Sacramento to Rocklin.
In this set we will continue our Lincoln Highway drive eastward, first exploring more of historic Sacramento and then making further stops in Roseville and Rocklin.
In full disclosure, about a third of these were taken in early 2014 and early 2016 with the bulk from the March 2017 cross country return trip.
After crossing the Sacramento River on the Tower Bridge the Lincoln Highway continued on what used to be called M Street (now the Capitol Mall) and headed straight for the California State Capitol building (completed in 1874). That’s right where we will head first in this set after stops just across from the Capitol at the neoclassical Library & Courts Building, 1928, and Office Building Number 1 (now called the Unruh Building), 1929, where I photographed the four statues and the marble bas-reliefs at the entrances.
In the grouping of photos elsewhere in the historic downtown area by the Capitol in Sacramento are the Llewellyn Williams Mansion, the Governor’s Mansion, the Leland Stanford Mansion (Stanford-Lathrop House) and the Crest Theater, 1912, remodeled to its current deco form in 1949.
Before leaving Sacramento we will stop by a few more theaters: the Tower, 1938 (next door is where Tower Records was born), the Colonial, 1940, and the Sacramento 6, 1972, the last remaining operating drive-in in Sacramento.
After sunset at the drive-in in Sacramento, the next grouping is in Roseville and includes a 1906 cocktail lounge, trains at the rail yards and two more historic theaters (the 1939 Tower and the 1926 Roseville). The largest ice manufacturing plant in the world was built in 1913 in Roseville at the rail yards for shipment of California produce. This is still the largest rail yard on the US west coast. More about the Roseville rail yards here.
The balance of the set beginning with the photo of the Finnish Temperance Hall (1905) is in the historic district of Rocklin. The new rail depot, built in 2007, is on the site of Rocklin’s original 1867 depot. The church building (now a non-denominational chapel) was once Saint Mary’s of the Assumption Catholic Church (1883). For more about Rocklin’s historic buildings go here.
Both Roseville and Rocklin are on the Truckee leg of the Lincoln east of Sacramento by today’s I-80. Until I started my recent Lincoln Highway journeys I had never stopped in Rocklin or Roseville despite spending about 50 years in the SF Bay Area and passing by both cities countless times on I-80 heading to the Sierras and back. About all I ever knew about Rocklin was that the San Francisco 49ers used to have their summer training camp there.
California has no shortage of classic movie theaters, and I like photographing them, as we will see again in this set. Before we leave California there will be two more beauties (in a post soon which will include Auburn and Grass Valley in the Gold Country).
Who was George A. Wyman? (The sign above is in Rocklin.) Answer: a little known Oakland mechanic who first crossed the US on a motorcycle (before the Lincoln Highway, I might add). “In 1903, Wyman rode his 1902 California Motorcycle Company motor bicycle from San Francisco to New York City in 51 days, finishing 20 days before Dr. Horatio Nelson Jackson, the first person to cross the continent by automobile.” (Wikipedia) Who knew?
