Curtis Park history book available for purchase

By Dan Murphy
Special to the Viewpoint

"Sacramento's Curtis Park," an Arcadia Publishing pictorial history book, will be available starting Oct 10. It is the latest in the Images of America series, which has already produced works on Oak Park, Land Park, and East Sacramento.

The book has five chapters showing the history of the Curtis Park neighborhood. It begins with the farms and ranches of the 1850s and traces them through the streetcar suburbs developed before and after the turn of the century. The fourth chapter addresses the early automobile suburbs of the 1920s and the last chapter looks at the changes in our landscape since then.

The book contains 224 documents and photographs from bygone days with historical commentary. The largest block of photos was obtained from the Sacramento Archives and Museum Collection Center. However, many of the most interesting came from the descendants of William Curtis, our neighborhood's namesake. Many others also helped out, most prominently, Ivey Lambert, whose father, Richard Ruiter, built many area homes, including the one shown on the book's cover.

I have assigned the royalties for the book to the Sierra Curtis Neighborhood Association (SCNA) and it has purchased a number of copies of the book. These will be made available for sale at neighborhood events as a fund raiser for the association. Copies can also be purchased at the Sierra 2 office during business hours.

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