COMMUNITY ACTIVISM IN OAK PARK: COMPETING AGENDAS ...

Oak Park, an Agricultural Beginning
During 1850 – 1851, the first years of the Gold Rush settlers came to the Oak
Park area, but were unable to establish titles to land they occupied until 1865 when a
United States government survey was completed (Historic Environment Consultants
2003). Settlers set up fences and markers to distinguish their farmland. The soil in the
area was not of high quality and people with modest means were able to afford farmland
in Oak Park. In the 1850s, hay and small grains were largely produced but as the mining
industry dwindled, farmers in the area began to produce more fruits, vegetables, dairy
products, hogs and horses for the growing population of the city of Sacramento. As a
result, one of the areas’ first grape vineyards was started.
The initial development of Oak Park began when an Irish blacksmith, named
William Doyle, bought a 230 acre tract of land and built a house and a bridge from his
house across a canal on 31 st and Y Street (Historic Environment Consultants 2003).
William later sold the ranch land to a real estate promoter, named Edwin Alsip, who had
a vision of developing the land into a small town. Edwin created the Oak Park
Association, which included a select group of ten investors, who divided the land into
parcel blocks and incorporated street names. The Oak Park Association later auctioned
off the lots to real estate speculators and middle-class families. The community later
developed slowly over time and Oak Park became not only Sacramento’s first suburb, it
became the model which Alsip and many other Sacramento area real estate developers
would use in creating subdivisions in the dynamic growth years to come (Historic
Environment Consultants 2003).
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