national register nomination for boulevard park historic

used for recreation and neighborhood functions. The individual parks are described in the property
descriptions below.
Grant Park
Grant Park, the city block bounded by B, C, 21st and 22nd Street, has one building located on it, a
bathroom and storage room built in 1971, at its northeast corner, a baseball diamond with backstop
(construction date unknown) in the northwest corner, and a playground at the southeast corner built in
2006. The lot was one of twelve lots indicated as public squares by John Sutter Jr. as part of the survey
conducted by William Warren of the United States Topographical Engineers. The lot became part of the
State Agricultural Society’s racetrack in 1868. When first subdivided, this block was designated to be sold
as subdivided homes, but due to previous claims upon the land, including its original designation as a
public square and multiple court cases regarding its ownership, the Park Realty company returned the block
to the city of Sacramento to become a city park.
Building Lots and Building Types Within the District
Buildings within the district boundary vary in a predictable pattern. The southernmost four blocks of the
district, between F, H, 20th and 22nd, contain the largest lots (5000-6400 square feet, with street frontage
of 50-60 feet) with the highest prices and the greatest level of deed restriction, including the $2500
minimum price requirement for the houses built on the lot. Thus, these blocks feature more architectdesigned
and visually dramatic buildings. They were also built earlier than much of the rest of the
neighborhood. Original prices ranged from $1375 to $1725 per lot. According to the Covenants, Codes and
Restrictions, all of the buildings in this section of the district were to be single-family homes. Several
duplexes and apartment buildings were built in this section, but all were buildings of similar scale and
architectural quality to the single-family homes in that section of the district.
The middle portions of the district, from south of the alley between B and C Street to F Street, were
generally smaller lots with less street frontage (2800-6400 square feet with street frontage of 40 feet.)
Prices ranged from $225 to $800 per lot, with the most expensive units closer to F Street. Units along the
west side of 22nd Street south of F Street also had 40 foot street frontage and prices between $575 and
$1050, with lots as high as $1200 facing H Street along 23rd. Buildings in this section are smaller than the
southernmost blocks, although many feature a high level of architectural detail. Buildings along 20th Street,
closest to the railroad tracks between 19th and 20th, are generally the smallest and most eclectic in style.
Some of the buildings in the middle portion of the district were built as duplexes or apartments, and some
were originally single-family homes that were subdivided into apartments. Many were used as boarding
houses, but most have since been converted back into single-family homes. Many buildings within the
district have elevated ground floors, typically 6-8’ off the ground, and a large number of these buildings
have converted the below-floor space into a second unit. In some cases, the entire building was raised in
order to create a full-height ground floor, but some are not raised and the lower apartment has a ceiling of
substandard height, or the basement has been dug out to accommodate a garage or apartment. This adaptive
use of the building is reflective of the later portion of the neighborhood’s period of significance, when the
need for affordable housing near Sacramento’s central city was great enough to encourage property owners
to subdivide single-family homes into apartments. In cases where this conversion of the building does not
significantly disrupt the architectural integrity of the building, single-family buildings converted to duplex
or apartment use are reflective of the neighborhood context and generally remain contributors to the
district.
Foursquares, bungalows and row houses, in an eclectic mixture of Craftsman, Classical Revival, Colonial
Revival and Prairie styles, were the first buildings in the district. Of the 295 building lots in the district, 162
were constructed between 1905 and 1915. Seventy-four were built between 1916 and 1946, the end of the
period of significance. Past 1920 and through the 1940s, houses were smaller and built in the California
Bungalow, Tudor Revival, Spanish Colonial Revival and Minimal Traditional styles. Four pre-1905 houses
61