Neighborhood Service Department Area

Area 1

Neighborhood Association Group

Alkali and Mansion Flats Historic Neighborhood Association

Council District

District 4

Neighborhood Boundaries

Southern Pacific Rail yard on the North; 7th Street and G Street in the South; and 12th and 13th streets on the East and West

Alkali Flat is a neighborhood in Sacramento. The Alkali and Mansion Flats Historic Neighborhood Association (AMFHNA) meets quarterly on the 2nd Thursday of the month from 6-8 PM in January, April, July, & October at the Boys and Girls Club, 1117 G St.

History

Alkali Flat is the oldest remaining neighborhood in Sacramento. Most of the older buildings were built between 1853 and 1869. At that time the most prominent of Sacramento's elite lived here. By the 1920’s, the neighborhood was home to Irish immigrants as well as a growing number of Mexicans. About this time the area got its name due to a white powdery substance that once coated the ground, a result of salt ocean tides that overflowed into the area through Sutter Slough.

By the 1950s the area fell into disrepair and become the focus of redevelopment efforts. Alkali Flat was rezoned C-4 and many businesses moved in such as KCRA Television. The County of Sacramento also used the area to build badly needed office space and a large number of parking lots. Many Latinos moved here at this time after being displaced by redevelopment efforts in the Capitol Corridor and the area now known as Old Sacramento which was "cut off" due to the construction of I5.

In the late 1960's The Royal Chicano Air Force (RCAF) became one of Alkali Flat’s most influential groups.

On February 10, 1972, the Sacramento City Council adopted the 30-year “Redevelopment Plan Alkali Flat Project No 6” and rezoned the area as residential. This began a movement to preserve the history of the area.

During the 1980s the area experienced some drug and gang activity until March 6, 2003 when methamphetamine kingpin Vincent Jackson was arrested and sentenced to serve 240 years.

In the 1990s a number of historic homes were moved to the area by local Booher & Giannini Development, contributing to area gentrification which continues today. The area is designated as historic, it being the City's first neighborhood and its residents are proudly rich in cultural diversity.

2005 - 2009 Redevelopment

The Redevelopment Agency’s five year strategy for Alkali Flat is based on continuing the rehabilitation and revitalization of the area’s vintage residential neighborhoods, supporting commercial uses, and reviving this great neighborhood. This strategy principally focuses on:

• Preserving History: As the area’s first residential enclave, Alkali Flat is rich in historic structures. In addition to the Globe Mills and other historic commercial buildings, the area is home to many distinctive Victorian structures. The Agency will champion the preservation and/or rehabilitation of these one-of-a-kind structures.
• Enhancing the Neighborhood: Another strong focus is to continue to work toward the development of an economically viable area that possesses strong housing stock, new and successful businesses, rehabilitated commercial buildings, and a self-sustaining community structure that can provide a resource base for Alkali Flat residents and business owners. Public and private investments will be encouraged to promote new development in the area while helping enhance existing businesses.

 

History, the long version

From the Alkali Flat/Mansion Flats Strategic Neighborhood Action Plan (SNAP).

The Establishment of Alkali Flat

After a devastating fire in the autumn of 1852, most of Sacramento was destroyed but the Alkali Flat area remained largely unaffected since there were few permanent structures.

Many of the oldest remaining buildings in Alkali Flat today are brick or prefabricated wood homes constructed between 1853 and 1869 for Sacramento’s wealthy elite. The area originally consisted of large lots owned primarily by land speculators, including Peter Burnett, the first governor of California, who received the land as commission while acting as a land sales agent for John Sutter, Jr.

The neighborhood attracted many of Sacramento’s most prominent business, political and social leaders including the fourth governor of California J. Neely Johnson; Supreme Court Justice David Terry; railroad baron Charles Crocker (his home was later used as a hospital for Southern Pacific railroad); saddle and harness factory owner and investor Albert Van Voorhies (also known as “The Prince”); Wells Fargo agent and Fire Department Chief Engineer Issac Miller Hubbard; proprietress of the Orleans Hotel Maria Hastings; tinsmith contractor George Boehme (who supplied the copper roofing for the State Capitol Building); and confection businessman Anthony Egl.

Southern Pacific Hospital, 8th & F St.

In the 1860s, Alkali Flat was a desirable neighborhood due to its proximity to downtown businesses, local churches and schools. Most of the area residents owned businesses in the nearby business district located, J and K Streets and Front Street on the Embarcadero. Some of Sacramento’s earliest churches predated the residential buildings in Alkali Flat and bordered the neighborhood including the First Baptist Church in 1850 on H Street between 6th and 7th and the Kingsley Chapel (known as the H Street Church) in 1855 on H Street between 11th and 12th. Sacramento’s first African American church, St. Andrew’s African Methodist Episcopal Church, was organized in 1850 and located on 7th Street between G and H.

J. Neely Johnson House, 1029 F St.

Alkali Flat was slow to develop its own business district. However, as early as the 1850s some light industry appeared on the edges of the neighborhood close to the American River and the downtown business district. In 1854, a Chinese distillery began operation at 7th and E streets though it was a short-lived enterprise that closed the same year due to the high price of grain.

Three breweries started in the area beginning with the opening of The St. Louis Brewery on 6th and G streets in 1860 and followed by The Capital Brewery and the City Brewery in 1869 on 12th, H and I streets. The California Stage Company also had part of its operation in Alkali Flat in the 1850s. It’s two buildings and yards could manage 40 coaches and more than 200 tons of hay and were located on E St., between 11 and 12th. It was completely destroyed by fire in 1857.

Modernization and Progress: 1870 –1930

An economic boom, industrial growth, the rise of agriculture and modernization spurred by the introduction of electricity and the automobile, marked these decades. The advent of World War I provided Sacramento with entrée into the war economy: local businesses constructed military airplanes and Mather Field Air Base opened. Alkali Flat slowly transformed from a quiet, wealthy enclave to a working class residential area bounded by steel rails and subject to the incessant comings and goings of trains.

Throughout this period, the neighborhood businesses multiplied and new industries were established in Alkali Flat, including a few that remain into the 21st century.

Alkali Flat Businesses Grow During the “Electric Age”

Alkali Flat residents depended on gaslights until the 1880s when two steam-generated electrical plants were constructed near 6th and H streets. After the Folsom power plant was built in 1895 and connected to the powerhouse on H Street, electricity became more affordable. At half the cost of steam electricity, average working people could now enjoy the benefits of hydropower.

By 1884, Sacramento had 23 miles of electric trolley track constructed by the Sacramento Electric Power and Light Company. The G Street line originated at the railroad depot and wound its way around the border of Alkali Flat along 7th Street to G Street and then up G Street to 19th Street. Connections with Alkali Flat/Mansion Flats SNAP other lines running to East Park and Oak Park from downtown, allowed greater mobility between residence and place of work. This greater mobility and the increasing domination of the neighborhood by noisy railroad operations contributed to the first flight of the middle class to newer less crowded suburban areas.

Still, until the early 1900s, the homes and gardens of Alkali Flat were beautifully kept. Picket fences or wrought iron gates lined the streets and were useful in keeping out flocks of sheep and cows that were run through Alkali Flat twice each year. Until the railroad added cattle cars to transport the animals, shepherds from Yolo County ranches crossed the neighborhood en route to 12th Street and the high country each spring for summer feeding and returned again in the fall.

Neighborhood businesses grew to accommodate the larger, more varied population of Alkali Flat. The 1897 Sacramento City Directory indicates that the 12th Street corridor between B and H streets had become almost entirely a commercial area and included two meat markets, a retail liquor store, a steam laundry, a grocery, grain and feed store.

While many of the businesses served the immediate neighborhood, a box manufacturer, carriage and wagon maker, and the Central California Gas Company office served a wider clientele.

There were also many informal, home-based businesses in Alkali Flat including at least ten nurses and music teachers who listed their homes as a business address. Door-to-door merchants sold bread and other goods; there was an ice cream man, fishmonger, tamale seller, rag man, Italian organ grinder and a Chinese “chair-fixem” man who collected wooden and wicker chairs for repair and always returned them to the proper owner without written receipts.

Turn of the Century; Neighborhood Change

The turn of the century marked the establishment of several anchor businesses in Alkali Flat – several of which still operate in 2003. First, the Banta mill began in 1898 behind the owners’ home on D Street (it later moved to 12th Street in 1902). In 1900, the Burnett and Sons mill moved its operations to 13th and B streets.

1900 Burnett & Sons Novelty Wood Works, 13th and B Streets The custom woodworking company was founded in 1869 and became well known for the construction of the solid black walnut staircase in the new State Capitol building (the stairs were later moved to St. Francis Church on K Street). In 1931, the business moved to its current location at 11th Street and continues to operate as a family owned business.

Alkali Flat/Mansion Flats SNAP The Phoenix Milling Company opened what became known as the Globe Mills complex at 12th and C streets in 1913; the flourmill was one of the area’s most successful enterprises. By locating near the railroad, it was easy to ship long distances and the mill supplied markets throughout California and Nevada.

1914 Phoenix Flour Mill, 11th & C St. In 1910, a group of 230 farmers formed a cooperative called the California Almond Growers Exchange. Four years later, they built a receiving and packing plant near the Alkali Flat neighborhood on 18th and C streets and introduced the Blue Diamond label. By the next turn of the century, about 4,000 growers owned the co-op (70% of all California almond growers) and produced more than one-fourth of the world’s annual almond crop.

Crystal Cream and Butter Company, founded in 1901, moved to its still current location at 10th and D streets in 1913. In 1921, Danish immigrant Carl Hansen purchased the company and it remains a family owned business. It later became California’s largest onesite milk-processing facility with distribution centers in Stockton, Yuba City, Antioch, Chico, Arcata and Redding.

1912 Crystal Cream & Butter, Co., 1013 D St. The construction of the 12th Street Bridge over the American River in 1911 connected Sacramento to points north and east and reinforced 12th Street’s commercial corridor. Several of the early businesses serviced carriages and horses and later converted to auto-related services.

New apartment buildings built on lots previously occupied by single-family dwellings also characterized this era. In addition to new construction, builders and speculators began converting large, single-family homes into apartments or demolishing older homes to make way for new.

By 1912, the character of the Alkali Flat neighborhood had completely changed. One former resident recalls that not only were the big houses converted into flats and rooming houses, but also “the fences were down or in disrepair and once-trim gardens were overrun with weeds”.

By the 1920’s, the neighborhood was home to Irish immigrants as well as a growing number of Mexicans. Around this time, the term Alkali Flat came into common use and clearly referred to the Alkali Flat/Mansion Flats SNAP area bisected by 12th Street, extending from the rail lines along G and H streets north to the American River levee and from the railyards east to about 18th Street. Most people attribute the name to a white powdery substance that once coated the ground, a result of salt ocean tides that overflowed into the area through Sutter Slough. An amateur baseball team named the “Alkali Flat Gang” helped popularize the neighborhood name with their exploits on and off the field.

Decline and Renewal: 1930-1972

It is unclear how Alkali Flat fared during the years between the Depression and the immediate post-war period. However, in the 1950’s, many Latinos displaced by the first redevelopment efforts in Sacramento’s West End relocated to Alkali Flat. The neighborhood soon became its own redevelopment area and the center of organizing efforts for the local Chicano movement.

Latinos in the 1940s

Though only about 2,000 Latinos were in Sacramento in the 1940s, the Alkali Flat neighborhood was home to a majority of Latinos living in the Sacramento area. Most Latinos in the area worked in the fields, the railroads and eventually, in the canneries. In 1942, the Latino community began to grow with the introduction of the bracero program - an agreement between the U.S. and Mexican governments to allow Mexican nationals to work on American farms.

Exodus to Alkali Flat

Alkali Flat became the neighborhood of choice primarily due to the availability of affordable housing. Additionally, relocation decisions also were influenced by the area’s proximity to shops and amenities along with racially motivated practices that restricted minority home ownership in the suburbs.

Yet, it was the supply of cheap rentals that most attracted the displaced. In 1970, rentals comprised 81% of the neighborhood’s housing stock, up from 66% in 1950.

During the same time period, the percentage of rental units in Sacramento County’s housing stock decreased from 41% to 39%. Most of the rentals in Alkali Flat were singlefamily homes or two to four unit apartments.

Alkali Flat Redevelopment Project Area 1972-2003

On February 10, 1972, the Sacramento City Council adopted the 30-year “Redevelopment Plan Alkali Flat Project No 6.” The Redevelopment Agency prepared the plan in concert with the interim Alkali Flat Project Area Committee (PAC), a group comprised of local residents and business owners that later incorporated as a nonprofit.

Boys and Girls Club, 1117 G St.

The Federal Neighborhood Development Program (NDP) financed Alkali Flat/Mansion Flats SNAP most of redevelopment activities at this time. Additionally, the Redevelopment Agency was authorized to issue bonds and receive funds generated through tax increment funds. The project allotment for fiscal year 1972-73 was $800,000; these funds were earmarked primarily for land acquisition and demolition. The plan instituted new standards for upkeep and maintenance of properties and changed land use provisions to create new housing.

Other elements of the plan included the revitalization of the 12th Street commercial corridor, the addition of four mini-parks, street closures to reroute traffic, the provision of open space and restoration of historic Victorian homes.

Two Decades of Redevelopment

By 2004, SHRA had assisted with the development of 213 housing units, rehabilitated 145 residential units, implemented the Alkali Flat Historic Infill program and focused on businesses revitalization along the 12th Street corridor.

F Street Town Homes, 13th & F St. Steadily improving economic trends in the Sacramento area, coupled with increased public interest in Central City living, could create redevelopment possibilities for Alkali Flat in the near future. Additionally, the northern extension of Seventh Street to Richards Boulevard, along with the proposed development of the former Southern Pacific Railyards, could stimulate complementary urban infill construction in the Alkali Flat Redevelopment area.

La Valentina Light Rail Station 12th & E St. Tax Increment fund generation in the project area had been relatively flat for several years, and it was unclear what assistance the Agency would be able to offer to larger projects. However, in 2003, the Agency was able to secure $4.2 million bond funds for Alkali Flat which will help considerably with the implementation of projects in the area.

Redevelopment 2005 - 2009

The Redevelopment Agency’s five year strategy for Alkali Flat is based on continuing the rehabilitation and revitalization of the area’s vintage residential neighborhoods, supporting commercial uses, and reviving this great neighborhood. This strategy principally focuses on:

• Prioritizing the Gateway: Recognizing that 12th Street is one of the primary gateways into the downtown core, a major effort is envisioned to capitalize on this on this asset. Strategies envisioned to help improve the Gateway include transit oriented development, provision of additional housing opportunities on 12th Street, and the Alkali Flat/Mansion Flats SNAP renaissance of blighted commercial buildings along the corridor.
• Preserving History: As the area’s first residential enclave, Alkali Flat is rich in historic structures. In addition to the Globe Mills and other historic commercial buildings, the area is home to many distinctive Victorian structures. The Agency will champion the preservation and/or rehabilitation of these one-of-a-kind structures.
• Enhancing the Neighborhood: Another strong focus is to continue to work toward the development of an economically viable area that possesses strong housing stock, new and successful businesses, rehabilitated commercial buildings, and a selfsustaining community structure that can provide a resource base for Alkali Flat residents and business owners. Public and private investments will be encouraged to promote new development in the area while helping enhance existing businesses.
• Housing Program Strategy: The redevelopment strategy for the residential portion of Alkali Flat focuses on retaining and upgrading the area’s historic housing stock, promoting affordable infill development and encouraging quality mixed use developments. Projects such as the La Valentina site is also proposed as a mixed use development that will take advantage its proximity to the light rail station.

Historic Preservation

In recognition of the neighborhood’s historic significance, The City of Sacramento expanded the Historic Preservation zones in the area. This will ensure that future development will complement the areas historic structures and more importantly the expanded zones will protect the existing historic stock.

Neighborhood Profile

As reported by the 2000 Census, the total population within the Alkali Flat SNAP project area is 2,296 people. The racial breakdown of the resident population is reported as follows:

• White- 54%
• Latino or Hispanic- 27%
• Black or African American- 9%
• Asian- 4%
• American Indian or Alaska Native-2%
• Some other race- 4%

Historically, the Alkali Flat neighborhood was home to a substantial Hispanic population; that trend still exists today. Approximately 27% of the residents in the area identified themselves as being Hispanic or Latino. This is higher than the City as a whole, where 21.6% identified themselves as Hispanic or Latino.

The neighborhood also has a high number of rental units. Of the 1,465 Alkali Flat/Mansion Flats SNAP housing units reported in the project area, approximately 10% are owner occupied and 93% renter occupied. The City of Sacramento housing as a whole is approximately 50.1% owner occupied to 49.9% renter occupied, according to the 2000 Census.

The Alkali Flat area has a relatively low number of “family households” (43% of all households) compared to the City at large (59%).

The following table below the age breakdown of the Alkali Flat SNAP population compared to the City as a whole:

• 0- 24 yrs 11.7% 37.6%
• 25- 34 yrs 30.3% 15.6 %
• 35- 44 yrs 17.1% 15.1 %
• 45- 54 yrs 18.5% 12.8 %
• 55- 64 yrs 9.7% 7.4 %
• 65 or older 12.7% 11.5%

Source: 2000 Census

References

http://www.cityofsacramento.org/ns/nadb/org.cfm?orgid=155 http://www.cityofsacramento.org/dsd/planning/long-range/snaps/documents/Final_SNAP_08_30_05.pdf