Local historian, author and preservation buff William Burg was appointed Tuesday to the Sacramento Heritage, Inc. Board of Directors – an organization dedicated to preserving and promoting the rich history of Sacramento. It comes as no surprise that Burg should be interested in the position: With three published local history books under his belt, a degree in public history from Sacramento State and years on the boards of both the Sacramento County Historical Society and the Sacramento Old City Association – history is what Burg is all about. “Public history is for historians who do things other than teach,” Burg said Monday. “It’s for historians working in museums, archivists – anyone i

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 north

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 o

This Wednesday, March 2, the City of Sacramento's Preservation Commission will review and comment on plans for the 800 block of K Street. This plan follows the February review and comment for the 700 block of K Street, (a project of D&S Development and CFY Development) by the Preservation Commission, later presented to Design and Planning Commission. City of Sacramento Preservation Commission Wednesday, March 2, 5:30 PM, City Council Chambers, New City Hall, 915 I Street, Sacramento Agenda for the Preservation Commission meeting can be found here: http://sacramento.granicus.com/AgendaViewer.php?view_id=21&event_id=144   This project, selected last summer as one of two projects for the

When the Zelda Stone Quarry closed its doors in 1931, it left behind two enduring legacies in East Sacramento: East Portal Park and the “stone sisters” houses. Peppered through East Sacramento are craftsman bungalows built with large cinder blocks and granite. The cinder blocks are composed of stone excavated over the years from the East Portal pit. Most of these houses were built in the aughts of the last century, and the homes are easy to recognize. They tend to be squarish, have small rooms and the exteriors have rough-hewn, chiseled and buffed blocks. Many of these houses also have granite in the construction and exquisite interior detailing. Longtime residents of East Sacramento see

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

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 perform

Applause filled The Crest Theatre Thursday night when a scene from the documentary “The Next American Dream” displayed an enormous tractor claw demolishing a freeway overpass. The scene symbolized an end to urban sprawl, its destructive effects on nature and its seeming lack of forethought in urban planning. No one specific group, organization or political party took responsibility for the showing of the film. Instead, it was communicated to the audience that the film was being brought to the Crest by a group of people who call Sacramento home. Dustin Littrell, a local architect and designer, ambiguously revealed that the idea for showing the film in Sacramento began among “a group of ca

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 b

Disclaimer: This article is my opinion, given as a central city resident and board member of the Sacramento Old City Association. I am not an employee of any of the firms involved, nor the city of Sacramento. I am enthusiastic about this project because it represents the best combination of historic preservation, new development, downtown infill, fiscal responsibility, and promotion of local business, culture, and heritage. In December 2009, the city of Sacramento asked local developers for plans to revitalize the 700 and 800 blocks of K Street. The project area occupies about one city block, around 2.5 acres, on two half-block lots. Four teams submitted proposals, and a five-member commi

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

Today's Conservation of Public Art Walkabout showed art in public places that have deteriorated via nature and the elements, as well as actions by humans, over time. Sharon Kilgore, a volunteer with the Sacramento Metropolitan Arts Commission, described how the ceramic tiles on a wall art by Peter Vandenberge displayed at  the Downtown Plaza-Westfield Shoppping Mall-shows signs of degradation; cracks, grount missing and colors changing. The untitled art wall of glazed tiles was installed in 1977.   The Clock Tower created by R.M. Fischer from New York was installed in 1993. This towering art piece is a mixed media high-voltage tower adorned with floating planets, a clock forever frozen

On Monday, March 22, the city of Sacramento will host presentations by the four development groups interested in building a project on the 700 and 800 blocks of K Street. This meeting will be held at Old City Hall, 915 I Street, in the 2nd floor hearing room, at 5:30 PM. The four groups who responded to the Request for Qualifications (RFQ) include: * Bridge Housing, Saca Development and Bagatelos Development They propose 360 units of housing, a renovated Bel-Vue, 48,000 square feet of office not on Agency property, and 33,000 square feet of retail. * David Taylor, CIM Development, Domus, and Zeiden Properties They propose 110 housing units, including a renovated Bel-Vue, 60,000 square

This Tuesday the City Council will recommend the preservation and restoration of the Fred Mayes Jewelers' Street Clock at the corner of 10th and J Street. With the efforts of both Greig Best (an interested citizen), the City's Historic Places Grant Program, Council Member Tretheway's office, and the Redevelopment Agency, designated funds will be used to restore this City designated Landmark. Its ownership will also be formally transferred to the City through the Department of Transportation since the street clock is located within the public right-of-way. The clock will be restored to the style as modified while at its' original K Street location by Tom Monk (the neon ring addition) befor

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 partici

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

On Sunday, September 20, the Sacramento Old City Association will hold its 34th annual historic home tour in the Boulevard Park neighborhood. Tour hours are from 10:00 AM until 4:00 PM. The SOCA Home Tour is an annual event, and the main fundraiser for the Sacramento Old City Association. This home tour includes an inside look at eight restored historic homes in Boulevard Park. Tour visitors can walk through each of the homes on the tour to see how the workmanship of historic homes is often as beautiful on the inside as the outside. The Home Tour also includes a street fair, including artisans and craftspersons specializing in historic home repair and restoration, local artists, crafters

On Tuesday, August 25, the Sacramento City Council will hear a proposal by developers Bob Leach and Parkcrest Development to build a hotel at the corner of 8th and K Street and a parking structure at the corner of 8th and L Street, a project that would require demolition of city landmark the Bel-Vue Apartments and adjacent buildings. The meeting will be held at New City Hall, 915 I Street, at 6:00 PM in the main City Council chambers. The item was originally to be heard at the August 11 meeting of the City Council (see sacramentopress.com/headline/11884/City_to_decide_on_fate_of_BelVue_Apartments_and_Berry_Hotel_today ) but was taken off the agenda at the last minute. According to the sta

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 Str

City plans to demolish the Bel-Vue and adjacent buildings were mentioned in my Sacramento Press article on July 3 ( http://sacramentopress.com/headline/10159/City_To_Demolish_Landmark_BelVue_Building ) but at the time the developer and financing organization behind the project were not identified. Since then, both have appeared, along with an additional partner. The financier, Consus Asset Management, is a new player in Sacramento. The developer, Bob Leach, just completed another Sacramento project, the Le Rivage Hotel. The other player in this project is a well-known name in K Street real estate, Mohammed “Mo” Mohanna. All three are asking the city for $18.6 million in free real estate an