The city’s original street level can be seen below a section of the K Street Mall in this 2007 photograph. Photo by Lance Armstrong

Editor’s Note: This is part eight in a series about the history of the Sacramento River.

In the last article of this series, longtime Pocket resident Barbara Lagomarsino described how she became interested in the raising of the streets of Sacramento – an undertaking that created the city’s mysterious underground.
Raising the streets was far from a simple endeavor. The board of trustees of Sacramento City supported the raising of the streets and assumed the obligation to provide the necessary materials. In this case, thousands of yards of soil were to be deposited along streets in front of buildings.
Lagomarsino wrote: “Property owners were responsible for readying the length of streets, fronting on their property, for receiving the fill. Dirt was to be deposited along the streets to depths of about 10 feet, and such vast quantities of earth could not be left in heaps.”
The piles of soil would soon become piles of mud.
Continuing, Lagomarsino wrote: “To contain the dirt, each property owner arranged individually to have a brick bulkhead wall built at the edge of the street line in front of his property. The bulkheads extended from the ground up to the established grade, to which leveled dirt would later be piled in the street.”
Many of these brick bulkheads are still visible in Old Sacramento and whenever there is construction in the core downtown area.
The task of the business owner could seem arduous and expensive, but Lagomarsino wrote: “In the autumn of 1866, a bulkhead was built to high grade for only $3 a running foot.”
And while some of the bulkheads have collapsed, many are still standing more than 150 years later.
But the task of raising a building above the bulkheads was never easy.
Lagomarsino recounted the story of the St. George Hotel, which was raised in 1866.
“Two hundred and fifty (jackscrews) were put into place under that job in early August. It was about two weeks before work on the $7,450 contract was begun. By October, the whole job was finished; 160 feet by 76 feet, weighing about 1,900 tons, the building had been raised 8 feet (with very little damage inside and out).”
These massive modifications to the city’s structures also affected the infrastructure. The soil brought in to raise the streets covered fire hydrants and buried water lines beneath several feet of new soil; this made it difficult for the fire department to respond effectively. And if a water line broke, service was interrupted to the entire city.
Lagomarsino wrote, “In October 1865, a water line under newly raised 2nd Street broke.
Without warning, all water in the city was turned off at 5 o’clock in the evening.”
But it was not only underground water pipes that were affected. Because the streets were raised, buildings could not get proper water pressure from the old delivery system. In August 1867, the city water tank had to be raised 5 feet in order to provide enough pressure to carry water as high as four floors.
Lagomarsino’s research revealed that “most businesses were closed during the raising of their buildings. However, not all buildings were vacated while they were being raised.
In 1864, a wooden tenement in the Chinese section of town in (sic) I Street, between 2nd and 3rd (streets) was being raised during gale winds when it toppled over, scattering its occupants as it fell.”
Ultimately, Lagomarsino’s research concluded “such catastrophes were extremely rare. Most buildings were raised without problems and stood solidly afterwards.”
But even in the 19th century, buyers had to beware of nefarious and unscrupulous contractors who could not complete the jobs that they promised they would finish at certain arranged times.
Lagomarsino told the story of a house that was owned by Mary Esqueval on the block bounded by 2nd, 3rd, K and L streets.
Esqueval had arranged for a builder named Joel Johnson to raise her home and make elaborate changes that would significantly upgrade the beauty and condition of the house.
“The whole process was to take two weeks. The total cost was $500 in gold and silver, $100 to be paid when the screws were set, $200 more when the brickwork and sidewalks were finished and the final $200 when the job was completed. Unfortunately, the work was not so craftsmen-like as the agreement suggested it would be. He did not finish the work and she had to hire someone to raise the kitchen as well as to repair damage caused by raising the main house. All doors had to be re-hung; the whole house had to be painted and papered; the roof on the main building had to be fixed; and various other jobs had to be finished. The house settled several inches and developed cracks within a few months after he left the job. Both water and gas pipes were injured. Johnson had obviously not satisfied this customer.”
Shoddy construction was not the only problem with raising Sacramento.
While the responsibility of the city and the property owners was outlined in the raising of the streets and buildings, it was never clearly defined.
For instance, the sidewalks became the responsibility of the individual property owner. Hence, the completion of sidewalks at building level was very inconsistent.
In some cases, the sidewalks were not completed and a gapping hole existed in front of the building.
In other cases, the sidewalks were completed to street level, but the buildings had not yet been raised.
Lagomarsino wrote: “Under the best of conditions, a walk through Sacramento’s rising downtown area could be a hazardous up and down affair, especially at night. Among complaints, made editorially by local papers about dangerous sidewalks during the years of raising was one when a man fell 12 feet off a sidewalk to a vacant lot below. Another one, a man fell off a raised sidewalk onto an unraised street, and another when a man, ‘said to be perfectly sober’ following a sidewalk under construction, walked off the end of it and fell 9 or 10 feet onto the sidewalk below.”
All of this integrated construction to raise the city in order to achieve flood protection took several years and during those years, the streets were a perilous obstacle course for pedestrians and horse-drawn vehicles. Even today, the dangers of Sacramento’s underground are still visible even if the surface barriers have been gone for more than 150 years.
By 1873, the grading, raising and reconstruction was finished.
The lives of the citizenry and businesses had been disrupted for a decade. But was it worth it to the residents of Sacramento?
The answer may be found in the fact that Sacramento has not experienced any of the devastating floods that were common before the raising of the city and the creation of the underground.
The indomitable city once again displayed its courage, creativity and cooperation in the face of natural disaster.
But is the big flood still coming? The next article of this series will address the ultimate conclusion of the threat from hydraulic mining, some dangers that threatened severe damaged, the introduction of more modern mechanisms for flood control and the efforts of citizens and government agencies to partner in the control of rising waters.
Evidence of the Sacramento underground is still visible in many places and the Sacramento History Museum at 101 I St. in Old Sacramento now offers guided tours of some areas of the abandoned lower city.
Tickets are currently on sale on Saturdays and Sundays from 10 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. and tours leave every half hour. Beginning June 1, tours will be offered daily.
The costs of the tours are $15/adults and $10/youth, 6 to 17 years old.
For additional information regarding these tours, call (916) 808-7059.

The original street level of downtown Sacramento can be seen at the old Fulton’s Prime Rib Restaurant site at 906 2nd St. in Old Sacramento. Photo by Lance Armstrong

Editor’s Note: This is part six in a series about the history of the Sacramento River.

Within a quarter century of its founding, flooding had become the bane of Sacramento. It was a city born out of convenience rather than vision.
From 1839 to 1849, the area was known as “Sutter’s Embarcadero.”
According to local historian Barbara Lagomarsino’s essay, entitled “Sacramento on the Rise,” “A man named McVickar proposed around this time (1848) to build a grogshop right on the river bank – but in the limbs of a sycamore tree, about twenty feet up” and that “access was to be by ladder or canoe, whichever circumstances preferred.”
Sacramento City, as Sacramento was known during its earliest years, was founded by John A. Sutter, Jr., who despite his father’s wishes, established the town at the confluence of the two rivers, instead of on higher ground.
The more visionary John Sutter, Sr. had already planned a city, complete with engineered docks and canals in the more appropriate location of the current William Land Park area.
But the selected location of Sacramento City offered a sandbar that precluded the need for docks and piers. It also left the new city vulnerable to seasonal inundations.
The building of levees, the filling of creeks and the rechanneling of watercourses only set the stage for one of the most ambitious flood control efforts ever attempted.
The indomitable city now had the indomitable task of literally raising its streets above the level of serious flooding.
This endeavor would take time, money and a cooperative effort of paramount proportions.
Since prehistoric times, humans recognized that erecting their housing upon stilts could provide protection from rising waters.
But the concept of raising a large section of the city, including businesses that required walk-up traffic, was a challenge of unparalleled proportions.
The project began simply enough as businesses raised their buildings to protect their valuable merchandise.
The problem then became that a city built upon banks of mud was without sidewalks. And customers, during the muddy winter months and the searing heat of summer, had to trudge up flights of stairs just to reach entrances.
A solution was required that could accommodate customers and protect inventory and citizens from floods.
Stilts solved the problem of protecting the businesses from floods, but one still required a boat to go shopping during the rainy seasons.
The stilts were an insipient beginning, but the ultimate salvation was found in raising the city streets as much as about 15 feet and abandoning the first floor entrances in the business district.
Essentially, Sacramento was to become a city built upon a city.
In addition to stilts, in the 1850s, some street levels were modestly and independently raised on a business to business basis.
But it took the flood of 1861-62 for the citizenry to come to the conclusion that a massive street raising, fortification of buildings and a reconstruction of the sewer system was necessary.
The optimum level to which the streets would have to be raised for protection from flooding equal to the great flood of 1861-62 was referred to as “high grade.” This level varied from a few feet on the edges of the flood prone area to as much as 15 feet in the central business district.
According to an article, entitled “The Uptown Underground,” in the February 1998 issue of Comstock’s magazine, a March 18, 1862 vote determined that the grade level of J Street would be raised two feet above the high-water mark. The motion passed with only two dissenting votes.
And in Lagomarsino’s aforementioned article, she wrote: “Finally, in February 1863, the supervisors passed an ordinance establishing the official street grades of Sacramento’s business district well above all previous high-water marks. This monumental endeavor required a public/private cooperative effort of unprecedented magnitude for the young city.”
In the July 18, 1969 edition of The Sacramento Union, historian Ted Baggelman, in an article regarding the development of the K Street Mall, referred to the 1860s cooperative effort, as follows: “The city pledged to fill in between the bulkheads to the necessary level, pave the street, and construct curbs. The merchants obligated themselves to pay the construction costs for the portion of the eight foot bulkhead in front of his establishment, and bear the costs of raising or altering his building and restoring the sidewalk at the new street level.”
The impact and effect of raising the city’s streets was much more complex than simply hauling in soil and tamping it. It became a complex integration of altering buildings and the water and sewer systems, paving streets, and building sidewalks.
On Jan. 1, 1867, The Union published an article regarding this redevelopment.
It was noted in the article that some streets “have been raised to the ‘high grade’ on the level with the embankments on the waterfront, which necessitates building of bulkheads and raising or reconstructing buildings; and in many cases old buildings have been torn down and new ones built to correspond with the improvements around them.”
The article also mentioned that “the Pacific Railroad Company have (sic) also entered upon the work of filling up Sutter Slough, north of I Street, and grading the ground from First Street to Sixth (Street), for the purpose of erecting thereon buildings for machine shops, car manufactories, etc.” These are the same buildings in the “railyards” area that the city and state are preserving and developing as part of the California State Railroad Museum.
Building owners were forced to decide whether their structures were worth saving or how they could be adapted.
Baggelman considered the owners’ consternation, as he wrote: “Pity the poor merchant who had to move his store up to the second floor, which then became the first floor; or worse yet, the property owner who decided to have his building raised (to the new level), which, at one inch a day took four months to reach the required eight feet.”
An apparatus known as a “jackscrew” was the preferred method of raising buildings, and it was not always an easy or successful endeavor.
In Lagomarsino’s article, she mentioned a raised tenement structure that was on jackscrews in the Chinese section of town, and notes that it collapsed during high winds in 1864.
She also referred to an annex of the Union Hotel, which was located on 2nd Street, between J and K streets, as follows: “(The annex was) perched on dozens of jackscrews, eight feet above the ground, waiting for a new foundation. Before that could be supplied, however, in the middle of the night, most of the building collapsed, leaving a jumble of furniture, bricks and fixtures piled around the jackscrews.”
Fortunately, most of the buildings were raised without incident; although, the process could be expensive when performed by professionals.

Pocket area resident Jan Wilson is in her 10th year of collecting and distributing clothing and blankets to members of the homeless community of Sacramento. / Valley Community Newspapers photo, Lance Armstrong

Known by this title in different parts of the city, “the extra layer of clothing lady” has developed a positive reputation for her assistance to the homeless community of the Sacramento area.

In her everyday life, this person is Pocket area resident Jan Wilson. But during various nights during the winter months, she serves a different role under this earned title.

Decade of collecting

For the past 10 years, Wilson has been aggressively collecting “cast-off,” used clothing and blankets and distributing these articles directly to the less fortunate of society who are in need of additional warmth during cold nights.

Wilson, a fifth generation Sacramentan and a 1983 graduate of John F. Kennedy High School, recently described the events that led to her decision to assist the homeless community in this manner.

“After many accounts of being asked for money from panhandlers, I started carrying around extra layers of clothing during the wintertime, so when somebody asked me for ‘spare change,’ I would be able to offer them something more viable as an alternative,” Wilson said. “As a result, my car became a beacon for the homeless. At times, when I am in the Land Park area, for example, I have come out to my car only to find someone waiting for me in order to ask me if I had any clothing to give away.”

The items of clothing accepted for the project are sweatshirts, flannel shirts, sweaters, jackets, scarves, shoes and matching or mismatching socks that can be repurposed as gloves.

Jan Wilson places a bag filled with donated clothing and blankets in the back of the car that she uses to transport these and other donated items to people in need. / Valley Community Newspapers photo, Lance Armstrong

The majority of the donated clothing, as well as blankets, for her project, Wilson stressed, is distributed for the purpose of providing “upper body warmth.”

Initially, Wilson collected clothing from her own closet, as well as from the closets of her friends and family members.

Wilson said that because she had exhausted her resources amongst her friends and family by her fourth year of collecting extra layers of clothing and blankets, she found it necessary to find other avenues to collect such donations.

Clothing & blanket drop offs

Fortunately for Wilson, she discovered three local businesses that were willing to comply with her request to become a drop-off point for anyone who was interested in assisting with the clothing and blankets donation portion of her project. These businesses are: Pocket Club at 5043 Freeport Blvd., XO Lounge at 1400 Broadway and Brownie’s Lounge at 5858 South Land Park Drive.

Dedicated to assisting Wilson with her project, several local business employees and patrons have provided exceptional support through their donations of clothing and blankets at these drop-off points.

These people include: bartenders Susie Roberts and Janet Galsote of the Pocket Club at 5043 Freeport Blvd., bartenders Deb McGee and Barbara Galvan of the XO Lounge, bartender Patrick McFarlin of Brownie’s, office manager Tammy Smith and real estate agents Violet Reed and Natalie Feirl of Century 21 Real Estate at 354 Florin Road and members of Elks Lodge No. 6 at 6446 Riverside Blvd. and patrons of the Flame Club at 2130 16th St.

Jan Wilson inspects a jacket that was donated to her project to warm the homeless during cold winter nights. / Valley Community Newspapers photo, Lance Armstrong

Providing names of most contributors to her project is not so simple, Wilson notes, considering that about 90 percent of the clothing and blankets for the project are anonymously donated.

Galvan, who resides in midtown Sacramento, said that she is pleased to have the XO Lounge serve as one of the project’s drop-off points.

“(Wilson) came in (to the XO Lounge) and asked if it was okay if we put a box here for the clothes and naturally, we said, ‘Yes,’” Galvan said. “I think it’s a wonderful thing what (Wilson) is doing. A lot of customers have donated to (the project). She’ll be giving (the clothes and blankets) out during the holidays. It’s like a little gift for a lot of people.”

Pocket resident Judy Willis is among the locals who have enjoyed assisting Wilson in her efforts to present homeless in Sacramento with warm clothing and blankets.

“I donated a jacket, because the color wasn’t right,” Willis said. “I admire (Wilson) for her spirit, her effort and I plan to give more (clothing).”

Wilson said that she is extremely grateful to the many people in the community who have assisted her with her project.

“I couldn’t have been able to help out so many people in need without the overwhelming generosity of the community,” Wilson said. “For that, I am truly thankful and blessed.”

With the assistance of the drop-off points, local contributors and word of mouth advertising, the process of Wilson’s distribution operation begins every October.

By November, Wilson’s donation collections for the project are in full swing.

Each year, Wilson hopes to have a sufficient supply of clothing and blankets to make her first round of deliveries by mid-December.

Jan Wilson shows an example of the type of clothing that she is seeking for her project. / Valley Community Newspapers photo, Lance Armstrong

As she has done for the past decade, Wilson, after finding a companion to help her with her deliveries, makes her deliveries using her own transportation and gas money.

Routinely driving a small car to make stops at her drop-off points to pick up donations, Wilson then loads bags and boxes of clothing and prepares them for her deliveries.

Wilson, who makes the majority of her deliveries in downtown Sacramento, said that she delivers warm clothing and blankets to the needy during the coldest nights in the capital city.

“When its 6:30 p.m. at night and I don’t want to go outside because it’s so cold, that’s when I decide that it’s time to bring the clothing out to those on the street who are in need of extra layers of clothing,” Wilson said. “We all have to help each other out in this world. By bringing out the clothing, my hope is that these people (in need) realize that they aren’t just nameless and faceless people and that there are people out there who care about their well-being. I also hope that this effort helps to restore a little bit of faith in human kind.”

lance@valcomnews.com