SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- Historic landmarks in Sacramento are meant to enhance the city’s economy, culture and aesthetic.
And a small group of passionate people called SacMod have worked hard for the past three years to get four buildings named as historical landmarks by the city: Gunther’s Ice Cream, the Chase Bank building on Freeport Boulevard, Shepard Garden and Arts Center, and the Sacramento County Courthouse.
SacMod is a non-profit organization that works toward celebrating and preserving modern art, architecture and design in the Sacramento Region.
SacMod’s founder, Gretchen Steinberg, began researching mid-century homes around nine years ago when she moved in to a mid-century modern home, designed by Joseph Eichler, in the South Land Park neighborhood.
Steinberg’s work began as a hobby to learn more about the architectural style and has become a more intensive endeavor to preserve the homes and buildings of Sacramento created in the mid-20th century.
“We will be submitting more buildings to be landmarks,” Steinberg said. “We have hundreds of buildings on our list.”
The city’s municipal code lists six criteria and a nominated location must meet at least one:
- Associated with events that have made a significant contribution to the broad patterns of the history of the city, region, state or nation.
- Associated with the lives of person’s significant in the city’s past.
- Embodies the distinctive characteristics of a type, period or method of construction.
- Represents work of an important creative individual or master.
- Possesses high artistic values.
- Yields or may be likely to yield information important in the prehistory or history of the city, region, state or nation.
The city’s staff report cited the reasons for preserving the four buildings for their architecture and contributions to the community.
“It’s important to recognize there is more to Sacramento’s history than the gold rush,” Steinberg said.
Steinberg explained that although the buildings are landmarks, they can still be torn down. She said that giving buildings landmark status protects the building from being immediately torn down, because there are extra processes in place when determining destruction of a historic landmark.
“It doesn’t save them,” Steinberg said. “People who own the building can tear it down.”
Steinberg said that it is important to put historical buildings on the list because they cannot be recreated. She and her team plan to continue with their efforts to preserve Sacramento.