Center for Sacramento History

09/24/2026

In September 1971, Sacramento Waste Disposal Co. (SAWDCO) dedicated a paper-reclaiming facility at 731 North B Street. The Sacramento Bee reported that the new facility could process 20 tons of paper an hour! Baled paper was to be shipped from Placer, Sutter, Yolo, and San Joaquin counties to the facility for processing.

(Sacramento Bee Collection, 1983/001/SBPM02366)

09/23/2026

Completed in 1926, the Elks Tower at 921 11th Street has seen the city change around it. Here we have an unusual view of the building from 1979. The structure between the photographer and J Street had been razed, exposing a formerly hidden brick basement level and support buttresses from the 1870s street-raising project. Another neighboring building is actively under construction across 11th street from the tower.

Elks Tower and surrounding construction, 1979 (1998/722/0786)

09/22/2026

Hey farmers, buy a phone! That was the message Delta Telephone and Telegraph Company wanted to convey in this advertisement from the 1939 Isleton Asparagus Festival program.

Delta Telephone and Telegraph served the Delta region from 1889 through 1965. Starting out as the Freeport Telephone Company, the company then became Freeport Telephone and Telegraph, and then was bought out by Delta Telephone and Telegraph in 1917. Bert and Ethel Hart purchased the company in 1928 and opened a headquarters building in Courtland that also included a boarding house for employees. The building still stands at 11787 Riverside Avenue between Bates and Magnolia. The Harts operated the company until it was bought out by General Telephone Company in 1965.

(Ephemera Collection, MS0098)

09/21/2026

It takes a lot of work to keep our urban canopy healthy! In this photo from September 1975, City employee Edward Juarez nails an elm bark beetle trap to a tree near Memorial Auditorium. Each of the traps could catch thousands of beetles, luring them to the sticky sheets with odorous pheromones in an attempt to curb infestations.

(Sacramento Bee Collection, 1983/001/SBPM16624)

09/18/2026

09/17/2026

Before electric scooters and bikes were a common sight on our streets, 15-year-old South Sacramento resident Brad Condit spent three months “scrounging” parts to build this three-wheeled electric go-kart in 1980.

Powered by two 12-volt car batteries, Condit’s go-kart could reach speeds of up to 15 miles per hour. His father, Wayne Condit, told Sacramento Bee reporter Walt Loewen that his son was “always tearing things apart” in his quest to build the go-kart.

(Photo by Susie Gow. Sacramento Bee collection, 1983/001/SBPMP00739)

09/16/2026

Associated with Freemasonry, the Order of the Eastern Star (OES) was established for women with a connection to Masons. Male Master Masons were also allowed to join OES chapters. Both groups originally didn’t allow Black membership. As a result, Black Masons established Prince Hall Masonry and developed the associated Prince Hall Order of the Eastern Star.

This group of members of the Prince Hall Order of the Eastern Star posed for a photo around 1915. Sadly, only a handful of names are listed on the back of the photo and it’s difficult to identify which name belongs to which person. The location is also unidentified but might have been a gathering somewhere in the Bay Area. San Francisco-based members pictured include Emma Fletcher, Mr. and Mrs. J. H. Wilson, and Elizabeth Brown. Sacramentans pictured include Fannie Grubbs and Ella Mills. Ella Mills was such an influential member, Sacramento’s own Order of the Eastern Star Ella Mills Chapter No. 59 was established in her honor sometime after her death in 1945. Ella’s daughter, Julia Craig, donated this photo and membership badge to us in 1985.

(Order of the Eastern Star gathering, ca. 1915, 1985/051/010; Badge, OES Ella Mills Chapter, 1985/051/060)

09/15/2026

Come say hi to us at CityConnect, the City's monthly mixer series, this Thursday from 5:30 to 8:30 pm at Sac City Brews. We're the featured City department for this month's event, so bring us all your burning history and preservation questions. See you there!

09/15/2026

Raise your hand if you love spreadsheets. How about databases? What about researching old buildings? Then have we got something for you!

CSH staff and volunteers recently completed a years-long project to create a database of building permits documenting the era before paper permits were recorded by the City of Sacramento. This database was created from information listed in the Sacramento Union and Sacramento Bee newspapers from 1878 to 1915. Listings include the name of the person who took out the permit, approximate date of the permit, property location, project description and cost, and sometimes the name of the architect and contractor.

There are two spreadsheets with the same information: one sorted alphabetically by the name of the person who took out the permit, and one sorted alphabetically by street or tract name. Word of warning: Names were often misspelled in the newspaper, and some were not fully legible, so it is advised to check multiple spellings. Also, numbered addresses are not always used; instead properties are listed by block.

Have fun! https://archive.org/details/building-permits-index-1878-1915

And remember, you can look up City of Sacramento building permits after around 1913 online here (and we have the original paper copies): https://records.cityofsacramento.org/AdvanceSearch.aspx