Sacramento history photo of the week number 33!

The two mosaic-clad obelisks on Twelfth Street, one upon entering Alkali Flat and one when exiting, were designed in 1990 by landscape architect John Nicolaus as part of the 12th Street Beautification Plan. The structure at the corner of Twelfth and "H" Streets is pictured above. Longtime Alkali Flat resident and Royal Chicano Air Force member, Juanishi Orosco, was responsible for the artistic concept on the ornamented tiles. The project was funded by the Sacramento Housing and Redevelopment Agency.

The above photo and many more like it can be found in the Sacramento Public Library’s Sacramento Room which is open to the public Tuesday, Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday 1 to 5, and Thursday 1 to 8.

Make sure to also checkout, "Sacrachicano," showcasing historical and current works by some of the RCAF's major artists as well as emerging artists who are carrying on the cooperative's tradition. The exhibit is in partnership with Galeria Posada and is curated by Gloria Burt and the same Juanishi Orosco who created the obelisk above. View the exhibit during library open hours through January 3, 2010.

Sacramento History Photo of the Week Number 32!

In 1913, the Sacramento Lumber Company and its fifty employees opened at Twelfth and “B” Streets, where its proximity to the Sacramento River and Southern Pacific facilities kept handling costs low and profit margins wide. Pictured here are two modes of transport within the mill, horse-drawn wagon and, as evidenced by tracks, narrow-gauge engines. In the background is a shed which was designed to hold up to 1,000,000 feet of lumber. The mill was hit by fire in July of 1921, leading to the destruction of well over $30,000 in material. The warehouse, pictured above, was completely destroyed.

The company's primary timber stands, entirely virgin, enveloped Coos Bay, Oregon. The company's specialty was Port Orford cedar, which was brought by boat from Oregon to Sacramento. Similar stands in the Sacramento area had been denuded by the end of the nineteenth-century.

The above photo and many more like it can be found in the Sacramento Public Library’s Sacramento Room which is open to the public Tuesday, Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday 1 to 5, and Thursday 1 to 8.

The Sacramento History Photo of the Week, Number 31. Childhood Recollections of Weinstocks...

Weinstock's department store was a social and retail institution in Sacramento for well over 100 years. Along the way, children - who are now adults - remember a lot of things about the warm and cozy store. However, one of the the most common recollections involves the Milk Bar. Pictured below, it was a spot reserved for kids to belly up to the bar while their parents were off shopping.

One such kid was Nancy Phillips, who grew up in Sacramento amidst the innocence of the 1940s and 50s. Part and parcel was this magical destination of Weinstock’s, a Capital city-based super business that created a reputation for excellence and family friendliness all along the West Coast. From the newness of the escalator to the flattering grown-up-ness of the Milk Bar, Weinstock’s is a spot not easily forgotten from the childhood memories of thousands of native Sacramentans. To watch a short video of Nancy's recollections of Weinstock's click the image below:

The above "Milkbar" photo and many more like it can be found in the Sacramento Public Library’s Sacramento Room which is open to the public Tuesday, Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday 1 to 5, and Thursday 1 to 8.

Sacrachicano, the Royal Chicano Air Force and Sacramento History Photos of the Week, Numbers 29 and 30...

The Rebel Chicano Art Front, more commonly known as the Royal Chicano Air Force, proved to be one of Sacramento and the nation’s more influential art cooperatives during the 60s, 70s and 80s. Founded in 1969, and germinating from downtown Sacramento’s Alkali Flat neighborhood, the group’s crafting of posters, T-shirt designs, flags and boycott signs helped promote the Chicano movement's struggle for civil rights, labor organizing and self-definition.

Pictured above is a work done by the RCAF’s Ricardo Favela and offers a composite of imagery far beyond the overt message of a Mother’s Day 1976 dinner and dance at St. Joseph’s School at Ninth and “G.” Familiar symbols and “unifiers” of the Chicano liberation movement, the Virgin of Guadalupe and the “Eagle,” representing the United Farm Workers, are blended with encouragement to boycott the Gallo Winery.

Ramiro Martinez's rollicking Club Artistico Reno at 415 12th Street served as a cultural hothouse for Alkali Latinos for over twenty-five years. Over that span, three Spanish-language movies were filmed there and its stage was graced by Latin American singers and actors alike. To make way for 12th Street redevelopment, the Club was razed in the spring of 1987. Below, this exquisite RCAF poster, and crafted by Juanishi Orozco, promotes a music and poetry event at the Reno.

These photos and many more like them can be found in the Sacramento Public Library’s Sacramento Room which is open to the public Tuesday, Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday 1 to 5, and Thursday 1 to 8.

Make sure to also checkout, "Sacrachicano," showcasing historical and current works by some of the RCAF's major artists as well as emerging artists who are carrying on the cooperative's tradition. An important aspect of Sacrachicano is a traditional El Dia de los Muertos altar for Armando Cid and other deceased RCAF artists. The exhibit is in partnership with Galeria Posada and is curated by Gloria Burt and Juanishi Orosco. View the exhibit during library open hours through January 3, 2010.

Got Doughboy? The Great War in the Great Valley and Sacramento History Photo of the Week, Number 28...

Think about it. Not since the 14th century's Black Death had Europe experienced such a monumental loss of life. The plague claimed one of every three European. Worldwide, the Great War One killed 16 million people. It also formed the nexus of where the time-tested tactics and strategies of the Little Corporal met the buzzsaw of technology.

And though an ocean and continent away, the War touched Sacramento in so many ways. On Thursday night at the Central Library, a few days before Veterans' Day, on November 5, from 6:00 to 8:00, we will talk about World War One and how it came to claim a spot in the Sacramento Valley for nearly two years. The ways in which we ate, worked, learned, spent and related to one another were all affected.

The photo above is of the 1917 Cadet Corps at Sacramento High School. In the spring of 1918, Sac High and several other area high schools, gathered their forces at Del Paso Park near present day Auburn and Watt Avenues to learn how to make war. The exercises lasted for a week.

This photo and many more like it can be found in the Sacramento Public Library’s Sacramento Room which is open to the public Tuesday, Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday 1 to 5, and Thursday 1 to 8.

Sacramento History Photo of the Week Number 27!

Pictured above, in the fall of 1917, are Helen and Janet Kay, the daughters of David and Janet Kay. The picture was taken at a rally, held at the State Armory, located underneath what is today Interstate Highway 50.

As soon as the Great War started, interest in the Red Cross (ICRC) grew – folks who couldn’t pick up a rifle, because of age, gender or disability wanted an army to join and the ICRC was there. And, by the end of April, a headquarters had been established at Fourth and “J.”

What was required of Sacramento members early on was the ability to type, lift, sterilize and prepare surgical equipment, and drive (especially if you had your own car) so as to collect supplies and donations. Sewing was also in demand and Sac High offered 125 female pupils to do as much.

The Southern Pacific shops immediately signed up 1,700 members. And while the capital city had formed its own chapter, Walnut Grove, North Sacramento, Auburn, Loomis, Newcastle and Stockton were all quick to establish chapters as well.

Fund drives were organized around the ICRC – in early May, county employees had raised $600.00 while Weinstock-Lubin had donated $3,034. The earliest goal for the IRC in Sacramento was $30,000.

The city also voted to levy a property value tax of two cents, just to fund the local chapter – for a total of $14,000. An additional method of funding came from a Red Cross thrift shop on Front Street. Clothing, books, scrap iron, even bones, donated by a local butcher shop, brought in funding for the organization.

Learn more about the Sacramento Red Cross as, on November 5 at 6:30, the Central Library will be presenting The Great War in the Great Valley: Sacramento During the First World War. The program will include discussion on the city and War and a presentation of photos of Sacramento during World War I.

This photo and many more like it can be found in the Sacramento Public Library’s Sacramento Room which is open to the public Tuesday, Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday 1 to 5, and Thursday 1 to 8.

Sacramento history photo of the week number 26!

In April 1917, America was still a nation of the perpetual stand down, using a small volunteer army and then calling on the citizen soldier when needed. On the eve of the Great War, the regular army numbered 97,000. By the end of the War 4.5 million Americans had been mobilized to military service.

Now, contrary to what you may think, with this Great War to make the world safe for democracy, soldiers weren’t blazing their way to the recruiting office to sign up. The Sacramento Naval recruiting office had 12 recruits in the first week. The Marine office averaged 2 a day for the first week and the Army office had similar numbers. By the end of April, the voluntary option had enabled California to fill 21percent of its quota of 4,700 recruits. Nationwide, the figure was abysmal – 17 percent. Nevada led the country at an astonishing 97 percent.

The only solution would be a draft bill, which President Wilson signed on 28 May, 1917. So, the draft was now law and all able-bodied men between 21 and 30 were required to register. Governor Stephens, in line with this, created a statewide registration holiday which would close businesses and free up these fellows to do their legal duty. This meant that major businesses closed – Weinstock-Lubin, Lavenson’s Shoes, and Breuner’s Furniture were a few.
That day would be June 5.

Overnight 10,000,000 Americans would be eligible to be drafted. In Sacramento County, it was estimated that between 8,000 and 10,000 men registered. However, over half of those claimed exemption – in most cases, for dependency. By July 12, it was determined that Sacramento City would be required to provide roughly 507 men for service, the county 196, while the entire state would have to provide a total of 23,000.

On the morning of August 4, Karl Oehler, a bank teller at the Fort Sutter National Bank and the son of a German-immigrant pastor was the first Sacramentan to take a physical examination under the draft. He claimed exemption on grounds of having a dependent wife. Didn’t matter – Oehler didn’t pass the physical because he didn’t weight enough according to his 5’11” height – 8 pounds short.

Learn more about the WWI Draft as, on November 5 at 6:30, the Central Library will be presenting The Great War in the Great Valley: Sacramento During the First World War. The program will include discussion on the city and War and a presentation of photos of Sacramento during World War I.

This photo and many more like it can be found in the Sacramento Public Library’s Sacramento Room which is open to the public Tuesday, Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday 1 to 5, and Thursday 1 to 8.

Sacramento history photo of the week number 25!

Pictured above in 1918 is Mather Field's first graduating class of airmen.

In January of the same year, a group of Army officers traveled to the Sacramento area to view prospective sites for aviation school. Although North Sacramento lobbied hard for the field, the military opted for a spot 12 miles southeast of Sacramento known as Mills Station, right on the Southern Pacific line. In its original form, the base would encompass over 700 acres and include over 50 buildings, a machine shop for repairs, a PX, a 100 foot “swimming tank,” and a machine gun target range. Once completed, it would service roughly 1,000 aviation cadets. The construction project immediately brought 2,500 jobs to the area’s economy with the contract went to McDonald and Kahn. Overall, the base was projected to produce an annual payroll of $200,000 and construction was complete in 70 days!

Apparently, upon arriving, the first thing the first cadets did - having just graduated from the UC Berkeley 'ground school' - was build a baseball diamond. Other diversions to follow were a field band and a football team that was good enough to beat the big, bad Presidio 45-0 at Buffalo Park in October 1918. Boxing was also big on base. The many vineyards that surrounded the base also provided a ready source for jam. The base newspaper was originally called the “Fly Paper,” but was soon changed to “Air Currents.”

The specter of Mather for Sacramentans was enormous – how many Sacramentans had actually seen an airplane (ship) before let alone be close to an airport? The first official flight from Mather – conducted by Lieutenant John F. Buffington - took place on the evening of June 12th – in a plane built at North Sacramento's Liberty Iron Works, a JN-4 or "Jenny". Weeks later, during 4th of July festivities in Sacramento, a squadron of planes from Mather was armed with hundreds of small, American flags which they dropped over business and residential sections of the city.

Learn more about Mather Field as, on November 5 at 6:30, the Central Library will be presenting The Great War in the Great Valley: Sacramento During the First World War. The program will include discussion on the city and War and a presentation of photos of Sacramento during World War I.

This photo and many more like it can be found in the Sacramento Public Library’s Sacramento Room which is open to the public Tuesday, Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday 1 to 5, and Thursday 1 to 8.

Sacramento history photo of the week number 24!

In January of 1918, as America's involvement in the First World War was ratcheting up, bond drives were a common sight around the nation. In the case of Sacramento, millions of dollars were accrued. Motivational tools would abound as bond-buyers had their names printed in city papers while it was the community's responsibility to build this "Soldier of Freedom," as he stood against the wall of Sacramento's first and only (at the time) Federal building, the U.S. Post Office. Each section of the body represents a county within the Sacramento Valley. Sacramento County was represented by the soldier's rifle. The trick was simple - the more bond monies won by the county, the faster the respresentative body-part or accessory were placed on the soldier.

Mark your calendar as, on November 5 at 6:30, the Central Library will be presenting The Great War in the Great Valley: Sacramento During the First World War. The program will include discussion on the city and War and a presentation of photos of Sacramento during World War I.

This photo and many more like it can be found on the Central Library's Third Floor, which is where one can view both the Sacramento Bee and Union back into the mid-nineteenth century.

Sacramento history photo of the week number 23!

In the Fall of 1918, Sacramento and the country were at War with Germany and Austro-Hungary. Area farms were mobilized to double their crop production, high school boys were pulled from Valley cities to pick crops, Sacramento women were immersed in one of the largest Red Cross chapters in the State, and the county's Southern Pacific routes and tressels were being guarded against "Teuton" espionage.

The following advertisement for Weinstock, Lubin and Co. Department Store was taken from a late October Sacramento Bee. With the capital city in a warmaking mood, even a jolly Saint Nick's depiction with a doughboy helmet seemed okay.

Mark your calendar as, on November 5 at 6:30, the Central Library will be presenting The Great War in the Great Valley: Sacramento During the First World War. The program will include discussion on the city and War and a presentation of photos of Sacramento during World War I.

This photo and many more like it can be found on the Central Library's Third Floor, which is where one can view both the Sacramento Bee and Union back into the mid-nineteenth century.

Dear customer, pardon the delay in posting this serial.

Sacramento History Photo(s) of the Week: Issue No. 22!

This promotional photo for the Bercut-Richards Cannery was taken in 1942. The model is shrouded in one of Sacramento’s most lucrative cash crops – peaches. By the time of the photo, “Orchard and Vineyard” crops were Sacramento County’s third largest agricultural money-maker at $2,119,000, behind field crops at $3,443,000 and live stock at $3,340,000. Bercut-Richards, located at Seventh and Richards, was Sacramento’s highest-profile cannery. It opened in 1928 under the dynamic management of Thomas Richards, and, as War approached, in 1942, the cannery morphed into one of the West Coast's primary military depots. Sacramento’s inland location and access to major rail lines made it safe from air attack and ideal for shipping military goods toward the Pacific Theater. What's more, by the end of the War, nearly 540 prisoners-of-war from Erwin Rommel's Afrika Korps were working within the warehouses of the depot and the cannery.

This photo and many more like it can be found in the Sacramento Public Library’s Sacramento Room which is open to the public Tuesday, Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday 1 to 5, and Thursday 1 to 8.

Sacramento History Photo(s) of the Week: Issue No. 21!

In 1950, men still wore hats, ties were bold and wide, and women's dresses were long. In order to display ties in line with the merchandising methods of the day, the manager of the largest Dobbs Hat Shop in Northern California designed the "Ty-namic." It could showcase up to six-dozen ties at the same time while also being able to display matching tie bars, tie tacs and cuff links.

As a senior in high school, Mary Louise Waggoner posed with the "Ty-namic" for this promptional photograph. One year later, she would marry her high school sweetheart, Al Babayco, who also worked at the store.

This photo and many more like it can be found in the Sacramento Public Library’s Sacramento Room which is open to the public Tuesday, Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday 1 to 5, and Thursday 1 to 8.

Sacramento History Photo(s) of the Week: Issue No. 20!

In August 1903, Edward and Augusta Sullivan gave birth to a child at 1100 “E” Street, deciding to name her Helen. Above is Helen Sullivan in her 1922 graduation photo from Sacramento High School. Following school, she spent the next ten years working as a telephone operator and stenographer for the State of California, and was married in 1933 to Tipton Randolph. Helen lived at both 1100 and 1110 at different times from birth through her late-20s.

Helen’s father, Edward, was a blacksmith for Southern Pacific. Her grandmother and grandfather, Peter and Mary, moved to Sacramento from New York state. All of the Sullivan boys, a total of three, and the senior Sullivan, worked for the railroad. Edward and Peter died within five months of one another in 1915, Edward of typhoid fever in August and Peter of a stroke in April. Both are buried at the Old City Cemetery. Etched on Edward’s grave is the word “Papa.”

Helen spent her latter years living in East Sacramento after residing for nearly two decades just outside the Alkali at Seventeenth and “G.” She died in May 1990.

This photo and many more like it can be found in the Sacramento Public Library’s Sacramento Room which is open to the public Tuesday, Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday 1 to 5, and Thursday 1 to 8.

Sacramento History Photo of the Week: Issue No. 19!

By 1915, the City Brewery had grown to occupy nearly an entire city block with storage, coopering, racking, washing, bottling, and transportation facilities. So noisy had the complex and its hearty denizens gotten, that Alkali residents like Fannie Goddard of 1227 “H” Street found it a nuisance and went so far as to sue for $5,000 in damages. She also told the Sacramento Bee in March 1912 that the brewery’s crew used “obscene and common swearing and cursing which assails the site and hearing of my family and visitors.” These fellows hardly look concerned.

This photo and many more like it can be found in the Sacramento Public Library’s Sacramento Room which is open to the public Tuesday, Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday 1 to 5, and Thursday 1 to 8.

Sacramento History Photo of the Week: Issue No. 18!

Serious but beguiling eyes look toward the camera in this 1914 photo from McKinley School at Seventh and “G.” The school replaced the venerable Union School which was closed down just a decade earlier. With the growth of industry within and around the Alkali in the teens and twenties, the school’s enrollment, by 1921, swelled to being one of the largest in the city at nearly 700 pupils, necessitating the annexation of the old Southern Pacific Hospital and Crocker home as a playground, clubhouse and “amusement building.” However, with the deepening economic depression, Southern Pacific Company’s purchase of residential units to the west of the school, the closing of a nearby cannery, and the allure of nearby St. Joseph’s School, by 1932, numbers had dropped to 306 and the school had been abandoned as a teaching place, saving the school district $16,000, annually.

This photo and many more like it can be found in the Sacramento Public Library’s Sacramento Room which is open to the public Tuesday, Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday 1 to 5, and Thursday 1 to 8.

On This Memorial Day Weekend...Sacramento History Photo of the Week: Issue No. 17!

As a young resident of Alkali Flat at 1315 “H” Street, Hugo Frank Wallner was a 1913 graduate of Sacramento High School and a bank teller at the California National Bank. In February 1916, the 25-year-old won an adding contest at the Travelers Hotel on Fifth and “J” Streets. He was able to list an amazing total of one hundred checks in one-minute, thirty-one seconds. A few years later in the spring of 1918, Wallner was married to Miss Freda Caldarella. Just weeks after marrying, Wallner was dispatched to France, serving as a clerk in the 91st Infantry Division. Although holding a task that would seemingly keep him out of harm’s way, Wallner was sent into combat in September of 1918. According to his Lieutenant, he died of wounds suffered during an attack in the Epinonville sector of the Argonne. This made him one of the over one-hundred Sacramentans – and the only Alkali Flat resident – to die in the Great War. His heartbroken Freda never remarried and died in San Francisco in 1983.

This photo and many more like it can be found in the Sacramento Public Library’s Sacramento Room which is open to the public Tuesday, Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday 1 to 5, and Thursday 1 to 8.

Sacramento History Photo of the Week: Issue No. 16!

This March 1942 photo shows a recently modernized Globe Mills building. Its renovation – started in August 1941- came via the Federal Government’s wartime plan to increase grain storage capacities and overcome nationwide shortages. At completion, the building’s 46 signature silos measured 125 feet in height and, at capacity, could hold up to 500,000 bushels of grain.

At five-stories-high, Globe was perhaps the highest profile of Sacramento’s four flour feeds. By the mid-1930s, the city’s grain industry, drawing off nearly 73,000 acres of Sacramento County grain stands, was producing well over 3 million dollars in product. Just prior to the Great Depression, Sacramento’s roughly 200 mill workers could rely on a gainful wage of between $4.00 and $4.25 an hour.

This photo and many more like it can be found in the Sacramento Public Library’s Sacramento Room which is open to the public Tuesday, Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday 1 to 5, and Thursday 1 to 8.

"Sacramento History Photo of the Week: Issue No. 15!"

Nisenan Village on the American River. The Nisenan or Southern Maidu formed the earliest Native American presence in Sacramento. Dating as far back as 11,000, pre-common era, this hunting, gathering and fishing culture occupied the villages of Momol on the northern-most edge of Alkali Flat, near Richards Boulevard, and Sa’cum to Alkali Flat's southern frontier, below what is today known as Cesar Chavez Plaza. What is more, a 2003 excavation of the area containing the current City Hall, at the intersection of Tenth and “H” streets, yielded enough evidence to suggest that the site may have been used as a hunting/fishing camp. No surprise, knowing the proximity of the camp to Sutter Slough, an inlet that attracted fauna.

This image and many more like it can be found in the Sacramento Public Library’s Sacramento Room which is open to the public Tuesday, Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday 1 to 5, and Thursday 1 to 8.

Sacramento History Photo of the Week: Issue No. 14!

Simply known as the Chinese Chapel, the lakeside structure, situated on Sixth Street, between “H” and “G,” was built in June of 1855 by the Reverend J. Lewis Shuck, a Southern Baptist minister and missionary whose charge it was to convert the city’s Chinese population to Christianity. With the outbreak of the Civil War and his flock peaking at a mere sixteen members, Shuck left for South Carolina. After serving as a grocery and living place for several years, the former Chapel was felled by incidental fire in 1872. Courtesy of the California State Library.

This photo and many more like it can be found in the Sacramento Public Library’s Sacramento Room which is open to the public Tuesday, Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday 1 to 5, and Thursday 1 to 8.

Sacramento History Photo of the Week: Issue No. 13!

Shrouded in semi-tropical greenery, so typical of many late-nineteenth century lots in the Alkali was the home of William F. Knox, at 916 “G” Street. The Virginia-born Knox came to California as a 49er, but settled into the construction industry where he amassed a modest fortune. In addition to serving on the City’s School Board and Common Council, Knox and his business contributed mightily to the building of the Central Pacific Railroad, Sacramento County’s first courthouse, and was a primary player in the epic undertaking of raising Sacramento’s business district by eighteen feet in 1863.

This photo and many more like it can be found in the Sacramento Public Library’s Sacramento Room which is open to the public Tuesday, Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday 1 to 5, and Thursday 1 to 8.