12/7/08
Datel
Broadway Timeline: the evolution of a restaurant landscape and much more
Notes: this timeline covers Broadway from the Sacramento River to Highway 99. Broadway
was named Y Street until 1938. Items will be added to the timeline during the broadcast
period of “Around the World in Thirty Blocks.”
1849
1878
1911
1917
1918
1920s
1922
1924
1927
1928
1929
1932
1933
1935
1937
1938
1942
1945
1945+
1947
•John Sutter donates 10 acres for the Sacramento City Cemetery in the
vicinity of Y Street, the southernmost street in the original city grid
platted in 1848.
•Mrs. Charles Crockett builds the Bell Conservatory north of Y Street
across from the cemetery to grow flowers for grave decoration.
•The first annexation of land to the City of Sacramento beyond its
original 1848 grid includes the land abutting Y Street to the south,
which will become the Curtis Park and Land Park neighborhoods.
•The Buffalo Recreation Grounds, a baseball stadium, opens at the SE
corner of Y Street and Riverside Boulevard.
•The city directory lists no commercial land uses on this part of Y
Street.
•The levee on which Y Street is located is torn down.
•Y Street and many nearby streets and alleys are paved.
•The baseball stadium becomes Moering Field.
•Christian Brothers High School relocates from 12th and K streets to Y
and 21st streets.
•R. I. Reed at 1101 and Clara Hillman at 1605 operate restaurants.
The Dayenite Bakery is at 1816.
•The Solons baseball team signs a Japanese player to strengthen its
appeal to Japanese-American fans.
•The Y Street Improvement Club is formed.
•The Y Street Improvement Club helps organize the Y Street Bridge
League to advocate for a bridge over the Sacramento River on their
street.
•The Y Street Improvement Club protests the alternative bridge site at
M Street.
•Cardinal Field (earlier renamed from Moering Field) becomes
Doubleday Field.
•Nine people operate restaurants on this stretch of Y Street, all still
identified only by their owner’s names. There are also two doughnut
shops, two bakeries, and several food shops.
•The Tower Theater opens. Y Street is renamed Broadway.
•Sacramento’s first public housing project, New Helvetia, opens on
Broadway west of the cemetery.
•Doubleday Field becomes Edmonds Field.
•Callahan Homes, temporary barracks brought in from Vallejo to
house returning veterans, are installed north of Broadway in the area of
Southside Park’s baseball (now soccer) fields.
•The 15 restaurants and cafes on Broadway are still mostly nameless.
The five with names are Broadway Gardens (829), Dairy Lane
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1948
1949
1950
1955
1957
1959
1960
1961
1964
1965
1967
1968
1972
1975
1976
1990
Fountain (1628), Hoyt’s Doughnut Shop (1816), Club Twenty-Six
Café and Liquors (2530), and Ding How Café (2721).
Edmonds Field burns down.
•Broadway is widened, necessitating the removal of the historic
entryway to the cemetery.
•Edmonds Field, rebuilt in concrete, re-opens.
•Bell Conservatory is torn down and replaced by a supermarket.
•By now the 18 restaurants, cafes, and drive-ins all have names. In
this era of American’s love affair with the car, there are four drive-ins:
Fehr’s Drive-In (501), Tastee Freeze (801), Harvey’s Self-Service
Drive-In (1211), and Foster’s Freeze (2731). There are three Chinese
restaurants. Joe Marty’s El Chico Bar and Restaurant (1500) and
Sam’s Original Ranch Wagon (1817), which will become local
favorites, are here.
•The California Highway Patrol occupies its new headquarters just
south of Broadway (2490 1st Avenue). This is the first of several State
of California office buildings to be built on or near Broadway,
providing local restaurants with lunchtime customers.
•The California Department of Motor Vehicles (2540 24th Street)
occupies a big, modern box in the same complex as the Highway
Patrol. Today, it is likely the second most recognizable structure in the
Broadway vicinity, after the Tower Theater.
•The Sacramento Solons baseball team leaves town.
•The Hong Kong Café (501) moves from 320 L Street to Broadway.
•The baseball field is torn down and Broadway’s only big box retailer,
a Gemco Department Store (2505 Riverside), lands there.
•Christian Brothers High School, built 41 years earlier, is torn down
and Bishop Monogue High School for girls replaces it.
•Drive-in convenience and Chinese food remain popular. The first
representative of the national fast food chains has appeared: Taco Bell
(2431).
•The nearby W-X Freeway opens.
•The dominant ethnic cuisine on Broadway remains Chinese, although
Puerto Vallarta Mexican Food (2700) has opened.
•Pancake Circus has arrived.
•Sam’s Original Ranch Wagon has morphed into the China Wagon
(1827).
•Bishop Monogue High School building is leased by the State of
California as part of the DMV complex.
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