historian William Burg wrote his opinion on the plan here, generating a lengthy discussion on what the future should hold.

In advance of a pivotal July City Council meeting, the major contenders were vying for the city’s nod to develop portions of K Street, and Sacramento Press Editor in Chief David Watts Barton wrote his first of several editorials on the subject.

The July 13 City Council meeting saw two teams – one led by D & S Development, Inc. and CFY Development, Inc. and the other by Sacramento developer David Taylor – come out on top. To read more about the meeting and their proposals, click here.

Barton wrote a second editorial on the subject in which he expressed his approval of the decision as well as the community involvement throughout the process.

Other news on K Street in 2010 involved the construction and opening of new businesses.

The portion getting the most attention was the 1000 block of K Street, in which a trio of venues promises to add to the street’s nightlife.

San Francisco nightclub owner George Karpaty’s multimillion-dollar vision was undergoing construction in 2009, but work had stalled. By February, the construction was back on track.

As the months passed, construction steadily progressed, and Barton wrote another editorial about K Street – this time specifically about Karpaty’s project.

Late in the year, things were coming together, with a projected opening for the end of December or January, and The Sacramento Press brought readers a glimpse into the venues.

By the middle of December, projected January opening dates for the three businesses were given in an update on the construction progress.

Just a few blocks away, near Seventh and K streets, Vive Cocina opened in March, and a tequila-themed restaurant and museum – Tequila Museo Mayahuel – was under construction at 12th and K.

To finish out the year on K Street, the Sacramento County Historical Society brought back a holiday tradition – antique holiday window displays on the corner of 10th and K.

Brandon Darnell is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press. Image one by Brandon Darnell. Images two and four by Staff Reporter Suzanne Hurt. Image three by Ingrid Ratliff.

Business, landmark milestones in 2010

2010-12-23T21:20:51Z

The past year saw Sacramento businesses, cultural icons and landmarks from Tower Bridge to Cafe Marika celebrate significant milestones.

Most notable was the Crocker Art Museum’s 125th birthday on May 8. That was just one aspect of the museum’s big year, which included the completion of a decade-long expansion project that opened Oct. 10. For more details about the Crocker in 2010, click here.

The North Sacramento Land Company turned 100 in September, and the company’s president, Bob Slobe, credited the business’ longevity to staying small and having deep roots in the community. To read more about the company’s history and its ties to the California State Railroad Museum, click here.

Also celebrating a birthday in 2010 was Tower Bridge, which turned 75 Dec. 15. Built during the Great Depression, the bridge replaced an older one connecting Sacramento and West Sacramento that had become too congested with traffic. In order to make it easy on the eyes, metal cladding was added to the sides to give it an Art Deco feel and provide some aesthetic covering to what would otherwise have been just a steel frame.

Read more about Tower Bridge’s history here and read more about the birthday celebration itself here.

The Iceland Skating Rink at 1430 Del Paso Blvd. was destroyed by a fire in March (for details, read articles by clicking here, here and here, celebrated its 70th birthday in November and reopened as an outdoor rink earlier this month after the community worked to help clean up the building, which had not been insured against fire. Members of the Kerth family, which owns the arena, said they are planning to rebuild the facility.

At 35 years, the Fox and Goose Pub at 1001 R St. is still providing Sacramentans with English pub fare and decor in the spot it has been in since January of 1975. The R Street corridor on which it sits is undergoing streetscape improvements designed to maintain the street’s historic feel while providing modern amenities. The R Street businesses are staying open during the construction, and more information on the Fox and Goose is available here.

In the 1980s, two Czechoslovakians emigrated to the United States and found their way to Sacramento where, a few years later, they opened Cafe Marika, 2011 J St, in 1990. They celebrated 20 years in business and continue to serve authentic European cuisine from places like Hungary, the Czech Republic and Slovakia. To read more about their story, click here.

Do you have a milestone from the past year you’d like to share? Feel free to add to this list in the conversation below.

Brandon Darnell is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Tower Bridge turns 75

2010-12-15T01:41:29Z

One of Sacramento’s iconic landmarks, Tower Bridge, celebrates its 75th anniversary Wednesday.

At its inauguration on Dec. 15, 1935, the opening was heralded with the release of about 100 homing pigeons, who carried the news throughout the state.

Although it’s now a lot easier to spread news, Caltrans spokesman Mike Dinger said the bridge operates with the same basic equipment it has for the past three quarters of a century.

“We’ve made some upgrades for safety, but it’s almost all the original equipment,” he said.

Bridge construction began in July of 1934, using some of President Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal funds for the project, which was estimated to cost $700,000. The final price came in at $994,000.

That price, in today’s dollars, would be $50 million - $60 million, Dinger said, adding that today’s monthly maintenance costs come in at about $24,000.

The project was supposed to be done in November of 1935, but weather pushed the completion date to mid-December.

“They had a really heavy winter that year, and work got delayed,” said Rich Newell, a senior mechanical engineer for Caltrans.

Tower Bridge replaced a bridge on the same spot that had been constructed in 1910 by the Sacramento Northern Railroad, according to a 1936 issue of California Highways and Public Works.

That bridge had been a swinging steel drawbridge, and by the 1930s, it couldn’t handle the amount of traffic efficiently.

Newell said Tower Bridge was built to relieve traffic congestion, which was attributed to choking off commerce from Sacramento during the Great Depression.

According to the 1936 California Highways and Public Works article, in the 25 years that the old bridge had been in use, automobile traffic increased 700 percent in volume and 500 percent in speed, making the cantilevered roadways inadequate.

During construction of the current span, about 1,500 jobs were generated, and all the materials came from California, Dinger and Newell said.

The metal “skin” over the steel frame on the towers was designed to give it an art deco feel, Newell said.

When the bridge opened, it was painted a silver color to represent aluminum, and was later painted “an unfortunate shade of ochre” before being painted the current gold color in the early 2000s, said Bridge Operator Scott Bennett, who has been working on the bridge for about a decade.

The railroad stopped using the bridge in the 1960s, according to Dinger.

Dinger added that the bridge – about 730 feet long – is technically State Route 275, the shortest state highway in California.

Bennett said he raises the bridge about four times per day, but it varies based on river traffic.

When the bridge is raised and lowered – traveling about 1 foot per second – about 5,000,000 pounds are in motion, and it’s all accomplished by the two 100-horsepower electric motors in the control room between the towers.

If electric power goes out, there are backups in place.

Cameras – that Bennett uses to ensure traffic is clear of the bridge – are backed up by the original periscopes in the control room and mirrors on the outside edges of the span. An original 1930s gasoline engine can handle all the heavy lifting.

The bridge’s birthday will be celebrated by Caltrans officials, Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson and West Sacramento Mayor Chris Cabaldon from 9 - 10 a.m. Wednesday on Promenade Circle behind the nearby Embassy Suites.

At about 9:30 a.m. Wednesday, as part of the anniversary celebration, the bridge will be raised to allow the sailing ship “Hawaiian Chieftain” to pass. Bennett said the ship gives rides from Old Sacramento for about three months each year.

“It’s been 75 years, and it’s still doing fine,” Newman said. “It’s a testament to the original engineers.”

Exterior and historic photos courtesy Caltrans. Control room photos by Brandon Darnell, staff reporter for The Sacramento Press. Historical reference documents provided by the Center for Sacramento History.

Holiday Display at 10th & K

2010-12-09T21:06:04Z

Sacramento County Historical Society's holiday display at 1001 K Street formally opened on November 26, but its operation continues through the beginning of the New Year and it attracted attention from passersby even before the display formally opened.

The display uses figures originally built by the Gaffney Display Company in the 1950s, used in Breuner's Department Store holiday display windows. This tradition began in Sacramento in 1934, continuing until 1974. Gaffney figures were used throughout the Breuner's chain, but have been absent from K Street for decades. More information on the historic Breuner's displays can be found in this article:

http://www.sacramentopress.com/headline/40096/Department_Store_Holiday_Display_for_K_Street

Construction of the display started in early November, utilizing the talents of a team of volunteers. Some were SCHS members with experience in museum display construction and art. Local artists involved with the "Matrix Arts" organization lent their talents. Some filmmakers from local film company TFO Productions took some time off from producing their new feature "Planet of the Vampire Women" to lend a hand. And some were just Sacramentans willing to help out. Mark Gaffney, owner of the figures and the still-operating Gaffney Display Company, provided the figures and his expertise in setting up the display. About 60 individuals, businesses and organizations contributed funds and materials to the display project, both through our online Indiegogo fundraising effort, solicited donations, and an appeal to Historical Society members.

The project, located in the dramatic corner window of Sacramento's landmark 1946 Roos-Atkins building, combines the historic figures with a newly designed setting entitled "Winter in the City." Set in approximately 1910, the display portrays a Sacramento streetcorner, with a department store and movie theater inspired by Sacramento buildings demolished long ago (the Edison Theater and Weinstock-Lubin department store that once stood on the 400 block of K Street.) A Sacramento streetcar, returning from Oak Park, is located on the K Street side. A family is transfixed before the store window, the parents appreciating the holiday lights while the kids detail which of the toys inside the window they want. A young couple exits the movie theater, hailing the streetcar for a ride home. A bell-ringing Santa, inspired by the "Volunteers of America" fundraising Santas, stands on the corner welcoming passersby. The display is intended to portray the era when K Street (and downtown Sacramento) was the shopping, entertainment and transportation hub of the Sacramento Valley, as well as a densely populated urban neighborhood that was busy day and night.

The display operates from 11 AM to 11 PM on weekdays, and on weekends the lights and animated figures keep running until 2:00 AM. The display will remain in operation until the first week of January 2011, when the figures will be returned and the lumber used to create the display will be donated to a local theater company.

This Saturday, December 11, the Sacramento Old City Association and SCHS will host the quarterly Preservation Roundtable across the street at 1000 K Street, inside the Cosmopolitan Cabaret. The Preservation Roundtable includes updates and information from local history and preservation organizations, and runs from 9 AM to noon. The featured speaker of this quarter's Preservation Roundtable is Mark Gaffney, who will talk about the history of the Gaffney Display Company and their involvement with the Breuner's animated window displays, as well as the story of this year's holiday display. The presentation will end with a visit to the display site at noon.

Sacramento Preservation Roundtable

Saturday December 11, 9 AM-12 PM

1000 K Street (Cosmopolitan Cabaret), Sacramento

(Photos 1 and 2 by William Burg. Photos 3-11 by M. Parfitt. Photos 12-14 by Gretchen Steinberg.)

Historic district, properties considered

2010-12-03T02:08:13Z

The Sacramento Preservation Commission took an important step toward protecting the River District's history Wednesday by recommending creation of a new historic district and designation of other properties as landmarks.

The commission's six present members voted unanimously to recommend the Sacramento City Council create the North 16th Street Historic District and add nine properties found elsewhere in the River District to the Sacramento Register of Historic & Cultural Resources.

At the same time, the commission postponed a decision on whether to start the historic landmark nomination process for the state printing plant at Seventh Street and Richards Boulevard. The building was designed by prominent architect William Wurster. City staff members have recommended its demolition to improve traffic circulation and support economic development at that critical intersection. State officials have no plans to sell it or tear it down.

Historic preservation in the area has come up as part of the city's process to update its plan for the neighborhood under the River District Specific Plan. City planners see the River District as a prime area for infill close to downtown that can help Sacramento achieve smart growth goals, said Rachel Hazlewood, a senior project manager with the city's Economic Development Department.

"Historic assets are a strength," Hazlewood said. "That's why we brought forth the North 16th Street District."

The River District, previously known as the Richards Boulevard area, is bounded by the American and Sacramento rivers, 16th Street and the historic railyards. The buildings and the district are being nominated as part of an update to a historic properties survey of Richards Boulevard and the railyards taken 10 years ago.

Creation of the North 16th Street Historic District is being recommended to preserve the street's historic character and more than 20 buildings, mostly brick structures dating back to the 1920s. The street still maintains traces of the district's early role in transportation, warehousing and distribution for Sacramento. The boundaries are east of Ahern Street, south of Richards Boulevard, north of C Street and west of 18th Street.

The nine properties being nominated outside the new historic district include the Jibboom Street Bridge in Discovery Park, PG&E Power Station B at 400 Jibboom St., the Sacramento River Water Treatment Plant, Fire Station 14 and Pipeworks Complex, which contains a climbing gym.

The district and other properties are a "great selection" of historic industrial buildings, said Commissioner Andrew Hope.

"I'm completely in support of district nomination," he said.

The Quonset Huts erected in 1946 and the Acme Cabinet building containing Loaves & Fishes were dropped from the list Wednesday night. They could be reconsidered at a later time.

City staff have recommended the state printing plant at 344 N. Seventh St. be demolished so Bannon and Sixth streets can be extended through the property. Staff members believe the building won't help stimulate development at that important intersection, Hazlewood said.

"This is going to be the heart and soul of the river district," she said.

Officials with the California Department of General Services' Office of State Publishing, which operates the plant, notified the city they oppose the plant's demolition.

DGS plans to move the printing plant because it's outlived the location, where it's been housed for 50 years. But the state intends to turn the building into a million square feet of office space to meet the state's needs in years to come, DGS spokesman Eric Lamoureux said Thursday.

"Our long-term plan is to redevelop the space," he said.

The building was designed by Wurster, an influential American architect who co-founded the UC Berkeley College of Environmental Design. Born in Stockton, Wurster transformed an old industrial area of San Francisco into Ghirardelli Square, one of the country's first adaptive reuse projects in 1964, local historian William Burg told the commission at its meeting.

The building has the potential to be listed on state and national historic registers and could be adapted to reuse, said Burg, a board member of the Sacramento Old City Association and a state historian with the California Office of Historic Preservation.

The commission voted five to one to postpone a decision on the building while sending city staff to get more information about it from the State Historic Preservation Officer.

"As a commission, our mission is to promote preservation of these buildings," said Commissioner Tim Brandt.

The council is expected to consider the commission's recommendations in February.

Photo tour of Maydestone Building renovation

2010-11-18T02:15:57Z

The century-old Maydestone building at the corner of 15th and J streets is scheduled to open in spring or summer to provide 32 apartments to working-wage tenants.

“We broke ground a couple of months ago,” said Bay Miry of D&S Development. “We’re building it in four phases of eight units.”

The building has four floors for housing and a basement, which will serve as a common area with an exercise room, office spaces and a common kitchen.

All units are fully contained with their own kitchens and bathrooms as well.

“I’m most excited about two things,” Miry said. “First, we are rehabilitating a major eyesore in a very prominent location. Second, it provides more workforce housing to Midtown and downtown.”

Much of the building’s historical character is being preserved, including the above mosaic at the main entrance.

According to Miry, historic pull-out beds are being preserved and incorporated into some of the remodeled units.

Corner units are the bigger ones, coming in closer to the 850-square-foot size. Smaller units begin at 400 square feet, and Miry said monthly rents will range from $700-$1,100.

Rooms will be accessed through the interior hallway on each floor.

An all-metal exterior staircase will allow for the building to be accessed by the rear as well as the front.

Some of the details of the approximately $8 million project are still being hashed out, and in the above photo, co-owner Steve Lebastchi (right) discusses construction-related issues with contractors.

The above photo shows the basement, which will house the common area and amenities.

Brandon Darnell is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Historic status sought for oldest fire bell, grocer

2010-11-15T05:30:02Z

The Sacramento City Council is expected on Tuesday to consider providing city landmark status to a fire bell that was rung to mark historic events such as Lincoln's assassination and the completion of the transcontinental railroad.

At the meeting, the council is expected to also consider that designation for the Hall, Luhrs & Co. building constructed in 1885 at 914 Second St. The wholesale grocer was one of the first to ship fresh fruit cross-country and did so using refrigerated rail cars and ice quarried from the Sierra Nevada mountains, according to a city staff report.

The city's Preservation Commission nominated both for the Sacramento Register of Historic and Cultural Resources. Landmark status for the city's oldest fire bell was first sought by the Pioneer Mutual Hook and Ladder Society, a historical society of firefighters. The bell and cupola now sit behind Fire Station 8 at 5990 H St.

"We're proud of the fire service," said society Chairman Loran Wolcott, a retired firefighter last stationed at Fire Station 8. "We want to protect it and show the history on it."

The cupola and bell are all that remain of the Engine Co. No. 2 firehouse, constructed in 1855 on 10th Street kitty-corner from City Hall. The two-story brick structure was built by Young America Engine Co., one of the city's first volunteer fire companies.

The fire station was one of two kept by the city when the paid, professional fire department was started in 1872. The other, which was then Engine Co. No. 1, is now the Firehouse Restaurant. The increasing use of steam fire engines reduced the need for as many people, said Tim McCormack, the group's secretary.

The volunteer company bought the cast metal bell because of the fierce competition to reach a fire first and win the honor of putting out the flames. A bell was a fast, loud way to alert volunteers that a fire had broken out. The bell was shipped around Cape Horn from New York and installed atop the fire station in 1857, according to a city staff report.

The bell was rung by hand to sound the alarm for any fire in their area of downtown and for big events such as the arrival of the first Pony Express rider in Sacramento, President Abraham Lincoln's election and New Year's.

The bell and cupola moved to Sutter's Fort in 1931 after Young America sold the fire station and it was torn down. The items were later moved to Folsom Lake State Park. Sacramento Fire Chief Tom Deise got the California Division of Beaches and Parks to return the bell, cupola and nameplate to the city in 1961, according to the staff report.

The city had three fire bells at one time. The second, which is the biggest, sits in the Old City Cemetery and marks the oldest firefighter cemetery west of the Mississippi. The bell came from an Oak Park fire station and was given to Sacramento in 1912.

The third bell disappeared when its fire station was closed, Wolcott said.

The city later gave the second bell to the Pioneer Mutual Hook and Ladder Society for its artifact collection. The group has been working to get a fire museum in Sacramento and is holding a crab feed fundraiser Jan. 29.

The bell represents the history of Sacramento's volunteer fire department and the early years of the city’s professional fire department. The bell also marked nearly 75 years' worth of events that were significant to the city, the state and the country, McCormack said.

"That is a lot of history," he said.

Photos by Suzanne Hurt, a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

When dreams come true: Mikuni owner publishes book

2010-11-09T05:20:03Z

Long before Mikuni Japanese Restaurant and Sushi Bar existed, co-owner Taro Arai was an 11-year-old paperboy with big dreams.

He saved $6,000 over five years to move his family from Japan to the United States.

Arai wrote and published his first book, “Abundance: Finding the American Dream in a Japanese Kitchen,” in hopes that he will inspire other Japanese youths.

The book is set to be released Wednesday and combines his family’s history with recipes for some of Mikuni's customers’ favorite dishes.

“It’s not just a recipe book,” Arai said. “It has my life story in it.”

The book’s 12 chapters tell different stages of Arai’s life and include recipes named to coincide with their themes.

For example, when Arai was 11 years old, he saw little future in Japan and dreamed of moving to America. He got a paper route and, over five years, managed to save $6,000 so he and his family could emigrate to America. The story is paired with a recipe for his “American Dream Roll,” a sushi dish including Copper River salmon and bluefin tuna.

After leaving the small southern Japanese island of Amakusa and arriving in the United States, Arai struggled with the English language and American culture as a 16-year-old high school student.

At times funny and at times heartbreaking, Arai’s anecdotes give readers insight into the life of an immigrant family struggling to succeed: relying on each other, hard work and their faith in God.

Working in his aunt’s restaurant in California, Arai said it was a chance encounter that made Mikuni, which means “kingdom of God,” possible.

While his mother cooked, his father – who was also a pastor – waited tables and happened to meet another Japanese man in the restaurant one day. The two came from the same town, and a few days later, the man had deposited $300,000 in Arai’s father’s bank account.

“He said to just pay him back when we could,” Arai told The Sacramento Press. “I don’t know what he was doing giving us that kind of money, but I’m glad he did.”

It was then up to the family to make the restaurant work, with his mother – who never had any formal training – doing the cooking while the whole family worked. Arai recalls working seven days a week without a day off for the first five years.

Arai’s purpose in writing the book is to share his story and provide hope to Japanese youths in response to the 30,000 Japanese who commit suicide each year.

“Most of them are young people,” he said. “They have everything: house, education...but they don’t have hope. I want to show them that they can have hope. If I save even one soul, then it will all be worth it.”

Initially published in English, Arai said his goal is to publish it in Japanese next year and distribute the books to school libraries in Japan.

Arai decided to publish the book himself, edited and helped by his marketing team, and donate 10 percent of the $27.50 price to charity.

“We’ve donated almost $1 million to a breast cancer foundation, and I’m going to use this book to donate even more,” Arai said. “It’s all about giving back, because I came here with nothing, so it’s time to give back.”

Arai said readers can find recipes to some of Mikuni’s customers’ favorite sauces that have previously not been published, but he isn’t giving away all the secrets.

The foreword was penned by New York Times Bestselling author Nicholas Sparks, who used to sit in the restaurant, where Arai would tell him that he would never make any money writing.

“I’ll never tell anyone that again,” Arai said with a laugh.

For Arai, however, the book is not about making vast sums of money.

“I just want to share my story,” he said.

The book will be available Wednesday at Arai’s eight restaurants and on Amazon.com for $27.50. The restaurant chain’s Koki Club members get a discount.

“I don’t want people to stop dreaming,” Arai said. “I keep dreaming of opening 20 restaurants and writing more books. Dreaming is free.”

Brandon Darnell is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Department Store Holiday Display for K Street

2010-11-05T05:16:22Z

Sacramento County Historical Society
Holiday Window Display Project
Roos-Atkins Building, 1001 K Street, Sacramento CA
Grand Opening of Window Display: Friday, November 26, Noon

This November, Sacramento County Historical Society will recreate a full-sized holiday display window on K Street, using animated figures that once graced the windows of the Breuner’s department store in downtown Sacramento. The display will occupy the window of the former Roos Bros. department store building at 1001 K Street, the northeast corner of 10th and K. Setup will take place during November 2010, with a “grand reveal” of the completed display the day after Thanksgiving, November 26, at noon. The display will remain in place until the first week of January, 2011.

The Downtown Sacramento Partnership is an active participant in this project, with contributions from the Sacramento Old City Association, Capital City Preservation Trust, Midtown Neighborhood Association, Matrix Arts, and SCHS members. The property management and real estate firm Colliers International has provided access to the ground floor picture window of the historic Roos-Atkins Department Store. This enormous window on a feature corner provides an ideal place to celebrate K Street’s legacy and usher in its future.

The theme for the 2010 Holiday Display Window is “Winter in the City,” an urban scene set in downtown Sacramento circa 1910. Store windows containing period gifts and merchandise, a nickelodeon movie theater, a K Street streetcar, and lighted architectural elements will reflect the holiday season. Animated Gaffney Display Company figures will interact with each other and their surroundings. Local artists and SCHS volunteers will create the display setting. The window will also include historic photos of original Breuner’s display windows,other downtown department stores like Weinstock & Lubin, Roos Bros. and Kress, and past holiday celebrations on K Street, provided by the Center for Sacramento History. Interpretive panels will explain K Street’s historic role as a shopping, entertainment and cultural destination. We hope this celebration of K Street’s history can also serve to inspire its future, and recreate the sense of wonder of holiday seasons past.

Sacramento County Historical Society is organizing the fundraising effort. We are close to our funding goal, but we need your help to bring this tradition back to life on K Street. Please consider a tax-deductible donation to this project via Indiegogo.com by using the link below:

http://www.indiegogo.com/Winter-in-the-City-?a=52855&i=addr

The idea for this display window started last year, after a presentation by Gaffney Display at an SCHS meeting that resulted in a smaller window display at Grebitus & Sons Jewelers--see that story below:

http://www.sacramentopress.com/headline/18787/Historic_Holiday_Display_at_10th_L

William Burg, Vice-President, Sacramento County Historical Society
SCHS is a 501(c)3 nonprofit dedicated to promoting and sharing local history through publications, education and special events.

For more information about SCHS, please visit our website at http://www.sachistoricalsociety.org

Photos 1-8: Courtesy of the Center for Sacramento History. Photos 9-11: Taken by William Burg. Photo 12: Author's collection.

Cemetery Lantern Tours Shine Light on Local History

2010-10-25T06:52:27Z

The gray sky over Broadway darkened further Friday night as the City Cemetery kicked off this year’s Lantern Tours.

The cemetery holds numerous tours throughout the year. The Lantern Tours are held at 6, 8 and 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday nights before Halloween. Visitors are guided through the cemetery as costumed volunteers act out true stories of select people buried there.

President of the Old City Cemetery Committee, Inc. Lynda Walls led the 6 p.m. tour accompanied by an America Sign Language interpreter from Say-Hey Interpreters.

“It’s our biggest fundraiser of the year,” Walls said. “We use the proceeds to support our cause at the cemetery. Our job is to preserve, protect and beautify the city cemetery.”

Visitors paid $30 each for the hour-long tour. Fifty-five attended the night’s first tour.

“We doubled the size of our tours this year,” Walls said. “Instead of doing one weekend, we got enough volunteers to do two weekends and we still sold out in less than two weeks.”

Forty-five committee volunteers helped set up, act and operate the refreshment and merchandise booths.

Walls guided visitors through six stops in the cemetery. Volunteers acted out first-person stories of love, murder and burials.

“There were two ladies having tea and they made historical references, like to Coca-Cola,” Dynah Cunkelman of Sacramento said. “I thought that was kind of neat. They didn’t explain it, they just kind of made references to it.”

Extras were scattered throughout the cemetery. Among them included a man with a shovel who silently watched visitors and two women dressed in black who mourned at the edge of a grave.

“I thought it was great,” Sean Messina of Sacramento said. “I really liked the costumes and the creepy people in the black veils.”

The cemetery has been hosting a lantern tour in one form or another for almost 20 years, Walls said.

Half of the proceeds will go to repairing headstones and monuments. The other half will go to the committee’s education, research and genealogy projects.

Photos by Kati Garner:

1) Two committee volunteers (foreground) act out a scene

2) Walls leads the group, lantern in hand

3) An extra watches the group silently

4) An actress

5) Visitors walk by an extra

6) Visitors watch an actress and American Sign Language interpreter (background)

The ghosts of Sacramento's past

2010-10-23T01:01:28Z

Do fiendish phantoms haunt the 1850s building at 114 J St. in Old Sacramento?

According to rumors and legend: Yes.

While none of the current tenants claim to have seen otherworldly beings, the stories persist.

“This used to be a restaurant and bar, and the guy who owned it would go out front and barbecue, and his kids would run up to him saying, ‘Daddy, daddy, you have a customer,’ but when he went inside, no one was there,” said JoAnne Peterson, co-owner of Sacramento City Dry Goods.

Another legend, according to Peterson, centers on the spirit of a girl who wanders one of the upper floors.

“She’s very particular about you keeping things neat,” said Peterson, who emphasized that she doesn’t put any credence in the tales. She added that the girl allegedly throws things about if they’re left out of order.

Second- and third-floor tenants didn’t report any sightings, and one claimed he didn’t want to talk to the press about the ghosts because he is currently on good terms with them and doesn’t want to upset them.

Tim Castleman, who owns the Practical Cycle bicycle shop on the ground floor of the building, said he had numerous problems with the alarm system when it was installed earlier this year.

“It was always zone six,” Castleman said. “It’s in the back of the building, on the interior doors.”

The alarm would frequently go off, and Castleman would hustle down to the shop to see if anything was amiss.

“It was nerve-wracking,” he said. “We never could figure it out.”

The false alarms sounded for a couple of months until the third alarm company he used eventually installed a new system and the problems ceased.

Were the false alarms caused by a ghost?

Castleman smiled and shrugged. He said he’s heard the stories of the girl on the upper floors, but he hasn’t seen her.

The building was one of the ones raised on screw jacks following the disastrous flood in 1862, and the job wasn’t done perfectly, as can be seen by looking at the crooked windows in the center of the building’s front.

Photo one is of Elizabeth Pedersen playing the part of the ghost in one of the city’s underground areas now used to store period clothing for a future museum project at Sacramento City Dry Goods.

Brandon Darnell is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Richard Simpson shares film of Sacramento's historic skid row

2010-10-19T04:33:44Z

Time Tested Books continued its Living Library series with a visit from filmmaker Richard Simpson, who shared his 1966 documentary “Marshes of Two Street” with a full house and answered questions from the audience about the experience of filming a historical moment of Sacramento’s skid row district.

The black and white film was played from an old-fashioned projector and showed the riverfront of Sacramento that was once considered the skid row district where the housing was cheap and the alcohol was affordable, so the poorest citizens sought refuge there. This was before the area was demolished for the construction of Interstate 5.

Simpson admitted that many of the people he interviewed for the film were inebriated, which contributed to the film’s theme of loneliness and aimless wandering.

Interviews with the community showed that despite a constant struggle to survive, they were still people with intelligence and good spirits. Losing their jobs and/or families left them with few options, and in facing the slow destruction of skid row, their options were dwindling even further.

“This was the second film I ever made,” Simpson said. It was originally aired on KVIE in 1966 and was broadcast across the nation, he said. He received a $3,000 grant from the Readers’ Digest to fund the project.

“I was really in love with skid row,” Simpson said.

His family would come to Front Street to sell wool, and while Simpson was a teenager he would meet the locals in skid row, whom his father insisted he never talk to.

“I didn’t find them scary,” Simpson said. “They were still living. They still had thoughts. They were thinking the same things that everyone else was thinking.”

Later in life when he began filming the documentary, Simpson said the locals wanted nothing to do with him. It wasn’t until he and his assistant were wrongfully accosted by the police in a case of mistaken identity that the locals paid any attention to Simpson and allowed interviews.

He spent three months filming the half-hour film and borrowed a Bolex video-camera from a friend to capture the footage. Simpson said the editing process was “primitive,” and he would do post-production work at night while working for KVIE during the day.

Simpson agreed with a guest’s opinion that the demolition of the skid row district did more harm than good. “I think we lost a great pioneer town,” he said. “What surprises me is the homeless are all over the place now and no one’s doing anything about it.”

The film itself did not show any of the demolition or destruction of the area, which happened afterward. Instead it preserved the opinions and stories of the real people who gave the area character before it was lost.

A major influence for Simpson came from the photography of Henri Cartier-Bresson. “He was known for capturing the decisive moment,” Simpson said, calling this “the peak of action.”

Evoking a melancholic and almost hopeless tone, the film had many long shots of people holding cigarettes or taking swigs of liquor from a bottle, and he tended to focus on lips or eyes of people while they spoke. The “peak of action” that Simpson captured was the raw vulnerability of characters that were out of luck and struggling, but were still very much human beings.

After the film, Simpson said, “I loved those people. I haven’t seen this film in a long time and I feel very emotional about it.”

The next Living Library event is Nov. 21. Capitol Public Radio’s Jeffrey Callison will be interviewed by Sacramento Press Editor in Chief David Watts Barton.

Denio family still swapping after all these years

2010-10-18T04:35:24Z

It’s like Christmas every weekend for each bargain-hunting, fresh fruit- and veggie-loving passerby who ambles through the opening in the shiny chain-link fence at the corner of Church Street and Atkinson in Roseville.

Since 1947, the gaps in the never-rusty metal fence have been letting folks enter into a world of constants and a world of the unexpected all the while wandering through a well-planned maze of wooden tables that is Denio’s Farmers Market and Swap Meet.

Denio’s, located at 1551 Vineyard Rd., is an iconic part of greater Sacramento’s history. People have been coming out to the boonies of Roseville for years to peddle their no-longer-used “items” out of a ’57 pickup or load up on the best fruits and vegetables in the vicinity. And the Denio family has seen it all.

Started over 60 years ago by Jim and Marilee Denio and originally called Denio’s Farmers Market and Auction, it began with a single vendor selling produce near the Southern Pacific Railroad yard. Soon thereafter, Jim Denio held auctions on Saturdays and people began renting empty asphalt spaces to feature their items. It wasn’t until 1969 that the trading post opened on Sundays.

Running the show these days is Jim and Marilee’s son, Ken, and he is assisted in the marketing department by his son Eric. Eric rolled by in his golf cart and spoke about the history of Denio’s.

“It started out with three locations but settled here at Atkinson and Vineyard,” said the third generation market-running Denio. “Grandpa was selling produce out of a Model T, and, lo and behold, 63 years later it’s Denio’s Farmers Market and Swap Meet.

“It’s been a wild ride. We actually know families that are on their third generation and working on their fourth of both selling and shopping, so it’s been pretty fun for me to meet new people. We have people coming from all over the world to visit us.”

Eric has even gotten into the social media aspect of the business. With the newfangled ways to advertise, you can now follow Denio’s on Twitter, where they have about 2,000 followers, and on Facebook. You can even find updates on YouTube by searching Denio’s.

One trip past the wooden ticket booth and the senses will be overloaded with the smooth but distinct scent of cinnamon on your left, the charcoal grill emitting the aroma of fresh barbecued pork sandwiches directly in front of you, and soy sauce-covered Asian vegetables and rice from the food shack on your right. It can be overwhelming.

Further down one of the many layered aisles, you can find anything. NASCAR collectibles, old Nintendo cartridges, huge living room carpets and even some cool luchador outfits for the youngsters.

If you follow the normal routine — for folks parking in the large lot that used to house the old cattle auction building — you run a circle around the yard and wind up in their famous produce area on your way out. This seemingly endless covered territory houses the now cornerstone part of the long-standing family business.

Families have been coming to this outpost of the unusual for many a growing season. Currently, there are still cucumbers, tomatoes, apples, grapes and more still fresh and ready to devour.

The Nguyn family was out in force this day romping through the vast array of fresh produce laid upon the various vendor’s tables, picking what they could before someone else’s hand outreached them for freshness.

Nikki Nguyn had enough in her rolling metal cart that she will be able to fill the salad bar when she gets home. Her reason for visiting the old auction site is like so many others who are out on this sunny day.

“I’m saving money and buying fresh produce,” Nguyn said.

Denio’s may be the place that you find all the fixings for a great home-cooked meal or the missing piece for your special collection.

Denio’s is open on Fridays from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. with free parking, and Saturdays and Sundays from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. with $3 parking. For more information on current promotions and the history of Denio’s Farmers Market and Swap Meet, go to http://denios.org.

History of Oak Park told through new walking tour brochure

2010-10-13T16:55:14Z

On Thursday, October 21st, the Center for Sacramento History (CSH) and California State University, Sacramento (CSUS) will unveil a new self-guided walking tour of Central Oak Park. The brochure highlights the community’s architectural and historical significance. The evening will include an address by the brochure’s author, Dr. Robin Datel, a professor in CSUS’ Geography Department. The lecture will be held at the historic Guild Theater in Oak Park (2828 35th Street at Broadway); doors open at 6:30 p.m. and the presentation begins at 7:00 p.m. The event is free and open to the public.

The 32-page walking tour brochure includes historic photographs of nearly forty selected locations with interpretation of their change over time. The tour highlights the development of an early suburb with its own Main Street (“smart growth” long before the label existed); racial transitions; the civil rights movement; cycles of investment and disinvestment; nurturing of the arts; redevelopment; and neighborhood activism. These themes are embodied in such buildings and places as the 40 Acres Building, the Guild Theater, the Citizens’ and US Banks, the old Post Office/Observer Building, Joyland/McClatchy Park, the Women’s Civic Improvement Club, and more.

Dr. Datel’s lecture, “Local Places Tell Big Stories: A Walking Tour of Sacramento’s Central Oak Park,” will address how she acquired the walking tour content, the key themes of the tour, and details of the individual tour sites. The lecture will be supplemented by photographs documenting the tour sites and Oak Park history. Finally, the address will report on current projects to produce other walking tours in Sacramento, as well as to develop a driving tour of Sacramento places with significance to (mostly 20th-century) African-American history.

The brochures will be available at locations throughout the Central Oak Park area after October 21st and at the CSH website, www.centerforsacramentohistory.org. For copies of the brochure or to serve as a public distribution site, call (916) 808-7072.

Dr. Datel is an Associate Professor and Geography Department Chair at CSUS. With the help of her urban geography students and Oak Park residents, she developed the walking tour. Dr. Datel’s published research has largely been on historic preservation in American and European cities and the social geography of Sacramento, particularly aspects of ethnicity and immigration. She teaches an Urban Geography lecture/discussion course and an Urban Geography field course.

This project was made possible by financial support from CSH, CSUS, and the Sacramento County Historical Society.

Nighttime tours offered at the Old City Cemetery

2010-09-24T00:14:46Z

This Halloween season, take a unique nighttime tour through the Old City Cemetery with nothing but a lantern to light the way through the maze of historic tombstones and wandering spirits.

The annual Lantern Tours offer guests a special visit with Sacramento’s oldest residents.

“Guests are led by a gas-lit lantern through the cemetery, and we stop to meet residents who are played by costumed docents,” said Old City Cemetery Committee Director Lynda Walls.

Walls, who doubles as the official tour guide, said the stories are often told through skits.

“It’s very entertaining. We try to have a sense of humor with the most respect,” she said.

There is a palpable sense of history at the Old City Cemetery. Established in 1849 on land by John Sutter, the property’s size (now over 28 acres) has fluctuated over the past 160 years.

“At one point the property reached a bit farther north, when Broadway was a two-lane road, and there was once a beautiful bell tower,” Walls said.

The cemetery is adorned with many types of trees, colorful flowers and plants growing along the criss-crossing paths between grave sites. It is a peaceful, well-maintained resting place for much of Sacramento’s history, from WWII soldiers to past governors.

After sunset, however, one can easily think of the opening scenes of “Night of the Living Dead.”

“I don’t think it’s spooky,” Walls said. “I love it. We are very respectful of the cemetery residents and their descendants.”

The costumed volunteers who play the roles of the deceased base their stories on well-researched information. There are between 50 and 60 volunteers who bring the Lantern Tours to life.

“The actors are given the true information about their character – old newspaper clippings, journals – and they write their own scripts,” said Connie Clark, the assistant who oversees the cast.

Clark also participates in the tour.

“One year I was Amy Crocker,” she said, “and her grandson happened to be on the tour. So that was a pleasant surprise.”

For moments like that, the Cemetery Committee always makes sure its research is accurate.

“It is important to us to be truthful,” Clark said. “Besides, as the saying goes: Truth is often stranger than fiction.”

Clark said she has been performing historical reenactments for many years and came to the Old City Cemetery in 2007. She said she volunteered when she heard stories of the cemetery being vandalized, and she wanted to help protect its history.

“The tickets sell out every year,” Walls said, adding that it’s despite the event never being advertised and gaining popularity solely by word of mouth.

“Each year we choose different stories and meet different residents to make no two years the same,” Walls said, “while our returning volunteers help keep the tour quality consistent.”

First-time volunteers are asked to fill the role of the “wandering spirits” who wander the cemetery during the tour. They graduate to bigger roles after they’ve observed the veterans and know what is expected of them.

In an e-mail, Walls said the Lantern Tours have made about $8,000 in the past by only hosting tours for one weekend. “This year, we have enough volunteer to expand to two weekends... We're expecting to raise about $18,000.”

She said half the proceeds go toward toward the Old City Cemetery’s other projects, such as genealogy assistance, education outreach, general upkeep of the property gardens and much more. The other half goes toward the restoration of headstones.

“Due to age, weathering, storms and past vandalism, hundreds of the unique hand carved marble and granite headstones are damaged, broken or no longer in their bases,” Walls said in an e-mail. “The average cost of repairing a single headstone runs about $300 - $400.”

The tours generally last between sixty to ninety minutes and refreshments are served.

“We invite people to come out and see what goes bump in the night,” Clark said.

The Old City Cemetery is located at 1000 Broadway.

The Lantern Tour dates:
Friday & Saturday, October 22 & 23
Friday & Saturday, October 29 & 30
6:00, 8:00 and 10:00 pm
Tickets cost $30

Normal visiting hours are:
7 a.m. - 5 p.m. in the Winter (closed Wed. and Thur.)
7 a.m. - 7 p.m. in the Summer (closed Wed. and Thur.)

For more information call 916-448-0811

SOCA home tour exhibits historic Midtown buildings

2010-09-21T00:10:27Z

Q Street’s historic “Bungalow Row” was opened to the public Sunday as part of the Sacramento Old City Association’s 35th annual home tour. Six occupied residences dating from 1894 to 1910 put on their Sunday best to impress the Sacramento homeowners, architecture enthusiasts and history fans who milled about the Q, P and O Street homes, enacting a sort of live-action Home and Garden program.

Winn Park’s emergency relay station, built in 1937, was also on display, and booths and tents on the East side of the park displayed presentations on art, history, home maintenance and preservation efforts. Young men with acoustic guitars sat under trees and played songs to audiences of 10 or 12 in an informal fashion that characterized the meandering, decentralized atmosphere of the rest of the day’s events.

Through the tents slowly rode a man dressed in period clothing sitting precariously atop a penny-farthing. That man was Ed Cox, one of the tour guides at house No. 2 of the tour.

Standing on the front porch of a Q Street bungalow, Cox greeted people walking up the steps.

“The Home Tour is about bringing awareness of historic buildings and the fact that they’re a valuable resource,” Cox said. “Because once they’re gone, they’re gone forever.”

Cox pointed to some volcanic-looking bricks jutting from the side of the house. Clinker brick, he explained, was first created when brick-makers accidentally burned the bricks that were cooked near the walls of the oven. At first they threw clinker brick in the trash, but builders thought they were interesting and now they add character to many old homes such as this one. Details like that are the stuff early 20th century Sacramento homes are made of — that and front porches.

“The fact is, people don’t really have front porches anymore,” Cox said. “Everyone’s in their little air-conditioned boxes.”

At some point in American history, there was a transition from the community-oriented front porch to the private leave-me-alone backyard. It’s the former that historical-preservation types like Cox would like to see a return to in Sacramento.

For some, like the members of the Q Street Gang, that day has already come. A group of neighbors on Q Street started having dinner parties in 2002 and the group has grown since then, creating a kind of neighborhood community that has become increasingly uncommon.

One of the founding members of the Q Street Gang, Jackie Brown, said the group is great because they all help each other out when they need it. Some of the members are in their 70s, so if they need some yardwork done or help with some other task they’re not quite up to, the gang’s got their back.

“It’s kind of like an extended family,” Brown said. “Which is good for me because I don’t have any other family.”

Each home in the tour has a different personality, but of the estimated 500 who visited the homes Sunday, many agreed that two unifying features were their beauty and charm.

“They’re so welcoming,” said one visitor, proud Sacramento homeowner Catherine Hackney. “They welcome you with open arms.”

From the architecture, choice of construction materials and use of space and light, everything about these homes makes them wonderful, Hackney said.

Upon entering home No. 4 of the tour, on P Street, one could smell a warm mustiness unique to old houses that have been as lovingly cared for, knick-knacks set about an old piano, a knitted blanket carefully folded over the back of an easy chair. Creaky wooden steps lead up to bedrooms decorated over decades of careful pruning and selection, lined with bookshelves of worn but neatly organized books.

There is a romance that draws people to these homes. People are attracted for nostalgic reasons. To many in Sacramento, these homes represent something of immeasurable value worth preserving. Despite the importance of preservation efforts, tour guide Christine Henderson said, people should be open-minded about it.

“We may not like tract houses, but we don’t have to put down people who don’t like what we like,” she said. “Maybe in the future, people will look back on those homes the way we look at these ones.”

Photos courtesy of Randy Lum/SOCA.

SOCA Home Tour in Bungalow Row

2010-09-17T07:38:25Z

On Sunday, September 19, the Sacramento Old City Association presents its 35th annual Home Tour, focusing on the homes of Q Street's Bungalow Row and Winn Park. Sacramento Press reporter Brandon Darnell detailed the story behind the Home Tour here:

www.sacramentopress.com/headline/35635/Historic_homes_to_open_for_tour

The home tour's "base of operations" this year, where tickets are sold, is located in Winn Park, at the corner of 28th and P Street. Winn Park is also the location of the tour's street fair, featuring local contractors, artisans, crafters, artists and organizations. At the center of the park, near the fire relay station that is one of the stops on the tour, musical performers will play from 11 AM to 3 PM.

Performers scheduled are Ross Hammond, Chris Harvey and Tim White (of The Alkali Flats), Bobby Joe Ebola and the Children MacNuggits, and the Freebadge Serenaders.

At the street fair, local developers ZETA Homes will have information about their new residential project planned for 25th and R Street. Dave "I Do Windows and Doors" Clark will demonstrate how restoring wood windows can be cheaper and far greener than replacing wood with vinyl windows. Practical Cycle will share information on their upcoming local history bike rides. Midtown Business Association will share their upcoming events, and downtowngrid.com will offer coupons and gifts from local businesses. Several authors of Arcadia Publishing's books on local history will be present to sign and sell books. Archivists from the Center for Sacramento History and representatives of the Sacramento Old City Cemetery will share information on their organizations. Two stained glass artists, Mickey Abbey and Richard Graf, will feature their arts at either end of the park. CLUCK, the Campaign to Legalize Urban Chicken Keeping, will share information on their efforts. Local artists like Kitten Kustom Wares, New Old Jewelry and Carolyn Hess Handmade Quilts will display their crafts, while fine arts by Joy Gee of Matrix Arts, Mareia de Socorro, Nicholas Roberts and Greg LaTraille will be on display.

If you are planning on attending the "Sac Cycle Chic" bicycle ride, the ride will end at the Street Fair. For more information on Sac Cycle Chic:

www.saccyclechic.com/

The street fair will take place in the eastern half of Winn Park, but there will still be plenty of room for picnics and gatherings.

35th Annual SOCA Home Tour
Location: Bungalow Row and Winn Park, 28th and P Street, Midtown Sacramento
Description: Join us for the 35th Annual SOCA Home Tour. This year we are celebrating the 100th birthday of Bungalow Row. A street fair featuring artisans and craftspersons specializing in historic properties will be held in Winn Park at 27th & P Streets. Home Tour tickets will be available at the street fair. The street fair is free.
Start Time: 09:00 AM to 4:00 PM
Date: September 19, 2010

Tickets are $20 in advance and $ 25 the day of the event

Advance tickets can be purchased after August 22nd at the following locations:

The Avid Reader, 16th & Broadway

Collected Works, 4525 Freeport Blvd. next to Capitol Nursery

57th Street Antique Mall, 57th & H Street

Joann’s Elegant Gifts, 1019 L Street

Green Sacramento, 919 20th Street

For more information on SOCA:

www.sacoldcity.org

North Sacramento historical book to be premiered on Thursday

2010-09-09T23:31:59Z

A fascinating new book about North Sacramento will have it’s exclusive premier at a special event scheduled for Thursday evening, September 16th at 1616 Del Paso Blvd. from 5:30 until 7:30PM.

This free event will feature a talk and visual presentation by the author, Veronica Ehrenreich-Risner, a librarian and professor at CSUS who has worked for the past 3 years to assemble this stirring volume of vintage imagery, and will allow time for questions and answers, as well as a book signing. This will be the first opportunity to purchase this latest title in the “Images of America” series from the county’s leading publisher of local and regional history books. Relive this exciting time when a thriving, self contained downtown along Del Paso Blvd provided all the necessities for daily living. During WW1 the nation's largest manufacturing facility of Jenny aircraft for the war effort was on a dirt road that is now Del Paso Boulevard. The city of North Sacramento was incorporated in 1923 and grew up around the Woodlake residential development, the "Pasadena of the North" as it was billed at the time, and it remains one of Sacramento's quiet jewels, still largely undiscovered. You will hear about the incredibly close election of 1964 that unified the North Sacramento city into its larger neighbor to the south and began a long, slow decline that has taken the past 20 years of redevelopment efforts to reverse. Don't miss this opportunity to share in the colorful history of Sacramento's first suburb to the north of the American River!

This event is sponsored by the North Sacramento Chamber of Commerce, in conjunction with the Del Paso Boulevard Partnership.

Air show to thrill Sacramentans

2010-09-08T00:52:30Z

Sacramentans can see everything from the ultramodern F-22 Raptor to historic World War II aircraft and the Patriots Jet Team as more than nine decades of aviation will be celebrated this weekend at the fifth annual California Capital Airshow.

“It’s unbelievable,” said California Capital Airshow Executive Director Darcy Brewer. “We have over five hours of entertainment and aerobatics soaring overhead.”

Brewer said one of the show’s highlights is the gathering of P-38 Lighting aircraft from World War II. Only 15 of the “Fork-Tailed Devils” remain, and of those, only seven are still airworthy.

“We’ve invited six of them to come to the show,” Brewer said. “It’s the one thing this show has that no one else has. They’re very unusual aircraft.”

In addition to the planes, more than 300 veterans will be at the event – men and women who flew, built and maintained the twin-engine fighter.

“Basically, what we’re trying to do is give them a platform to share their stories and experiences from a bygone era,” Brewer said. “We’ll have the guys that fly them today alongside the guys that flew them 70 years ago. I’m glad we’re able to do this, because the number of those heroes is dwindling.”

For those looking for a more modern show of military airpower, the supersonic, stealthy F-22 Raptor will be flying along with other military planes.

“When the Raptor performs, it takes your breath away,” Brewer said. “It defies the laws of physics.”

Another feature at the air show will be the Patriots Jet Team, a civilian demonstration team that puts on shows in the same style as the Blue Angels and Thunderbirds.

“This will be the first time we fly in a six-ship formation,” said lead pilot and former Thunderbird pilot Dean “Wilbur” Wright. “It won’t be a full six-ship demonstration, as we don’t have that choreographed yet, but we’re going to use the show as an opportunity to show that we have the capability to put six in the air.”

The Patriots fly Czechoslovakian L-39 jets in close formation while performing aerobatics for their air show routine. The pilots are a mix of former Air Force Thunderbird pilots and civilians.

“It’s really a neat mix, and it encourages a lot of youth to know that you don’t have to go to the Air Force to do something like this,” Wright said.

Wright said his inspiration to become a pilot was sparked when he was 7 years old and saw the Thunderbirds perform at an air show.

“I like the team atmosphere and the cooperation it takes among all of us to put the four jets in the air each week,” he said. “This is a continuation of my Thunderbirds dream.”

Another pilot who made her dream come true despite long odds will also be at the show.

“Jessica Cox was born without arms and became the first licensed female pilot to fly with her feet,” Brewer said. “Her motto is, ‘There’s no such thing as the word can’t.’ We’re thrilled over it.”

Cox won’t be the only woman there, as 100 years of women in aviation are celebrated.

During World War II, aircraft had to be ferried from the United States to their bases overseas, and with the male pilots being needed to fight the war, it was women who ferried the planes across vast oceans.

“We’ve got these women in their 90s who used to fly these bombers in World War II,” Brewer said. “We also have representatives from the 469 active-duty female fighter pilots today.”

One difference in this year’s show has nothing to do with aircraft, Brewer said.

The parking area has been expanded, so there will be no buses to Mather Airport.

Brewer said attendees will be able to drive to and park at the field with minimal delays.

The air show will be held from 9 a.m. - 5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. Tickets can be purchased online for discounted prices of $12 for adults and $5 for children 6-12. Kids 5 and younger get in free. Prices at the gate are $15 for adults and $10 for kids. Active-duty military members get in free, and parking is $10.

Mather airport is located at 3745 Whitehead St. in Mather.

Brewer said ticket sales are up 40 percent this year over last year, and there is a possibility of the show selling out.

The air show is a nonprofit organization, and Brewer said any money raised above the cost of holding the event goes to scholarships for students interested in aviation, and 70 students have received scholarships in the past four years.

Photos courtesy California Capital Airshow

Brandon Darnell is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Bomb shelter offers glimpse into city's past

2010-09-06T05:54:56Z

Tucked away under the unremarkable former Broadway Hardware store is a dark reminder of a time in Sacramento’s past when the threat of war loomed.

Entering the front of the store, which will soon be reborn as a pawn shop, visitors will see an open space with display cases and a counter. But behind one of the curtains in back is a gently sloping concrete ramp leading underground to a nuclear fallout shelter.

Stan Lukowicz Jr., who owns Capital City Loan and Jewelry with his father and brother, said he thinks the shelter might date back as far as World War II – before the threat of nuclear war between the United States and the Soviet Union.

“At one point during the war, bomb shelters were considered a necessity,” he said, adding that going down in the shelter for the first time was “a little intimidating.”

Broadway Hardware’s shelter is one of more than 100 listed on a 1960s map at the Center for Sacramento History, 551 Sequoia Pacific Blvd.

Other shelter sites include the Old City Hall, The Sacramento Bee, numerous state and government buildings, McClatchy High School, the water treatment plant and the dorms at California State University, Sacramento.

The shelter map was originally accompanied by a booklet describing what to do in the event of a nuclear attack on Sacramento. A blank form was intended to be filled out and serve as a reference to which shelter to head for if it became necessary.

Also at the center is a flier advising residents of the steps to take in an attack.

The flier, distributed by the Sacramento Operational Area Civil Defense Council in 1962, advised residents to “select a shelter area for home and work. Stock shelter area with food, water, medical and sanitary supplies.”

Graphic representations told residents that an “alert” signal would be a long, droning note played out on the sirens and a “take cover” signal would be a warbling siren for three minutes.

In a sobering tone, the flier gives the harsh details of an attack without warning.

“No siren sound. A brilliant white flash, the brightest you’ve ever seen, is your only warning ... You have a few seconds before heavy shock wave arrives,” according to the flier. The flier then advises people to stay inside until they hear it is safe to leave, as radioactive fallout would be dangerous.

Though the presence of shelters and doomsday fliers makes the 1960s sound like an era of dark fears, life went on as normal for most residents, according to Larry and Barbara Kronquest, volunteer docents at the Sacramento History Museum at 101 I St.

“I can remember ‘duck and cover’ and getting under your desk,” said Barbara Kronquest, who was a teacher at the time. “Drills were mandated once a month at the schools.”

Though duck and cover would have been largely ineffective in the event of atomic warfare, she said it was a great way to protect students from falling glass and ceiling pieces during earthquakes.

“I know they designated buildings (as shelters),” she said. “Sacramentans couldn’t get real excited about it because there wouldn’t have been time to get to many of them anyway.”

Larry Kronquest said that with three Air Force Strategic Air Command bases in the area, Sacramento would have been a prime target for Soviet missiles.

During the 1960s, Larry Kronquest worked for the Department of Utilities in City Hall, and he considered the shelter under the building – little more than a basement – virtually useless.

“I had a boss who swore he could get from City Hall to the water treatment plant in five minutes,” he said. “That was the shelter you wanted, because it was stocked with supplies, and you could tap into the water system.”

Both Kronquests said they didn’t think much about the threat – they just lived their lives.

Today, the disused bomb shelters are mere curiosities, reminders of a threat that never came to pass.

Brandon Darnell is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Gold Rush Days returns to Old Sacramento

2010-09-04T00:12:30Z

Old Sacramento’s streets are once again dirt, and about 150 volunteers are dressed in their best 1850s fashion as the area reverts back to its rich history for Labor Day weekend.

Visitors can rumble down the streets in a horse-drawn carriage, refresh themselves at the Stinking Tent Saloon, pan for gold and then gamble away their findings at one of the more lecherous tents in the frontier tent city that sprung up overnight in front of the Sacramento History Museum on First and I streets.

“I think it’s really important for people now to know about the history that was happening right here in that time period,” said Janessa West, public programs coordinator for the Historic Old Sacramento Foundation.

Gold Rush Days in Old Sacramento has been held for the past 11 years, and West said she expects even higher traffic this year than in years past, since the fair is not open like it has been, having had its dates moved up a month.

Volunteer Jan Bullard, who for the weekend is Addie Carter – gambler and hostess of the Stinking Tent Saloon – said visitors to her tent can partake in “games for all ages, music, prestidigitation (that’s sleight of hand to modern folks) and the best sarsaparilla this side of Donner Pass.”

At noon and 3 p.m. Friday, the Sierra Nevada Mormon pioneers fired off a replica of one of the cannons Sutter’s Fort would have mounted.

“We enjoy discussing early California history with the public, from pre-Gold Rush to the discovery of gold,” said Peter Guilbert, commandant of the pioneers.

On Friday, hundreds of schoolchildren attended the event, including 9-year-old Anna Kirchgater Elementary School student Connor Jacobs, who got a crash course in doing laundry pioneer-style.

“I’m learning a lot about history,” Connor said. “My favorite was the train museum.”

Eddie Douglas, father of one of Connor’s classmates, said he thought the school’s field trip to the event was a great way for the students to learn history firsthand.

Volunteer J.D. Borthwick agreed.

“Bringing the 1850s to the 21st century is a wonderful thing,” he said. “This venue has been going for a decade. It’s a fixture of Labor Day in Sacramento.”

The event is free and open from 11 a.m. - 7 p.m. Saturday and Sunday and from 11 a.m. - 4 p.m. Monday.

Prepaid parking is available for $8 at Tower Garage (near Tower Bridge) and nearby Old Sacramento Garage (entrance on I Street).

Brandon Darnell is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

SCHS Presents: Rick Spencer at Gold Rush Days

2010-09-03T05:59:10Z

Rick Spencer Concert at Gold Rush Days, Sunday Sept 5, 4 P.M., Old Sacramento “Tent City” Stage

SCHS is proud to sponsor a public historic music program by historical troubadour Rick Spencer, followed by a 5 PM performer reception/discussion (for SCHS members only) in the Eagle Theater. Rick is known internationally for his work as a historian, researcher, singer, songwriter and performer of music in the American folk tradition. Some of his musical selections for this event will include campaign songs written for the 1856 Presidential campaign of John C. Fremont, early California explorer, one of the first two Senators from California, and the first Presidential candidate fielded by the fledgling Republican Party. The concert is free and open to the public on the "Tent City" stage, and starts at 4:00 PM.

In addition to his work as a musician Rick Spencer is the executive director of the Dr. Ashbel Woodward Museum in Franklin, CT. For more information you can visit Rick Spencer's website at www.catfeather.com. The concert, and the SCHS member reception, are both near Front & I Street in Old Sacramento, on the "Tent City" stage. Gold Rush Days are quite the party (see sacramentogoldrushdays.com ), so come out early for the best parking opportunities. The event runs Friday through Monday, with Sunday’s hours from 11- 7.

For more information about the Sacramento County Historical Society, visit our website at www.sachistoricalsociety.org

Disclosure: William Burg is Vice-President of the Sacramento County Historical Society.

Historic homes to open for tour

2010-08-26T23:24:40Z

In 1900s Sacramento, the 2500 block of Q Street was a new middle-class neighborhood of railroad workers, pipe fitters and small business owners whose dreams of home ownership were largely made possible by the extension of the nearby streetcar route.

Their homes were the example of early suburban living, and three of them on the historic Bungalow Row – as well as four other historic buildings – will be open as part of the 35th annual Sacramento Old City Association home tour from 10 a.m. - 4 p.m. Sept. 19.

In addition to the bungalows are several other homes – with the oldest being an 1889 Victorian – and a Winn Park oddity: an emergency relay station built in 1937 that served as a 24-hour dispatch center for the Sacramento Fire Department at a time when calls often came in via fire boxes located throughout the city.

“I think the tour makes people aware of both the beauty and history of our area,” said Catherine Turrill, spokeswoman for SOCA. “Also, they learn about the history of the people who lived there.”

The tour is only open one day, and in addition to the homes, there will be a street fair with live music, artisan vendors with home-related items such as stained glass and milled wood detailing, real estate agents for those looking to buy a home – though the tour is not for home sales – and people who restore historic buildings.

To add a sense of history, the Sacramento Capitol A’s Model A car club will roll out their classic Fords from the 1920s and ’30s.

The oldest buildings on the tour are the Victorians, characterized by their steeply pitched roofs and sense of height derived from tall, narrow windows and ornate decorations, Turrill said.

The bungalows are Arts and Crafts homes built in the first years of the 20th century, and the level of detail in them often goes unnoticed to casual viewers.

The bungalows were designed for comfort in a hot climate long before air conditioning, Turrill said. They have spacious porches, deep eaves and are very open inside to allow for easy cross ventilation.

“The sheer variety of details is amazing,” Turrill said, adding that the milled wood accents and even the window details are often different throughout the houses, unlike the uniformity of a present-day tract house.

“You get a sense of the specific neighborhood and its growth over time,” Turrill said. “These are houses that really bear close inspection.”

The homes show people on the tour examples of architecture that was largely dismissed in the latter half of the 20th century, said William Burg, vice president of the Sacramento County Historical Society and a board member of SOCA.

“The tours originally started in the 1970s, and the people who started SOCA wanted to show not only the architectural beauty of the homes, but also the viability of the Central City,” Burg said. “That’s something that hasn’t changed in the last 25 years.”

Burg organizes the street fair, and he said he enjoys being able to bring together a combination of contractors, designers, artisans and real estate developers, but also elements of contemporary Midtown culture – artists, musicians and bicycle advocacy groups – and showing how it all comes together.

Despite their age, Burg said the homes are the model of how contemporary buildings can re-embrace urban life.

“They’re better laid-out and typically greener because they were designed at a time when energy was much more expensive than it is today,” Burg said. “Someone who maybe isn’t impressed with the fit and finish of historic homes...they may want to look at the functionality of them.”

Each home and the emergency relay center will be staffed with four to six docents who will provide information and guidance, Turrill said.

Typically, SOCA sees 300-500 people on each year’s tour, most of whom do it on foot, since the buildings are all close together and are situated in a very walkable part of the city.

Tickets to the home tour are available at the street fair, which will be located in Winn Park, at 27th and Q streets. Tickets are $25 at the fair, with a $1 discount for those arriving on bicycles, or they can be purchased from local vendors beforehand for $20. A list of vendors selling tickets – including The Avid Reader at 16th and Broadway, 57th Street Antique Mall at 57th and H, and Joann’s Elegant Gifts at 1019 L St. – is available on the SOCA website.

Photos courtesy of Randy Lum/SOCA.

Brandon Darnell is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Grocery Outlet: Then and Now

2010-08-21T00:12:37Z

When I wrote Sacramento: Then and Now I wanted to show some images that were missed in other local history books, but were immediately recognizable by people who lived in the neighborhoods portrayed. I chose the image of the grocery store at 17th and Capitol because it was just this sort of place: ordinary, but recognizable and essential. At the time, it was still Rick's Uptown Market--one of the hazards of a book titled "Then and Now" is that the date of publication immediately becomes a new "Then."

The building is about 100 years old--I am pretty sure, but not positive, that it was constructed in about 1910. It was constructed as the Perkins and Company grocery store, selling food as well as dry goods and other essentials. Perkins & Company was first established in the town of Perkins, about seven miles east of Sacramento by Thomas Calley Perkins, renamed in his honor from the earlier name of Brighton. Thomas' son, Charles Calley Perkins, expanded the family business to Sacramento in the early 1900s, so this store was probably his idea. More about the history of Brighton Township, including Perkins, can be found in this a free online book called Stories of the Land by Paula J. Peper. The book was published by Stonebridge Properties, who currently plan to develop the Perkins/Brighton area into a new Sacramento County subdivision.

When the Perkins Store was built, Capitol Avenue was still known as M Street, and a streetcar line ran down its center. Paving was becoming commonplace in that decade, so the road may have been macadamized, but there was still a lot of horse traffic in addition to the streetcars, bicycles, pedestrians and a growing number of automobiles. Like most streetcar routes, M Street's property values were higher than adjacent blocks, so buildings on the street were more commonly commercial, multi-family dwellings or large, expensive homes of prominent families.

The Perkins & Company Store went out of business in 1944, but it served as a neighborhood market after Perkins closed: by the 1950s, it was a Raley's store. More recently it was part of the Compton's Market local chain, and most recently Rick's before closing and reopening as a Grocery Outlet store.

As the photos show, other than covering up some of the street-side windows with stucco, the store hasn't changed very much. The mural, now in mid-restoration/enhancement, gives a little bit of flavor, not strictly what the building actually looked like but enough to evoke the past. In the past week, Sacramento lost one of its oldest market buildings to fire, but places like the old Perkins Store, reopened today as a Grocery Outlet, still function in their historic role. As Sacramentans redisciver their central city, buildings like this one and places like neighborhood markets will have an important role to play. Perhaps this building could serve the neighborhood as a grocery store for another hundred years?

Exhibit Reveals Sacramento's Arboreal Love Affair

2010-08-13T04:34:19Z

Sacramento has been called “The City of Trees,” a city with more trees per capita than Paris, a place known for its romantic, tree-lined walkways and thoroughfares.

Each tree in Sacramento has a story to tell. This is the theme of “Living With Trees,” a new art exhibit that opened in City Hall Aug. 4 featuring 17 historical photographs selected from the Center for Sacramento History’s archives, each telling a small piece of the decades-old romance Sacramento has had with its trees.

There are images of automobiles smashed by broad tree trunks flung down in the windstorm of 1950, costumed children playacting in a shaded grove and an ordinary Sacramento man sweeping a front yard enveloped by countless leaves.

But, it’s about more than just the trees, said Coloma artist Cheri Ibes. “It’s about our relationship with nature.”

Ibes’ installation is in the center of the exhibit – a tangled arrangement of pruned brambles from a manzanita shrub enclosed in a glass case.

“The spectrum of the human relationship with nature runs between fear of an unbridled, uncontrollable force of nature – things like hurricanes and earthquakes – to wanting to control and own nature ourselves in the form of something like a potted bonsai plant in your backyard,” Ibes said.

Her installation, she said, embodies that spectrum of human interaction with nature, as do all the photographs in the exhibit.

Since 1849, the people of Sacramento have cherished the benefits of having lots of trees around. But with the city’s budget cuts reducing the workforce of Urban Forestry services from the equivalent of 57 full-time employees to about 36, there is concern about what the future holds for Sacramento’s urban canopy.

Despite having fewer employees, a recent upgrade to a Google Earth-style tree mapping system that tracks data for about 100,000 public trees in Sacramento has made preservation efforts easier for the city, Sacramento Urban Forestry Manager Joe Benassini said.

“There’s a real protective tendency people have toward trees, ” said Lisa Prince, curator of this exhibit and curator for the Center for Sacramento History, which is presenting the exhibit in conjunction with The Sacramento Metropolitan Arts Commission.

Trees give us shade from the scorching summer sun, clean air to breathe, and promote mental and emotional well-being, Prince said.

Prince said she wants people to walk away from the exhibit having found some way to connect with the history of Sacramento and develop an appreciation for the urban forest.

Some have. The exhibit includes a cork board where visitors can tack up an index card with their tree stories. The cards are full of stories: about weddings, sad memories of trees now gone, happy childhood memories of climbing trees and building tree houses.

The exhibit can be viewed at 915 I Street in the Robert T. Matsui Gallery on the first floor of the new City Hall building until Jan. 15. The viewing hours are from 7:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday.

Photos 1 and 2 courtesy of the Center for Sacramento History. Photos 3 and 4 by Colin Wood.

Photo 4 is of Joe Benassini, Sacramento Urban Forestry Manager.

Under the Radar

2010-07-20T22:58:13Z

Q: How does a company that employs over 200 people, supports over 400 participants, works with over 100 businesses, and has been doing so for 58 years fly under the radar of most of Sacramento?

A: Because, maintaining a strong and steady course doesn’t always get you noticed!

Today I would like to introduce you to InAlliance, a successful nonprofit that is on a mission to build a more livable workable world by developing programs that support adults with developmental disabilities in the greater Sacramento area.
In the 1950’s the world was a different place, and if you didn’t fit into the general idea of “normal,” you didn’t stand a strong chance of succeeding. This was especially true for adults with developmental disabilities who had limited options. Education and community training were not readily available and many people were placed in overcrowded institutions.

In 1952, the founders of InAlliance (a group of parents challenging conventional thoughts and wanting more for their children) banded together and developed a day program that offered classes, activities and outings for adults with developmental disabilities. They also became advocates for community services, employment opportunities and improved legislation. As interest in the day program grew so did views on disabilities. Advocates challenged the idea that a disabled person was “helpless,” and over the next thirty years, civil rights laws were enacted, services were developed, and institutions began to close.

In 1980, InAlliance transitioned into a sheltered workshop, where participants could complete specific work in a controlled, but isolated, environment. Two years later the program had tripled in size, and in another two years the program would begin to change again.
Thanks to the 1984 Jobs Training Partnership Act, InAlliance was able to partner with the UC Davis Medical Center in a Supported Employment Program designed to train and employ persons with developmental disabilities. Trainees were matched with university employees and trained in all aspects of the position with support from a job coach. A year into the program, participants were showing great progress and the university agreed that the trainees benefited their worksites as well.

The success of the program proved that with the right supports, people with developmental disabilities could be successful in the work place and beyond. “We have experienced first hand the benefits all people achieve by interacting with people who are not just like themselves…In a partnership with our community we have demonstrated the great capacities of people with disabilities to join interact and contribute to society,” says InAlliance Executive Director Diana DeRodeff.

Over the next ten year, InAlliance would use this momentum to partner with local employers, volunteer sites, and community colleges to support people with developmental disabilities as they participated in the community. Eventually, InAlliance was chosen to pilot a Supported Living Services (SLS) program that allowed people with developmental disabilities to live on their own with in-home support, and continues to flourish to this day.

Today, InAlliance offers seven programs in eight counties and proudly supports hundreds of people each year. They continue to develop new services that meet the needs of our ever changing population and continue to advocate for the rights of people with developmental disabilities daily. When asked about the changes she has seen at InAlliance in her 27 years, SLS Program Manager Donna Bettencourt says, “When I look at our organization now, years later, I see people we serve working, volunteering, and learning; people living their lives. Somewhere in the background I know there is an InAlliance staff person partnering with a person with a disability to fulfill a promise we made years ago.”

"The Purse and the Person" comes to Sacramento

2010-07-01T05:32:24Z

The California Museum will present "The Purse and the Person: A Century of Women's Purses," an exhibit dedicated to revealing the change of women's roles throughout history by the use and contents of purses.

Beginning Saturday and running through Sept. 26, "The Person and the Person" will be giving another look into the history of women.

“Purses provide a peek into history. This exhibit tells the story of what we took with us and why,” said Amanda Meeker, deputy director of The California Museum, located at 1020 O St.

This exhibit looks at purses from the contents inside to the outside design of the purses, connecting day-to-day life to the hidden artifacts women keep in their purses, according to the press release.

During the exhibit, the California Museum will also host a purse drive, the proceeds of which will be donated to St. John’s Shelter for Women & Children. Those who purchase a ticket and donate a new or slightly used purse will receive one free admission ticket. The "Bring a Purse, Bring a Friend" campaign runs through the month of July, according to the press release.

This exhibit is a part of a nine-city national tour over a three-year period, containing about 100 purses and hundreds of other artifacts and photographs, developed by Smith Kramer Fine Arts Services.

"The Purse and the Person" has been a part of many different museum's across the country for many years, including Texas' Women's Museum and South Carolina's State Museum.

The California Museum
1020 O St. in Sacramento
Open seven days a week: Monday through Saturday, 10 a.m. - 5 p.m. and Sunday, noon - 5 p.m.
Tickets: $8.50 for adults, $7.00 for seniors and students with I.D., $6.00 for kids ages 6-13 and free for kids under 6.

Photo courtsey of "The Purse and the Person."

“Land of the Rising Sun” Featured in New Exhibit

2010-06-29T22:07:00Z

The newest exhibit at the California Automobile Museum (CAM) will highlight the success of Toyota, Japan’s largest car manufacturer, as a trendsetter in America since the days it sold the gas-sipping Toyopet on Hollywood Boulevard when the newest models in Southern California dealerships had massive tail fins.

The summer long exhibit, TOYOTA: Oh What A History!, sponsored by Elk Grove Toyota, opens on July 17 and will run through September 19. “Toyota was the first car manufacturer from the “Land of the Rising Sun” to sell cars in the United States and to challenge Detroit on many levels,” noted Karen McClaflin, Executive Director of the California Automobile Museum. “Over the last half century the company has left its mark as an industry leader, producing cars that were long on reliability and low on pollution. Its cars have also been high on the speed charts in every form of racing, from the Indianapolis 500 and NASCAR to exotic prototype sports cars and trucks in the desert.”

TOYOTA: Oh What A History! will showcase cars from Toyota’s early years to some of their current raciest machines from the track. The vehicles on exhibit offer something for environmentalists, racing fans and automotive historians alike. Among the vehicles in the exhibit:

A 1959 Toyopet Crown sedan, a gas-sipping, economical model that introduced American buyers to Toyota when all gas was still leaded and under $0.25 a gallon

A 1967 2000 GT; a long-nosed sleek coupe that began Toyota’s road racing history in the U.S., pre-dating the popular Nissan/Datsun “Z” cars

A 1998/99 Mark III GTP prototype sports car; powered by Toyota during that car’s domination of IMSA road racing, a series that featured one-of-a-kind machines with almost no technical limits on design

A gas/electric hybrid Prius that set a Land Speed Record over 200 mph for its class on the salt flats of Bonneville, showing that environmental responsibility and speed can be packaged in one car

An off-road race truck, typical of the machines that have won dozens of major races for Toyota Motorsports, such as the Baja 1000, sanctioned by SCORE

The TOYOTA: Oh What A History! exhibit will have an exhibition sneak peak and panel discussion on Friday, July 16 from 6pm – 9pm with guests from Toyota Motorsports, including Ivan “Ironman” Stewart, winner of numerous races and championships in the SCORE off-road series, and Scooter Patrick, a veteran road racer who piloted the GTP machine to victories in the IMSA series. The evening will also include a no host bar and light appetizers. This event is free for CAM Gearhead Members and $15 for the general public. Tickets can be purchased in advance or at the door.

On Saturday, July 17th the exhibit will officially open to the public. From 11am – 1pm, visitors can get autographs from Ivan “Ironman” Stewart and Scooter Patrick and from 11am – 3pm can test drive 2011 Toyotas, courtesy of Elk Grove Toyota. This event is free for CAM Gearhead Members and included with paid Museum admission for the general public.

Don’t miss the opportunity to experience first-hand Toyota’s undeniable mark on the world’s auto industry with its attention to detail, innovative technology and a commitment to designing and building the world’s most popular cars.

History comes alive in Old Sacramento

2010-06-28T03:51:33Z

Unsuspecting visitors to Old Sacramento this weekend were confronted with a man named Dr. Cornelius Poindexter claiming to sell miracle elixirs saying that they cure everything from measles to hair loss.

“The cream, when applied to the skin, removes unwanted freckles, warts, boils, blemishes, carbuncles, what-cha-ma-goofers and thing-ma-bobs…whatever you wish to remove,” Poindexter said. “It’s a remedy for alcoholism, and it also cures terminal illnesses.”

“It even cures baldness!” Poindexter shouted to a bald shopper. “I can grow hair on a rock!”

Poindexter quickly disappeared, however, when an older man in a yellow scarf and wide-brimmed hat appeared, claiming to be Charles Crocker himself, one of the founders of the Central Pacific Railroad. “Upon which we drive such ruffians out of town,” Crocker said.

Poindexter cleared his throat. “I wouldn’t know anything about being tarred and feathered,” he said before leaving.

The miracle medicine man was just one of the volunteers helping to take Old Sacramento back to early years of the city with a street theater program.

“We’re indulging ourselves in a little time twisting,” Crocker portrayer Carl West said.

Children were able to make dolls out of straws with the help of one settler, while others took the games to the field next to the Discovery Museum, where they played games like Battledore-- an early form of Backgammon where players hit a cork with wooden paddles back and forth in an effort to keep it off the ground.

Another popular game with visitors was Graces, which involves each player holding two wooden rods. The rods are crossed toward the base and an embroidery hoop decorated with ribbons is tossed to another player by quickly separating the crossed rods. The player on the receiving end catches the hoop with one of his or her dowels and tosses it back in the same fashion.

While some children seemed hesitant to play a game without batteries, they quickly forgot the video games waiting at home.

“As the kids are running around having tons of fun, I’ll turn to the parents and tell them, ‘Now, absolutely nothing plugs in, and your child is having a tremendously enjoyable time with two dowels and an embroidery hoop with a little ribbon on it,'” Red Barn Production’s Wells Twombly said. “We try to introduce some of the simple pleasures and remind kids that there was a lot of fun in the world before they invented Nintendo.”

Red Barn Productions and the Old Sacramento Living History group teamed up to bring history out into the streets. Some participants play music while others act out scenes. One little girl in 19th century dress got her basket stolen by a little boy. The girl chased him throughout the streets of Old Sacramento shouting “Thief!”

Historical gunfights are also staged in the cobblestone streets throughout the summer weekends. “We we’re trying to do is get away from these sort of bang-bang, stick-‘em-up sort of movie things and moving them in the direction of historical scenarios,” Twombly said. “What we’ll be doing here over the next couple of years hopefully is developing more historical exhibits living and breathing right here in the streets.”

So far, the reaction has been positive. People laugh as the man selling the elixirs tries to con them into a miracle cream that smells suspiciously like mayonnaise while children enjoy making the same kind of toys that children in the 19th century played with. And the games are a hit with all ages.

A controversial stage show also plays at the Eagle Theatre, where dancer Lola Montag shows a bit of leg and performs the much-talked about spider dance. “It’s best not to discuss it in the presence of ladies,” Twombly joked.

Lotta Crabtree, the Queen of the Fairy Stars, also performs at each show.

“When it was all mostly gentlemen out here, it was such that they so missed the company of womanhood in general that even the smallest female child could become a star singing and dancing upon the stage,” Twombly explained. “Gold would be thrown at their feet just in tears in remembrance of their own children that they left behind.”

The Fairy Stars, Lotta Crabtree included, represent those girls who became stars in the early mining town.

Old Sacramento’s street theater will continue every Saturday and Sunday from 11 a.m. - 5 p.m. and will feature gunfights, parlor games, and some familiar characters from the early days of Sacramento wandering the streets in a time warp to the past.

The lowdown on Sacramento's underground

2010-05-27T04:34:50Z

The largest storm in California's recorded history peaked in January 1862, turning the Sacramento Valley into a 250- to 300-mile-long inland sea. Since the previous winter, Sacramento had received 400 percent of its annual average rainfall. The storm moved as far inland as Tennessee, slowing down troop movements in the Civil War.

After 10 inches of rain in December 1861, Sacramento newspapers declared Christmas canceled.

By January 1862, steamboats sailed through what is now Old Sacramento, rescuing people from their homes, and boat-makers charged inflated prices to capitalize on the new demand. On Jan. 10, newly elected Governor Leland Stanford had to travel to the Capitol via boat for his inauguration.

The flooding was so dangerous, the legislature abandoned Sacramento for San Francisco. As residents left for safety, others made plans to raise the streets in an attempt to continue urban growth and thrive as the state's economic and political center.

This storm inadvertently created Sacramento's underground. As the streets were raised some 10 feet on average, new underground spaces were created. Some used their underground space as storage, others as lower levels for their stores. A Chinese herbalist used the space to conduct his business.

Sacramento State graduate Heather Downey recently completed her master's thesis project on the subject, writing an interpretive plan for a Sacramento underground tour. To earn her MA in public history, the 24-year-old also wrote an analysis of why the city decided to raise its streets as much as 14 feet in the 1860s and '70s.

In an hour-long presentation Tuesday night, sponsored by the Sacramento County Historical Society, Downey presented anecdotes and spoke about the underground to an audience of about 75 people in the Sierra Sacramento Valley Medical Society Building. In collaboration with the Historic Old Sacramento Foundation, Downey is planning an underground tour and exhibit. It will begin July 10 and will start and end at the Sacramento History Museum in Old Sacramento.

Tuesday was Downey's first speech on the subject. SCHS vice president William Burg introduced the new graduate and HOSF research historian.

She said that some people know nothing of the underground, while many have heard rumors and myths about it. An even smaller group, she said, knows that the underground pathways include glimpses of old storefronts and architectural features leftover from before the street-raising project.

Downey, who was raised in Turlock, said she first heard of the underground a year ago, while volunteering at the Center for Sacramento History. CSH manager and HOSF director Marcia Eymann asked her to help research the underground for HOSF's upcoming underground tour.

As a result, Downey began her research for the tour, as well as her thesis.

"The street-raising projects and the architectural features that are left over — the underground today — are merely portals from the past, pointing us to this one particular instance between the forces of nature and the power of man," Downey said.

Sacramento was the first city on the West Coast — and the only one in California — to raise its street level, she said. A tremendous feat for a 13-year-old city, it also predated Seattle's street-raising by 30 years.

"Even though the flooding was obviously very devastating and outsiders were starting to express little faith in their capital city, city dwellers in Sacramento were not giving up on their vision for growth in Sacramento," Downey said.

Sacramentans' plan was three-pronged: to reroute the rivers, reinforce the levees and raise the central city, she said.

But the plan drew critics like Mark Twain, who commented on the project in 1869.

"The system of raising its buildings has its advantages," he wrote. "It makes the floor shady and this is something that is great in such a warm climate. It also enables the inquiring stranger to rest his elbows on the second-story windows and look in and criticize the bedroom arrangements of all the citizens."

Despite the critics, and thanks to an enormous amount of physical work and commitment by the landowners, Sacramento stayed alive as a city.

"We want people to leave the tour equipped with new eyes to see our downtown district," she said. "You don't have to necessarily go under the city to see the underground because there are so many above-ground features that point to the street-raising project."

Several skylights into the underground exist around the J Street area downtown. Pinkish quartz squares dot several sidewalks downtown, shedding a little light into a piece of history.

"Old Sacramento Underground: Get The Lowdown" begins July 10 and runs through October. The 45-minute tours will be led by guides with theatrical backgrounds, and will travel between Front to Second streets, both above and underground. Tours will run hourly Thursday to Sunday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., with the last tour beginning at 5 p.m. Tickets are $15 for adults and $10 for youth. The tour begins at the Sacramento History Museum, 101 I Street, Old Sacramento, 808-7973.

Photographs:
1. The flood (credit Center for Sacramento History)
2,3. Downey answers questions (credit Jonathan Mendick)
4. Current height of Old Sacramento compared to the Sacramento River (credit Jonathan Mendick)
5. Sacramento History Museum (credit Jonathan Mendick)
6, 7. The underground (credit William Burg)
8. Locations of existing hollow sidewalks in Sacramento

SCHS Presents: Sacramento's Underground

2010-05-22T01:11:54Z

Sacramento County Historical Society Presents:
Sacramento's Underground, a presentation by Heather Downey

Date: Tuesday, May 25, 2010
Time: 7:00pm - 9:00pm
Location: 5380 Elvas Avenue (Sierra Sacramento Valley Medical Society Building), Sacramento

All Ages--Open to the Public

Before the long-anticipated Underground Tours kick off this summer in Old Sacramento, SCHS will host a talk about the origins and significance of the city’s underground sidewalks and raised streets.

Sacramento is the only city in California with raised streets and the lingering architectural features known as the “underground.” On the surface, the raising of Sacramento’s business district offers accounts of mishap, controversy and, of course, the pioneer-entrepreneurial spirit that has come to define the early history of not only the city, but the Western United States in general. Additionally, the history of this construction project illuminates the opinions and experiences that characterized the first and second generation of Sacramento citizenry while underscoring the one thing they had in common: the desire to ensure that their city remained economically and politically viable. Such an interpretation of Sacramento’s “underground” opens doors to enrich and expand Old Sacramento visitors' understanding of the city’s history, while also connecting that past to larger trends in American Western and urban history.

This month’s speaker, Heather Downey, is a graduate of Sacramento State’s Public History program. She is the subject matter expert for Sacramento’s forthcoming Underground Tours, and has designed two interpretive displays describing floods and street raisings in Sacramento.The underground sidewalks, and the interpretive plan for the tour, are the subject of her Master’s thesis.

For more information about the upcoming underground tours, visit the Sacramento History Museum website:

www.historicoldsac.org/education/tours.asp

For more information about the Sacramento County Historical Society, visit the SCHS website:

www.sachistoricalsociety.org

Disclosure: William Burg is vice-president of the Sacramento County Historical Society.

Jazz Appreciation, 2060

2010-05-14T02:33:42Z

When I was at school at the University of Oregon, I took a lot of classes. There were history classes, journalism classes, english classes, a lot of political science classes, a few science classes, even an art history class (Chicks, man!). To be honest, 10+ years removed from the experience, most of them have bled together in my memory.

A few stand out, however. An astronomy course where in a friend of mine cheated off me on the final and got a better grade. A sociology course where the professor offered extra credit to students who skipped class to join the WTO riots inSeattle. A military science course that I took along with a future NFL 1,000-yard rusher and a future NBA slam dunk champion. We learned to rappel…down the bleachers.

But possibly my single most memorable class at the U of O was an awesome jazz appreciation course I took my sophomore year. We learned about and listened to jazz greats like Thelonious Monk, Charlie Parker, John Coltrane, Count Basie and many others.

I probably listened to Miles Davis' “Kind of Blue" 50 times that semester, from start to finish. There is no question that I'm a better man for having done so.

Never has a college course been more aptly named. That semester, I developed a great appreciation for "the only true American art form."

Now, I realize that not everybody has the time to take a semester-long jazz appreciation course, and besides, its 470 miles to the University of Oregon. But I have some good news: The same effect can be achieved with a library card and a ticket to a Charlie Hunter show.

Charlie Hunter is a jazz guitarist extraordinaire, a truly one-of-a-kind performer, and he brought his unique seven-string stylings to Harlow's Wednesday night.

But first, the audience was given a crash course in classical music appreciation. To open the show, we were treated to a 30-minute set from onetime child prodigy and current violin virtuoso Rachel Barton Pine. The soloist, in town for a show with the Sacramento Philharmonic Orchestra this Saturday, was an epiphany.

She came out playing a 1742 "ex-Soldat" Guarnari, which she prefers to the Stradivarious, although she said it's simply a matter of taste. She compared the two different violins to red and white wine, although I don't recall which was which. I do remember that her violin had once been the property of Marie Soldat, a female virtuoso who had been discovered by Johannes Brahms at the age of 15 in 1878.

The legendary German composer even picked out the young Soldat's violin for her, and by extension, Barton Pine's for her. How cool is that?

She played a variety of songs, including one she described as "Chamber Blues," where the violin mimicked the sound of a blues harmonica, before finishing with a gypsy violin piece.

I was standing at the far end of the stage, next to the backstage door. At one point during her performance, Charlie himself popped out to take some of her in. "She's spectacular," I offered.

He gave me a wry smile and responded, "Yeah, I know."

I suppose he would. . . .

She stepped off the stage to surprisingly raucous applause just after 9:30. Ten minutes later, she was back, this time at a table to the side – a fan like the rest of us.

At 9:45, Charlie Hunter took the stage, joined by Eric Kalb on drums and Ron Miles on trumpet. Kalb has played with such R&B luminaries as Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings, The Greyboy All Stars and John Scofield. The Jazz Times calls Ron Miles "one of the finest trumpeters in jazz today." And Charlie Hunter is, well, Charlie Hunter.

Charlie has been described as a "guitar wunderkind," and his playing is truly mind-boggling. He plays a custom made seven-string guitar, which has three bass strings and four guitar strings. He is his own bass player, and it's truly a sight to behold.

Listening with your eyes closed, or from another room, you'd bet anything that you were listening to a four-piece. Though the bass line and guitar sounds meld perfectly together, they are also totally free of one another, unencumbered in any way. Even upon re-entering the room, or opening your eyes, it’s still hard to believe that all that sound is coming from just the one instrument.

But Hunter is not some gimmicky virtuoso, he is one of the finest improvisational musicians of our time, and Kalb and Miles are more than worthy collaborators. The three men played for more than 90 minutes, alternating between jazzy, funky and bluesy, but remaining masterful throughout.

The only problem I had with the show, as is often the case when I attend shows where the vast majority of the audience is seated, was an inability to keep my dancing, well, er, restrained. My musical enjoyment center is connected directly to my "get up and boogie" bone. I am forever teetering on the brink of becoming "that guy," jitterbugging furiously while the rest of those in the crowd remain seated, nodding their heads or tapping their toes.

I can sit down for a moment, but what starts as a toe tap can rapidly degenerate into "the sprinkler," or, in some cases, even "the worm."

I had to find myself a spot off to the side of the stage where I could dance to my heart’s content without upsetting the more upright members of the crowd. A few kindred spirits joined me during some of the more up-tempo jams.

Finally, during the feverish encore, one brave soul stood up directly in front of the stage and began cutting the rug. Now, I have seen this move spark a feud between the seated and the dancing that would make the Hatfields and McCoys blush. But there was no such issue on this fine evening, and soon there were a couple dozen dancers near the front of the stage, peaceably intermingling with those who remained seated. Dogs and cats, living together. A wonderful end to a wonderful show.

I will never have the opportunity to see Thelonious Monk, Charlie Parker, Miles Davis or John Coltrane perform live. But I have seen Charlie Hunter, and so should you. Sure, it's not the same as seeing one of the greats who I learned about in jazz appreciation class so many falls ago. But 50 years from now, when they're teaching jazz appreciation at the University ofOregon, Outer Space Extension, you can bet they'll spend some time discussing Charlie Hunter. That's good enough for me.

Charlie and the boys are playing the Freight&Salvage in Berkeley at 8 p.m. tonight. If you leave right now, you might make it.

They are also playing Friday at the El Rey Theater in Chico.

Rachel Barton Pine is playing with the Sacramento Philharmonic on Saturday.

If you wanna catch a show, hit me up at lindol@gmail.com

This day in Sacramento history: Internment begins

2010-05-13T17:47:53Z

68 years ago on this day, on May 13,1942, in the middle of World War II, buses began taking all people of Japanese heritage in the City of Sacramento (approximately 3800), including some from Southside Park neighborhood (citizen and non-citizen, adult and child, on no basis other than ethnic heritage) from Memorial Auditorium to a temporary camp at Walerga (near the present day Walerga Park near the intersection of Madison & I-80;) for internment, as part of the larger internment of people of Japanese heritage from all areas of the West Coast. I Street between 15th and 16th, and 15th between I and J, were blocked off for this purpose. The removal continued thru the morning of May 16. People stayed at Walerga for weeks; most were transported from there to Tule Lake Internment Camp in far northern California, and Walerga closed on June 26. Tule Lake, Manzanar, and the other internment camps finally closed in late 1945.

As you may be aware, you can see more about this episode in Sacramento history at the California Museum for History, Women and the Arts at 10th & O (http://www.californiamuseum.org/), where they have an exhibit with a reconstructed internment camp barracks. Local former internees, including at least one who attended our William Land School, are docents there. There's also an explanatory monument about this episode in front of the Nisei War Memorial Hall at 4th & O. And the book for young people, "Farewell to Manzanar" is a great introduction.

--Paul Trudeau
vice president, Southside Park Neighborhood Association

A Chorus Line to Highlight Harvey Milk Day Rally Entertainment

2010-05-10T21:15:00Z

To commemorate Harvey Milk Day, on his birthday, May 22, 2010 Equality Action Now will host a fun and historic Rally and March on the West steps of the State Capitol. Invited guests include adult and youth speakers from the community as well as entertainment. Highlighting the entertainment will be the cast of Broadway’s hit, A Chorus Line.

The road tour of A Chorus Line will be playing at the Sacramento Community Theatre May 19-23. According to their tour manager the cast will perform their matinee show then head over to the Capitol to perform a musical number from A Chorus Line, “What I Did For Love”.

A Chorus Line, one of the most recognized Broadway musicals, won nine Tony Awards, including “Best Musical” and the Pulitzer Prize for drama. This singular sensation is the longest-running American Broadway musical ever.

Additional entertainers at the Harvey Milk Day Rally will include:

Small Difference Women's Choral Ensemble is a group of women of all orientations who are dedicated to performing music that has a message. It is one way the members have channeled their activism to change this world for the better. We sing songs for peace & justice, lesbian/gay/bisexual/transgender equality, women's liberation, the environment, and human rights for all. We are a proud member of Sister Singers Network and GALA (the Gay & Lesbian Association of Choruses).

Irina Rivkin is an Outmusic Awards Recipient for OutSong of the Year 2003, & Nominee for Outstanding Debut Recording 2005, Rose Street House of Music founder and singer-songwriter Irina Rivkin has performed for 25 years, from her childhood singing Russian folk and American Jazz in a family band, to performing her own songs for the last 12 years. She expresses insightful, gutsy, vocal world-folk originals, journeying into the personal and political, with occasional travels into Russian and Spanish language lyrics. Irina layers her poetic lyrics with rich textured harmonies, swirling with vocal percussive beats, all created live on-the-spot using her loop station instrument.

Cooper Rae, a performance artist from Midtown Sacramento. Rae is committed to creating music and art that effects a social change, Her performance is inclusive and combines a variety of styles into her music – jazz, blues, alternative, neo-soul, r&b, funk, even country. Rae’s original songs touch on a multiple subjects: politics, love, sex, heartbreak, and personal strength. She says that her music is very reflective of her life; therefore it’s very lesbian.

Jovi Ratke and C. Foster “Spoken Word” artists:

Jovi Ratke is a new face on the spoken word scene, but this up and comer has been throwin down words since she learned how to speak them. Over the past few years, she has been a strong and inspiring voice at rallies for marriage equality, events to benefit our homeless communities, and everywhere she can find a mic. Jovi is compact fluorescent lighting meets the energizer bunny with more heart than she can contain folded in. She writes like pen to the page creates oxygen and she possesses a voice that begs to be heard.

All the world’s a stage for performance poet, C.Foster. She can be found reciting lines while shifting gears and pounding pavements. Foster’s work centers on the complexity of love and all the unusual places it exists. With a cracked rearview and a rusty heart, she finds beauty in the breakdown.

Eric Baldwin, an accomplished actor/director has performed across the United States as well as Europe will be playing Harvey Milk, reciting from two of Milk’s speeches, including his inspiring “Hope” speech. Eric as Harvey Milk will then lead the grand finale march around the State Capitol Building.

Harvey Milk Day Rally and March May 22, 2010 at the California State Capitol Building, 10th and L Streets, from 4-6pm is sponsored by Equality Action Now, Outword Magazine, Uptown Studios, Stephan’s Auto Haus, Rainbow Chamber, SIGLFF, EQCA, Faces, B’nai Israel, and Badlands and Depot. For more information on this free, family-friendly event: www.EqualityActionNow.org or call (916) 446-1082.

10,000 to Give Helping Hands to Distressed Sacramento-area Parks on Saturday

2010-05-05T20:11:47Z

SACRAMENTO – More than 10,000 members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and their friends will descend on parks throughout the Sacramento region Saturday, May 8, to perform necessary work from clean-up and general maintenance to painting, planting trees and even construction jobs.

Under the banner of Mormon Helping Hands, an international program of the Church that has provided manpower in distressed communities and organized relief efforts after natural disasters, the volunteers have chosen parks in their own communities to perform work in state, regional and city parks that have been hit hard by the recent downturn in the economy. The Sacramento effort is part of a statewide Mormon Helping Hands undertaking whose theme is “Preserving California’s Parks.”

“Members of the Church since the 1840s were instrumental in the establishment and building up of the state, including Sacramento and many other local cities and towns,” said Dennis Holland, Director of Public Affairs for the Sacramento Region. “We feel it is our duty to continue in following Jesus Christ’s example of service to others by helping to improve the communities in which we live, especially during these tough economic times for our local and state governments.”

One of the projects will be at Effie Yeaw Nature Center, which will be losing its funding from Sacramento County on July 1. Located inside Ancil Hoffman Park in Carmichael, the nature center has a list of projects to be accomplished, but no funds to pay for the labor to accomplish them. Among the projects that the Helping Hands volunteers will tackle is the construction of a natural playground out of fallen trees, the weeding of non-native plants from the nature area, the restoration of a pond, and the building of a display stand for a section of a 150-year-old Valley Oak tree.

“There is no way with our current low staffing levels we have now or expect to have in the future that we could remove the invasive and very tall-growing, non-native weeds,” said Marilee Flannery, Park Interpretive Supervisor of Effie Yeaw Nature Center. “This and the other projects would never get done without the helping hands of these volunteers.”

About 800 volunteers – including Hmong and Samoan groups – will donate more than 2,000 man-hours at the City of Sacramento’s William Land Park, which has seen its finding cut by 60 percent in recent years and its maintenance staff trimmed from 22 to seven employees. Volunteers will focus on numerous work projects, including historic trail restoration, power-washing of park amenities, landscape maintenance, specialized gardening, and the cleaning out of the park’s three ponds. The volunteer service in Land Park has an estimated value of more than $70,000.

To thank the Helping Hands volunteers, both the City and County of Sacramento have officially declared May 8, 2010, as Mormon Helping Hands Day.

The numerous other local projects include:

In Natomas: Partnering with the Sacramento Tree Foundation and the Sacramento City Council, volunteers will plant 86 trees at Rosebud Park in North Natomas and build a community garden in a Natomas neighborhood that doesn’t currently have such amenities.

In Sacramento: One of the oldest cemeteries will receive a sprucing-up, as 400 volunteers will do some light painting, trimming around headstones and cleaning them up at East Lawn Memorial Park at Folsom Boulevard and 43rd Street.

In Orangevale: Volunteers will be refurbishing one of the town’s biggest draws: the Frisbee Golf Course at Orangevale Park.

In El Dorado County: At the Marshall Gold Discovery State Historic Park, where early members of the Church were instrumental in discovering gold and sparking the Gold Rush, hundreds of workers will paint and restore several buildings. Last year, the state park was threatened with closure.

In Placer County: More than 800 volunteers will be working in the Hidden Falls Regional Park, installing several miles of fence posts and non-barbed wire, clearing existing trails, building new trails and clearing brush.

In Yolo County: About 400 volunteers will be performing necessary work in six Woodland parks as well as the Woodland Opera House. In addition to weeding, raking and spreading bark chips, the volunteers will paint and stain buildings, gazebos, benches and picnic tables, replace roof shingles and pressure-wash buildings.

To cover one of the projects, please call Gary Zavoral at (916) 367-9537 or e-mail him at bigzav@hotmail.com.

For more on the churchwide Helping Hands program, go the Church’s Newsroom at http://www.newsroom.lds.org/ldsnewsroom/eng/news-releases-stories/-mormon-helping-hands-program-a-decade-of-service.

###

Midtown Mixed Messages

2010-05-02T21:15:31Z

Midtown residents have been dealing for years with the impacts of a City led campaign to "Bring People Downtown" that ignored the fact that people are already here.

Media and Midtown Business Association boosters have contributed by consistently disparaging the existing mixed-use neighborhoods as a desolate, disgusting and scary wasteland; a "dead zone" with invisible/irrelevant residents.

Yet, Midtown's now-attractive and lucrative historic neighborhoods ONLY exist, due to the diligent, hard work and determination of residents, preservationists and neighborhoods associations, over the past few decades.

Residents met with the MBA and other stakeholders in 2009 as part of MBA's Regional Hospitality Institute process. A final report and meeting occurred in October. Follow up task force meetings were delayed by MBA, until a clamor from the neighborhoods and complaints to Councilmember Cohn's office brought them back on track.

We had a meeting on April 27 to regroup, with a reduced number of committed stakeholders. The very next day, the MBA unveiled new branding. Rob Kerth's (Business Journal) quoted claim of "reaching out to the community" rings hollow.

The logo, slogan and Kerth's comments reinforce the MBA agenda: that business and marketing plans include "visitors" and exclude residents. This contradicts the RHI process and conflicts with several topics and specific goals in the RHI consultant's report.

We don't need MBA continuing to promote Midtown as a transient party zone at the expense of residents. We don't need more and more visual clutter and aural overload assaulting the senses in historic neighborhoods.

Considering the value placed on "Cultural Creatives" and the state of the collapsed job market, the amateurish design of the new logo is another jab. Aesthetically-attuned (one reason we live in Midtown) residents would perhaps rather not be associated with it.

"Go Your Own Way" is exactly what the MBA has done, disregarding Midtown's sustainability and quality of life.

(This piece was written prior to an opportunity to ask Rob Kerth what he means by "reached out" and "community")

http://sacramento.bizjournals.com/sacramento/blog/inner_city/2010/04/midtown_states_its_identity_with_new_logo.html?surround=lfn

Drive Fast, Take Chances: Birth of the Hot Rod

2010-04-28T17:23:36Z

The California Automobile Museum’s newest exhibit features cars that were created in California but have been celebrated in movies, songs and popular culture across the country and around the world for a half-century.

The exhibit, Drive Fast, Take Chances: Birth of the Hot Rod is sponsored by So-Cal Speed Shop, Sacramento and runs now through July 5. It explores the hot rod culture that grew out of the dry lake beds of California in the post-World War II years and ultimately spread to drag strips and back roads, as well as burger drive-ins and street cruises, such as the annual car cruise hosted by the California Automobile Museum which will commence on the streets of Downtown Sacramento on July 31st.

“By definition, every hot rod is a unique expression of style or the owner’s desire for speed,” said Karen McClaflin, Executive Director of the California Automobile Museum. “But collectively, hot rods represent a common language of individuality and adventure that brings out a bit of rebel or free spirit in each of us.”

The idea of hot rods started in the early 1920s and ‘30s, as racers looking for more speed modified and hopped up Henry Ford’s Model Ts and As to find extra horsepower. But the phenomenon exploded after World War II as servicemen returned home and applied what they had learned about mechanics and technology in the military to the cars they were driving.

After the deprivation and hardship of the war years, hot rods were a way of expressing the pent-up demand for adventure and daring, and a way for racers to earn bragging rights for those who could push technology and speed to the limit.

The powerful V-8 engines of Ford, Chevrolet and Chrysler provided more horsepower than the more primitive four-banger engines of the past. The popularity of hot rods created a new, California-centered industry as manufacturers, many of which continue to thrive on world-wide sales today, made crankshafts, pistons, cylinder heads and add-on parts to boost power and speed to record levels.

The first stages on which to push these speed machines to their limit were the dry lake bedsbeds of Southern California, where unofficial “timing contests” were as disorganized as an Oklahoma land rush and twice as dangerous. That same daring was carried out on back roads all over America as the hot rod culture spread from coast to coast.

One of the most prominent cars on exhibit is the legendary "Old Crow" belly tank racer owned by Bobby Green. "Belly tanks" were one of the first examples of a new style of speedster built from army surplus that used aircraft fuel tanks for bodies to take advantage of their minimal wind resistance for maximum speed. "Old Crow" has attracted attention on a number of fronts having been featured in a Discovery Channel feature on Bonneville racers; being on display in locations as far away as Amsterdam; and being prominently displayed in a recent Tommy Hilfiger advertisement. The exhibit also includes examples of the style known as “highboys,” which mount narrower ’28 and ’29 bodies for streamlining on a wider ‘32 Ford frame, which provided more stability at high speed and more room for a V-8 engine, as well as for superchargers and other add-on high performance parts.

Also on exhibit, ’32 Ford “Deuce Coupes,” still the most popular model among hot rodders, each with a slightly different style illustrating the evolution of speed technology.

For enthusiasts interested in an up-close and detailed “how to” look at hot rod construction, the exhibit will also include a partially disassembled ’34 Ford to show off the modifications that are more than skin deep.

For more information visit www.CalAutoMuseum.org.

Rare Grouping of World War II Jeeps at the California Automobile Museum

2010-04-24T16:33:36Z

The California Automobile Museum is temporarily home to all three mass-produced World War II military jeeps. The 1941 Bantam Reconnaissance Car (Jeep), 1943 Ford Military Jeep, and 1943 Willys Military Jeep are great examples of American innovation during the war years that are rarely seen together.

In July 1940, the U.S. Army issued a challenge to the nation’s automakers to produce a light, cross-country reconnaissance vehicle described as a “quarter-ton, 4X4 truck.” Ford, Willys-Overland, and American-Bantam took on the task but only American-Bantam was able to produce a prototype in the short amount of time the military required. However, Bantam’s limited production capacity made it impossible for them to produce the number of vehicles the Army needed. The government shared the design with Ford and Willys-Overland and all three companies produced what would become known as the “Jeep.” These Jeeps became the primary vehicle of the U.S. Army and Allies during World War II and the postwar period.

These Jeeps won’t be in one place for long. The 1941 Bantam Reconnaissance Car is part of this month’s Car Club Cavalcade featuring American-Bantams and is on display until April 30, 2010. The 1943 Willys Military Jeep is part of the newest exhibit, Drive Fast, Take Chances: Birth of the Hot Rod and is on display until July 5, 2010. The 1943 Ford Military Jeeps is part of the Museum’s permanent collection.

For more information about the Museum visit www.CalAutoMuseum.org or call (916) 442-6802.

Sacramento's Harvey Milk Day Student Essay/Art Contest

2010-04-03T15:16:23Z

Equality Action Now and Contest Sponsor, Barnes & Noble at Arden Fair is hosting an essay and art contest to commemorate California’s first Harvey Milk Day, Saturday May 22, 2010.

Harvey Milk Day was enacted and signed into law last October by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. Under the measure, May 22 is officially Harvey Milk Day in California, coinciding with Milk's birthday. While it is not a state holiday, schools are encouraged to hold lessons "remembering the life of Harvey Milk, recognizing his accomplishments and familiarizing pupils with the contributions he made to this state".

Equality Action Now is a local grassroots civil rights organization and is leading the way in organizing Sacramento’s Harvey Milk Day events. Note: Equality Action Now is working on forming a curriculum for school-aged children and teens. For more information check out http://www.EqualityActionNow.

Harvey Milk Day Student Essay/Art Contest Rules:

1. The Harvey Milk Day Student Essay/Art contest is open to the following age-groups (as of May 22, 2010):
a. 6 and under (Art Contest)
b. 7 – 12 yrs old (Art Contest)
c. 13 – 14 yrs old (Essay contest)
d. 15 – 18 yrs old (Essay contest)

2. The Harvey Milk Day Student Essay/Art Contest is open to students in the Sacramento Capitol Region, which includes those who reside in El Dorado, Placer, Sacramento, Sutter, Yolo and Yuba Counties.

3. Limit one entry per person.

4. Essay and artwork must be the original, unpublished work of the student.

5. Essays are limited to 250-300 words and written in English. Artwork is limited to 8 ½ x 11. Artwork may be in crayon, pencil, color pencil, ink, or charcoal mediums.

6. Entries will become the property of the Sponsor (Equality Action Now), so be sure to keep a copy for your records.

7. All entries must include a title page as the first page of the submitted document or artwork. This title page must contain the writer/artist name, email address, home phone or cell, address (street, city, state, zip), county of residence, school name and parents name and signature if writer/artist is under the age of 18. Be certain that no name or identifying information appears on the essay or artwork itself.

8. The contest deadline for getting in all submissions is May 10, 2010.

9. All submissions along with the title page must be submitted by Postal mail. Mail entries to: Harvey Milk Essay/Art Contest – 410 Alhambra Blvd., Sacramento, CA 95816.

10. Winners will be selected from eligible entries received. Entries that do not meet submission guidelines will be automatically disqualified. Sponsor reserves the right to disqualify any person it believes has intentionally violated these official rules.

11. Essays will be judged by individuals chosen by the Sponsor, whose decisions are final. In the event of a tie, the Harvey Milk Day Organizing Committee Chairperson will cast the deciding vote.

12. All prizes will be awarded.

13. Winners will be notified by email or phone.

14. Entry and acceptance of prize constitutes permission to use each winner’s name, prizes won, hometown and likeness for advertising and promotional purposes without further notice or compensation, except where prohibited by law.

15. Winners will be publicly announced Wednesday May 19, 2010 at the Crest Theater just before the showing of “MILK”. Winners will also be invited to personally present their winning essay or artwork during the Harvey Milk Day Rally at the State Capitol Saturday, May 22, 2010. Winning essays and artwork will be published in Outword Magazine and posted on the Harvey Milk Day web site. All submitted essays and artwork may be chosen for display at the Sacramento Gay and Lesbian Center.

16. Students in families of the judges are not eligible to participate in this contest.

17. Sponsor is not responsible for any typographical or other error in the printing of the offer, administration of the contest or in the announcement of the prizes.

18. Entries must meet all contest requirements. Consideration will be given to presentation, content, structure, grammar, spelling, clarity and originality of response.

19. Prizes: There will be one package of prizes for each age group awarded. (Note: Additional prizes may be awarded as new sponsors sign on.)

a. Age 6 and under: Prize package from Barnes & Noble Booksellers at Arden Fair - Illustrated book The Harvey Milk Story by Kari Krakow - Free tickets to all Harvey Milk Day events.
b. Age 7-12: Prize package from Barnes & Noble Booksellers at Arden Fair - Illustrated book The Harvey Milk Story by Kari Krakow - Free tickets to all Harvey Milk Day events.
c. Age 13-14: Prize package from Barnes & Noble Booksellers at Arden Fair - Book The Mayor of Castro Street: the Life and Times of Harvey Milk by Randy Shilts - Free tickets to all Harvey Milk Day events.
d. Age 15-18: Prize package from Barnes & Noble Booksellers at Arden Fair - Book The Mayor of Castro Street: the Life and Times of Harvey Milk by Randy Shilts - Free tickets to all Harvey Milk Day events.

20. By entering, entrants agree to be bound by these Official Rules and the decision of the judges and the Sponsor, which will be binding and final in all respects.

Essay statement: Many people consider Harvey Milk a hero. People consider him a hero for several reasons, but not for as much as who he was but what he did for so many people he helped during the time he was alive. After learning about Harvey Milk…

If Harvey Milk was alive today, whom would he be helping, what would he be doing and why would he have chosen this person or persons to help? Artwork should also reflect on this question.

Historic North Sacramento skating rink burns down

2010-03-28T22:22:01Z

You could smell the smoke as you approached the 70-year old structure on Del Paso Boulevard on Sunday morning. Dozens of firefighters looked to put out the five-alarm fire, but it was too late.

ICELAND, the historic North Sacramento ice skating rink located on Del Paso Boulevard, burned down this morning leaving only its four main structural walls and iconic marquee standing.

"This is probably the biggest icon that remained in terms of an entertainment venue in North Sac," said Robert (Bob) Slobe. "It's a shame."

According to early reports, ICELAND was open Saturday night until 12am for a private party. The fire started at 3:30am around a car parked behind the ICELAND facility. Fire crews worked to prevent the blaze from spreading to adjoing structues.

ICELAND was built by the Kerth family in the late 1930s in conjunction with their other business, American Ice Company. The rink played host to iceskating, ice hockey, and ice shows. Former President and California Governor Ronald Regan skated at the facility, as did former boxer Max Baer.

The facility just installed a $68,000 roof last year.

Slobe hopes ICELAND is not torn down like the Del Paso Theater, which burned down 20 years ago in August of 1990.

"There were efforts to rebuild the Del Paso Theater," said Slobe. "The problem there was the market is not there for single screen theaters anymore."

Slobe hopes the facility can be rebuilt.

"I don't know anybody from this part of town, probably any part of town that's my age, who hadn't been there, skated there, learned to skate there, and had their kids skate there," said Slobe.

On Sunday, Meet Mary Pleasant

2010-03-11T19:44:20Z

Disclaimer: the contributor of this and his wife run Movies on a Big Screen, Sacramento's weekly screening series of documentaries, general independent film, classics and cult titles. The following is blatant self-promotion of a MOBS event.

On Sunday, March 14, 2010, Movies on a Big Screen is teaming up with the Sacramento Historical Society to present, Meet Mary Pleasant. The filmmaker, Susheel Bibbs, will be in attendance to speak following the film. The film begins at 7:30 PM, and the screening will take place at The Guild Theater, which is located at 2828 35th St, Sacramento. Admission is $5.00.

About Meet Mary Pleasant:
A unique, historical, performance documentary, unfolds the saga of Mary Ellen Pleasant the daring, unsung, 19th-century African-American activist and entrepreneur now called the Mother of Civil Rights in California. Narrated by the acclaimed actress Ruby Dee (SAG Best Supporting Actress, 2007), the film allows Pleasant to speak in live performance, using song, montage, re-enactment, commentary, and narration to enliven a backdrop of achievement, love, scandal, and American history. Pleasant's story is inspiring and important internationally. As entrepreneur, she amassed $30,000,000, and as activist, she changed modern-day civil rights law and affected civil rights throughout the US and in Canada.

Meet Mary Pleasant
Sunday, March 14, 2010
7:30 PM
Admission: $5.00
Movies on a Big Screen at The Guild
2828 35th St (corner of 35th & Broadway), Sacramento

http://www.moviesonabigscreen.com
http://www.sachistoricalsociety.org

Stuff I Like

2010-03-06T17:25:51Z

In the two and a half weeks that I've been a Sacramentan, I've discovered many things that I like. Some of these things I have included in my series of "Discovering Sacramento" articles. I really like taco trucks. I like sports bars in general, and Sneakers in particular. I like the Garden Highway, and I'm pretty sure that I'm going to like the Virgin Sturgeon. But there are a lot more things that I like, which haven't made it into my articles. With this fact in mind, I have decided to begin a new storyline. I'm calling it "Stuff I Like". I'm going to try and keep these posts brief and to the point. This is what I like, heres why, badda bing, badda boom. Short attention span reading for those of you in a hurry. You can get in and get out, like a successful jewelry heist. Only instead of diamonds, you're fleeing the scene with knowledge, the knowledge of what I like. And you can't put a price tag on something like that. Or go to prison for it. So, without further ado, here is some stuff I like.

I like hotel bars, and I like places with history, and I like 2 dollar beers on draft. So imagine my glee when I stumbled in to the Clarion Hotel for happy hour, and got a hat trick. The Clarion Hotel, born "The Mansion Inn" in 1957, was once the only game in town. Before the Marriott, before the Hyatt, there was the Mansion Inn. So named due to its location right across the street from the former Governors Mansion, it has played host to presidents and visiting aristocracy, as well as some of the greatest stage actors from New York and LA . It may have lost a bit of its luster since its 1960's heyday (the carpet is downright garish, and the downstairs hallways where the bathroom is located, are eerily similar to the hallway in The Shining. . . you know the one with the twins? Redrum, Redrum), but it still has an old school style and grace that you won't find in the more modern super hotels. It's easy to imagine Don Draper smoking a cigarette and hitting on a statuesque redhead at the end of the bar, and I like that about the place. And my love for all things 60's chic aside, I like, nay, I love, their happy hour. 2 dollar draft beers (Shock Top, complete with an orange slice, and Coors Light), 2 dollar house wines, and 2.50 well drinks. You can't beat that with a stick. So, if you like good drinks at a good price, good service (thanks Dana!) and good single serving friends (the easiest strangers to meet are those who are traveling, 'cause everyone is a stranger to them), you'll like the Clarion Inn from 5 to 7pm, every day of the week. And if you don't like those things, well, I don't think we can be friends anymore.

Historic City Cemetery kicks off Beer Week

2010-02-22T05:26:44Z

To kick off Sacramento's Beer Week, the Old City Cemetery Committee conducted a tour of Sacramento brewers who are buried in Sacramento's Historic City Cemetery.

The tour began at 10 a.m. Saturday, with about 40 people gathered to learn about these historical beer makers.

The tour was guided by Dr. Bob LaPerriere, who shared his wealth of knowledge as we stopped at the brewers' graves throughout the beautiful cemetery.

It was interesting to learn that all but two of the brewers buried there were German by ancestry and most of these men interacted with each other, whether it was through their business investments, ownership or employment.

The first stop was at the grave site of Frank Ruhstaller, where we heard the history of the Buffalo Brewery and its founder Henry Grau. The grand brewery took up three city blocks, had its own electrical plant and shipped its product all over the world. Though it could not make a comeback after Prohibition, Ruhstaller and Grau's investment in the Buffalo Brewing Company helped support Sacramento's economy while it was in existence.

The tour continued on, telling the tales of people such Jacob Gebert of the Union Brewery; Lewis Keseberg, famous for surviving the Donner Party and part of the Phoenix Brewery; Martin Arenze of the Ohio Brewery; George Ochs of the Ohio Brewery and Saint Lewis brewery; Adolph Helbon, who became president of the Buffalo Brewery; Wendel Kerth of the Capital Brewery; and Christan Gruhler of the Columbus Brewery.

These men were accomplished and each has a story that LaPerriere described in-depth. It was interesting to hear how connected these men were to each other and how they came to the profession and built their businesses, many with great success.

During the tour, the group also learned about other famous men and women within the beautiful grounds. LaPerriere said that this new tour covers more of the cemetery than previous ones because the graves are located throughout the large cemetery.

He said that it took one week to develop the tour but that there is still much more to be learned about these men. The details and history provided during the two-hour tour kept everyone interested.

Though the Brewer's tour was offered only once, the Sacramento County Historical Society has put together a new book called "Sacramento Breweries" written by historian Ed Carroll. It covers the historical brewers and their lives in Sacramento. There will be a signing party Feb. 22 at 7 p.m. at the Colonial Theater, 3522 Stockton Blvd.

The Sacramento Historic City Cemetery offers tours throughout the year, many of which focus on events taking place in Sacramento. For more information, visit its website at www.oldcitycemetery.com.

Photos:

1. Dr. Bob LaPerrier addressing the tour group
2. Frank Ruhstaller 1846 - 1907
3. Wendel Kerth 1819 - 1892
4. George Orch 1822 - 1878
5. Buffalo Brewing Co. logo

"Sacramento's Breweries" Book Featured at Two Signing Events

2010-02-22T01:00:52Z

Tuesday night's regular Sacramento County Historical Society monthly meeting will not feature beer, but copies of Sacramento’s Breweries will be available for sale, and author Ed Carroll will sign books and give a brief talk on Sacramento brewery history.

In addition to the Golden Notes signing, the meeting will also feature James Scott and Tom Tolley, presenting their new book Sacramento’s Alkali Flat by Arcadia Publishing. They will also give a brief talk on their book, will have copies for sale and be present for signing. SCHS members can pick up their free copy of Sacramento’s Breweries early at this event; for non-members, copies cost $15.

Sacramento’s Breweries, by historian Ed Carroll, is the story of Sacramento’s breweries from the Gold Rush through Prohibition. Not long after the first settlers arrived in Sacramento, brewers took miners’ gold dust in exchange for golden lager. By the start of the 20th century, Sacramento’s breweries turned the grain and hops of the Sacramento Valley into beers enjoyed in Sacramento and exported across the West Coast, Central America and even Asia.

The book is illustrated with historic photographs provided by the Center for Sacramento History. If you are an SCHS member, you can pick up your complimentary copy of the book on February 23, and have it signed by the author! If you cannot make it to the event, we will mail the book to paid SCHS members starting in March.

Extra copies of the book will be available for sale for $15. The book is also available for sale at Beers Book Center, 915 S Street, Sacramento. For more information about the Sacramento County Historical Society, please visit www.sachistoricalsociety.org

The New Golden Notes Title
Sacramento’s Breweries
And The New Arcadia Press Title
Sacramento’s Alkali Flat
Book Release and Author Talks
Tuesday February 23, 7:00 PM
Sierra Sacramento Valley Medical Society
5380 Elvas Avenue, Sacramento

Disclosure: William Burg is President of the Sacramento County Historical Society.

City Council Approves Historic Plaque Program

2010-02-10T08:20:44Z

On Tuesday February 9 the Sacramento City Council authorized the use of the Sacramento city seal for use on plaques to be fabricated through the Historic Properties Plaque Program, a project of Sacramento Heritage, Inc.

Sacramento Heritage Inc. is a nonprofit organization incorporated by the city of Sacramento to promote and preserve Sacramento's architectural heritage. The Historic Properties Plaque Program allows owners of properties that are either listed Sacramento landmarks, or contributing buildings to Sacramento historic districts, to purchase bronze plaques for display on their properties. The cost of the plaques will be paid by the property owner, should they choose to participate. Plaques will be available in two sizes--a smaller size for residences and a larger size for commercial buildings. Many other cities use plaque programs to highlight their historic buildings and districts, promoting heritge tourism and interest in local history. Plaques in other cities vary in construction, from simple metal and enamel signs to cast bronze. Sacramento's program will use cast bronze. Other plaque programs are state-sponsored, like the California Historic Landmarks program, or privately funded, like the plaque programs of the Native Sons of the Golden West or E Clampus Vitus.

Now that the program has been approved, the Sacramento Heritage Inc. website will soon add information on how to order a plaque. Lists of the city's official landmarks and historic districts can be found via the City of Sacramento's Preservation Department webpage:

www.cityofsacramento.org/dsd/planning/preservation/

Lists of landmarks and contributors are found in he Sacramento Register of Historic and Cultural Resources, downloadable as a PDF document on the Preservation Department page above. Buildings that are not currently landmarks (criteria for nominating buildings as landmarks are on the Preservation Department website) cannot receive plaques unless the building is nominated and approved by the city of Sacramento. In order to be eligible, the historic value of the building must be documented and presented to the city--not every building can make the grade, and simply being an old building is not enough to make a building historic! Current owners of listed landmarks and contributing buildings should be able to order plaques once ordering information is finalized and modifications to the website are made.

At Tuesday night's City Council meeting, the item was pulled from the consent calendar by Councilmember Steve Cohn for discussion by the City Council. He supported the project, but took a moment both to acknowledge the program and to point out that the current City of Sacramento city seal seems outdated, and that the city might consider redesigning the seal. After a brief discussion about the seal, the measure was passed unanimously by the City Council. Details of the project and decision can be found via the City Council website:

sacramento.granicus.com/MetaViewer.php?view_id=8&clip_id=2196&meta_id=191152

More information about Sacramento Heritage Inc., including the Historic Plaque Program and other programs, can be found on their website:

sacramentoheritage.org/

Day at the Museum

2010-02-05T05:36:29Z

The doors to discovery will be open and waiting Saturday with Sacramento's 12th annual Museum Day.

Museum Day will open 26 of Sacramento's museums to the community at no charge from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

The last guests will be admitted at 4 p.m. and all will close at 5 p.m.

This event is presented by the Sacramento Association of Museums, which promotes a large range of art, history, science and wildlife museums and exhibits.

Museum Day coordinator Delta Pick Mello said last year saw a record 80,000 participants at Museum Day. This year, depending on the weather,

Mello recommended that guests plan to visit only two or three museums on Saturday so they have time for parking and possible crowds.

"Places like there could be just as many visitors. Fairytale Town, Aerospace Museum of California, California State Railroad Museum and the Sacramento Zoo get the biggest crowds, so I encourage people to see exhibits they've never seen such as the Sacramento Historic City Cemetery, Museum of Medical History and the Sojourner Truth Multicultural Arts Museum," she said.

The large list of non-profit museums should give everyone the chance to enjoy a part of history and culture.

"This is a way to provide people, some who may not be able to afford it, access to museums and the right to learn about history," Mello said.

The Sacramento Association of Museums also recommends that visitors take the time to look over the Museum Day details, as well as the different Museums websites, before they attend on Saturday. All that information can be found on their website.

Museums participating in Museum Day 2010:

• Aerospace Museum of California
• California Automobile Museum
• California Foundry History Museum
• California State Military Museum
• California State Capitol Museum
• The California Museum
• California State Indian Museum
• California State Railroad Museum
• Crocker Art Museum
• Discovery Museum Science and Space Center
• Explorit Science Center (Davis)
• Fairytale Town
• Folsom History Museum
• Governor’s Mansion State Historic Park
• Heidrick Ag History Center (Woodland)
• Leland Stanford Mansion State Historic Park
• Museum of Medical History
• Old Sacramento Schoolhouse Museum
• Old Sacramento State Historic Park
• Sacramento Zoo
• Sacramento Historic City Cemetery
• Sacramento History Museum
• Sojourner Truth Multicultural Arts Museum
• Sutter’s Fort State Historic Park
• Wells Fargo History Museum (Old Sacramento and Downtown locations).

There will also be free shuttle buses provided to four of the museums.

Take a peek at "Postcard," learn Sacramento history

2010-02-01T06:18:37Z

The Shack restaurant in East Sacramento was packed Saturday, the overflow filling the patio. So many people turned up for the book launch of photographer Tom Myers’ “Postcard History Series: Sacramento,” that he sold the 65 copies he'd brought in little over an hour.

The book is a visual history of Sacramento, taken from Myers’ collection of vintage postcards and supplemented with specific descriptions and historical details.

Myers began collecting postcards about six years ago as an extension of his interest in the history of the Sacramento area. His collection has grown to more than 680 postcards, most of them spanning the years 1905 to 1940.

The introduction to the book was written by Patricia J. Johnson, senior archivist at the Center for Sacramento History. She describes Myer’s interest in postcards as “an inexpensive way to ‘collect history."

The postcards are organized according to aspects of Sacramento, including downtown, railroads, rivers, parks, gold mining and agriculture.

A special feature of the book is a sampling of early-1900 messages found on the postcards.

“The message is sometimes the most interesting thing about the card,” Myers said.

In 2007, Myers, his wife, Sally, and son Jeff Myers published Sacramento Impressions, a collection of images representing the city’s history and culture.

Sally Myers, a professional photographer for Tom Myers Photography, said their book was included in baskets given to doctors considering moving here in order to give them an idea of what Sacramento is all about.

Jeff Myers, also a photographer, said of his parents,

“What they’re really about is stock photography. They have this huge library of hundreds of thousands of images going all the way back to Ansel Adams’ time. They do these books for fun, because it’s interesting and because they enjoy the local community.”

Visit Tom Myers Photography online.

Martin Luther King Jr. Day and Celebration

2010-01-17T00:22:18Z

On Aug. 28, 1963, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. proclaimed to the world, "I have a dream...”

His speech was given at the Lincoln Memorial after a quarter million people concluded the March on Washington, which became the largest demonstration for human rights of its time.

Martin Luther King, a reverend, scholar and civil rights activist, practiced non-violence and civil disobedience to help change the existence of racial inequalities.

During his life he was recognized by being the youngest recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964, at age 35, but is predominantly known for his leadership in demonstrations and non-violent protests that challenge racial segregation and racial discrimination, as well as helping many communities.

The controversy surrounding King's actions led to his early death when he was assassinated in Memphis, Tenn. on April 4, 1968.

Though King did not live to see his efforts become a true reality, his passionate speeches, writings and push for community involvement have encouraged others to take action in the pursuit of his dream.

Today, we celebrate Martin Luther King’s birthday, Jan. 15, 1929, by recognizing his triumphs as a federal holiday. Every third Monday of January has honored King since 1986 after Ronald Regan signed the holiday into law in 1983.

Martin Luther King will be honored in many different ways throughout Sacramento this month.

The first of which was held on Jan. 9 by the MLK Committee, a California nonprofit public benefit corporation. They had their 11th Annual Martin Luther King Celebration Dinner at the Sacramento Convention Center. The event was co-founded by Dr. Dorothy Enomoto who was a classmate and close friend of King's.

Chris Webber was the keynote speaker this year at the celebration and the proceeds of the dinner benefit local charities.

Monday, Jan. 18, this year's Martin Luther King Day, will be honored with the 29th MLK March and Celebration.

The march is put on by MLK365, a non-profit organization, whose message this year is “You are the dream and the dream is now.”

The March has two starting points, the traditional southern route which begins at Oak Park Community Center (3425 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.) at 8 a.m. and the northern route which begins at Grant High School (1400 Grand Avenue) at 9 a.m.

Both routes will end at the Sacramento Convention Center.

The Convention Center will hold an employment, health and education expo, as well as a talent showcase, and children’s education village.

Sam Starks, Executive Director of MLK365, believes that there may be upwards of 15,000 people participating in the celebration this year if the weather is good.

Starks said the march is geared toward remembering the past and celebrating the future.

“The march allows people to define their freedom,” he said, while participants, “embrace King’s value of diversity.”

Starks reported that the march will also be raising money for a Haiti relief fund.

The MLK March and Celebration is planned to go until 2 p.m. There will also be transportation provided by Regional Transit to return participants to the starting points of the march.

Hands On Sacramento will also be having a Martin Luther King Day of Service, where individuals will be able to volunteer for projects within the Sacramento community.

Rose Nguyen from Hands On Sacramento was happy to report that all the volunteer positions for the day have been filled and just over 1,800 people will be coming out to help.

This is the sixth year that the organization has had a Day of Service for the holiday.

Lastly, the American Red Cross and HOPE will be celebrating Martin Luther King Day by distributing fire prevention and safety tips. These volunteers will be reaching out to residences in south Sacramento neighborhoods from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. to help spread information on fire safety in the hope of helping to strengthen communities.

For more information on events and locations go to MLK365.org and MLKDay.gov.

The photos above are of the Martin Luther King Celebration Dinner. Photo credit Tia Gemmel.

Riverview Media Photography

phototia.com

Pictures:

1. 11th Annual Martin Luther King Celebration Dinner
2. Jerry Enomoto retired United States Marshall- C0-Chair and co-founder of Event, Dr. Dorothy Enomoto Retired Deputy Director CA Department of Correction-Co-Chair and co-founder of Event, Benjamin Wagner, US Attorney, and Congresswoman, Doris Matsui
3. Chris Webber-President of The Chris Webber Foundation, NBA ALL STAR and Former Sacramento Kings., guest speaker.
4. Community Leaders showing diversity, Candle light Ceremony
5. 29th MLK March and Celebration, MLK365.org
6. Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service, MLKDay.gov

Family business passes 100-year mark

2010-01-06T04:29:39Z

Family legend has it that Russian Czar Nicholas II was hot on the heels of the Anapolskies when the clan's grandmother shepherded the children out of the country.

The situation was much the same for other Jewish families in 1904 Russia. On Tuesday, descendants of the immigrants, who settled in Sacramento, celebrated the longevity of a downtown business that has remained in the family for more than 100 years.

Three generations of brothers, as well as a wife-husband team, have run the business for the last century. The business has changed over the years to become Sacramento's oldest family-operated pawn shop, California Loan & Jewelry Co. The current owners, brothers Larry and Warren Anapolsky, raffled away $30,000 in diamonds and gold Tuesday afternoon as the culmination of a year-long celebration.

"I'm very proud that my grandfather could start a business that today we are still running," said Warren Anapolsky, standing in the shop at 916 J St. "It's a very important tradition for me that we are able to carry this on."

In 1904, Leah Anapolsky led seven grandchildren to New York. Mystery surrounds the fate of the parents, who never left Europe. A small yet solid woman, Anapolsky told her oldest grandson, David, to go as far west as he could, find a place for the family and send for them, Larry Anapolsky said.

Then in his 20s, David Anapolsky considered San Francisco, then headed to Sacramento. Most of the family were tailors. Anapolsky opened a tailoring business in 1906 and slowly sent money to bring the others west.

"He found this was the best place to start up a clothing business," said Larry Anapolsky, 59. "It was a new frontier."

Three years later, twins William and Joseph Anapolsky opened a used merchandise store, New York Second Hand Store, at 1014 Third St., near what is now known as Old Sacramento.

"It wasn't Old Sacramento then," laughed Larry Anapolsky. "That was Sacramento."

An old photo of the first store shows their grandfather William in the doorway and a storefront sign advertising "Hats, Clothing, Shoes & Gents Furnishings, BOUGHT and SOLD." Another sign proclaims, "Revolvers a Specialty."

"In those days, the true, old second-hand stores dealt with everything from Timex watches and razors to pocket watches and suitcases. Virtually anything that had value," Larry Anapolsky said. "It would almost be a store that was the equivalent to a flea market."

In 1922, the twins' brother Julius opened a men's outfitter or "haberdashery" called Julius Clothing, also still in the family. Others later opened Capitol Clothing, which is not still run by the family, said Warren Anapolsky, 60.

In the mid-1940s, the second-hand store also began operating as a pawn shop, loaning money to people with goods for collateral, unless the loan and interest were paid back within a deadline. From 1942 to 1964, the family sold many goods to Mexican immigrants coming to work in the region under the Bracero Program.

William and Joseph both died in 1947. William's sons, Sol and Milton, took over the store and renamed it California Loan and Jewelry Co. The boys' father and their Uncle Milton continued to sell "everything under sun" and offer more pawned-goods loans. Sol's wife, Bernice (mother to Larry and Warren), joined day-to-day operations after Milton died in 1952.

The only robbery the brothers could recall almost ended their father's life. In 1961, Sol Anapolsky was shot twice in the doorway as he tried to flee during the crime. Witnesses followed the gunman and tipped police off to his location, and Anapolsky survived.

The store moved three times to various locations on K and J streets, before settling across from Cesar Chavez Plaza, where it still sits. The store shares the block with another pawn shop, taco and teriyaki spots, a Christian Science Reading Room on one end and the redeveloped Citizen Hotel on the other.

Today, more than 90 percent of the merchandise is jewelry — new, consigned, pawned or reset. Their father sent both boys to the Gemological Institute of America as they got involved in the store about 40 years ago. Electronics such as stereos, clocks and transistor radios were slowly phased out, as were other goods that became obsolete, including typewriters and cameras.

"We look at things that have value, and if we think we can sell it later on, we'll take it," Warren Anapolsky said. "Every pawn shop finds its own niche. We've been lucky to find our niche with jewelry."

The front of the shop is filled with jewelry for sale in glass cases. Guitars, which have always been a strong seller, line one wall. A back storage area holds items in pawn. A dark and drafty basement holds a Corvette, a Porsche and a black 1906 Studebaker physician's buggy acquired two years ago.

Over the years, the shop has taken in and sometimes sold exotic and pricey items. Those include books, such as a rare copy of "Songs of Innocence," hand-written and illustrated by William Blake and later sold for $500,000 at Sotheby's; a Renoir painting; and a 1973 Miami Dolphins Superbowl ring, Warren Anapolsky said.

Their father worked in the shop until his death in 1979, and their mother until well into her 80s. She stopped working only days before her death in 1999.

The shop is poised to be taken on by a new generation when the time comes. Larry's and Warren's children — three girls — haven't shown an interest. But a young cousin, 24-year-old Adam Anapolsky, has been working in the store in his free time since he was 13. A recent graduate of UC Santa Barbara, he is now working there full time. He said he would feel "a lot of pride" to be able to continue the family business now being taught to him.

Warren and Larry said their family has passed down a tradition of integrity in business.

"We treat customers the way we want to be treated — with honesty and fairness," Warren Anapolsky said. "For a business to last 100 years, you have to have a lot of those elements."

Motorcycles roar into town

2010-01-04T05:13:40Z

The smell of rubber and motor oil fill the vast warehouse stuffed with cars, trucks and motorcycles. The battle between man and machine reaches its pinnacle under the I-5 freeway in downtown Sacramento. The California Automobile Museum, 2200 Front St., is featuring the Born to Ride exhibit through March 12.
The exhibit is chronological, following motorcycles from their humble beginnings at the turn of the 20th century to the current world speed record holder. This impressive machine, BUB 7, reached 367.382 mph in September at Bonneville Salt Flats, Utah. Bikes of all brands, spanning several countries and countless models, are on display.
There's a 1912 Harley Davidson, once owned by Steve McQueen, and a 1942 Crocker. The Crocker is considered the rarest motorcycle on display. Fewer than 100 were produced in the months leading to the United States' involvement in WWII. They are valued for their quality and rarity.
Jeff Hughes and Albert Miranda love motorcycles. They rode their BMW bikes from Modesto in the fog for the opening day of the exhibit.
"I've been riding since I was a kid," said Hughes. "I actually got my motorcycle license before I got my car drivers license. I saw a lot of bikes inside that were amazing."
"My favorite bike was the Ariel Mark II," Miranda said. "The square four design (of the engine) was revolutionary."
Special events are planned throughout the exhibit in corroboration with Elk Grove Power Sports. On January 9, Flying Motorcycles' chief executive officer, Sam Bousefield, will be on hand for a meet and greet and demonstration. Also that day, Elk Grove Power Sports will offer demo rides (weather permitting).
Machine mayhem doesn't end with motorcycles, though. Admission to the Born to Ride exhibit includes entry to the museum. Row after row boasts Fords, Chevrolets, Studebakers, Hudsons and more. Original Model A and T cars are on display, too.
"Our collection is very impressive," Museum curator Amanda Moss.
"We offer visitors an experience into the world of automobiles," she said. "We have an extensive exhibit on the 'green' aspect of automobiles from the EV1 to the 2009 Tesla."

Tickets are $8 for adults, $4 for student with valid ID
For more information, visit the museum website.

Photo#1: 1912 Indian Racer
Photo#2: Motorcycles on display
Photo#3: Motorcycles on display
Photo#4: BUB 7- Fastest motorcycle in history
Photo#5: 1977 Kawasaki KZ Drag Bike
Photo#6: Cars on display

Photos courtesy of Matthew Ceccato

Historical center offers unique holiday gifts

2009-12-12T19:03:09Z

The story of Sacramento's rapid development from remote frontier city to hub of the modern Central Valley is rich and storied. It's easy to forget that 65 years ago trolley cars criss-crossed Sacramento's bustling streets. Not too long before that, areas such as East Sacramento and Land Park were unincorporated farmland.

Since 1953, the Center for Sacramento History, the city and county's official archive, has collected and preserved artifacts that tell Sacramento's colorful story. But it's not just a repository. The center allows researchers to duplicate its vast collection of video, photographs and documents for a modest fee.

Recently it partnered with Zazzle, an Internet company, to allow the public to create high-quality reproductions of the center's most sought after material.

"We got interested with Zazzle because the California State Library and the Bancroft Library at Berkeley have partnered with them," said Dylan McDonald, center archivist. "We just scan [the artifact] one time so it preserves the original copy."

Those interested in historical holiday cards, calendars, maps or other collectible objects can order them on the Center for Sacramento History's website.

The items make unique holiday gifts and help the center maintain basic services during a period of economic instability.

McDonald said the percentage of each sale that goes to the center has helped offset declines in city and county funding.

Historic Holiday Display at 10th & L

2009-12-07T07:06:23Z

Those passing by Grebitus & Sons Jewelers at the corner of 10th and L Street this month will see a piece of Sacramento history in the window; a trio of life-size animated figures (a man, a woman and a dog) in front of a Christmas tree. The figures are products of the Gaffney Display Company, the family firm who created the figures for the Breuner's furniture store chain's annual Christmas window display.

The idea started at November's Sacramento County Historical Society meeting, where Mark Gaffney gave a presentation on the history of Gaffney Display Company and their years providing animated figures for Breuner's. Mark's parents started Gaffney Display in 1936, and Mark has carried on the family tradition. The Gaffney figures were used to create whole animated scenes, placed in windows throughout much of the Breuner's furniture store chain. The store was founded here in Sacramento, but at its height had about 40 stores throughout United States. New displays made their debut at the Oakland store, then were moved to Sacramento the following year, then to Reno, and so on to approximately a dozen stores that hosted holiday displays. The Gaffney family drew sketches to design the scenes, designed the mechanical workings of the figures, and built the figures with papier-mache exteriors, often using members of the Gaffney family as models for creating molds of hands and arms. The figures are not as slick as Disney animatronics, but maintain their own unique charm. Breuner's stopped hosting holiday displays in its store windows in the 1980s, and the firm went bankrupt in 2004. The stores are gone, although the company still sells furniture via the Internet. The Gaffney family still stores many of the display figures, and still works in the commercial display business, in addition to Mark's other career, winemaking.

After the presentation, an idea arose during the question-and-answer period: Why not re-create a Breuner's display in a store window downtown? The simple answer was that such a window would require two things--a window, and some money. Several ideas were fielded, but one person at the meeting took the extra step to turn an idea into action: Bo Grebitus, of Grebitus & Sons Jewelry. The Breuner's displays were a cherished memory for many Sacramentans over the years, including Bo and his brother Ted. They contacted Mark Gaffney and arranged to have a small display set up in the window of their jewelry store. Their location, recently relocated from inside Westfield Downtown Plaza to the corner of 10th and L, is located on a busy pedestrian corner where many people can see the display. The display is simple, consisting of a man and woman decorating a Christmas tree, while a dog jumps up for a bite of a decorative popcorn garland.

The Grebitus brothers had other reasons to be interested in the Breuner's displays. Their mother Elizabeth was the daughter of C.H. Breuner, president of the Breuner's department store. As the children of two families with deep roots in the city of Sacramento, hosting a display of the historic Breuner's displays was more than a piece of local history; it was also a chance to share part of their family history.

The animated figures operate during regular store hours, until approximately 6:00 PM. After the store closes, the figures must be turned off, otherwise their movement would activate the store's motion sensor alarm. They will remain on display through the end of December.

California Hall of Fame to honor its fourth group of inductees

2009-11-30T03:40:49Z

For the fourth year, the California Hall of Fame will induct a group of individuals who have changed the state for the better. The ceremony will be held on Tuesday at the California Museum, the site of the hall of fame. The 13 inductees are:

Carol Burnett (comedienne and actress)

Andy Grove (former chairman and chief executive officer of Intel Corp.)

Hiram Johnson (California governor and U.S. senator)

Rafer Johnson (Olympic gold medalist in decathlon)

Henry J. Kaiser (industrialist and founder of Kaiser Permanente and the Kaiser Family Foundation)

Joan Kroc (philanthropist and widow of the founder of McDonald's)

George Lucas (director and producer)

John Madden (NFL player, coach and commentator)

Harvey Milk (politician and gay rights activist)

Fritz Scholder (Native American artist)

Danielle Steel (New York Times bestselling author)

Joe Weider (body builder and founder of numerous fitness magazines, competitions and organizations)

General Chuck Yeager (test pilot, and first to break the sound barrier)

“The inductees don’t necessarily have to be born in California,” said Ashley Robinson, curator and press liaison at the museum California History Museum, 1020 O St. “They do have to have been successful in their careers or done their best work here."

The hall of fame was founded by Maria Shriver, wife of the current governor and a former journalist, in 2006 to honor remarkable achievements of people in California.

“When Gov. Schwarzenegger was elected in 2003, she began a mission to tell the story of our state,” Robinson said.

The museum inducts about a dozen people each year, and “generally shoots for less to make it more special," she added.

Possible inductees are nominated by the public in January and voted on by a special committee over the next few months.

“We start with a list of about 20 and whittle it down, and then Gov. Schwarzenegger and Mrs. Shriver vote on the final choices,” Robinson said.

Shriver will talk at 4:30 p.m. on Tuesday, and the ceremony will start at 6 p.m.

An exhibit honoring each person will be on display at the museum for a year, displaying artifacts and items related to the inductees’ work. Examples include costumes and memorabilia from “Star Wars” for Lucas, artwork by Scholder and documents related to Milk’s work in San Francisco.

These pieces aren't always easy to come by.

“It’s tough to put some of those exhibits together,” Robinson said. “A few of our honorees don’t have any living relatives, and for others it was difficult to find some of the items we have on display."

Center to Host Exhibition and Lecture on Sacramento Communist Trial

2009-11-13T16:51:43Z

Sacramento, CA – On Friday, December 4, 2009, the Center for Sacramento History (CSH) will unveil a new photographic exhibition, Red Menace! The Sacramento Conspiracy Trial of 1935. The exhibition documents Communist farm labor organizers on trial in Sacramento for attempting to “overthrow the government.” The evening will include an address about the trial by Dr. Kathryn Olmstead, a professor in the History Department at the University of California, Davis. The exhibition reception with light refreshments begins at 6:00 p.m., while the lecture begins at 7:30 p.m. at CSH (551 Sequoia Pacific Blvd, Sacramento). Tickets are $10.00 a person and must be purchased in advance at CSH or by calling (916) 264-7072.

The evening event will also include three behind the scenes tours of the CSH vault or storage area. The storage area is normally closed to the public, however CSH staff will give a guided tour to event ticket holders on a first-come-first served basis. Those wishing to take the tour should indicate this when purchasing tickets.

In 1935, in the midst of the Great Depression, seventeen farm labor organizers appeared in a Sacramento courtroom accused of Criminal Syndicalism – the attempt to overthrow the government by violent means. Red Menace! The Sacramento Conspiracy Trial of 1935 depicts the proceedings through Sacramento Bee images, original police arrest photographs, courtroom documents, and Communist literature. The trial captivated Americans from Sacramento to Washington D.C. as it exposed a perceived threat to the American way of life.

Dr. Olmstead is an expert on 20th century U.S. cultural and political history and the author of, Real Enemies: Conspiracy Theories and American Democracy, World War I to 9/11 by Oxford University Press. She has written two previous books on secrecy in the U.S. government. Her lecture that evening is entitled, “Blood and Sunshine: Farm workers, Unions, and the Great Sacramento Conspiracy Trial of 1935.” Dr. Olmstead will sign copies of her book, Real Enemies, which will be available for purchase that evening.

For more information please visit www.centerforsacramentohistory.org, or call (916) 264-7072.

CSH’s mission is to foster, stimulate, and promote the study and appreciation of Sacramento’s regional history. Since 1953, it has served the community by acquiring, preserving, exhibiting, and enabling access to the documentary and material culture of the region. CSH is administered by the City of Sacramento and is jointly funded by the City and County of Sacramento.

Operation Sellout: How the Sky Box Trumps the Lunch Box

2009-11-01T06:41:22Z

From the lofty perches of the power players, in their skyboxes and bank towers, the public may look very small, almost antlike. Deal and decision makers are elevated and segregated from the little people, whose lives they influence.

On Thursday, October 29, Mayor Kevin Johnson announced his "Rules of the Game" plan to build an arena and entertainment complex in Sacramento. The press conference was held 25 floors up, with a hazy overview of the city, extending from the historic rail yards to Cal Expo: two potential sites for a new and lucrative sports/real estate venture.

In that same sweeping view, the mayor could look down on the central city neighborhoods. From Downtown, Midtown, East Sac, all the way east to River Park and southward to College Glen, Tahoe Park and back around to Oak Park -- all of these neighborhoods are being intentionally and systematically deprived of a comprehensive, traditional, public high school.

This mayor has claimed to want to be an education mayor for Sacramento, even though public education is outside the duties and jurisdiction of the mayor.

So why? Why is a task force and "Rules of the Game" for placing a sports complex in the central city, more of a priority for this mayor than providing a comprehensive, public high school for the majority -- and historic center -- of the city's neighborhoods and families?

Would it help the mayor to see the big picture from up there, if there was a Sacramento High School Tent City, laid out in Fremont Park, Boulevard Park, McKinley Park and Bertha Henschel, Glen Hall Park and East Portal, Tahoe and McClatchy Parks?

A visit from Oprah's cameras might help draw his attention to the estimated 10,000 Central City students that have been displaced, abandoned and disappeared, since the closure of the real Sacramento High School in 2003. The disenfranchised are the rightful public school students and families of the Second Oldest High School West of the Mississippi.

How can it be so easy to overlook the reality that this student body, all these historic, central neighborhoods, do not have a comprehensive, traditional, public high school for their children to go to?

It helps if the local newspaper is complicit in crafting the story of how the public school was closed and reopened as a charter, in a continuous campaign of disinformation and incomplete reporting. Another puffy editorial was printed on Sunday, October 25 stating "On the scale of turnaround options, closing a school and reopening it as a charter is the most dramatic. It also is the most risky. But, as the Sacramento High experience has shown, it can bring big dividends for students in poorer neighborhoods, who too often are left behind."

Wait a minute. Who is being "left behind" here? 6 years later, -- after huge community outcry and advocacy, after a lawsuit and a consent decree of the court, ordering that the Sacramento City Unified School District provide a replacement -- half of the city of Sacramento's students still don't have their high school.

As the editorial said:

"Closing a school and turning it over to a nonprofit to run as a public charter school is not for the faint of heart" -- especially when it is done prematurely and illegally, as happened to Sacramento High School.

"It requires a strong school board willing to back an inevitably controversial decision" -- and complicit in the back room deals, dirty deeds, misuse of Federal funds and betrayal of the community will, all of which got that "strong" school board voted out of office.

"It requires a charter organization willing to withstand withering criticism in its sensitive startup years by those tethered to the status quo" -- the "status quo" being pesky, boring stuff like: the will of the parents, voters and taxpayers (who were forced to become litigants and WON), the history, traditions and needs of the whole community and -- oh yeah -- the law.

The editorial quotes, Tom Loveless, director of the Center on American Education at the Brookings Institution, who told The Bee when Sac High was closed, "It has never happened before where a large, existing high school closed in June and opened in September as a charter." The editor fails to mention that it will never happen here again. After the illegal handover of Sacramento's historic high school to Kevin Johnson, the resulting lawsuit led to a consent decree requiring a one year period in between.

This most recent in a series of misleading and enabling editorials continues. "Enrollment has stabilized at 1,000 students in the last two years and the school slowly seems to be getting beyond the intense conflict surrounding its founding. This is a school that could be even more successful if it had something more than a dismissive brush-off from influential parts of the community."

This is a school that is propped up with powerful media complicity and fudged statistics, packaged with the illegitimate use of the trappings of the historic public school: the mascot, the colors, team name, school name and the school nick name (which the SCUSD has unsuccessfully ordered St. HOPE to quit using). This sporty, peppy, purple and white sham of "Sac High," continues despite repeated public protests to the newspaper and the school board.

The sham, however, provided Kevin Johnson his springboard to the 25th floor press conference vantage and the Mayor's seat.

St. Hope operates "Sacramento Charter High School." It is not "Sacramento High School" or "Sac High." The only time the Sacramento Bee has consistently used the correct terms, were in the few unavoidable investigative articles, when alleged malfeasance by Kevin Johnson was too serious to gloss over. Then, the Bee referred to all the various other official entities of Johnson's St. Hope franchise and avoided any mention of him or of "Sac High."

"Getting beyond the intense conflict surrounding (St. HOPE's) founding," while pretending that central Sacramento should not have a comprehensive, public high school, is impossible. This fuzzy media blanket masking the truth and muzzling the public interest made Johnson's mayoral win possible.
This is a school that was paid for by the taxpayers, supported by the whole community for 147 years and valued for its diverse community-building aspect. This is a school that Sacramentans previously voted to approve bond funds, for renovations intended to serve the whole community, that ended up providing Johnson's boutique charter a $27 million renovation. This is a campus that belongs to the whole community, which is owed a consent decree high school after parents sued over the St. HOPE takeover.
This is a school that cannot justify its presence on the community's historic, upgraded, public high school campus without fudging the statistics, without cherry picking its student body, without the enabling of the local media and without excluding thousands of SCUSD students every year (including student families in Oak Park, who prefer a comprehensive, traditional public school to the St. HOPE charter). This is a school that owes the SCUSD $1,000,000 because it can't pay its bills.
So, who is really getting the "dismissive brush-off from influential parts of the community"? The highly insular, media fortified, privatized outpost of St. HOPE, squatting on the Sac High campus and the mayor with his lofty sky box view?
Or is it that vast, diverse Tent City of displaced high school students, spread out as far as the eye can see, spelling out the words, "Where's my High School"?
The bank tower skybox elites care about the bottom line. They are not accountable to -- or even aware of -- the community experience on the ground level.
It is up to the community to make sure that this mayor is not so blinded by the haze of powerful influence and the sport of politics, that he overlooks his duty to the the families and future of Sacramento.

City Charter Review Committee Final Town Hall Reveals "Gordian Knot"

2009-10-17T21:58:11Z

Sierra II in Curtis Park was the location for the ninth and final Town Hall Meeting of the City of Sacramento Charter Review Committee.

The crowd of approximately 45 people was on the Baby Boom-plus end of the generational scale. It included members of the public, neighborhood representatives and former, current and candidate public officials, from the Central City, Curtis/Land Park, Oak Park and the South Area.

The City Charter legally and procedurally defines the City of Sacramento and its operations. Kevin Johnson's Strong Mayor Initiative, which would dramatically change the City Charter, will be on the June 2010 ballot.

Sacramento was founded with a City Charter in 1858. In 1921, during the Progressive Era, in response to rampant corruption, Sacramento changed to the current strong manager/council system to achieve more accountability. Ironically, the current Strong Mayor Initiative proponents have campaigned that accountability is not possible under the current system.

In light of Johnson's own proposals for redefining the checks and balances of power, a public process of charter policy analysis is appropriate. The City Council appointed the Charter Review Committee to explore and recommend potential changes to the City Charter.

The Strong Mayor Initiative would change the City Charter in these areas: the Mayor's role, (add) veto power, appointment of the City Manager, appointment of Charter officers (City Clerk, City Treasurer, City Attorney), appointment of Department Directors and 800+ non union employees and budgetary powers.

The Charter Review Committee recommendations are for changes in two of those areas:

The City Manager -- currently appointed by the City Council -- would be appointed by the Mayor.

The city budget, currently submitted to Council by the City Manager, would be based on the Mayor's policy priorities, reviewed and modified by the Council and developed into a proposed budget by the City Manager. The City Council and Mayor would have until June 30th each fiscal year to approve the budget.

Under the Strong Mayor Initiative, the Mayor would propose the annual budget, a Council Majority would approve the budget and the Mayor would have veto power over Council's changes to the budget. The Mayor's budget would take effect in 30 days, if the Council had not voted to override his veto by that deadline.

Soon after the public input process has been completed, the Charter Review Committee will present final recommendations to the City Council. The Council will review the recommendations and receive additional input from the public. Then, the council will vote on whether -- or not -- to place the Charter Review Committee recommendations as a measure on the June 2010 ballot.

If the City Council decides to put the Charter Review Committee final recommendations on the June 2010 ballot and if they are approved by the voters, those changes would be effective in Nov. 2012, with the next mayoral election.

If Kevin Johnson's Strong Mayor Initiative passes, those changes will take effect 45 days after the election is certified.

Even if the Council does vote to put these recommendations on the ballot, the public will still have the option to NOT vote for any changes to the City Charter.

The materials provided at the Town Hall Meeting (see links below) included a chart showing the various cities with Strong Mayors and how each is organized -- differently, with different sets of checks and balances. The Johnson proposed Strong Mayor Initiative affords Sacramento's mayor more power -- with fewer checks and balances -- than any other strong mayor city. The potential transition period is shorter than in any other Strong Mayor city, some of which have taken years -- and multiple elections -- to study and implement such fundamental changes.

The proposed Strong Mayor Initiative has been compared to legislative or corporate organizations. Yet this SMI eradicates the current council/manager system, which is similar to many corporate/board structures. It also eradicates the legislative level of public input and public accountability, which is available when the Mayor participates with -- and the City Manager is answerable to -- the elected representatives on the City Council.

The Charter Review Committee's tentative recommendations include retaining the Mayor as a member of the voting body of the City Council, with one vote and no veto power. Johnson's Strong Mayor Initiative proposes that the Mayor will not have a vote and will have veto power, which leaves a ninth spot open in the Council voting body.

The new Strong Mayor would still have the power and the vote of the ninth Council Member ... until the 9th Council District is defined and the 9th District Council Member is elected. Redistricting ordinarily follows the 10 year census process. 2010 fast approaches. Redistricting is under state, not local, jurisdiction. The answer -- to how and when will the 9th Council Member be in place -- is that there is no answer.

Other cities that have adopted structural changes this dramatic have used a long term view and a deliberative process. Details regarding the 9th Council Member could be resolved, before the transfer of multiple elected officials' shared power into the hands of just one person.

The Strong Mayor Initiative bypasses that process, transfers unprecedented professional and managerial power to one politician and affords this aspiring Strong Mayor a bonus dip of power until the 9th Council Member is seated.

These crucial and unresolved aspects of the Strong Mayor Initiative were referred to in the town hall meeting as a "Gordian Knot." If ignored, those aspects will entangle the City and its Charter in all the "unforeseen consequences," litigation and unnecessary expenditures of a predictable mess.

The Charter Committee recommendations would retain the Mayor's role as a voting (9th) member of the City Council, participating in weekly meetings and without veto power.

The current City Charter provides for a professionally trained and professionally selected City Manager, supported by the authority of the full City Council, with the Mayor as a participant. Extreme empowerment of the Mayor disempowers the Council and weakens their accountability and availability to their community.

There is much more to consider and more time to make your voice heard to your City Council.

Information is available at: 

http://www.cityofsacramento.org/charter/ http://www.cityofsacramento.org/charter/Town-Hall-Meeting-Notes-Audio.html http://www.cityofsacramento.org/charter/documents/CRC-Town-Hall-Presentation-Revised-30-Sept-2009.pdf

Sign up to be email notified on your preferred City of Sacramento issues and events at: https://service.govdelivery.com/service/user.html?code=CASACRA

Contact your City Council Member at:
http://www.cityofsacramento.org/council/index.html

A 10-Step Plan To Fix K Street, Or: The Legend of the Skyscraper Fairy

2009-10-12T03:55:54Z

As a Sacramento resident keenly interested in the history of K Street from the gold rush to the present, I have read many opinions regarding the best ways to fix the ongoing problems of K Street. Some have been proposed recently, ideas that I view with a mixture of amusement and horror. Most involve returning to the mistakes of the past while clearly avoiding its successes. In order to take the best from the past while avoiding some of its mistakes, I have selected some favorites. I can take credit for none of them, as they are all ideas that have been suggested at other times and places, but they seem like the best of the lot to me. This ten-point plan varies in scope from the very simple and inexpensive to the rather complex and expensive, some are short-term solutions while others are longer-term solutions for better times, but all of them are practical. I can provide more detail about most of these points if requested.

1. Accept that the Skyscraper Fairy does not exist.

Many landlords along K Street have no apparent interest in maintaining or improving their properties. Some are convinced that as long as they own the land, the magical Skyscraper Fairy will give them uncountable millions for the land where their decaying buildings sit, and will replace them with shiny new skyscrapers. Thus, they have little interest in maintaining or tenanting their buildings. The result is under-utilized or vacant buildings whose facades continue to crumble. Despite the Downtown Partnership’s efforts to power-wash streets and alleys, buildings allowed to fall into disrepair, inhabited only by bats and squatters, make our historic buildings into eyesores. Ideally, the city’s code enforcement division would issue stiff fines to property owners who allow their buildings to fall into disrepair, in order to prevent demolition by neglect. Unfortunately, the city of Sacramento is also one of the guilty parties, and one of the strongest believers in the Skyscraper Fairy. City-owned properties currently sit vacant, awaiting their own savior in the form of a deep-pocketed developer who will brush aside the old building and provide badly-needed money to build something else. Given K Street’s current state, this is unlikely—the only propositions so far are dependent on generous subsidies from the city of Sacramento. Until both the city and K Street property owners can be dispelled of their belief in the magical skyscraper fairy, their properties will continue to rot.

2. It’s time to leave the shopping mall in the past.

K Street was a bustling place until the 1950s, when most of Sacramento’s population moved out of the central city, the residential neighborhoods adjacent to downtown Sacramento were demolished, and the city streetcar system was replaced by highways and automobiles. Suburban malls were closer to the new suburban neighborhoods and had plentiful parking, while K Street was far away and none of the stores had parking lots. The K Street pedestrian mall of the 1960s and 1970s was a desperate move to woo suburban shoppers by simulating a suburban mall, including demolition of nearby buildings to provide parking. But the suburban malls were still more convenient, and their parking lots bigger and more obvious, so K Street’s rebirth as a mall of the 1970s failed. A 1990s re-vamp that enclosed the section from 4th to 7th Street has become another failure, due to its failure to move beyond the idea of a suburban mall downtown.

A new generation of city planners has noted that shopping centers of the 2000s look a lot like old downtowns, with stores that copy historic styles and a mixture of pedestrian paths and driveways. These planners have decided that this is the future of K Street, and call for a return of cars to K Street so they can pretend K Street is a new suburban "power center," the 2010s equivalent of a shopping mall. But those suburban “power centers” are still closer to suburban shoppers, and their parking lots are still bigger. If K Street is simply opened to cars and its facades remodeled to emulate new suburban shopping centers in North Natomas, how can the result be any different from the last two attempts to disguise downtown Sacramento as a suburban mall?

3. Cars, no. Bikes, yes.

The simplest change to energize K Street will cost very little: permit bicycle riding on K Street. Bike riding is already on the rise, and the freedom to bike on K Street would turn it into the main cycling corridor of the central city, free from the vehicular mayhem of J and L Street. Provide a few bike racks so bike riders can stop and shop as well as ride through, and the numbers strolling past store windows will dramatically increase.

4. Shrink light rail to streetcar size.

Until the 1940s, K Street had transit in all sizes. On K Street itself, streetcars ran from the heart of downtown to Midtown, Southside and nearby suburbs like Land Park, Oak Park and East Sacramento. These cars were small, typically 30-40 feet long, about the size of a modern bus, and operated at speeds up to 25-30 miles per hour. Like a bus, they worked reasonably well with traffic, but because they had fixed rails they had a smoother ride and a predictable path, making them more comfortable for riders. Trains ran every ten minutes during the day, and “owl” runs carried late-night travelers all night.

On the corner of 8th and K Street, interurban trains ran in both directions. Passengers from Woodland, Chico, Stockton and even Oakland could hop on the train and get off on K Street. These trains were bigger, 60-80 feet long, and operated in trains as long as 6-8 cars. They were taller and wider than streetcars, and could reach 60-70 miles per hour going flat-out through the countryside. They ran on 8th Street because K Street was far too busy to handle the big trains.

Today, modern Light Rail trains are more like the interurbans than streetcars. With 80 foot long bodies and operating in four-car trains, they are not well-suited to playing the role of a streetcar. By through-routing Blue Line trains north via the upcoming 7th Street extension and connecting to North 12th Street via Richards Boulevard, light rail trains could bring passengers from Folsom, Rancho Cordova, South Sacramento and North Highlands to K Street without crowding pedestrians off the street.

Meanwhile, the streetcars can return to K Street. Some of Sacramento’s historic streetcars exist in unrestored condition in private collections, but modern streetcars offer amenities like air conditioning and ADA-accessible low-floor entryways. They can run on the existing K Street tracks while leaving more room for pedestrians and bikes. Using existing light rail lines and sharing their tracks, these streetcars can link nearby neighborhoods and connect with light rail. Extending streetcar lines into existing neighborhoods and new development areas costs less than one-third the price of light rail extensions and drives population density, economic investment and reduces the need for cars and parking. Run them until after 2:00 AM to give downtown visitors an option to leave their cars at home—especially if they plan on drinking.

5. Legalize street life.

This is another cheap and easy solution. Part of Second Saturday’s success is its prolific use of street music, performers, and vendors, but its monthly status creates a feast-or-famine condition. A permit program to allow music, performance and vending at any time means that visitors to K Street won’t need to check their calendars before going downtown. Street music and vending also gives local entertainers and small businesspeople a stepping stone to a retail storefront or a musical career. Musicians and vendors will promote activity, give walkers a reason to stick around, and attract visitors to enjoy the street life. This also does not rule out special street festivals and special events above and beyond the day-to-day activity, and maintaining K Street as a pedestrian walk maintains this valuable civic amenity for more public festivals. Both everyday street life and special events will draw visitors from within Sacramento, the surrounding region, and tourists from out of town.

6. Tours bring tourists.

Despite the demolition of the past few decades, K Street still retains a remarkable number of historic buildings, proud evidence of our architectural heritage in stone, terra cotta and concrete. Many cities use local tourism programs to bring visitors into the heart of the city, but to most visitors, Sacramento’s history ends at the edge of Old Sacramento. Efforts to alter this perception have been minimal. The Downtown Sacramento Partnership has a guided tour program, but it is minimally staffed, minimally funded, and minimally advertised. Downtown visitors looking for local history information are likely to come up empty-handed. Sacramento needs a full-strength tourism program worthy of a city with such a rich and diverse history. K Street, the walking street at the heart of the city, can be the center of such a tour program, with more tours branching out into nearby downtown streets and our architecturally rich residential neighborhoods. History tours appeal both to visiting tourists and to locals interested in learning more about their city's past.

On K Street, the potential star attraction of local tourism is right under your feet. Sacramento’s underground sidewalks, the result of a street-raising measure intended to keep the city above flood waters, run the length of K Street from the river to about 12th Street. Many are demolished, but enough material remains to allow a tour to weave in and out of underground sidewalk spaces, sunken alleys, basements, and even below-surface businesses. Combined with the dramatic story of the raised streets, and some entertaining and colorful stories from Sacramento’s history, the potential of an underground sidewalks tour is unlimited. In Seattle, local booster Bill Speidel turned a walk through clammy underground sidewalks in a notoriously bad part of town into a million-dollar tourist attraction that is known worldwide, drawing as many as 300,000 visitors a year and employing as many as 50 full-time staff. There is no reason that Sacramento can’t do the same.

7. Bring on the nightlife.

If a suburban mall isn’t the answer, what will bring suburban residents downtown? The answer is simple: Give them something the suburbs don’t have. Sacramento is best known for its quiet suburbs, the result of a decades-long whitewashing operation to conceal our party-animal past. The rowdy days of the Gold Rush, the proliferation of local breweries and wineries, our almost total refusal to acknowledge Prohibition, the legendary jazz and blues clubs of Sacramento’s West End, and even last year’s New Year’s Eve party (2,000 expected, 12,000 attended) burst through the “town where nothing happens” façade. It’s time to face the truth, and bring more nightlife down the length of K Street. This doesn’t just mean bars, it also means late-night restaurants, theaters, live music venues, dance clubs, movies, spas and salons, comedy clubs, coffee shops, and other imaginative options for entertainment. Cooperative parking agreements with state parking lots can provide tens of thousands of parking spaces, and better public transit can carry revelers home in safety.

8. Shop local, even if you’re from out of town.

The shopping-mall consultants are half right about K Street—it does need more than nightlife to survive. Daytime and early evening traffic means retail stores and services in between the state-employee lunch rush and the arrival of the dinner, drinks and dancing crowd. However, national chain stores are hesitant to expand, even if bribed into doing so. And again, suburban visitors won’t drive downtown to a store in their local mall. The answer is, again, to give them something the mall doesn’t have: unique, local stores. Local businesses keep money in the local economy, stimulate local employment and provide a unique character that chain stores simply can’t match. Encouraging local businesspeople to rent storefronts on K Street should be a city priority. Matched with neighborhood-serving retail like food markets, cleaners, drugstores and small department stores, locally-based retail on K Street should appeal to suburban shoppers, out-of-town visitors, and central city residents. As stores fill and crowds start to appear, instead of having to beg national chains to locate on K Street, they will appear on their own, smelling money to be made.

One idea we might lift from San Francisco: the much-adored Metreon, high-tech consumer wonderland, is falling on hard economic times, with many vacancies. Earlier this year, a full-time farmer’s market moved into the Metreon, and has already proved a popular destination. A permanent farmer’s market on K Street, instead of the current sporadic weekly markets, would provide fresh foods to a neighborhood where none are sold. Downtown workers, visitors and residents would all benefit from a convenient source for the Sacramento Valley’s agricultural bounty.

9. Living on K Street shouldn’t mean sleeping directly on it.

The destruction of the downtown neighborhoods near K Street was followed by the destruction of thousands of inexpensive rental rooms, commonly known as SRO hotels, where thousands of workers lived. As inexpensive housing disappeared, the poorest people did not. Out of necessity, they made their home on the streets. Many are still there, and as existing SRO stock is phased out of service and homeless services disappear, their numbers grow. They will not vanish and they will not simply move away, because they have nowhere to go and no alternative. The only way to reverse this trend is to replace the housing that was lost. This replacement housing need not be here on K Street, but it needs to be somewhere. Our only alternative is to accept the presence of people sleeping on the streets as an unalterable condition, and tell them that their suffering is necessary and unavoidable—or to simply remain in denial of the problem, which amounts to the same thing. As a people, as a city and as a nation, I think we are capable of better than that.

But it isn’t just the poorest that need housing in the central city. Housing for all income levels should be included in new development projects, but putting it into existing buildings would be even easier. Many formerly residential buildings were converted to office use in the 1960s and 1970s, so why not convert the abundance of vacant upper-story office space back into residential units? This housing should cross the economic spectrum: SRO units for the disabled and seniors, low-income units for service employees, workforce housing for office employees, and high-end, high-up housing for the high rollers. A truly urban life results when you can see all the way across the economic spectrum just walking down the street. That can’t happen unless the street has places for all of them to live, dine, work and shop. Again, not all of these places have to be directly on K Street, but they should be close enough to walk there in a few minutes. Restoration of residential buildings will preserve their architectural value, bring life back to the neighborhood, fill a great social need, and jobs restoring and maintaining the buildings will create more employment than comparable levels of new construction.

10. Have faith, be good, and the Skyscraper Fairy will come.

Part of the current mentality of property owners on K Street is based on outdated models of how downtown development should happen. For decades, cities were assumed to be teeming pits of an imaginary disease called “blight” that could only be cured with wrecking balls and a liberal application of public-funded redevelopment dollars, designed to push out “undesirable” tenants and solicit only the coveted suburban émigré to return to the central business district, and then only to spend money and leave, never to live. Today’s cities don’t work like that anymore. People want to live in cities because they want the amenities of urban life unavailable in the suburbs. If K Street can offer those amenities, not a sanitized Disneyland version and certainly not a copy of a suburban mall, they will grow interested in K Street. If they are interested, they will come to visit. If there are places to live, and things to see and do, they will want to move downtown. Once enough people have moved downtown that there is no longer room in existing buildings, and people feel safe and secure in neighborhoods that are well-maintained, high-rise developers who understand how cities work will look at K Street and see dollar signs. Instead of developers seeking handouts to build on K Street, they will come with money in hand where they think they can make even more.

And when they do, the Skyscraper Fairy will visit the property owners and civic leaders who took care of their buildings, who encouraged vitality and street life instead of a tax write-off, who promoted transit and walkability, and drew people back downtown to share in K Street’s uniqueness, character and history. She will shower them with money and riches and blessings, and cranes will rise on K Street, filling the gaps between the last century’s architectural gems with bright, tall new buildings. Yes, Sacramento, there is a Skyscraper Fairy, but she has very high standards.

William Burg is a board member of the Sacramento Old City Association. This story is a guest editorial opinion, and does not represent the opinion of Sacramento Press or its editors.

The State Archives to Offer Free Open House Saturday

2009-10-01T05:30:41Z

October marks Archives Month in most of the states in the union, and for the sixth consecutive year, California will be participating. To celebrate, the State Archives will be hosting an open house at 1020 O Street on Saturday, Oct. 3, starting at 4 p.m. and ending at 8:30 p.m.

Stephanie Hamashin, an archivist who will be working the event, spoke about what attendees can expect.

"The most important part of the exhibit will be both of California's constitutions," Hamashin said. "We haven't had the 1849 one on display in five years, and the one from 1879 is about the same. What is major is that both have never been shown simultaneously."

Due to the fragile nature of the documents, special lighting will be used to show them in their protective cases. A California Highway Patrol officer will guard the room. Both are written on animal hide, allegedly from goat, according to Hamashin.

"Our archivists will be here to answer questions about the artifacts and documents," Hamashin said. "They include students, interns and actual archivists."

Twelve organizations will be at the archives showing pieces from their collections.

"People from repositories like the Society of California Archivists, U.C. Davis and Sac State will be there," Hamashin said.

Hamashin said an added bonus is that anyone interested can get a behind-the-scenes tour where they will see where the documents are stored and how the displays are cared for.

"Dr. Thomas Clark, who is a professor at Sac State, will speak about the history of the constitutions at 5:45 p.m.," Hamashin said. "They are vital documents to our history because they represent the birth of the state itself."

Oct. 10 will see another major event for the archives, Family History Day.

"That day we will be showing people how to do research about their lineage and genealogy from 8:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.," said Hamashin. "Both of these Saturdays are the biggest exhibits of the year for us."

Entrance to the State Archives is free on both days, as is parking around the building. More information on the archives can be found here. You can also call the archives at (916) 653-7715.

Old City Cemetery Tour and SCHS Fall Social

2009-09-24T06:45:43Z

The Sacramento County Historical Society presents its Fall Social & Barbecue Under the Stars in the Old City Cemetery

When:
Saturday, September 26, 2009 5:30 PM - 10:00 PM
Where:
Sacramento Old City Cemetery, 1000 Broadway

Sacramento's city cemetery was established in 1849 with a donation of 10 acres of high ground by John Sutter. Among its first internments were the victims of Sacramento's 1850 cholera epidemic. Some notable residents of the old city cemetery are city founder John Sutter Jr., our first mayor Hardin Bigelow, and Central Pacific founder Mark Hopkins. Thousands of other Sacramentants inhabit the cemtery, from all walks of life. Tour guides will introduce you to some of the cemetery's fascinating inhabitants, and explain some of the history of the cemetery, on two guided tours through the property. Bring a flashlight!

The evening will also feature musical performances by Agent Ribbons, Dead Western and The Freebadge Serenaders.

Admission for non-SCHS members is $10, FREE for SCHS members.
Dinner is an additional $15 for members or non-members; there is limited availability for dinners, please ask at the front gate.
Menu is BBQ brisket and chicken (veggie burgers on request), potato salad, cornbread, beans, coleslaw, soda and cookies, provided by JR's Texas BBQ.

The event will take place inside the Old City Cemetery; please park in the parking lot across the street near 10th & Broadway, as the cemetery's main gates will be closed by the time the event lets out and cars parked inside will not be able to exit! Gates will close at 6:30 PM so please arrive promptly.

This event is open to all ages.

Funds from this event will benefit the Sacramento County Historical Society (a registered 501(c)3 nonprofit) and the Sacramento Old City Cemetery Committee. For more information about the Old City Cemetery Committee, visit www.oldcitycemetery.com and for more information about SCHS, visit www.sachistoricalsociety.org

Note: This is not the same tour as the popular Lantern Tours given by the Old City Cemetery Committee in October. That tour is already sold out, so if you want the chance to experience the Old City Cemetery after dark, this is your opportunity!

Disclosure: William Burg is President of the Sacramento County Historical Society.

Sacramento Historic Bike Ride: Southside Park

2009-08-27T21:27:37Z

This summer, a group of Sacramento State graduate students and local history enthusiasts began gathering once a month to take a bike ride through Sacramento's historic neighborhoods and share their knowledge about local history, historic architecture and cultural heritage. Two rides have occurred so far. The next will take place on Sunday, August 30, at 9:00 AM, in the Southside Park neighborhood. Riders will meet at the site of the Robert E. Callahan Bandstand in Southside Park, near the corner of 7th and T Street, at 9:00 AM.

Built on a former slough, Southside was inhabited by generations of immigrants and working-class families. The neighborhood's many ethnic communities, including Portuguese, Italian, Mexican and Japanese, came together in Southside Park, the neighborhood's namesake. Whether for fireworks displays on the Fourth of July, for a trip back to Gold Rush days at Roaring Camp, or simply to paddle the lake in a rented boat, Southside Park provided a place of respite and recreation in this bustling city. The neighborhood surrounding the park faced many challenges as Sacramento grew, but its residents faced these challenges with a tradition of political activism, community participation, and a strong sense of civic pride that is still evident today.

The Sacramento Historic Bike Ride is a free-form event: riders will decide where the tour should go. There are several sites I hope to visit in order to tell the story of the Southside neighborhood's diverse history, culture and development, but there is plenty of room for everyone's participation. If you have a story about the neighborhood, a historic site, a significant person, or a good story, please feel free to share it! The tour will run until about 11:00 AM. There is no cost to participate in the tour.

For those that may be interested, I will bring copies of my books, Sacramento's Southside Park and Sacramento's Streetcars, for sale at $20 each, and will happily sign them for you.

Got a bike? Take a tour!

2009-08-08T17:37:35Z

We have alot of history here in Sacramento -- so much that it might seem daunting to narrow it to a manageble list. Here is an attempt to do just that: seven "must see" places you can pedal to in about the time it takes to sit and watch a movie.

1. The State Capitol
Following less-than-satisfactory assemblies of the state Legislature in San Jose, Vallejo and Benicia, Sacramentans successfully bid to make their city the permanent site for such high-level meetings. Ground was broken in 1860 and the neo-classical dome of the California Capitol was completed in 1874. The lower level is made of granite quarried in Folsom; the upper levels are made of brick plastered and painted to look like granite. An extension to house the expanding bureaucracy was added on the east side in 1952.

2. Capitol Ave (M Street) Victorians
The Reign of Queen Victoria (1837 – 1901) helped define a stately and ornate style of architecture in the US, including Sacramento. Capitol Avenue features some of the city’s finest examples of high-water Victorian homes, where the first floor is often elevated above street level due to a fear of flooding. A variety of architectural styles can be found including Arts and Crafts, Mission, Dutch Colonial, American Colonial and modern shoebox.

3. Sutter’s Fort and Indian Museum
John Sutter arrived at the confluence of the Sacramento and American Rivers in 1839 and established his headquarters on high-ground about a mile inland. In 1840 he began construction of his fort using indigenous labor and old world technologies. By 1849 his New Helvetia venture was humming along and he had earned an excellent reputation as an organized and industrious leader and a warm and generous host. But the unintended consequence of discovering gold while setting up a lumber operation soon made his New Helvetia venture untenable as hordes of gold seekers rushed to the area and disrupted his business operations.

4. K Street and the Cathedral
K street has been, until recently, the major business district of the city. It’s revitalization is part of city hall’s redevelopment plan. On the other side of the popularity spectrum is The Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament which has been seeing a resurgence in mass attendance as attested to by an overflow of parishioners at Sunday services. This is the city’s primary Cathedral since its construction in1887.

5. The Southern Pacific Train Depot
Constructed in 1925 at a time when transportation hubs were visible symbols of progress and celebrated public structures, the expansive scale of this cathedral-like terminal of the Southern Pacific Railroad is inspiring. No less impressive is the mural on the east wall depicting the Sacramento terminus of the transcontinental railroad at its inception. The terminal has been an Amtrak station since 1971 when Amtrak was created.

6. Old Sacramento
During the Gold Rush, the Sacramento river front was a bustle of activity as adventurers from around the world disembarked here making their way to the Sierra Nevada gold fields in search of fortunes. Sutter’s Fort was all but abandoned at this time and it was John Sutter Jr – the Captain’s son – along with engineer William H. Warner who was responsible for laying out the grid of streets which comprise the current city. Sacramento was an immediate success and became California’s first incorporated city in 1850. It evolved into a commercial center and a nexus for various modes of transport including steam ships, wagon trains, carriages, stagecoaches, trains, the Pony Express.

Gradually the surface lying placer gold was exhausted and extracting valuable ore required more sophisticated techniques; mining companies replaced the colorful forty-niner and settled in for the long-haul. Waterfront activity subsided and more permanent businesses were established pushing the commercial center east – primarily along K Street; the waterfront became a skid row.

Plans to revitalize it emerged in the mid 1960’s and the result was the West’s first historic district. Today this 28 acre Gold Rush time capsule has 53 historic buildings, cobble-stone streets, a genuine paddle-wheel steamer, horse-drawn carriages, a steam-powered train, a railroad museum and an annual historic festival complete with Pony Express reenactments. Old Sacramento is a registered National and California Historic Landmark.

7. The Leland Stanford Mansion
Located on N Street about midway between the Crocker mansion and the new State Capitol sits the Leland Stanford mansion—its most famous resident, not its original builder. Stanford, a lawyer by training, found success during the Gold Rush in the mercantile business and became even more influential as one of “The Big Four” who managed the construction of the Central Pacific Railroad – the western half of the transcontinental railroad. From 1862-1863 when Stanford was Governor, his magnificent French Second Empire mansion housed the state’s executive offices while the Capitol was under construction. He was also a US Senator from 1885-1893 and founded Stanford University in honor of his fifteen year old son who passed away unexpectedly. The mansion was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1987.

Don't have a bike? Don't want to pedal? Velocab will pedal for you ... and here comes the full disclosure part: I am a downtown denizen and owner of Sacramento Valley Velocab. Give us a call for a tour Fri, Sat, Sun 10am - 6pm c.916-265-8640 or 916-498-9980

Underground Sidewalks Update at Preservation Commission Meeting

2009-08-03T18:05:16Z

This Wednesday, August 5, Sacramento's Preservation Commission will hear an update on the "Underground Sidewalks" survey project. This survey has explored much of Sacramento's surviving underground sidewalk structures, and is preparing a detailed report on their current condition and historic context. An earlier meeting, held in March, outlined what the survey would do(sacramentopress.com/headline/5128/City_Will_Survey_Underground_Sidewalks) and this meeting will present the initial findings of the survey team and report their progress. The final report on the underground sidewalks should be completed by September of this year.

The meeting will be held at Sacramento's City Hall, 915 I Street, in the City Council chambers on the first floor. The meeting starts at 5:30 PM and the Underground Sidewalks survey will be the first of several staff reports presented at the meeting.

A complete agenda of the Preservation Commission meeting can be found here:

www.cityofsacramento.org/dsd/meetings/commissions/preservation/2008/PC_Agenda_8-05-09.cfm

Sacramento's underground sidewalks are a side effect of a massive street-raising project, executed from the 1850s to the 1870s and intended to keep downtown Sacramento above water during the region's frequent floods. Brick walls about 12 feet high were built at the street edge and filled with dirt, but the spaces between the buildings and the street were left open, and were the building owner's responsibility to cover and fill. Over the past 130 years, many of these spaces have been filled in or demolished by subsequent development, construction and sidewalk repair.

This survey, funded by a local nonprofit and a matching state grant, is intended to document all of the surviving "Underground Sidewalk" spaces in downtown Sacramento and research the methods used to build these structures. The survey will have many potential uses, possibly including the creation of a historic district, or facilitating an "Underground Sidewalks Tour" program similar to that found in Seattle and other cities. The public will have an opportunity to ask questions and provide comments to the Preservation Commission and the consultants conducting the survey.

The City Preservation Commission was created by the City Council. Its powers and duties include: to develop and recommend to the City Council preservation policies appropriate for inclusion in the General Plan and other regulatory plans and programs of the City and to provide oversight relative to the maintenance and integrity of the Sacramento Register of Historic and Cultural Resources; to review, nominate, and make recommendations to the City Council on properties eligible for listing in the Sacramento Register as Landmarks, Historic Districts and Contributing Resources as set forth in the Historic Preservation Chapter, Title 17, Chapter 17.134, of the City Code; to review and approve preservation development projects of major significance and appeals of Preservation Director decisions per the Historic Preservation Chapter, Title 17, Chapter 17.134, of the City Code.

Meeting location: New City Hall
915 I Street- 1st Floor, Council Chambers
August 5, 2009 - 5:30 P.M.

Rice Exports Soar At Port Of West Sacramento

2009-07-15T16:34:56Z

In May of 2009, The Cunningham Report stated that while container volumes are plummeting at West Coast ports, the Port of West Sacramento - which does not have container facilities - is enjoying a bumper year for rice exports.

Port Manager Mike Luken said that the port is enjoying its best year for bagged rice exports in 15 years. This year, the port expects to export some 339,000 metric tons of bagged rice, which is about double what the port usually handles during the fall-to-fall rice export season.

The rice is moving primarily to Japan and Korea, where demand increased significantly this season.

Kirk Messick, vice president of Sacramento-based Farmers Rice, says the Korean demand stems from an agreement with the World Trade Organization that requires Korea to increase its imports of U.S. rice each year.

The increased demand from Japan is attributed to several factors- including a lack of rice available from China and Egypt following a perceived shortage of rice in those countries.

Harbor Boulevard Interchange Improvements

2009-07-15T16:25:27Z

Caltrans and the City of West Sacramento have jointly announced that on July 29, 2009, Caltrans will begin construction on improvements to the Harbor Boulevard interchange that crosses U.S. Highway 50 in West Sacramento.

The scope of the project includes new alignment and realignment of the freeway ramp access, widening of the roadways, removal of pavement, and overcrossing structure work.

The project is designed to accommodate increases in traffic activity on the Harbor Boulevard interchange.

An information open house will be held in room 157 of the West Sacramento City Hall, 1110 West Capitol Ave., on Monday, July 27, between 3 p.m. and 7 p.m., and the admission is free.

Caltrans staff and City representatives will be on hand to discuss the potential traffic interference, like lane restrictions, speed controls, access, and how you can plan to avoid congestion during construction.

City To Demolish Landmark "Bel-Vue" Building

2009-07-03T21:28:18Z

The city of Sacramento has announced its plans to demolish the Bel-Vue Apartments, a registered city landmark, in order to clear land on 8th Street for a potential future parking structure.

Located adjacent to the now-vacant corner of 8th and K Street, the Bel-Vue was built in 1910 as the American Cash Apartments. Built in the Craftsman style with Asian overtones, the three-story brick building contains apartments above a commercial ground floor. When the Bel-Vue was built, it was one of many downtown apartment buildings. If it was built today, the Bel-Vue would be described as a mixed-use, transit-oriented infill project. The building is currently owned by the city of Sacramento’s housing and redevelopment agency, the result of a complex land exchange between Mohammed “Mo” Mohanna, Z Gallerie owner Joe Zeiden, and the city of Sacramento. This land exchange was part of the currently stalled plans to rehabilitate the 700 block of K Street.

The city’s plan is to prepare an Environmental Impact Report (EIR) containing two possible alternatives for buildings to be built on the site, and then demolish the existing buildings. One alternative is a pair of residential towers 300 feet high, running from K Street to L Street along 8th, originally proposed by former owner Mohanna and developers John Saca (of the failed 301 Capitol Mall project) and John Lambeth. The other alternative is a 300 foot hotel tower at the corner of 8th and K, currently vacant, and a six-story parking structure on the site of the Bel-Vue and the other buildings at the corner of 8th and L. There is no developer or investor specified in the EIR notice of preparation; the city of Sacramento plans to create the EIR and demolish the Bel-Vue and nearby buildings on speculation, in case a developer appears who is interested in constructing the buildings the city has proposed for the site.

When the city of Sacramento acquired the Bel-Vue building and its neighbors, it was an occupied apartment building with several retail tenants on the ground floor. There were also commercial tenants in the adjacent buildings, and apartments above most of those buildings. The city of Sacramento evicted the residents, and today only one retail establishment, a Chinese restaurant, occupies the Bel-Vue, aside from a parking garage in one of the buildings facing L Street.

All of the buildings on the site have a role in local history. 815 L Street, constructed in 1915, was most recently the site of a nightclub of the same name. In 1957, the site was one of the original Sam’s Hof Brau locations. The side of the building, invisible from the street, still bears a painted mural advertising Sam’s. La Rosa, an Italian restaurant opened in 1927, occupied the site before the Hof Brau. On the corner of 8th and L is the Feldhusen Building, a two-story building with ground floor retail and residences upstairs. It was built in 1895 and remodeled in 1954. It was home to many businesses including grocery stores, dressmakers, and the Diamond Club Tavern card room.
Buildings like the Bel-Vue were once commonplace in Sacramento, but over the years they have become very rare.

Today, some developers seek out historic buildings for residential projects, converting them into modern apartments or condominiums. Local companies like D&S Development (http://www.dandsdev.com) have completed projects like the Old Sacramento iLofts and 1409 R, and are now restoring the historic Maydestone Apartments at 16th & J Street. Architect Mike Malinowski, contractor Bruce Booher and CFY Development helped convert the Globe Mills grain mill complex into unique residential lofts. At the Railyards, developer Thomas Enterprises will make the historic Southern Pacific shops buildings the focal point of a new downtown neighborhood. Other adaptive reuse projects like the Citizen Hotel, MARRS, the Cosmopolitan and the Firestone Building show how vacant historic buildings can be made into exciting, unique urban destinations. Projects like these are often more popular than newly-built projects because they offer one-of-a-kind places to live, work and play in an urban setting. They appeal to those who want to be close to the action of the central city and their downtown workplaces, or just like the unique character of historic buildings. Instead of demolishing the Bel-Vue, the building could easily be repaired and returned to its role as a place to live, with businesses on the street to serve downtown’s residents. Restoration of historic buildings is also a greener option than new construction, as it needs far fewer building materials and requires far less landfill space (where the demolished building’s components would end up.) If sales of recent projects like the 1409 R lofts (opened in April and already two-thirds sold) are any indication, these projects are popular even in slow economic markets, while urban infill projects in new buildings are far less successful. Historic buildings can also qualify for tax credits and other incentives that can make rehabilitation cheaper than demolition and new construction. In the right hands, the Bel-Vue could be a gorgeous, attainable new home for Sacramento’s residents for another hundred years.

In recent years, the city of Sacramento has seen many proposed projects fail to materialize. The failure of projects like John Saca’s 301 Capitol Mall towers at 3rd and Capitol resulted in ugly, gaping pits in our city’s urban fabric. Projects like the 700/800 block, bogged down by unexpected resistance and a poor economy, sit languishing, waiting for a better plan to appear. Projects that encourage the demolition of landmarks encourage speculators to allow their historic downtown properties to sit vacant, deteriorating for years or even decades, with the hope of an eventual skyscraper-shaped payoff that may never arrive. More forward-thinking developers could turn the same buildings into Sacramento's urban showpieces.

No developer or investor has been named by the city to actually build this project or pay for it, and even if a developer and/or investor does arrive, if they want to make significant changes to the plan they would need to complete a new environmental document, making this effort worthless. The sacrifice of one of Sacramento’s irreplaceable historic buildings would be for nothing. And even if the city’s long shot is successful, and a developer does build the project, we will lose a historic landmark and a quarter-block of potentially useful buildings for a six-story parking garage in a neighborhood with many underutilized parking garages.

To give public comment about this issue, contact Jennifer Hageman of the City of Sacramento’s Community Development Department at jhageman@cityofsacramento.org or (916)808-5538. Written comments should be sent to Jennifer Hageman, City of Sacramento Community Development Department, 300 Richards Boulevard, Sacramento, CA 95811. Comments are due before 4:00 PM on July 27, 2009.

Surf's up for California Auto Museum exhibit

2009-07-01T06:06:27Z

The California Auto Museum (formerly the Towe Auto Museum) couldn't have chosen a better time to unveil their Carved Elegance: Woodies, Wheels, and Waves auto exhibit.

With summer well underway, it's the perfect time to check out the exhibit which features a collection of wooden automobiles, also called "Woodies," reminiscent of California summer days spent surfing and lounging on the beach.

Today Woodies are prized pieces in car collections and are famous for the exquisite craftsmanship on the wooden panels of the cars. The cars were the ideal mode of transportation for surfers who could tow their boards on top of the them.

The surf culture-themed exhibit opens Thursday, July 2 and the museum has an entire celebration planned surrounding the unveiling of the Woodies. Different variations of the wooden cars from the 1930s to the 1960s will fill the museum's special exhibit.

To complement the retro-surf theme, vintage surfboards and classic arts will be put up for the duration of the showing. The museum will also be playing popular surf movies like Endless Summer and Big Wednesday.

In addition to the cars, surf rock band The Retronauts will be performing at 6 p.m., and the Model P Popcorn Wagon will be serving freshly popped kernels. Woody's Bar and Grill will be providing food samples, and ice cream will also be available at the museum's ice cream parlor, Vic's, a 1950s-style shop.

Thursday's reception will be held from 6 to 9 p.m. Regular hours from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. will continue throughout the rest of the exhibit which will be on display until September 19.

Entrance into the exhibit is $8 for adults, $7 for seniors and $4 for students with an ID. Children under five are free. The auto museum boasts 72,000 square feet of automobiles throughout the decade and those who attend the exhibit can visit the museum's other displays also.

The California Auto Museum is located at 2200 Front St.

For more information about the reception and background on the history of Woodies, visit calautomuseum.org.

Image from beachcalifornia.com

Poetry, a film opening and a writing contest: literary Sacramento this week

2009-06-29T17:09:09Z

This is a great week for book-minded Sacramentans, with plenty of literary events taking place in libraries, movie theaters, community centers and museums. Read on.

Monday, June 29, 7:30 p.m. Poetry reading -- Dorine Jennette and Valerie Fioravanti. Sacramento Poetry Center. Hosted by Frank Graham Dixon. Davis resident Jennette has published poems, essays, and reviews in The Journal, Ninth Letter, Coconut, Court Green, Memorious, Puerto del Sol, and the Georgia Review. She has a poetry collection, Grace by Degrees, coming out in 2010. Valerie Fioravanti writes fiction, essays, and prose poems. Her story collection, The Brooklyn Shuffle, was a finalist for the Tartt First Book Award. Her stories have appeared in North American Review, Cimarron Review, Hunger Mountain, and Green Mountains Review, among others. Her stories and prose poems have earned four Pushcart Prize nominations, and special mention in Pushcart Prize XXVIII. She received a Fulbright Fellowship (Italy) to research her novel, Bel Casino, which is one of two novels currently in the works. She teaches short story and multi-genre classes online for the UCLA Writers' Extension and private workshops from her home in midtown Sacramento. She has also taught writing for New Mexico State University and National University's MFA Program. Free event. Sacramento Poetry Center, 1719 25th Street, Sacramento 95816, (916) 979-9706.

Tuesday, June 30 (and ongoing through 8/1), Focus on Writers contest. Sacramento Public Library. Spend your Tuesday looking into the rules for the contest and choosing what you’d like to submit. California writers are invited to enter entries for a chance to win $250 for first prize, $150 for second prize and $75 for third prize in six categories. For information about the categories, visit www.saclibraryfriends.org. Contest entries must be postmarked by 8/1.

Wednesday, July 1-August 19, once/week, 6:30-9:00 p.m., Research and Interviewing Techniques for Nonfiction Writers, U.C. Davis Extension. Elisabeth Sherwin will lead this eight week course for students who want to learn how to gather information and track down interview sources in preparation for publishing. Students will explore many forms of nonfiction writing and learn how to tailor their work to the market. $325.00 tuition. Sutter Square Galleria, 2901 K St, Sacramento.

Thursday, July 2, 8 p.m. Joe Montoya’s Poetry Unplugged. Luna’s Cafe. There will be an open mic, before and after guest hosts Frank Andrick, Mario Ellis Hill, Geoffery Neil & B.L. Kennedy. Two dollar cover fee or one drink minimum. Luna’s Café, 1414 16th Street, Sacramento 95814, (916) 441-3931.

Friday, July 3, 8:00 p.m. Special screening of Food Inc., followed by panel discussion. Crest Theater.Pesticide Watch Education Fund will host a special opening-night screening of Robert Kenner’s red-hot film Food, Inc. Following the film, chefs, academics and activists will participate in a lively discussion on how the region, state and country can tackle the challenges facing farms and the food system. Food Inc, said to be the next Inconvenient Truth, features interviews with authors Eric Schlosser (Fast Food Nation) and Michael Pollan (The Omnivore's Dilemma and In Defense of Food). Pollan spoke this summer at a sold-out California Lectures event and Eric Schlosser is scheduled to speak through California Lectures' 2009-2010 season. The Arden Dimick Library open book group will read In Defense of Food this fall. Tickets for this special screening are $12 and they are on sale now at tickets.com, Crest box office, or by calling 1-800-225-2277.

Saturday, July 4, 10:30 a.m., Teen Advisory Council meeting. Rancho Cordova Library. Join the teen library council, which meets the first Saturday of each month. Help plan and run programs for the library. Advise on books, music and DVD choices and programs. Receive community service credit. Rancho Cordova Library, 9845 Folsom Blvd, Sacramento 95827, (916) 264-2770.

Sunday, July 5, 12:00-5:00 p.m. With Malice Toward None: Abraham Lincoln exhibit. The California Museum. Celebrate Independence Day weekend by visiting this Library of Congress exhibit commemorating Lincoln’s two hundredth birthday. It charts Lincoln’s growth from politician to statesman, addressing his presidency’s controversies, including challenges to civil liberties and the Constitution, slavery and race, and the dissolution of the Union and the Civil War. Exhibit continues through August 22. $8.50 for adults, $7.00 for seniors (65+) and college students, $6.00 for youths aged 6-13 and free for children 5 and younger. California Museum, 1020 O Street, Sacramento 95814, (916) 653-7524.

SCHS Presents: Sacramento Rock & Radio Museum Tour

2009-06-22T20:00:52Z

The Sacramento County Historical Society Presents:

Rock and Radio Museum
Tour & Talk

With Dennis Newhall and Mick Martin

Tuesday, June 23, 2009, 7:00 PM

907 20th St., Sacramento (between I & J streets)

Longtime media producer and onetime KZAP disc jockey Dennis Newhall and KXJZ "Blues Party" radio show host Mick Martin will reminisce about rock for SCHS at the newly reopened Rock and Radio Museum. The museum is on the site of Sacramento's 1980s rock nightclub, the Oasis Ballroom.

Begun 10 years ago as a display of Newhall's collection of rock music memorabilia from the 1950s to the present , the collection has grown to over 2500 pieces and an informal museum. It is normally open to the public only during Sacramento's Second Saturday art walks.
When the Nakamoto studio relocated last fall, the museum shut down. However the Tucker Media Group (audio and video production) moved in this spring, and invited Newhall to re-hang the collection.

The museum reopened this month for Second Saturday. But the opportunity for a private viewing with Newhall and Martin is special.

Admission is free and all ages are welcome to attend.

For more information about the Sacramento County Historical Society:

http://www.sachistoricalsociety.org

Sacramento Preservation Roundtable, Saturday June 13

2009-06-12T16:52:11Z

Sacramento's Preservation Roundtable is a quarterly gathering of local history and historic preservation organizations, intended to share current information on local preservation topics, public policy, events, and plans in progress. Everyone is welcome to attend.

Preservation Roundtable - Saturday June 13th
9:00am to Noon at the Young Ladies Institute – 27th & N Sts. (1400 27th Street)
Continental Breakfast * $5 donation

6/13/09 AGENDA:

9:00 Welcome & Introductions
9:10 Preservation Issues & Updates:
- CA State RR Museum Foundation - Kathy Daigle
- Capitol Dist. State Museum & Historic Parks-Pati Brown
- DOC (Devel. Oversight Committee) update
- City Preservation Office - Roberta Deering
– Hwy 50 HOV lane –Kathleen Green & Karen Jacques
– Minimum Maintenance for Historic Structures – Tim Brandt Preservation Commission Chair
- Capitol City Preservation Trust Awards –Kay Knepprath & Fred Turner
- Sacramento City School District’s Bldgs. on the block-i.e.-Jefferson School at 18th & N Sts.

10:30 Speakers – Budget Impacts on Historic Preservation –David Kwong and Roberta Deering-Questions & Answer session

11:50 Announcements
12:00 ADJOURN

Sponsored by:
Page & Turnbull, Architects & SOCA (Sacramento Old City Association)

Next Preservation Roundtable meeting is Saturday, Sept. 12, 2009 at the School House in Old Sacramento

Local author speaks on history of religion in Sacramento

2009-06-11T16:24:39Z

City of Man, City of God:
The Catholic Church and the Shaping of Sacramento

On Friday, June 12, 2009, SAMCC will unveil a new photographic exhibit, City of Man, City of God: The Catholic Church and the Shaping of Sacramento. The exhibit depicts the role that people of faith played in shaping Sacramento’s urban agenda, from the 1850s to today. The evening will include an address by Dr. Steven M. Avella on his recently released book, Sacramento and the Catholic Church: Shaping a Capital City. The event is free and open to the public. It begins at 7:00 p.m. at SAMCC, 551 Sequoia Pacific Blvd, Sacramento.

The Catholic Church, present in Sacramento from the city’s beginnings, has had an important influence on Sacramento’s culture and development. Yet the character of Catholic life has also been shaped by the city’s diverse social, cultural, and political makeup. The exhibit and lecture will examine the interplay between the city and one community of faith in the creation of Sacramento’s urban agenda. Topics discussed include the geography of the Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament, the early struggle of assimilation by various ethnic groups, and the conflict between religious and secular forces over caring for the hungry and homeless. The evening is not a history of the Diocese of Sacramento, rather a look at Sacramento as a case study of the role a religious denomination played in the development of an American western city.

Dr. Steven M. Avella grew up in Sacramento and has written prodigiously about his hometown. Avella is the author of two recent books on Sacramento, The Good Life: Sacramento’s Consumer Culture and Sacramento: Indomitable City. He is on the faculty of Marquette University, where he teaches courses on religion and American life. He is currently engaged in writing a biography of Charles K. McClatchy, a former editor of the Sacramento Bee. Dr. Avella will sign copies of his book, which will be available for purchase that evening.

For more information please call (916) 264-7072 or visit the SAMCC website at www.cityofsacramento.org/ccl/history/index.html