A Brief History of Oak Park

Posted on February 1, 2010 – 6:59 PM | by OldManFoster
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By William Burg   Photos courtesy of the Center for Sacramento History

In 1887, real estate developer Edwin Alsip subdivided the 230-acre William Doyle ranch into 56 whole and partial blocks and gave the subdivision the name “Oak Park,” named after an eight-acre oak grove at its center.

This grove became the neighborhood park, and the terminus of the Central Street Railway streetcar line, also owned by Alsip’s firm, which connected Oak Park to downtown Sacramento. The streetcar was originally horse-drawn; in 1891 horses were replaced by electric trolleys. The main artery through the new subdivision was Sacramento Avenue, a 100 foot wide boulevard for both wagons and streetcars, now known as Broadway.

Alsip’s subdivision was not immediately successful. The first purchasers were real estate speculators, who held the vacant properties to sell later. Early advertising boasted “No City Taxes!” but this also meant no city services, like water or sewers. A recession in 1893 also slowed real estate sales. The first business established in Oak Park was Steen’s Bar, opened in 1892 as the Electric Railroad Exchange due to its location across from the streetcar terminus by the park.

Between 1900 and 1910, economic conditions improved and Oak Park attracted residents and businesses. In 1906, the California State Fairgrounds were moved to the far side of Oak Park on Stockton Boulevard, and in 1910, the Central California Traction Co. (CCT) brought another streetcar line to Oak Park. The low cost of Oak Park lots drew many working people, but not many middle-class or wealthy buyers. Many residents soon decided that growing problems with sewage and inadequate water supplies outweighed the advantage of no city taxes. By 1909, Oak Park businesses began a move to incorporate Oak Park as part of Sacramento, with broad neighborhood support, and in 1911, Oak Park and other nearby neighborhoods were annexed to the City of Sacramento.

Before World War II, most people in Oak Park were of European ethnicity, although African Americans and Mexican Americans were present in the neighborhood. George Dunlap, an African American cook who learned his trade in Southern Pacific’s dining cars, moved to Oak Park in 1906, when the property near his house (at 4322 4th Avenue) was still mostly strawberry fields. Dunlap turned his culinary skill into a string of restaurants, including a diner at the California State Fairgrounds and dining car service for the Sacramento Northern Railway’s passenger trains and their Suisun Bay ferry Ramon. In 1930 he turned his house into Dunlap’s Dining Room, legendary for its Southern cooking and hospitality until it closed in 1968.

Steen's Bar was a neighborhood institution form 1892 until it closed in 1969

After World War II, many more African Americans moved to Oak Park. This reflected their increased number in Sacramento generally, but also Oak Park’s availability to nonwhites when many other suburbs were racially restricted. This process was intensified by the displacement of many African Americans from the “West End” neighborhood of downtown Sacramento (the area now occupied by Capitol Mall, Interstate 5, Old Sacramento and the O Street pedestrian mall) by urban renewal. In 1957, the Shiloh Baptist Church, an African-American congregation dating back to the Gold Rush, relocated to Oak Park from Sixth and P. Other social organizations followed the relocated residents, like the Women’s Civic Improvement Club (WCIC) in 1966.

George Seabron began selling real estate to Sacramento’s African-American community in 1958. He worked with the NAACP and the Urban League working for fair housing, and was active in Democratic politics, running campaigns for Governor Edmund G. “Pat” Brown and Hubert Humphrey. In 1969, Seabron and partners purchased a grocery store at 2949 35th Street, intending to provide not only foodstuffs but training and jobs for the community. One of Seabron’s partners in this project was Robert Tyler, the leader of CORE (Congress of Racial Equality) in the 1960s, Executive Director of the Sacramento City and County Human Rights Commission, and a founder of the National Association of Black Social Workers.

Oak Park’s economic health declined after World War II. The streetcar lines that carried workers downtown stopped in 1947, and in the 1950s and 1960s, many of the jobs that sustained neighborhood residents disappeared as Sacramento’s central city became less industrialized. Many older businesses closed or moved, and while some were replaced by new African American owned businesses or businesses relocating from the old West End  many storefronts simply went empty. Just as Oak Park asserted its new cultural identity as an African American neighborhood, it was cut off from the rest of town by the construction of Interstate 50 and Highway 99.

Yet, even as the neighborhood suffered decay, cultural institutions like the Belmonte Art Gallery (see page 24), the African American interest newspaper The Sacramento Observer, and the Guild Theatre (an art-film theater and later a live music venue) thrived. The Sacramento Black Panthers provided tutoring, legal aid, and their signature free breakfast program for school children. But problems that accompany poverty increased. Racial tensions, including issues of police-community relations, ran high. These pressures came to a boiling point on June 16, 1969, in a confrontation between Oak Park residents and police, the Oak Park Riots. In 1970, the shooting of a police officer resulted in the arrest of four Sacramento Black Panther Party members, known as the Oak Park Four, who were acquitted after an eight month trial.  A spate of Urban Renewal demolitions of many of Oak Park’s business buildings symbolized the neighborhood’s economic decline, but its character as a working-class neighborhood has never fully faded.

Broadway had 3 sets of streetcar tracks- these are still visible at 2nd Avenue and 34th and Broadway

More recently, Oak Park has become the focus of urban revitalization. Restoration of the Guild Theatre and Lewis Building were early signs of Oak Park’s recovery, but the current recession has stalled development just as it did in the 1890s. However, in the 1890s Oak Park was outside the city, and largely undeveloped. Today, Oak Park’s wealth rests in its culture, its historic buildings, and its people. The Oak Park Neighborhood Association advocates for responsible neighborhood development, organizations like the WCIC and the Sacramento Observer newspaper are just a few of Oak Park’s long-standing institutions, and the restored Guild complex is replacing its recently closed Starbucks franchise with the locally owned Old Soul Coffeehouse. The city of Sacramento has approved a new master plan for McClatchy Park and is preparing to approve portions of Oak Park as historic districts. This one-time suburb has become an indelible part of our city’s identity, and despite the economic obstacles in its path, shows no sign of surrender.

Author’s note: Much of the information in this article was taken from a walking tour of Oak Park created by Sacramento State University geography professor Robin Datel. The full tour and accompanying map is accessible online at www.sacramentoheritage.org.

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  1. 15 Responses to “A Brief History of Oak Park”

  2. avatar

    By norma on Oct 23, 2011 | Reply

    thank you for this, it gives me hope that it will get better

  3. avatar

    By Jessica on Jan 25, 2012 | Reply

    Thank you for this article. I became a resident of Oak Park in 2007. Im in love with the essence of this community. I m inspired to stir up my neighborhood to brighten up our streets!

  4. avatar

    By Fred Silberstein on May 6, 2012 | Reply

    MY DAD HAD A BUTCHER SHOP IN OAK PARK CALLED “PEOPLES MARKET”. HE OPENED HIS MARKET ON APRIL 1, 1919 AND CLOSED HIS MARKET IN THE YEAR 1966.2949 35TH ST. WAS THE ADDRESS AND WAS JUST A FEW DOORS DOWN TOWARD MCCLATCHY PARK, FROM THE CALIFORNIA THEATRE. I REMEMBER WHEN THE OAK PARK THEATER WAS CALLED “THE VICTORIA THEATRE. EVERYTHING WAS CREDIT FOR THE MOST PART AS IT WAS DURNG THE GREAT DEPRESSION AND CARRIED ON FOR SEVERAL YEARS FOLLOWING. BLODGETTS ICE CREAM PARLOR WAS PRESENT, JIM BOWEN HARDWARE, COHEN’S BAR, BOONES’ STORAGE AND TRNSFER ETC. AT ONE TIME THERE WERE 5 BUTCHER SHOPS IN OAK PARK. OAK PARK PARADES WERE ALWAYS POPLAR DURING 4TH OF JULY. I WORKED FOR ARATA BROS. AS A BUTCHER FOR 12 PLUS YEARS AND LOVED ESTHER’S BAKERY.
    FRED

  5. avatar

    By Monique on Jul 12, 2013 | Reply

    I’ve lived in Oak park since 2006 and I’ve driven past 4322 4th Ave just about everyday. Today I found out that this is a HISTORICAL BUILDING with a very cool story. Thanks for writing a little bit about Dunlap’s Dining Room. I wish I could find more about it…

  6. avatar

    By Don Monkerud on Sep 3, 2013 | Reply

    I’m rewriting about my college years and recall working int he basement of a large department store at Christmas time as Santa Claus in 1964. None of the kids noticed I was only 19. Also recall seeing avant garde films at Guild Theater, the art house of Sacramento; saw the Pawnbroker there as well as Lorna. Lastly if anyone ever reads this, does anyone remember the beat coffee house in an alley in Oak Park. Did it have a name? Hip black guys with beards read poetry and listened to Bob Dylan and blues. Changed my life… don Monkerud, please email me at monkerud@cruzio.com

  7. avatar

    By Old Man Foster on Sep 3, 2013 | Reply

    Don, you might be thinking of the Belmonte Gallery: http://www.midtownmonthly.net/art/memories-of-belmonte/

  8. avatar

    By Connie on Nov 6, 2014 | Reply

    My mom and her 5 siblings(the Kirchgaters)grew up in Oak Park on 12th Ave & 42nd St. They all graduated from Sac High. My mom and dad met at the little hamburger stand that was on the corner of 12th & MLK Blvd. Do any of you remember when it was called “SACRAMENTO BLVD”? After they changed the name of the street to MLK, is when the neighborhood really went down hill. Me and my 4 brothers and sisters (the Wakefields) grew up on 14th Ave & 41st St, but after my great-aunt, Anna Kirchgater,(a teacher and principal at Anna Kirchgater Elementary School),passed away, my uncle sold the property and the new owner built a HUGE CHURCH on the property. I went to Oak Ridge Elementary then Peter Lassen Jr High and although I liked the community in whole, I hated the bullying everyday by the black kids!

  9. avatar

    By Jim Lewis on Dec 20, 2014 | Reply

    Re: Fred Silberstein, Peoples Market

    I have searched(on and off), for various articles on ‘Oak Park’…missed this one. Hope you or family read this.

    I still fondly remember your father. As a kid who grew up in Oak Park, his butcher shop was the one my family used. As I recall, the floor behind the meat display case was covered with sawdust. Your father seemed to be working everyday. He would always give me a ‘weiner sausage’…my treat for the day. He seemed to be such a caring and gentle man. This period was from 1941.

    I have been trying..while my memory is still working..to lay out many of the stores our great community had.

    The only site/article I have found, has a number of stores, but certainly not complete. ie: Palladays grocery, down from Peoples Market on corner 5th ave cross from the park.

    Oak Park Theatre was owned,(at time) by Cy Graves. The California was owned by T&D theatres and managed by Kay Naify. I started as a ‘poster changer boy’ and later became a asst. mgr. I was there until the theatre burned in 1957.
    The other asst.mgr. working that night was Benny Pine.

    I lived with my parents over on 34th st across from the library. and next to Rileys Tavern.

    Enough nostalgia for now…before everyone dozes off.

    Anyone out there with memories, please respond.

  10. avatar

    By Jim Lewis on Dec 25, 2014 | Reply

    Re: Connie

    My time was a bit earlier. ‘Sacramento Blvd’ was all I ever knew..was out of area by the time it became ‘MLK’.

    I attended Stanford Jr. on Sacto Blvd and American Legion elementary, which backed up to Broadway and Sacto.

    I remember spending a whole lot of time at Karls Drive-in at Broadway and Sacto. Also the Stanford Market across street and down a block from Stanford. Was that ‘Hamburger stand’ across from the market?

    I elected to attend McClatchy High.

    Happy Holidays to all.

  11. avatar

    By Mike Munson on Feb 3, 2015 | Reply

    The area around Sacramento Blvd was deteriorating long before it was renamed MLK

  12. avatar

    By dailey shenavai on May 24, 2015 | Reply

    woah. i go to Oak Park High School now and its just kind of interesting to see how the town used to be.

  13. avatar

    By Marilyn Parker on Dec 6, 2015 | Reply

    I grew up on the corner of 41st and Y Streets and went to American Legion grammar school, Stanford Junior High and Sacramento High School in the ’50s. When I was young I loved going to the pool in McClatchy Park and walking to the library. I remember putting pennies and nails on the streetcar tracks that traveled down 2nd Avenue and rode the streetcar to downtown many times. We always dressed up to go downtown in those days. Many evenings in summer we would sit on our front porch and watch the fireworks during the California State Fair as the fairgrounds were just a few blocks from our home.While in high school, we would congregate at the Carnation Ice Cream Company after school for a soda. It was across from the County Hospital (now U C Davis Med Center)

  14. avatar

    By John Fuentes on Mar 1, 2016 | Reply

    i live there around the same time i am 61 years old i live next to the law school in the big white house.

  15. avatar

    By Laro Lance Nicol on May 20, 2016 | Reply

    I spent the earliest years of my childhood growing up in the Oak Park area. I lived on Miller Way, in a two story house that sat behind another house. I attended K-3 at Coloma Elementary School, before the freeway. I would buy penny candy at the corner market about two blocks from my house. It was called the Early bird Market. The thing is, I always knew I was taking a chance of being bullied if I crossed the imaginary divide that was the street between where I lived, and the Early Bird market. I didn’t know that I was poor, only that I was young and sometimes being a white kid didn’t set well with other kids in the neighborhood. I had friends of every ethnicity. I had to attend catechism at the local Catholic church located across the street and very near to Sacramento High School. I would hang out at the vacant lot next to the Coca Cola bottling company. Blueberry bushes grew along side the building, and if we were fortunate enough to have a nickle, we could get a bottle of soda in the reception office. The old State fairgrounds and the Sacramento Junior museum. I visited the Junior Museum so often that when they began charging for admittance, the staff would wave me in gratis. I once climbed the stairs to the top of the old State Fairgrounds racetrack grandstands. I then belly crawled to the edge of the roof overlooking the track. I was only 7 or 8 years old at the time. There is so much more of the time I spent growing up there. Through the fog of memory I still believe it was the most incredible place to be a kid.

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