Sacramento's Midtown, California (Images of America Series)

As Sacramento's neighborhoods grew eastward from Fifteenth Street to Thirty-first Street (later Alhambra Boulevard), the area evolved into a complex mix of housing and businesses known as Midtown. Sutter's Fort was still popular, and community groups like the Native Sons of the Golden West restored its last remnants for future generations. In 1927, the city built Memorial Auditorium, a tribute to fallen soldiers, as a large central venue that continues to serve as an important setting for graduations, concerts, and conventions. The J and K Street business corridors expanded from downtown, and identifiable neighborhoods such as Poverty Ridge, Boulevard Park, and New Era Park developed as people settled and established businesses in these growing areas. Today's Midtown supports numerous Victorian mansions and Craftsman bungalows, as well as the legacies of such employers as the California Almond Growers' Exchange, California Packing Corporation, Buffalo Brewery, Sutter Hospital, and the Sacramento Bee newspaper.

An expert team from the Sacramento Archives and Museum Collection Center and the Historic Old Sacramento Foundation has carefully mined its own photographic repository, unearthing pictorial treasures to create this visual journey through time. They add an informative and entertaining narrative to describe Sacramento's rapidly changing Midtown.