Sunday, June 15, 2008

Old Sac

Old Sacramento is where the city meets the river, the old steamboat landing . Symoblic of this is the packet liner Delta King, restored into a floating hotel. A freight and passenger service of the Southern Pacific railroad, it connected San Francisco with Sacramento and towns along the Sacramento River in the Delta area. In earlier times steamboats continued upriver to Marysville and also up the San Jouquin to Stockton.

Here's a view of old Old Sac. One can see one of the SP/CP trains pulling up along the wharf, and also notice the awnings and canopies over the boardwalk sidewalk, to shield folks from the oppressive summer heat (average temp in the 90s, with 100 degree days no uncommon)
Old Sac started during the gold rush era of 1849, but was rebuilt after a big fire in the 1850s, (the oldest buildings date from the 1850s) . This part of town lost one story on some buildings as the grade was raised here and back into the modern downtown to prevent flooding. This is a very low lying area, at sea level (and below in some parts).

There is a network of tunnels and former first floor spaces that are now basements under Old Sac and the rest of downtown due to the grade raising.

The pix here is of the oldest building in Old Sac. Hastings Bank was the former Pony Express terminus and state Supreme Court chambers on the second floor. This pix shows the building when Old Sac was the one of the largest skid rows on the West Coast. One can see a "bottle shop", employment agency, dry goods, and the "Timber Club" bar.
(you can click on the pix to get the detail)

Since ag in the Central Valley was large scale, from the bonanza farming era down to modern day irrigated fruit and veggy production, it relied on a lot of hired-hand itinerant labor, as did the timber industry up in the Sierra Nevada.

Sacto was the entreeport & base for this migratory labor stream, especially since it was the big inland railroad junction for both the SP and Western Pacific "Feather River Route". Thus a big center for drifters coming in to look for seasonal work. Old Sac was their neighborhood.

Substantially rebuilt and restored during an 1960s urban renewal push, Old Sac is now a popula tourist attraction. I've been told that the tourists here are actually mostly locals and day-trippers from the Bay Area, not so much out-of-towners. Lake Tahoe and the Mother Lode gold country is the destination for out-of-state tourism, with Sac being at best a way-station.
(this is the old Wells Fargo building..restored Hastings Bank to the right).

There are some museums here (a local history museum and the California State Railway Museum, which is one of the best in the US), but I think people just come for the ambience.

Unlike Daytonians, Sacramentans don't seem to have that "urban fear" that keeps them from venturing downtown. And the locals have suburban alternatives to Old Sac in Folsom, which is a renovated old gold rush town as well as suburb (sort of a "Waynesville") .

Yet they continue to visit here, repeatedly, as the place has always been a sucess. Which might also be due to the size and affluence of Sacramento vis a vis Dayton.
You've probably noticed the overhangs and boardwalsk. Very wild west. But they were there in the olden days, as per that period pix above. Here is what they look like.
Definetly an attempt to create a living history/period feel (this is an official State Historic Site), but there are restaurants and even some bars (with music) here. And apartments and offices. So though it looks sort of Disneyland it is an example of a mixed use redevelopment.

Next, we'll follow this street under I-5 to the modern downtown shopping mall and old K Street, the former shopping street of Sacramento.

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