national register nomination for boulevard park historic
national register nomination for boulevard park historic
national register nomination for boulevard park historic
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As a Republican of this era, active in local re<strong>for</strong>m politics since the 1893 charter change, Clinton L. White<br />
was a Progressive as well as a businessman, and his real estate project in Boulevard Park reflected his<br />
social ideals and political affiliation as well as his business interests. As the president of Park Realty, the<br />
corporate body that purchased the Boulevard Park property, Boulevard Park’s organization and design<br />
carried the stamp of Progressive “City Beautiful” ideas.<br />
Charles Wright and Howard Kimbrough, Wright & Kimbrough Realty<br />
Charles E. Wright founded his real estate company in 1894 and took on partner Howard Kimbrough in<br />
1896. They functioned as owner-agent and subdivider <strong>for</strong> many real estate projects within the city of<br />
Sacramento and in the unincorporated county, and diversified their business into city real estate, farmland,<br />
rental and leasing, insurance, building and advertising. In 1904 the firm began colonization of the Florin<br />
area, a project that pioneered ideas of low-cost housing in new developments in the Sacramento region.<br />
Wright & Kimbrough also pioneered constructing houses in their developments on speculation. This<br />
differed from earlier Sacramento developers’ approaches, who generally sold only unimproved lots, leaving<br />
the purchaser to construct a building on the lot. The company had its own design department, and offered<br />
standard designs that could be customized to a customer’s specifications if they selected Wright &<br />
Kimbrough as the house builder. Boulevard Park became Wright & Kimbrough’s first major real estate<br />
development, and their future projects were often based on sales and building models established by the<br />
Boulevard Park development. Many Wright & Kimbrough staff, including salesman Ben Leonard, later<br />
established their own suburban development firms, also using Wright & Kimbrough practices as their<br />
model.<br />
Wright & Kimbrough used an aggressive advertising campaign to promote Boulevard Park. The opening of<br />
sales was promoted as an important public event. Advertising focused on the quality and com<strong>for</strong>t of the<br />
project, especially the City Beautiful features that reflected Progressive housing ideals:<br />
15 Blocks of new houses...<br />
15 Blocks of new cement walks, more than 4 miles…<br />
15 Blocks without one open vault… (open cesspool)<br />
15 Blocks without a front fence…<br />
15 Blocks Highest, Healthiest Land in Sacramento…<br />
15 Blocks Without a Saloon, Exclusively Residences…<br />
12 Blocks of Parked Boulevard…<br />
Nothing like it in Sacramento and never will be.<br />
That is Boulevard Park—Watch it Grow.<br />
Arts & Crafts Movement, Craftsman and Period Revival Architecture<br />
The architecture of Boulevard Park is eclectic, reflecting the fact that most property owners purchased<br />
vacant lots and built homes in styles they preferred, but several factors made Boulevard Park a visually<br />
consistent neighborhood. The deed covenants mandated particular setbacks, minimum sizes and cost<br />
requirements on homes in the featured southern end of the development area. Features constructed prior to<br />
sale, including concrete sidewalks, paved streets, street trees and the <strong>boulevard</strong> median strips, gave the<br />
neighborhood an overall framework, and subsequent houses fit into the framework. Varying lot sizes, with<br />
the largest on the south end and smallest in the north, resulted in gradual differences in building sizes.<br />
Houses constructed over the period of significance reflected the changing tastes in architecture and housing<br />
styles of Sacramento residents across class lines.<br />
The a<strong>for</strong>ementioned City Beautiful features of Boulevard Park gave new residents an aesthetically pleasing<br />
background to build a house, and a minimum cost <strong>for</strong> those houses. As a result, larger houses on the<br />
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