Many of you have expressed interest in researching your house’s history. I have a general how-to up on the Sac Historic House research page, but I thought I’d get you some more in-depth information. Recently I caught up with Pat Johnson the senior archivist at the Sacramento Archives & Museum Collection Center and asked her a few questions about SAMCC and the house history research process:
Q. Tell me a little bit about the mission of SAMCC. It’s not just for
academics and state employees doing research, right?
A. SAMCC’s mission is to foster, stimulate, and promote the study and appreciation of Sacramento’s regional history. We serve the community by acquiring, preserving, exhibiting, and enabling access to the documentary and material culture of the region. All of our collections are held in public trust for the City and County of Sacramento in perpetuity.
SAMCC is the official repository for city and county archival records and holds privately donated collections and manuscripts as well. We collect in the area of government, business, and domestic realms. So we have the official records of the city and county, private business records, and personal family manuscripts. We also have museum artifacts to round out our holdings. We are open to the public, not just academics or public employees. Anyone can make an appointment to come and research in our collections.
Q. Let’s pretend I just bought a Boulevard Park Victorian-era House (don’t I wish), what kinds of things might I be able to discover about that property with a visit to SAMCC?
A. So you have bought a house in Boulevard Park… by coming to SAMCC you can trace ownership of the property by using our City Assessor’s Tax Maps and Rolls dating from 1905-06 when the neighborhood was established. You can use our building permit records to track changes to those properties such as remodeling efforts or when a new roof was added. You can use City Directories to locate the individuals and what they did for a living. You can use our court records to track other information about the people in those houses. You can use County Recorder’s records to find naturalization certificates, and other documents relating to people. These are among the types of records we have that are most useful…
Q. How do I make an appointment to research my house and its prior owners? What information do I need to bring?
A. To make an appointment, give us a call at 916-264-7072 to schedule. The times are on our website. You need only bring the [house] address with you.
Q. You now have a large collection of old photographs online, can you tell me a little bit more about that and how people can purchase reprints, say of their historic property or street, for personal use?
A. We only have 40,000 images on line at this time out of the more than 5 million in our collection, so you will need to come here to find items we don’t have in our on-line database. Yes, you can purchase reprints of our photos. It is a bit complicated, but if there is a negative, we send that out to our lab and a reprint can be made. If there is no negative, we send the print out and a copy negative is shot and then a print made. The client pays city user fees and lab fees based on these conditions. See our website for the fee structure.
Q. And finally… there is talk about moving the Heilbron House (pictured above, which now sits alone surrounded by parking lots at O street) closer to the Leland Stanford Mansion. What is your opinion on “relocating” historic houses/buildings?
A. I would like to see it saved, if not on its present location, then relocated, thus saving the architectural style.
A big thanks to Pat Johnson, fellow CSUS History program alumni and kind person, for taking the time to answer my questions. Check back with the SHH blog for future profiles.
, one way to boost your creativity and make your business thrive is to have a growing thing on your desk (and I don’t mean mold). So get rid of your fake office plants and pick up some lovely flora this weekend. Home office and corporate cubicle dwellers alike will benefit from this simple spirit booster.
