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East Sac ramento
S a c r a m e n t o Pa r k N e i g h b o r h o o d s
East Sacramento
historic timeline of events
The first developments east
of Alhambra Boulevard begin
construction on 32nd through
34th Streets between J Street
and Folsom Boulevard.
Family farms on regularly
flooding land occupy East
Sacramento.
The first house is built in Tract 24
(“The Fab Forties”) for Charles Wright,
President of Wright and Kimbrough.
1850’s
The American River levees were
built, rebuilt and strengthened
from old Brighton Road through
East Sacramento to Downtown
Sacramento
1860’s
1910
1911
1913
Mercy General Hospital is relocated to
East Sacramento and becomes a
major employer in the neighborhood.
Period Revival styles replace the
Arts and Crafts style in popularity.
1914
1920’s
1925
1927
East Sacramento remains one of Sacramento’s
premier neighborhoods featuring a diverse
socioeconomic mix of residents and businesses.
California State University, Sacramento,
opens in East Sacramento at 6000 J Street.
1930’s
1937
1953
1973
The Great Depression
slows development
throughout Sacramento.
East Sacramento is annexed by the City of
Sacramento bringing modern sewage systems
to the area. The H Street (Fair Oaks) Bridge is
constructed across the American River.
The Alhambra Theater is
constructed and becomes an
icon of East Sacramento.
PG&E extends a street car line to Wright and
Kimbrough’s Tract 24 (“The Fab Forties”).
Sutter establishes the first
maternity hospital, at 52nd
and F Streets.
The Alhambra Theater is demolished to make way for a
new grocery store on Alhambra Boulevard. The loss of
this jewel of East Sacramento gave rise to a historic
preservation movement.
Today
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Downtown
Sacramento
EAST
SACRAMENTO
Land Park
16
SPECIES OF TREES PLANTED BEFORE 1940
EAST SACRAMENTO
Oak Park
Curtis Park
L O C AT I O N & P R O X I M I T Y
The East Sacramento neighborhood is bounded by Alhambra Boulevard to the west, Elvas Avenue and the Union Pacific Railroad
tracks to the north, 56th Street and Elvas Avenue to the east, and R Street to the south, excluding the McKinley Park neighborhood.
The East Sacramento neighborhood lies to the east of Business 80 and north of Highway 50. It is located within close proximity to
Midtown Sacramento and is adjacent to California State University, Sacramento, and affords easy access to the American River Parkway.
NEIGHBORHOOD DEVELOPMENT HISTORY
The earliest planned residential development east of Alhambra occurred
on 32nd through 34th Streets between J and Folsom around 1910 just
prior to annexation by the city. These neighborhoods, built on narrow
40' lots, were within 1-2 blocks of the new J Street trolley line. Before 1910,
the East Sacramento and the McKinley Park areas were essentially a
collection of small farms, orchards, and dairies comprised mostly of small
parcels measuring 5-20 or more acres in size. D.W. Carmichael and the
firm of Wright and Kimbrough were prime real estate developers at the
turn of the century. Carmichael initially developed the Casa Loma subdivision north of McKinley Park, and Wright and Kimbrough developed
many tracts throughout the neighborhood.
Developments after World War I occurred further from J Street and were
built on slightly wider lots — reflecting the boom in auto ownership
in Sacramento just before and after the war. These new developments,
however, still depended heavily on the trolley lines to downtown and
Oak Park as a primary form of transportation. PG&E had a trolley line to
Alhambra, but did not extend its line to Wright and Kimbrough’s Tract
24 (the “Fab Forties”) until 1914.
Development radiated out from the major east/west streets at Alhambra
and Folsom Boulevards and at J Street, each of which carried not only
through traffic to Folsom, Carmichael, and Fair Oaks but also provided
major commercial areas for development.
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The Alhambra Theater was a major attraction in East Sacramento (Special Collection of the Sacramento Library).
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Route 3 served East Sacramento along J Street (courtesy of Western
Railway Museum).
Flooding along Fair Oaks Boulevard at the H Street Bridge (courtesy of CSH).
EAST SACRAMENTO
East Sacramento grew only after it was annexed by the city and modern
sewage systems were built. The earliest developers, like Wright and
Kimbrough, often built infrastructure such as electricity and water, only
later deeding them to the city for permanent maintenance. East
Sacramento’s early development mirrors much of that of the McKinley
Park area. As in McKinley Park, there are records of earlier residential
construction, but these houses most likely were relocated to the area
from other parts of East Sacramento and the Central City.
The residential tracts developed by Wright and Kimbrough ranged from
the two-block long tract comprised entirely of Dolores Way to as large
as their 147-acre Tract 40 subdivision east of 40th Street. Wright
and Kimbrough typically acquired raw land, divided it into lots, and
either sold lots to individuals and contractors or built houses to be sold
on speculation.
Wright and Kimbrough’s lots in East Sacramento typically ranged from
40'-50' widths (with the occasional 60' and 100' lot in Tract 24), with
depths ranging mostly from 100' to 180'. Though more generous than
downtown lots, these suburban lots generally conformed to building
patterns for single-family houses in the central city. For houses built
before the early 1920s, Wright and Kimbrough generally provided
infrastructure as well, including paved streets, sidewalks, a drainage
system (later fully supplanted by a city sewer), electric streetlights, and
front landscape trees.
Areas along Elvas and throughout River Park flooded regularly despite
levee and floodgate systems until Folsom Dam was built in 1955. During
floods, residents from outlying areas east of town could drive to Howe
Avenue on Folsom Boulevard and Fulton Avenue on Fair Oaks Boulevard.
It was not unusual to find cars and families gathered in the 1940s and
early 1950s near Fair Oaks and Fulton to peer down Fair Oaks toward
the H Street Bridge to determine whether waters had receded enough to
get downtown to work. The dam’s completion enabled the remainder of
East Sacramento to join in on the post–World War II building boom.
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Residential Character
Hospitals played a key role in the economic development of the residential areas.
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EAST SACRAMENTO
CHARACTER AND SCALE
East Sacramento is a diverse neighborhood with many different subneighborhoods, making it difficult to characterize as a whole. Notable
sub-neighborhoods of East Sacramento include Tract 24 which includes
the larger homes located along 45th and 44th Streets and East Portal, the
neighborhood located around East Portal Park.
COMMERCIAL
Despite the primarily residential character of the neighborhood, two major
cannery operations developed in the early years. Both, in recent years, have
been converted to successful office complexes. Commercial buildings before
World War II developed primarily on the east/west through streets, with
commercial areas clustered primarily along J Street adjacent to Mercy
Hospital and Sacred Heart Church and along Folsom Boulevard. Alhambra
Boulevard between J Street and Capitol Avenue developed a SpanishColonial themed shopping area culminating with the construction of the
Alhambra Theater complex at J Street. There are a few commercial
buildings located within residential neighborhoods including a Compton’s
Grocery and small clusters of shops scattered throughout the neighborhood.
These buildings are generally post-World War II constructions.
Hospitals also played a key role in the economic development of the
residential areas. Three hospitals, Mercy General, Sutter General, and
Sutter Memorial, are located throughout East Sacramento.
PA R K S A N D P U B L I C A M E N I T I E S
East Sacramento contains three parks: the East Lawn Children’s Park,
East Portal Park, and Henschel Park. The neighborhood lies within close
proximity to McKinley Park which offers a variety of recreational and
public amenities. The neighborhood also contains two public elementary
schools, David Lubin Elementary and Theodore Judah Elementary; two
middle schools, Sutter Middle School and Kit Carson Middle School; as
well as Sacred Heart Parish School, a private Catholic K-8 school. The
Warren McClaskey Adult Center, operated by the Sacramento Unified
School District, is also located in East Sacramento on J Street.
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Fab Forties
Well-detailed houses, even if not grand, combined with large street trees, original
street lights, and the tract’s generally well-developed and mature landscape,
provide a very comforting aspect for visitors and residents alike.
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89%
F R O N T L AW N T R E E S
10%
TREES IN PLANTING STRIPS
1%
TREES IN MEDIANS
EAST SACRAMENTO
STREETSCAPE
Today, East Sacramento and McKinley Park are affected more by through
commuter and business traffic than the other Park Neighborhoods due
to continued heavy use of the major east/west through streets: J, H, and
Folsom Boulevard and, to a lesser extent, Elvas Avenue, which runs the
perimeter of East Sacramento along the railroad levee on the north side
running from I-80 to Folsom Boulevard.
The street pattern in the neighborhood is mostly fragmented parallel.
The primary streets running east/west through the neighborhood are
H Street, J Street, and Folsom Boulevard, which typically have an 80' wide
right-of-way including travel lanes, curb, gutter, and sidewalk. The
internal neighborhood streets have varying widths ranging from 40' to 50'
with attached sidewalks. Streets with 40' widths are mostly concentrated
in the eastern and southern portions of the neighborhood. Streets with
50' widths are scattered throughout the neighborhood and also typically
have attached sidewalks. Also scattered through the area are streets with
60' street widths. These are usually collector streets having detached
sidewalks. A street car line originally ran on 46th Street to Oak Park,
resulting in what is still today the widest street in the neighborhood.
The block lengths of this neighborhood are typically larger than the
other Park Neighborhoods, ranging in length from 800' to 900'. Smaller
blocks range in length from 300' to 400' and are located in the
northeastern portion of the neighborhood.
A big part of Tract 24’s impact, known today as the Fab Forties, then and
today can be attributed to the houses’ unusually deep 40' setbacks from
the street. Well-detailed houses, even if not grand, combined with large
street trees, original street lights, and the tract’s generally well-developed
and mature landscape, provide a very comforting aspect for visitors and
residents alike.
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There are virtually no front fences in East Sacramento neighborhoods.
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EAST SACRAMENTO
STREET TREES
The slower build-out of the East Sacramento neighborhood is reflected
in both species and age diversity of the existing street trees. Areas closer
to downtown are predominantly populated with planetrees. Some streets,
like 38th between Folsom and J, have elms that survived Dutch elm disease.
Residential streets closer to the California State University, Sacramento
are populated with species provided by the city after World War II –
Modesto ash, hackberry, zelkova, fruitless mulberry (Morus alba), and
Chinese elm. Current dominant species include the planetrees, zelkova,
hackberry, Modesto ash, sweetgum, and camphor. Replacement and new
trees include Chinese pistache, Japanese maple (Acer japonicum), and red
maple (Acer rubrum).
In areas developed before the 1940s, there are around 16 species still
commonly present. Throughout the entire area there are at least 35
species currently along city right-of-ways. As in other areas of the city,
replacements and new plantings include more small- and mediumsized species.
The 1992 Sacramento Urban Forest Management Plan estimates that
89% of city street tree planting space is in front yard lawn space, 10% in
planting strips, and 1% in medians.
Tree conflicts with utility lines are an issue in residential areas east of
49th Street, but not in lower-numbered streets where utilities run
predominantly behind houses or through alleys. Where present, the
utility lines have affected tree structure and health due to required and
repeated line clearance.
Generally speaking, trees along streets numbered above 50 have suffered
the most neglect (particularly ash trees), while those in the 30s and 40s
receive more consistent care. The latter also tend to be longer-lived planetrees in very hospitable planting sites. The streets throughout the Forties
maintain much of their majesty because of the well-maintained trees.
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Period Revival
By the early 1920s, Period Revival styles replaced the Arts and Crafts style in popularity.
Tudors predominate, followed by a variety of Colonial and Mediterranean styles.
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EAST SACRAMENTO
RESIDENTIAL ARCHITECTURE DEVELOPMENT HISTORY
Wright and Kimbrough’s Tract 24, the “Fab Forties,” was not the first
residential development in East Sacramento, but it was by far the most
significant relating to architecture and scale. Charles Wright envisioned
this as the center of his emerging development empire. This tract was
designed with the latest in street technology (a combination of macadam
and concrete), a sewer system, street lights with its own power system,
required street setbacks, and deed-restricted prohibitions against
commercial uses.
The earliest houses were all variations of Arts and Crafts design, many
of which were modest in size. Wright’s houses appealed to Sacramento’s
emerging commercial class and were occupied by many of the most
prominent business families of the day.
Alhambra Theater mural, located at 25th Street, between J & K Streets (courtesy of Sam Allen).
East Sacramento had its own variation on the Prairie House style,
especially popular in the Midwest. Midwest varations often were
architect-designed for estate properties, with a wide horizontal façade
oriented toward the street. However, the Prairie House style variation
popular in East Sacramento is a two-story version designed for the city’s
narrower lots. These houses made dramatic architectural statements in
their day.
By the early 1920s, Period Revival styles replaced the Arts and Crafts
style in popularity. Tudors predominate, followed by a variety of
Colonial and Mediterranean styles. Houses on 41st and 42nd Streets
tended to be more modest in scale, whereas houses on 45th Street were
the grandest. The houses on 45th Street were built to impress, though
they rarely exceeded 5,000 square feet. Even the Louis Breuner house on
45th Street, an imposing brick Tudor, was only 3,500 square feet.
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N U M B E R O F PA R K S I N E A S T S A C R A M E N T O
1920s to the 1930s
Changes in modest residential design from the 1920s to the 1930s were
incremental, reflecting economic and demographic changes, shifts in social
patterns and political ideals and finally in aesthetics.
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Streetcar line extended (courtesy of Western Railway Museum).
EAST SACRAMENTO
Tract 33 was developed by Wright and Kimbrough. The houses are small
two-bedroom bungalows, on lots 40' by 80', and are also typical of housing
in Oak Park in the 1910s. These houses are highly desirable today as
entry level housing in East Sacramento. The houses were well-detailed
with modern kitchens, baths, and amenities such as brick fireplaces,
hardwood floors, living room bookcases, and elm-paneled dining rooms
with built-ins. This tract is only three blocks from Wright and
Kimbrough’s upscale Tract 24.
Changes in modest residential design from the 1920s to the 1930s were
incremental, reflecting economic and demographic changes as well as
shifts in social patterns and aesthetics. The 1940s transitional cottage was
no different as its form evolved between the 1920s cottage and the very
American late 1940s ranch.
Still mired in the Depression years, houses built in the 1930s in East
Sacramento continued to reflect more traditional styles found particularly
in McKinley Park and neighborhoods between H and J Streets west of
47th Street. With a troubled economy and the political unrest both here
and abroad, housing styles began to reveal a simpler form at the turn of
the decade in 1940.
Tract 39 is just such a project. The tract is an early representative of
many hundreds of houses later built in the northern end of the Elvas
corridor throughout the 1940s as well as other city neighborhoods such
as Tahoe Park and Hollywood Park. Similar houses in Land Park often
had more whimsical Tudor and even Moderne-influenced details.
There are a few examples in East Sacramento of Modernist homes, mostly
representing the severely rectilinear International Style, notably a pair of
duplexes in the 3400 block of Folsom Boulevard, a duplex at 36th and P
Streets, and a small two-story version on McKinley Boulevard. For the
most part, however, Sacramento, given its more conservative nature,
shunned these more radical experiments in favor of more modest
changes in form and surface detail.