Item 32 2024-01878 LGBTQ+ Historic Experience Project Final Draft Historic Context and the Historic Building Survey Findings (M24-005) — Sacramento City Council, December 3, 2024 (part 2 of 2)

Associated Property Types
Refer to the list of Overall Associated Property Types on Page 15.

Note: Due to the limited understanding and visibility of gender and/or sexually nonconforming people during the 19th and early 20th centuries, minimal documented examples of gender and/or sexually transgressive expression in Sacramento during this period, and the redevelopment of much of the oldest neighborhoods of Sacramento, existing properties associated with the earliest periods of LGBTQ+ life in Sacramento up to 1940 are extremely rare, increasing the importance of those that may survive.

Eligibility Standards
To meet eligibility requirements for inclusion in the National Register/California Register/ Sacramento Register, a property may be significant in association with the theme of Early Gender Transgressive Expression in the Sacramento Area, Pre-1940 under the following criteria:

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National Register /
California Register /
Sacramento Register
Significance
A / 1 / i - Events • Association with important events, activities, patterns, or trends in early gender and sexuality nonnormative history in Sacramento during the 19th or early 20th centuries
• Association as the location or meeting place of a business, establishment, club, or organization known to have been patronized by gender nonconforming people
• Association with the participation of gender nonconforming individuals in commercial, social, artistic, cultural, spiritual, political, or recreational life
B / 2 / ii – Persons • Association with the life or work of a documented gender nonconforming person
C / 3 / iii, iv, v –
Architecture / Design
• Embodies the distinctive characteristics of a type, period, architectural style or method of construction.
• Represents the work of a recognized gender nonconforming architect, builder, designer, or creative individual.
• Possess high artistic or historic value.

Additional Eligibility Considerations / Associative Features • Due to the extreme rarity of properties with documented associations with gender nonconforming people in Sacramento the 19th and early 20th centuries, a majority of surviving properties would be eligible.
o Properties where a gender nonconforming person only had a fleeting presence (i.e. a short stay at a hotel, boarding house, or food or drink establishment while passing through Sacramento on the way to another destination) would likely not be eligible.
• Locations used by gender nonconforming individuals or groups for social, artistic, cultural, recreational, or spiritual activities or community services may be located in a building designed for another use,

Integrity Considerations
Refer to the list of Overall Integrity Considerations on Page 15.

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FINDING ONE ANOTHER: WORLD WAR II & POSTWAR-ERA
SACRAMENTO, 1941-1968
Summary Statement of Significance
The onset of World War II in the early 1940s brought great social change to the United States and Sacramento. Millions of men were drafted into the military, while others who had previously lived in small or rural towns were called to work in the cities. At the same time, many women joined the workforce for the first time to aid in the war effort and experienced greater personal and social independence. These experiences—which brought large numbers of people of the same gender together—created increased opportunities for the formation of same-sex relationships.

Medical studies and publications in the late 1940s and 1950s, including the pioneering work of sexologist Alfred Kinsey and publicity surrounding transgender woman Christine Jorgensen, elevated overall societal awareness of nonnormative gender and sexuality. Despite the impact of these studies on the process of normalizing homosexuality, paranoia surrounding perceived dangers to national security during the Cold War following World War II created a climate of fear and anxiety that criminalized anything different from the societal norms. As a result, the 1950s were a period of increasing discrimination against any form of otherhood in which nonnormative gender identities and sexualities were criminalized and treated as metal illnesses.

Amidst this period of intense scrutiny and the spread of bigoted rhetoric, the first homophile groups organizations—precursors of the gay liberation groups of the 1960s and 1970s— formed in the United States to provide support for gay men and women. In Sacramento, one such group, Americans for Responsible Citizenship (ARC), was established in the mid-1960s and became one of the earliest known gay rights advocacy groups in the city.

Rising intolerance and the risk of arrest or institutionalization forced gender and sexually nonconforming people to develop clandestine methods for socializing and forming relationships. Bathhouses, outdoor public spaces, and bars became popular places to meet sexual partners, and a culture of “cruising” developed. Bars that were known for accepting gay patrons were vital places for forming connections and developed into the center of gay life for both men and women. In response, cities across the United States, including Sacramento, conducted raids of known cruising locations and suspended the liquor licenses of gay bars to crack down on homosexual behavior. Outspoken intolerance from city leaders and strict Sacramento LGBTQ+ Historic Experience Project
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policing deterred the development of a true gay social scene within the boundaries of the City of Sacramento until the 1960s and 1970s. A small number of gay bars existed in the downtown area, near K Street, where many people worked and socialized in their free time; however, the earliest concentration of gay-friendly businesses in the area emerged just across the Sacramento River in the separate city of West Sacramento, outside the grasp of the legal authorities in Sacramento. These early gay establishments offered a safe and accepting space for gay and gender nonnormative people to be themselves during a period of intense discrimination.

Associated Property Types
Refer to the list of Overall Associated Property Types on Page 15.

Note: Due to widespread discrimination against the LGBTQ+ community and the resulting clandestine nature of LGBTQ+ life through the postwar period, the concentration of local LGBTQ+ community presence and expression in the adjacent city of West Sacramento during this period, and the demolition of many buildings in the downtown area, existing properties associated with the LGBTQ+ community from 1941-1968 are believed to be very rare, increasing the importance of those that survive.

Eligibility Standards
To meet eligibility requirements for inclusion in the National Register/California Register/ Sacramento Register, a property may be significant under this theme for:

National Register /
California Register /
Sacramento Register
Significance
A / 1 / i - Events • Association with important events, patterns, or trends in the history of the LGBTQ+ community in Sacramento during
World War II and the postwar era
• Association as the founding location, headquarters, primary meeting place, or place of activity for an LGBTQ+ business, club, organization, advocacy group, community or service center, publication, or other social, cultural, or community group that made a significant contribution to Sacramento and/or its LGBTQ+ community.

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National Register /
California Register /
Sacramento Register
Significance
• Association with the patterns of the LGBTQ+ community’s participation in commercial, social, artistic, cultural, spiritual, or recreational pursuits and other aspects of daily life.

B / 2 / ii – Persons • Association with LGBTQ+ persons who played an important role in the development of the Sacramento LGBTQ+
community
• Association with LGBTQ+ persons who played an important role in LGBTQ+ rights advocacy and/or homophile movement C / 3 / iii, iv, v –
Architecture / Design
• Embodies the distinctive characteristics of a type, period, architectural style or method of construction
• Represents the work of a recognized LGBTQ+ architect, builder, designer, or creative individual.
• Possess high artistic or historic value.

Additional Eligibility Considerations / Associative Features • Eligible properties that were constructed or used by members of the LGBTQ+ community during the period of significance
• Under Criterion B/2/ii:
o The individual must be proven to have made an important contribution to LGBTQ+ community development, social life, culture, arts, sports, recreation, professional development, or spiritual or community expression o The property should be directly associated with the productive life of the person who made important contributions to the history of the LGBTQ+ life. • Locations used by LGBTQ+ individuals or groups for artistic, cultural, recreational, or spiritual activities or community services may be located in a building designed for another use.
• The length of time and significance may be compared to other locations of the same organization, club, or group to identify resources that are most representative. • For National Register, properties associated with events that date from the last 50 years must possess exceptional importance.

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Integrity Considerations
Refer to the list of Overall Integrity Considerations on Page 15.

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OUT & PROUD: DEVELOPMENT OF VISIBLE SACRAMENTO LGBTQ+
COMMUNITY, 1969-2000
Summary Statement of Significance
Prior to the late 1960s, it was virtually unheard of for LGBTQ+ individuals to be publicly open about their sexual orientations and/or gender identities. The Stonewall Inn riots in New York City in June 1969 sparked a nationwide gay liberation movement that encouraged LGBTQ+ people to be open and proud about their identities and stand up for their rights, transforming the experiences of LGBTQ+ people across the United States. This was accompanied by a major shift in how the medical community viewed homosexuality after the American Psychiatric Association updated how it classified homosexuality and no longer treated it as a mental disorder. In 1975, California’s anti-sodomy laws were repealed, removing the threat of arrest and imprisonment for people who enjoyed same-sex relationships. Large numbers of people came out as gay or gender nonconforming over the following decades as a result of these developments. As more people found each other and formed connections, the first visible LGBTQ+ communities developed in cities across the United States.

In the Sacramento area, the epicenter of the local LGBTQ+ community began to shift from West Sacramento to the City of Sacramento in the 1970s. Although LGBTQ+-owned and LGBTQ+- friendly businesses and services opened throughout the city, the largest and most visible concentration was located in a neighborhood of Midtown near the intersection of 20th and K streets that became known as Lavender Heights. Like many cities across the United States, a variety of subgroups and subcultures, reflecting a broad range of nonconforming gender and sexuality identities, developed in Sacramento. Due to a general distrust and lack of acceptance between the various subgroups through much of the latter half of the 20th century, however, members of each group tended to socialize separately and developed their own places to safely congregate and meet people. A rich social and cultural scene emerged that reflected the diversity of Sacramento’s LGBTQ+ community, including bars, restaurants, bookstores, medical and legal offices, sports leagues, theater troupes, social clubs, media publications, professional business associations, and religious and spiritual institutions that catered specifically to the LGBTQ+ community. By the late 1970s and early 1980s, Sacramento’s LGBTQ+ community was recognized as a visible and vibrant part of the city’s general population. The city’s first gay pride parade was held in 1979 and has continued to be an important annual event in the city since.

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Associated Property Types
Associated property types under this theme may include, but are not limited to:

• Properties that are purpose-built for, purchased and re-used by, leased to, or used intermittently by an LGBTQ+ business, organization, group, club, or individual. • Commercial, residential, institutional, civic, recreational, cultural, religious, industrial, or mixed-use properties, landscapes, or public spaces.
• One of several properties associated with a specific business, person, organization, group, or club.
• Properties that are located throughout the City of Sacramento, though a higher concentration exists in the Midtown and Downtown areas, particularly around the Lavender Heights neighborhood.

Eligibility Standards
To meet eligibility requirements for inclusion in the National Register/California Register/ Sacramento Register, a property may be significant during the time period of 1969 to 2000 under this theme for:

National Register /
California Register /
Sacramento Register
Significance
A / 1 / i - Events • Association with important developments in establishing, supporting, or increasing the visibility of the LGBTQ+
community in Sacramento, either as the location of discrete events or cumulative activities over time.
• Association as the founding location, headquarters, primary meeting place, or place of activity for an LGBTQ+ club, organization, community service center, media outlet,
support group, or other social, cultural, or community group that made a significant contribution to Sacramento and/or its LGBTQ+ community.
• Association as the primary practice facility, performance space, or exhibition location for LGBTQ+ arts or cultural groups, organizations, schools, or collectives.

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National Register /
California Register /
Sacramento Register
Significance
• Association with the collective participation of the LGBTQ+ community in commercial, social, artistic, cultural, spiritual, or recreational pursuits.
• Association as the founding location, primary practice, or competition ground of an LGBTQ+ athletic club or
organization
B / 2 / ii – Persons • Association with LGBTQ+ persons who played an important role in the development of the Sacramento LGBTQ+
community
• Location where a significant LGBTQ+ community leader or figure lived or conducted community-related work
C / 3 / iii, iv, v –
Architecture / Design
• Embodies the distinctive characteristics of a type, period, architectural style or method of construction
• Represents the work of a recognized LGBTQ+ architect, builder, designer, or creative individual.
• Possess high artistic or historic value.

Additional Eligibility Considerations / Associative Features • Eligible properties that were constructed or used by members of the LGBTQ+ community during the 1969-2000 period of significance
• Under Criterion A/1/i:
o LGBTQ+ clubs, groups, organizations, businesses, and establishments must have occupied the property for a substantial period of time (more than three years) or during an important period of its history, if it is not the founding location. o Properties with a short period of confirmed use by the LGBTQ+ community (less than three years), that were the location of occasional gatherings, or that are associated with an LGBTQ+ organization, club, group, or publication that had a short tenure (one year or less) in Sacramento would need to demonstrate a clear impact on the development of the LGBTQ+ community to be eligible. • Under Criterion B/2/ii:

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o The individual must be proven to have made an important contribution to LGBTQ+ community development, social life, culture, arts, sports, recreation, professional development, or spiritual or community expression o The property should be directly associated with the productive life of the person who made important contributions to the history of the LGBTQ+ life. • Locations used by LGBTQ+ individuals or groups for artistic, cultural, recreational, or spiritual activities or community services may be located in a building designed for another use
• The length of time and significance may be compared to other locations of the same organization, club, or group to identify resources that are most representative. • For National Register eligibility, properties associated with events that date from the last 50 years must possess exceptional importance.

Integrity Considerations
Refer to the list of Overall Integrity Considerations on Page 15.

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AIDS & THE SACRAMENTO LGBTQ+ COMMUNITY, 1981-1996
Summary Statement of Significance
The AIDS outbreak in the 1980s and the subsequent global pandemic was a watershed moment in history and led to profound loss, stigmatization, and alienation for those within the LGBTQ+ community. Initially wrongly stereotyped as a disease that only affected gay people, AIDS received little attention from the mainstream media and political leaders for much of the decade, leaving the LGBTQ+ community to navigate the horrors of AIDS, provide care for victims, and advocate for funding to research the causes and treatments for the disease largely on its own. The first AIDS-related death occurred in Sacramento in 1982 and sparked heightened community efforts to combat the disease. Local gay and lesbian community members led efforts to disseminate important information about the spread of the disease; establish clinics, such as the Sacramento AIDS Foundation, to care for the sick and dying; and advocate for funding and legislation to study and treat the disease.

The AIDS epidemic exacted an unfathomable physical, emotional, psychological, cultural, and political toll on the LGBTQ+ community. A large portion of a generation of Sacramento’s gay community—many of whom had been the most prominent political, professional, social, or cultural leaders—died, leaving a permanent mark on the community. By the late 1980s, frustrations around the lack of adequate government response boiled to a head, leading to demonstrations at the State Capitol and demands for legislation to end discrimination against people with AIDS. Thanks to the continuous efforts of local community members, the City of Sacramento organized the Mayor’s AIDS Task Force in 1985, expanding local efforts to address AIDS outside the gay community for the first time. The tides in the war against AIDS began to ebb after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the first medical treatments for AIDS in 1996. These treatments gave patients a chance to survive the disease for the first time and led to the first substantial decline in death AIDS-related deaths.

More than any other event prior to the 1980s and 1990s, the AIDS epidemic united Sacramento’s previously fractured LGBTQ+ community and mobilized it to fight for equal rights to protect itself from discrimination and provide essential support, care, and services to its loved ones. The organizations, strategies, and leaders that were forged during the crisis helped pave the way for the progress that was achieved in the following decades and continues to reverberate into the present-day.

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Associated Property Types
Refer to the list of Overall Associated Property Types on Page 15.

National Register /
California Register /
Sacramento Register
Significance
A / 1 / i - Events
• Association with events, activities, or movements to address AIDS
• Association as the founding location, headquarters, primary meeting place, or place of activity of an AIDS organization, clinic, support group, or service provider that contributed to the Sacramento LGBTQ+ community’s response to AIDS
B / 2 / ii – Persons
• Association with an individual who was a leader or influential figure in the community response to AIDS
• Location where a significant AIDS activist, medical
professional, or community leader lived or conducted AIDS- related work
C / 3 / iii, iv, v –
Architecture / Design
• Embodies the distinctive characteristics of a type, period, architectural style or method of construction of AIDs-related spaces (i.e. clinics) or artwork (i.e. mural, sculpture, object, etc.)
• Possess high artistic or historic value.

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o AIDS organizations, support groups, clinics, or service providers must have used the property during a significant period or pivotal moment during the history of the AIDS crisis, if it is not the founding location.
o As the AIDS crisis was a particularly acute period during which time was of the essence and responses evolved quickly to address the rapid spread of the disease and continuously changing understanding of the disease, a short period of association (less than one year) with the community response to AIDS would not disqualify a property from eligibility.
• Under Criterion B/2/ii:
o The individual must be proven to have made an important contribution to addressing the AIDS crisis at the local, state, and/or national level o The property should be directly associated with the productive life of the person who made important contributions to the fight against AIDS. • Locations used by AIDS organizations, support groups, clinics, medical practices, leaders, activists, etc. may be located in a building designed for another use • The length of time and significance may be compared to other locations of the same organization, club, or group to identify resources that are most representative. • For National Register eligibility, properties associated with events that date from the last 50 years must possess exceptional importance.

Integrity Considerations
Refer to the list of Overall Integrity Considerations on Page 15.

Additional integrity considerations:
• Medical buildings are likely to have been altered or upgraded over time to meet stringent code requirements. Therefore, a higher level of alterations may be acceptable.

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POLITICAL ACTIVISM & THE FIGHT FOR LGBTQ+ RIGHTS IN
CALIFORNIA’S STATE CAPITAL, 1969-2000
Summary Statement of Significance
In the late 1960s, a potent mix of forces and the coming-of-age of the Baby Boom generation combined to reject traditions, norms, policies, and prejudices that had previously restricted much of America’s diverse population. Long-festering frustration with the unequal treatment of African Americans and women and the Vietnam War coalesced in the civil rights movement, women’s movement, and anti-war movements in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Along with the Stonewall Uprising in New York City in 1969, these movements laid the foundation for the gay liberation movement in the late 1960s. Inspired by the Black Power movement and radical feminism, the gay liberation movement presented a shift away from the polite, assimilationist methods espoused by the earlier homophile groups toward a more direct and confrontational approach to achieve acceptance and equal rights. Students at university campuses, including Sacramento State University, established many of the earliest gay liberation groups and, in Sacramento, spearheaded many of the first visible events for the LGBTQ+ community in the area.

Sacramento’s LGBTQ+ community was well placed to have an outsized impact on politics on all levels because of its proximity to the State Capitol and proximity to the powerful and outspoken LGBTQ+ community in San Francisco. The Capitol became the marquee destination for numerous statewide gay rights marches, protests, and rallies. Local LGBTQ+ residents lobbied for anti-discrimination legislation both from within the political establishment and through grassroots efforts as private citizens. Numerous political advocacy groups, specifically aimed at influencing policy changes relevant to the gay community, formed in Sacramento during this volatile period. Meanwhile, individuals who experienced discrimination filed lawsuits, seeking equal treatment as their straight peers. The AIDS epidemic in the 1980s mobilized the LGBTQ+ community to become politically active more than any other previous issue, as it exposed the lack of legal protections and rights LGBTQ+ couples had to care for their sick and dying loved ones.

The experiences and policy wins garnered through the monumental efforts of the statewide LGBTQ+ community—including significant contributions from the Sacramento community— from the 1960s to the 1990s laid the foundation for monumental legislative, social, and cultural changes in the 2000s, which culminated in the legalization of same-sex marriage in California in 2013 and across the United States in 2015.

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Associated Property Types
Refer to the list of Overall Associated Property Types on Page 15.

National Register /
California Register /
Sacramento Register
Significance
A / 1 / i - Events
• Association with events, activities, or movements to address discrimination or expand the rights of LGBTQ+ people.
• Association as the founding location, headquarters, primary meeting place, or place of activity of an LGBTQ+ rights organization or advocacy group that contributed to the fight for equal rights and advancement of the LGBTQ+
community.
• Association with one or more LGBTQ+ rights organization or group.

B / 2 / ii – Persons
• Association with an LGBTQ+ activist, community or political leader, or organizer who has made important contributions to Sacramento’s LGBTQ+ community, the city, state, or nation in the realm of political activism and LGBTQ+ community uplift.

C / 3 / iii, iv, v –
Architecture / Design
• Embodies the distinctive characteristics of a type, period, architectural style, method of construction of LGBTQ+ civic gathering places, or LGBTQ+ rights-related artwork (i.e. mural, sculpture, etc.)
• Possesses high artistic value

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Additional Eligibility Considerations / Associative Features • Eligible properties that were used or constructed by members of the LGBTQ+ community during the period of significance
• Under Criterion A/1/i:
o LGBTQ+ groups, organizations, or clubs must have used the property during a significant period or pivotal moment in its history, if it is not the founding location.
o Properties with a short period of association with LGBTQ+ activity, that were the location of occasional gatherings with little or no demonstrable significant outcomes, or that are associated with an LGBTQ+ organization, club, group, or publication that had a short tenure (one year or less) in Sacramento would generally not be considered significant. However, properties that were the site of occasional gatherings for multiple LGBTQ+ organizations, clubs, groups, publications, etc. over a period of one year or less, may be eligible as the site of collective activities of the community.
• Under Criterion B/2/ii:
o The individual must be proven to have made an important contribution to LGBTQ+ rights, politics, or community uplift
o The property should be directly associated with the productive life of the person who made important contributions to the history of LGBTQ+ activism. • Locations used by LGBTQ+ individuals for advocacy efforts or political organizing may be located in a building designed for another use
• The length of time and significance may be compared to other locations of the same organization, club, or group to identify resources that are most representative. • Properties own by, constructed or remodeled for, or otherwise controlled by LGBTQ+ individuals, rather than rented or leased spaces, may be a consideration in determining significance.
• For National Register eligibility, properties associated with events that date from the last 50 years must possess exceptional importance.

Integrity Considerations
Refer to the list of Overall Integrity Considerations on Page 15.

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P1. Other Identifier:

DPR 523A (9/2013) *Required information
State of California ⎯ The Resources Agency Primary #_____________________________________________ DEPARTMENT OF PARKS AND RECREATION HRI #_________________________________________________ PRIMARY RECORD Trinomial_____________________________________________ NRHP Status Code ______________3CD, 5D2_____________
Other Listings____________________________________________________________________ Review Code________ Reviewer______________________ Date______________ *P2. Location:  Not for Publication  Unrestricted *a. County Sacramento and (P2c, P2e, and P2b or P2d. Attach a Location Map as necessary.) *b. USGS 7.5' Quad Sacramento East, CA. Date 2021 T 8N ; R 5E ;  of Mt. Diablo  of Sec 00 ; B.M. c. Address 20th and K Streets City Sacramento Zip 95811 d. UTM: (Give more than one for large and/or linear resources) Zone , mE/ mN e. Other Locational Data: (e.g., parcel #, directions to resource, elevation, decimal degrees, etc., as appropriate) See boundary description, District Record, Page 2.

*P3a. Description: (Describe resource and its major elements. Include design, materials, condition, alterations, size, setting, and boundaries) Lavender Heights is an enclave of cultural landmarks associated with the history of Sacramento’s LGBTQ+ community. The district consists of commercial and institutional properties historically centered around the intersection of 20th and K Streets in Sacramento’s Midtown neighborhood. District contributors include 12 commercial, institutional, and converted residential buildings that are associated with the development of a visible LGBTQ+ community in Sacramento, starting in 1967 through the year 2000, when increasing integration of the LGBTQ+ community into mainstream society resulted in distinct changes to the tight-knit character of the community. The district also contains 29 non-contributing properties. (Continued on page 2).

*P3b. Resource Attributes: (List attributes and codes) HP6. 1-3 story commercial building, HP16. Religious building, HP13.

Community center/social hall

*P4. Resources Present:
 Building  Structure  Object
 Site  District  Element of District
 Other (Isolates, etc.)

P5b. Description of Photo: (view, date,
accession #) Lavender Heights sign
marker at 20th and K streets, view east.

*P6. Date Constructed/Age and
Source: Historic  Prehistoric Both
ca.1895-1972 (Sacramento County
Assessor Year Built data)

*P7. Owner and Address:

Multiple private owners

*P8. Recorded by: (Name, affiliation,
and address) Page & Turnbull, Inc.,
1007 7th Street, #404, Sacramento, CA
95814
*P9. Date Recorded: September 25,
2024

*P10. Survey Type: (Describe)
Intensive

*P11. Report Citation : (Cite survey report and other sources, or enter "none.") Page & Turnbull, “Sacramento LGBTQ+ Historic Experience Project Historic Context Statement,” 2024 *Attachments: NONE Location Map Continuation Sheet Building, Structure, and Object Record Archaeological Record District Record Linear Feature Record Milling Station Record Rock Art Record Artifact Record Photograph Record  Other (List):

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*Resource Name or # (Assigned by recorder) Lavender Heights Historic District D1. Historic Name: Lavender Heights D2. Common Name: Lavender Heights

DPR 523D (Rev. 1/1995)(Word 9/2013)
State of California  Natural Resources Agency Primary # DEPARTMENT OF PARKS AND RECREATION HRI #
DISTRICT RECORD Trinomial
*D3 Detailed Description: (Discuss overall coherence of the district, its setting, visual characteristics, and minor features.

List all elements of district.)

The district is located in the urban core of Midtown Sacramento, which is zoned C-2-SPD (General Commercial/Special Planning District). Midtown is platted on a gridded streetscape with low- to medium-density land use including one- to three- story commercial buildings; areas of historic and infill single- and multi-family housing, some of which have been converted to commercial use; larger formerly industrial buildings; religious buildings; several larger office buildings and parking garages; and paved surface parking lots. East-to-west arterial streets are bisected by alleyways, which have street names. Examples of historic housing date to the late 19th and early 20th centuries and include single- and multi-family houses and apartment buildings designed in the vernacular, Queen Anne, Italianate, Stick-Eastlake, Craftsman, Prairie, Art Moderne, and Classical Revival styles. Commercial, institutional, and residential buildings throughout the district do not conform to a cohesive style or period of construction and include examples of adaptive reuse of late 19th-century residential properties for commercial use, along with contemporary storefronts and infill dating to the 1980s and 1990s. Contributors to the district include the locations of community centers; gay bars; businesses that were owned by and catered to members of the community; offices of organizations and individuals that provided essential health and welfare services to the community, including during the AIDS epidemic; and a church that hosted events and provided spiritual sustenance.

The contributing elements of Lavender Heights Historic District are listed in Table 1 below and described in detail beginning on page 3 of the attached Continuation Sheets.

Table 1. Contributing Properties, Lavender Heights Historic District

Contributing
Elements
APN Description Years of
Association
Status
Code
Still in
Historic
Use?
1215 19th Street 007-0143-001-0000 New Helvetia Roaster 1991-2002 3DC, 5D3 No 919 20th Street 007-0016-017-0000 Lambda Community Center, Lambda Players, and AIDS
Response Programs (ca.
1997-1999)
ca. 1997-1999 3DC, 5D3 No
912 21st Street 007-0016-010-0000 Dr. Harvey Thompson and Dr. Sandy Pomerantz offices
/ The Open Book
1978-1987,
1996-2005
3DC, 5D3 No
2100 J Street 007-0091-001-0000 First United Methodist Church
ca. 1967-
present
3DC, 5D3 Yes
2115 J Street 007-0022-015-0000 Sacramento AIDS
Foundation offices
1985 3DC, 5D3 No
2220 J Street 007-0093-007-0000 Sacramento Women's
Center, Gifted Gardener
1975-1976,
1989
3DC, 5D3 No
2224 J Street 007-0093-008-0000 Lioness Books, Sacramento Women's Center, Rape
Crisis Center, WEST
ca. 1982-1999 3DC, 5D3 No
State of California ⎯ The Resources Agency Primary # _____________________________________ DEPARTMENT OF PARKS AND RECREATION HRI # __________________________________________ CONTINUATION SHEET Trinomial _____________________________________

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*Recorded by Page & Turnbull, Inc. *Date September 25, 2024  Continuation  Update

DPR 523L (Rev. 1/1995)(Word 9/2013)
Contributing
Elements
APN Description Years of
Association
Status
Code
Still in
Historic
Use?
1900 K Street 007-0084-023-0000 Sacramento AIDS
Foundation offices
1986-1994 3DC, 5D3 No
2000 K Street 007-0086-020-0000 K Street Station/Faces gay bar
1985-present 3DC, 5D3 Yes
2001 K Street 007-0085-012-0000 The Western/The Depot gay bar
ca. 1997-
present
3DC, 5D3 Yes
1928 L Street 007-0143-007-0000 Mercantile Saloon gay bar 1976-present 3DC, 5D3 Yes 1931 L Street 007-0084-030-0000 Lambda Community Center, Lambda Players, Stop AIDS
Project
1987-ca. 1998 3DC, 5D3 No

Table 2. Non-Contributing Properties, Lavender Heights Historic District

Non-
Contributing
Elements
APN Status
Code
1209 19th Street 007-0143-002-0000 6Z
923 20th Street 007-0016-016-0000 6Z
1015 20th Street 007-0085-001-0000 6Z
1116 20th Street 007-0084-011-0000 6Z
1120 20th Street 007-0084-012-0000 6Z
924 21st Street 007-0016-011-0000 6Z
1011 22nd Street 007-0093-001-0000 6Z
2001 J Street 007-0016-015-0000 6Z
2011 J Street 007-0016-014-0000 6Z
2015 J Street 007-0016-019-0000 6Z
2020 J Street 007-0085-017-0000 6Z
2031 J Street 007-0016-018-0000 6Z
2101 J Street 007-0022-028-0000 6Z
2109 J Street 007-0022-016-0000 6Z
2124 J Street 007-0091-002-0000 6Z
2130 J Street 007-0091-011-0000 6Z
2200 J Street 007-0093-025-0000 6Z
1930 K Street 007-0084-031-0000 6Z
2007 K Street 007-0085-011-0000 6Z
2015 K Street 007-0085-015-0000 6Z
State of California ⎯ The Resources Agency Primary # _____________________________________ DEPARTMENT OF PARKS AND RECREATION HRI # __________________________________________ CONTINUATION SHEET Trinomial _____________________________________

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Non-
Contributing
Elements
APN Status
Code
2025 K Street 007-0085-008-0000 6Z
K Street 007-0084-024-0000 6Z
K Street 007-0084-025-0000 6Z
K Street 007-0084-029-0000 6Z
1906 L Street 007-0143-019-0000 6Z
1914 L Street 007-0143-004-0000 6Z
L Street 007-0143-025-0000 6Z
L Street 007-0143-020-0000 6Z
L Street 007-0143-021-0000 6Z

*D4 Boundary Description: (Describe limits of district and attach map showing boundary and district elements.):

The district is roughly bounded by I Street to the north between 20 th and 21st Streets, 23rd Street to the east between Improv Alley and Jazz Alley, Liestal Alley to the south between 19th and 20th streets, and 19th Street to the west between Liestal Alley and K Street. (See Error! Reference source not found. on Continuation Sheet, page 5).

*D5. Boundary Justification:

By the 1970s, the foundations of a clearly identifiable, vibrant, openly gay neighborhood began to emerge in Sacramento. Known as Lavender Heights, the neighborhood was centered around the intersection of 20th and K streets and the surrounding blocks, though its boundaries were not clearly defined and evolved over time with the growth of LGBTQ+-owned and LGBTQ+-friendly business establishments in the Midtown area. The boundaries of the Lavender Heights Historic District encapsulate the epicenter of the larger landscape of Midtown Sacramento within which many of Sacramento’s LGBTQ+ residents lived, socialized, cared for one another, and coalesced into an identifiable, diverse, vibrant, and tight-knit community between the late 1960s to around the year 2000. As several landmarks within the broader Lavender Heights neighborhood are no longer extant, the historic district boundaries encompass the blocks where the highest concentration of extant LGBTQ+ properties are located; shown in the maps below (Error! Reference source not found.).

D6. Significance: Theme Social History Area City of Sacramento Period of Significance 1967-2000 Applicable Criteria 1/i and 2/ii (Discuss district's importance in terms of its historical context as defined by theme, period of significance, and geographic scope. Also address the integrity of the district as a whole.)

See Continuation Sheets, pages 8-24.

*D7. References (Give full citations including the names and addresses of any informants, where possible.):

See Continuation Sheet, page 25.

*D8. Evaluator: Samantha Purnell and Clare Flynn Date: September 25, 2024 Affiliation and Address: Page & Turnbull, 1007 7th Street, #404, Sacramento, CA 95814

State of California ⎯ The Resources Agency Primary # _____________________________________ DEPARTMENT OF PARKS AND RECREATION HRI # __________________________________________ CONTINUATION SHEET Trinomial _____________________________________

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*D3 Detailed Description: (cont’d)

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*D3 Detailed Description: (cont’d)
Table 2. Contributing buildings, Lavender Heights Historic District

1215 19th Street (APN 007-0143-001-0000)
New Helvetia Roaster. The property was occupied by
New Helvetia Roaster from 1991-2002.

910-912 21st Street (APN 007-0016-010-0000)
Offices of Dr. Harvey Thompson and Dr. Sandy
Pomerantz and the Open Book bookstore. The building
housed the medical offices of Dr. Thompson and Dr.

Pomerantz from 1978-1987 and the Open Book from
1996 to 2005.

2115 J Street (APN 007-0022-015-0000) Sacramento
AIDS Foundation. 2115 J Street was occupied by the
Sacramento AIDS Foundation in 1985.

2220 J Street (APN 007-0093-007-0000)
Sacramento Women's Center and the Gifted Gardener.
2220 J Street was occupied by the Sacramento Women's
Center from 1975-1976 and was the first location of the Gifted Gardener in 1989.

2224 J Street (APN 007-0093-008-0000)
Lioness Books. 2224 J Street was occupied by
Lioness Books, Sacramento Women's Center Rape
Crisis Center, and WEST from ca.1982-2000.

1900 K Street (APN 007-0084-023-0000)
Sacramento AIDS Foundation. 1900 K Street was
occupied by the Sacramento Aids Foundation from 1986-
1994.

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2000 K Street (APN 007-0086-020-0000)
K Street Station/Faces. 2000 K Street has been
occupied by K Street Station/Faces since 1985.

2001 K Street (APN 007-0085-012-0000)
2001 K Street has been occupied by a bar since 1938 and first became known as a gay bar at an unknown date. It
has been a gay bar called The Depot since 1997.

1928 L Street (APN 007-0143-007-0000)
Mercantile Saloon. 1928 L Street has been occupied by
the Mercantile Saloon since 1976.
1931 L Street (APN 007-0084-030-0000)
Lambda Community Center. 1931 L Street was
occupied by the Gay and Lesbian Community Center,
Lambda Community Center, Lambda Players, and
AIDS Response Program from 1987-1998.

919 20th Street (APN 007-0016-017-0000)
Lambda Community Center. 919 20th Street was
occupied by the Gay and Lesbian Community Center,
Lambda Community Center, Lambda Players, and Stop

2100 J Street (APN 007-0091-001-0000)
First United Methodist Church. The church hosted
meetings for early homophile groups in the late 1960s
and has continuously welcomed members of the

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AIDS Project from 1997-1999. LGBTQ+ community.

D6. Significance: (continued)
Lavender Heights Historic Context

Neighborhood Development
Sacramento’s LGBTQ+ community remained largely underground until the 1970s due to widespread discrimination and harassment. The increasing visibility of LGBTQ+ individuals following the Stonewall Inn riots in New York City in 1969 and repeal of California’s anti -sodomy laws in 1975 led more people to come out the closet and begin to form visible communities across the country in the 1970s. In Sacramento, several factors contributed to the development of a visible LGBTQ+ community in Sacramento’s Midtown neighborhood during this period. During the postwar period, the flight of wealthy residents and resources out of the older neig hborhoods within and near Sacramento’s original street grid, known as the Central City, to newer suburbs in outlying areas resulted in a decline of property values and rents in the Central City.1 Young, single people, some of whom were gay, moved into the area, attracted by the abundance of low- rent apartment houses, excitement of urban life, and greater tolerance for alternative lifestyles than suburban areas .

The Midtown neighborhood, which had an eclectic mix of aging, affordable residences in close proximity to commercial streets, became a particularly popular destination for young gay and lesbian residents.2

Likely drawn to Midtown by the growing number of gay and lesbian residents in the area, gay-friendly businesses began to open in the 1970s. As with many gay neighborhoods throughout the United States, the first seeds of the Lavender Heights neighborhood were planted by the establishment of several gay bars —traditionally the center of gay life – around the intersection of 20 th and K streets. As will be described in more detail later in this evaluation, s ome of the earliest and most prominent gay bars in the neighborhood were the Mercantile Saloon, The Western (later The Depot), Club 21, K Street Station (later Faces), and the Wreck Room, all of which were located at or within a few blocks of 20th and K streets. The name “Lavender Heights” was coined by members of Sacramento’s gay community in the 1970s, but it did not become more publicly used until the early 1980s, when the Sacramento Bee published a series of articles highlighting the neighborhood and several of its businesses. Although the origin of the neighborhood’s name is unknown, the color lavender was a reference to the popular association of the gay community with the color purple .

Another name, “Fruit Flats,” was reportedly considered for the neighborho od and showed the community’s sense of humor but did not catch on.

As more LGBTQ+ individuals moved into Midtown, and the number of gay businesses, institutions, and services grew, Lavender Heights became a community of congregation, a self-created and self-defined place where the LGBTQ+ community chose to establish itself and felt a collective sense of safety, acceptance, and awareness.3 A true community emerged in Lavender Heights that provided services for all aspects of daily life, including health and welfare services for women and people with AIDS.4 By the 1990s, Lavender Heights contained not just a concentration of gay bars but also a wide variety of restaurants, health clinics, community centers and service organizations, spiritual institutions, clothing stores, laundromats, shops, bookstores, beauty salons and barber shops, doctors, therapists, lawyers, dentists, and realtors that catered specifically to LGBTQ+ clientele.5 With such a variety of businesses and services specifically by and for LGBTQ+ residents, Lavender Heights became a relatively self- contained and self-sufficient neighborhood.6 As the primary location throughout much of the surrounding area in which one could find businesses and services specifically intended to meet the needs and desires of LGBTQ+ individuals, it also served as the center for the Sacramento region’s broader LGBTQ+ community.7

Gay Bars in Lavender Heights
Gay bars – which had covertly served a vital role as some of the only LGBTQ+ individuals could openly express their sexual identities since the first decades of the 20th century – blossomed into the public center of LGBTQ+ life in the decades after the late 1960s. Gay bars became not just places to meet sexual partners; they developed into the de

1 Michael Andrew Claussen, “Lavender Heights: The Emerging Gay Community in Downtown Sacramento, California,” (M.A. thesis, California State University, Chico, 1998,), 140.
2 Robin Witt, "Gays Gain Acceptance, Visibility in Sacramento," Sacramento Bee, 12 September 1982: A1-A17. 3 Claussen, “Lavender Heights,” 84, 164.
4 Conversation between Tina Reynolds, Clare Flynn, and Henry Feuss, May 22, 2024, Sacramento, CA. 5 Witt, "Gays Gain Acceptance, Visibility in Sacramento.” 6 Claussen, “Lavender Heights,” 120.
7 Claussen, “Lavender Heights,” 122.

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facto center of gay life, where LGBTQ+ individuals received and exchanged news, formed lasting friendships and romantic relationships, and organized social, professional, and political groups, clubs, and events.

The development of the first openly gay-friendly social gathering places and business establishments in Sacramento did not occur overnight. Through the late 1960s and into the early 1970s, as much of the gay community remained closeted and being publicly “out” could still put one at risk of arrest, losing one’s job, and being ostracized from family, friends, and coworkers, gay and lesbian individuals continued to meet in secret. While some gay bars existed in Sacramento’s Central City grid prior to the late 1960s, California’s anti-sodomy laws, which had been used to harass and imprison LGBTQ+ individuals for over 100 years, and the City of Sacramento’s strict enforcement of those laws, prevented the formation of any recognizable concentration of gay-owned or gay-friendly establishments within the boundaries of the City of Sacramento until the state laws were repealed in the 1970s. As a result, nearly all gay bars and other business establishments that welcomed LGBTQ+ patrons existed across the Sacramento River in the unincorporated town of West Sacramento, which was located in a separate county, through the early 1970s. In 1975, Assembly Bill 437, which ended California’s sodomy laws, passed both houses of the California state legislature and was signed into law by Governor Jerry Brown, Jr.8 The impact of the repeal of the state’s sodomy laws was visible in the pattern of development of gay bars and gay-friendly establishments in the Sacramento area. Over the course of the 1970s and 1980s, the number of gay bars and queer-friendly establishments steadily increased and spread throughout the City of Sacramento as policing of sexual activities decreased.

One of the first gay bars in Lavender Heights was the Mercantile Saloon, which opened at a converted Victorian house at 1928 L Street (extant, contributing property to Lavender Heights Historic District) in 1976. Lovingly nicknamed “The Merc,” it was credited with making gay nightlife more visible in Sacramento. The Merc was owned by local restauranteur Bill Christie. Christie was also the owner of a prime rib restaurant called Christie’s Elbo Room nearby at 2001 K Street (extant, contributing property to Lavender Heights Historic District), which later became a series of gay bars. The bar became known for welcoming gay Black men at a time when many other gay bars did not.

Ernie Brown—a gay Black man who was also an Emperor of the Imperial Court of Sacramento (also known as CGNIE), board member of the George Sand Community Benefit Fund, and former owner of Ernie’s Place bar at 725 Tower Court in West Sacramento—managed the bar in the 1980s. Robert “Bobbette” Hoyos was another popular manager of the bar for 15 years from 1981 until his death in 1996.9 The Merc was less hostile toward gay Black men than most of Sacramento’s other gay bars. Together with a jazz bar called the Rose Cocktail Lounge across the street at 2001 L Street (demolished), The Merc, under Ernie Brown’s management, became the main bar and social gathering place for gay Black men in Sacramento.10 On Friday nights, tables five rows deep would be filled with gay Black men until the AIDS epidemic killed many of the bar’s gay Black patrons in the 1980s.11

The Western at 2001 K Street (extant, contributor to the Lavender Heights Historic District) was continuously operated by members of the Dallosta family from 1938 through the 1990s and took the name The Western around 1953.12 By at least the 1990s, it had a reputation as bar for older gay men.13 In 1997, TJ Bruce and his mother Marjorie purchased the building and reopened it as a gay bar called The Western Pacific Depot.14

8 Donna J. Graves and Shayne E. Watson, “Citywide Historic Context Statement for LGBTQ History in San Francisco,” 227-228. 9 “Hoyos, ‘Bobbette’ Robert,” Sacramento Bee, 15 November 1996: B7. 10 John Bennett, conversation with Clare Flynn and Henry Feuss, August 26, 2024, Sacramento, CA; Clarmundo Sullivan, conversation with Carson Anderson, August 9, 2024, Sacramento, CA. 11 Asa Salley, conversation with Clare Flynn and Henry Feuss, September 5, 2024, Sacramento, CA.
12 Sacramento city directories, 1938-1982, Ancestry.com; “Genevieve Mary ‘Gen’ (Domich) Dallosta,” Sacramento Bee, 27 November 2018.
13 Taylor Facha, text conversation with Clare Flynn, August 30, 2024, Sacramento, CA. 14 Cameron Jahn, "Club Plan Ignites Dispute," Sacramento Bee, 20 June 2002: D1.

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Figure 1. Advertisement for the Mercantile Saloon (1992). Source: Patlar Gazette.

In 1981, Bernie Ferris opened Club 21 at 1122 21st Street (demolished and outside the historic district boundaries) with investors and brothers Clay and Bill Biscoe. Ferris received his teaching credential from Sacramento State University and initially worked as a grade school teacher for 17 years before coming out as gay in the late 1970s.

After being publicly harassed at school by former students who had seen him at a local gay bar, he left the teaching career and went to work as a real estate agent for Century 21. In 1979, he met brothers Bill and Clay Biscoe, and the men decided to take over a straight bar called the Aero Tavern, which they named Club 21. The bar was immediately successful, attracting 350 people on an average Saturday night and receiving an award as the River City Business Association’s Business of the Year in 1982.15 Two years later, they closed Club 21 in order to open a larger bar in the building formerly occupied by Christie’s Elbo Room at 2001 K Street. The new bar was named K Street Station and had an upscale atmosphere with several bar areas and a full restaurant in a side room that was later converted into a video bar. The bar hosted art shows for local artists and had dancing every night. In spite of the bar’s popularity, its owners became overstretched and declared bankruptcy in 1985. Terry Sidie, who owned another popular gay bar called Bo Jangles near the Sacramento State University campus in East Sacramento, purchased the property and transformed it into a new bar called Faces in 1985. Ferris continued to work as the manager of Faces until 1994.16 The name Faces was coined by Incredible Edible Place restaurant owner Paul Fitzgerald and was intended to reflect that the bar was open to all communities and all “faces.” Sidie envisioned Faces as a destination for dancing and a luxurious alternative to the typical dive bar. By 2015, the bar featured three dance floors, each of which played different genres of music, 16 bar stations, and an outdoor swimming pool. A rainbow-colored triangular sign at the front door was installed that read “You are entering a gay bar! Respect us, and we’ll respect you!”17

15 Bill Lindelof, “Gay Bars Flourish in Downtown Area As Places to Relax, Find Partners,” Sacramento Bee, 12 September 1982:

A16.
16 Bernie Ferris, “Bernie Ferris History,” undated, courtesy of Christine Ferris. 17 Chris Macias, "Celebrating Inclusion," Sacramento Bee, 5 September 2015: B1, B6.

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Figure 2. Faces owner, Terry Sidie (kneeling in front with a cowboy hat) with staff of Faces (1987). Source: Collection of Terry Sidie.

Figure 3. An unidentified man in front of The Western, ca. 1992. Source: Center for Sacramento History.

The success of Faces, in particular, brought a groundswell of energy to the intersection of 20th and K Streets, which would become the heart of Lavender Heights. Steve Hansen, the first openly gay City Councilman in Sacramento’s history, described Faces as “that initial piece of life that built this reef of activity [in Lavender Heights].” In 2015, Sidie reflected back that prior to the opening of K Street Station and its reopening as Faces, the neighborhood around 20th and K streets “was nothing. It was broken-down garages, an empty funeral parlor. There was a down bar called The Western. Lewis Florist was falling into the ground. It wasn't called 'Lavender Heights.' They didn’t even call it 'mid- town.’"18 Under Sidie’s leadership, Faces became akin to a community center.

Born and raised on a farm in Wisconsin, Sidie left home at the age of 19 to live with an aunt in Detroit, where he came out as gay. He later moved to Los Angeles, where he worked as a private-duty nurse before enlisting in the military in 1971. Though hoping “to see the world,” he was stationed at the hospital at Mather Air Force Base in the Sacramento area. In the evenings, he moonlighted as a bartender at bars in Sacramento and West Sacramento, gaining experience with the local gay bar scene. After opening Bo Jangles in 1976, Sidie became one of the most successful and influential figures in Sacramento’s LGBTQ+ community, opening several other bars, restaurants, and establishments, and supporting community clubs and organizations through donations and fundraisers. At one point, Sidie owned Bojangles and Faces, as well as the reopened Club 21 (which operated through the early 2000s), a restaurant called Head Hunters, the Verona Village Resort in Sutter County, and a farm in his home state of Wisconsin. Sidie used the success of his business endeavors to benefit and empower Sacramento’s LGBTQ+ community. Faces became a hub for the community and arguably the most well-known and recognizable landmark for the LGBTQ-life in Sacramento. In addition to its regular business, the bar hosted events such as voter drives for the Sacramento chapter of the gay political advocacy group the Stonewall Democratic Club, fundraisers for LGBTQ+- friendly politicians, and the first meeting of the Sacramento Gay and Lesbian Softball League.19 In 1987, Sidie assisted Hamburger Mary’s owner Richard Boriolo in starting the Rainbow Festival. The festival, which is held annually as a fundraiser for local LGBTQ+ charities and organizations, has continuously used Faces as its main hub.20 In reflecting on Sidie’s impact on the community, Reverend Jerry Sloan, founder of Sacramento’s LGBT

18 Chris Macias, "Celebrating Inclusion.”
19 Macias, "Celebrating Inclusion.”
20 Jolanne Tierney, conversation with Clare Flynn and Henry Feuss, August 2, 2024, Sacramento, CA.

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Community Center, stated, “"A lot of people and groups, including myself, have certainly gone to him and said, 'Terry, we need,' and he never hesitates. And we're talking thousands of dollars, not 20 bucks."21 By 1997, Sidie, himself, estimated he had given $120,000 to local LGBTQ+ charities and organizations.22

The character of Sacramento’s gay bars varied widely, reflecting the diversity of Sacramento's gay community. The Merc looked like a typical straight bar except that there were usually no women present. Club 21 had a similar “casual and friendly” atmosphere to The Merc, but differed from other local gay bars in hosting a clientele that consisted of gay doctors, lawyers, and other professionals.23 The Wreck Room a few blocks away at 925 20th Street (inside the historic district but a non-contributor due to alterations), was a leather bar that featured male underwear hanging on chains above the bar.24 Despite the differing characters of the city’s gay bars, community members reflected that Sacramento’s gay bar scene “had a closeness and unity that larger cities, such as Los Angeles and San Francisco, could only wish to have.”25 By 1982, an article in the Sacramento Bee estimated that roughly 3,500 to 5,000 of the city’s estimated gay residents frequented the city’s gay bars. By 1987, the Damron Guides – a directory and guidebook that listed gay-friendly businesses and cruising locations in cities across the United States – no longer showed any gay bars located in West Sacramento, indicating that the center of gay life had completed its shift east to Downtown and Midtown Sacramento.26

Community Centers & Services
The growing self-awareness among Sacramento’s LGBTQ+ residents that they were part of a larger underserved community came with the recognition that they needed to come together to help their own. Individuals stepped up and pooled their resources and social networks to found community centers, charities, and other service organizations to meet the community’s needs.

Lambda Community Center / Sacramento LGBT Community Center The most prominent and long-standing of Sacramento’s LGBTQ+ community centers, the Lambda Community Center (later renamed the Sacramento LGBT Community Center) was established in the 1980s, using funds procured by Reverend Jerry Sloan, founder of the Sacramento Metropolitan Community Church (MCC), the first religious congregation that was dedicated primarily to serving Sacramento’s LGBTQ+ community. As a young man, Sloan attended Baptist Bible College in Springfield, Missouri, where his classmate was Reverend Jerry Fallwell. Fallwell later became the leader of the Religious Right, founder of the Moral Majority political action committee, and an outspoken opponent of homosexuality. Sloan, meanwhile, came out as a gay man and founded chapters of the MCC in Kansas City, Missouri; Des Moines, Iowa; and Sacramento. On March 11, 1984, Falwell expressed his view that homosexuality was the embodiment of evil, stating, “Thank God this vile and satanic system will one day be utterly annihilated, and there will be a celebration in heaven."27 When Falwell and Sloan were guests on a television program in Sacramento a few months later, Falwell denied his statements and promised to pay Sloan $5,000 if he could provide taped evidence. Sloan produced the tapes, but Falwell refused to pay him, claiming that he had been misquoted. Sloan hired local attorney and lesbian legal pioneer Rosemary Metrailer and filed a lawsuit against Falwell and won nearly $9,000 in the settlement.28 After paying his legal fees, Sloan—along with Timothy Warford, Terry Sidie, Marghe Covino, CGNIE Emperor Randy Hartman, and other community members—used the rest of the winnings from the lawsuit to open the Lambda Community Center in the heart of the Lavender Heights district at 1931 L Street (extant, contributing property to Lavender Heights Historic District) in 1986.29 Sloan named a closet at the center of the building after Falwell.

21 Macias, "Celebrating Inclusion.”
22 Macias, "Celebrating Inclusion.”
23 Christine Ferris, “1980’s History of Sacramento LGBTQ Community,” email to Henry Feuss, July 10, 2024. 24 Lindelof, "Gay Bars Flourish in Downtown Area As Places to Relax, Find Partners.” 25 "Story - Bar History I, 1955-1995," undated, George Raya collection. 26 Mike Walker, "Damron Guide Reveals Sacramento Past," 2005, George Raya collection. 27 William Burg, Midtown Sacramento: Creative Soul of the City (Charleston, SC: The History Press, 2014), 41-42. 28 Burg, Midtown Sacramento, 41-42.
29 “History,” Sacramento LGBT Community Center, accessed April 11, 2024, https://saccenter.org/history. CGNIE is a continuously operating drag queen and drag king club and charitable organization with a hierarchy of officers, including an Emperor, Empress, Duchess, Lord, and Princess Royal.

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Figure 4. Reverend Jerry Sloan and Rosemary Metrailer with the check from the lawsuit against Reverend Jerry Falwell and the Moral Majority. Source: Sacramento LGBTQ+ Community Center.

The Lambda Community Center was similar in some ways to earlier drop-in centers for gay residents, but it offered a larger and more comprehensive scope of services and over the years served the full cross-section of Sacramento’s gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender community.30 The center provided services such as AIDS education, a youth program, political lobbying and letter-writing campaigns, health education, and a monthly newsletter.31 A theatre troupe that performed plays with gay and lesbian themes, the Lambda Players, started at the Lambda Center on L Street in 1989 as an social and entertainment alternative to the gay bar scene. Between roughly 1997 and 1999, the center was located at 919 20th Street (extant, contributing property to Lavender Heights Historic District). The center changed its name to the Sacramento Gay and Lesbian Center in 2006 and again in 2013 to the Sacramento LGBT Community Center. The center moved to 1015 20th Street in 2019 (extant, non-contributing property outside the period of significance of the Lavender Heights Historic District).32

30 Burg, Midtown Sacramento, 41-42.
31 Claussen, 142.
32 “History,” Sacramento LGBT Community Center, accessed April 11, 2024, https://saccenter.org/history.

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Figure 5. The first home of the Lambda Community Center at 1931 L Street.

Source: Sacramento LGBTQ+ Community Center.

HIV/AIDS Community Services
The AIDS outbreak in the 1980s and the subsequent global pandemic was a watershed moment in history that led to profound loss, stigmatization, alienation for those within the LGBTQ+ community. It had a profound impact on strengthening and unifying the community around a common cause. Members of the LGBTQ+ community quickly and harshly discovered how little support they had from within mainstream society and political institutions to help their sick and dying loved ones. Ostracized from mainstream society and lacking support or funding from government bodies and institutions, Sacramento’s gay and lesbian populations took on the responsibility of managing the spread of HIV and resulting AIDS cases and caring for the sick and dying largely by itself through the mid-1980s.33 At the forefront of local efforts were Dr. Harvey Thompson and Dr. Sandy Pomerantz, two Sacramento-based internal medicine physicians. Both members of the gay community themselves, Dr. Thompson and Dr. Pomerantz had mostly gay male patients and focused their work on the treatment of AIDS. Dr. Thompson opened a medical clinic, which mostly served gay men, at 910-912 21st Street (extant, contributing property to the Lavender Heights Historic District) in 1978. Dr. Pomerantz was a recent transplant from San Francisco and teamed up with Dr. Thompson to serve Sacramento’s gay community.34 Dr. Pomerantz authored a regular column that focused on health issues facing the gay community in the local gay newspaper Mom…Guess What…?!. His August 1981 column “Gay Medical Symposium: Two New Gay Illnesses” was the first mention in Sacramento of the disease that became known as AIDS.35 The Sacramento Bee did not step up its coverage until 1983.

In the fall of 1982, shortly after diagnosis of the first reported case of AIDS in Sacramento, Dr. Thompson and Dr.

Pomerantz met with other members of the gay and lesbian communities to brainstorm methods to manage the further spread of AIDS within their community. The meeting held by Pomerantz and Thompson in 1982 was attended by Stanley “Stan” Hadden, a senior administrative aide to State Senate President Pro Tem David Roberti, and Dr.

Elizabeth Harrison, a psychiatrist and contributor to Mom…Guess What…!. The meeting produced the early framework of what would become the AIDS/Kaposi’s Sarcoma Foundation, later changed to the Sacramento AIDS Foundation (SAF). Inspired by (and originally affiliated with) the San Francisco Aids Foundation, SAF officially began operation at 2115 J Street (extant, contributing property to Lavender Heights Historic District) in the spring of 1983

33 Amber Elena Piona, “How To Create Policy in an Epidemic: Aids in Sacramento, 1981-1989” (California State University, Sacramento, 2010), 28-29, Sacramento State University Library, 2–3. 34 Piona, "How To Create Policy in an Epidemic," 29.
35 Piona, "How To Create Policy in an Epidemic," 24.

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and provided educational advocacy along with emotional and hands-on support to patients through a service called “Hand to Hand.”36 Between 1984 and 1994, SAF was located 1900 K Street (extant, contributing property to Lavender Heights Historic District). SAF was a volunteer-run, community-funded organization. Much of the initial funding came from gay bars, including $4,000 from the leather community’s main hub, the Wreck Room, which was used to get the organization started. Funding for much of the first year of operations came from the Sacramento County Public Health Department and various fundraisers and donations.37 SAF worked in affiliation with the University of California, Davis (UC Davis) Medical Center, where Dr. Thompson served as an assistant clinical professor of medicine and family practice. Other key leaders of SAF were Dr. Jerome Lackner and Dr. Neil Flynn, head of the UC Davis AIDS Clinic. Throughout this time, SAF played an integral and often intersectional role in Sacramento’s gay community, serving as a fundraiser for important medical and educational services and advocating for policy changes, among other capacities.

By 1983, studies had begun to indicate that AIDS was sexually transmitted, and Dr. Pomerantz was determined to relay this essential information to the gay community in the hope of slowing the spread of the disease.38 Dr.

Pomerantz’s column in Mom…Guess What…!, along with others in the Sacramento Bee, highlighted the outreach that was done amongst Sacramento’s medical professionals to educate the gay community regarding sexual health and information on HIV, a vital service at a time when little information was known about HIV and AIDS.39 Dr.

Thompson’s column in Mom…Guess What…! was eventually syndicated and distributed nationwide to the gay and lesbian press. Dr. Thompson died of AIDS in 1986 at the age of 45. Dr. Pomerantz died of AIDS in 1993 at the age of

44.40 Figure 6. Dr. Harvey Thompson (left) and Dr. Sandy Pomerantz (right) in 1983. Source: Sacramento Bee.

Women’s Services
In the 1970s, many women in Sacramento came together to create an expansive network of social services specifically for local women, including lesbians. Nationwide, many women, including Sacramento residents, were first introduced to community organizing and advocacy through the women’s liberation movement. The women’s movement attracted many lesbians, who faced the same issues as straight women and similarly sought recognition and equal rights. Seeking to uplift women and reject all forms of patriarchy that had historically been the source of their oppression, some of the more radical feminists came to believe that lesbianism, or love between women, and the rejection of all things male were the highest forms of feminism. These lesbian-feminists dreamed of creating self-

36 Piona, "How To Create Policy in an Epidemic," 29.
37 Piona, "How To Create Policy in an Epidemic," 29-30. 38 Don Stanley, “AIDS Nightmare: Puzzling, Deadly – And Spreading,” Sacramento Bee, 4 January 1983: A18-A19. 39 Piona, "How To Create Policy in an Epidemic," 3.
40 Robert D. Davila, “Noted AIDS Physician Dead at 44,” Sacramento Bee, 6 October 1993: B1.

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sufficient, women-centered institutions and communities where women supported each other and were the primary drivers of culture and society.41

Inspired by the women’s movement, almost all of Sacramento’s first women’s services and aid organizations were started by lesbian-feminists, who took it upon themselves to support women in the community who were otherwise largely overlooked and underserved by institutional systems and authorities. Many of these women’s service organizations spawned from one organization, the Sacramento Women’s Center. The center began as the idea of a group of approximately 30 local feminist women, many of whom were students at local colleges – including Sacramento State, UC Davis, and American River College – as well as other local women’s groups, such as the YWCA and Sacramento Community Commission for Women. According to the Sacramento Bee, the group was led in its earliest phase by Judy Poxon, then a sophomore at Sacramento State, and Karen Burke Redman, a graduate student at UC Davis. From the start, the women envisioned the Sacramento Women’s Center as having the “feminist perspective” at the core of its mission. The center would be operated collectively to provide a broad base of support for the needs of Sacramento’s women. Modeled after women’s centers in Davis, Oakland, Berkeley, Santa Barbara, Seattle, and Vancouver, the vision for the Sacramento Women’s Center included providing temporary housing for women in need, a medical clinic, a children’s day care, job placement programs, classes, workshops, a library and bookstore, and referrals to relevant community aid agencies.42

Figure 7. Members of the Sacramento Women's Center, likely at the 1981 March for Gay and Lesbian Rights.

Source: Lavender Library.

The Sacramento Women’s Center moved to several buildings across the Midtown and Downtown neighborhoods throughout the course of its existence. The earliest iteration of the center opened on Susan B. Anthony Day, February 15th, 1973, at the YWCA building at 1122 17th Street (extant but outside Lavender Heights Historic District). The center began by providing an identifiable and visible place for local women to come together to discuss women’s roles in society. The center relocated to its first standalone location, a house at 1221 20th Street (demolished and outside the Lavender Heights Historic District), in 1974. The Sacramento Bee published a feature on the center, which by this time had expanded into the Sacramento Women’s Center and Bookstore and had begun to offer some of the services its founders originally envisioned. One of those services was a rape crisis center (RCC). Although there was broad agreement among City officials and the police department about the need for such a program, the police department opposed it being run by the Sacramento Women’s Center, after they reported finding lesbian books, pamphlets, and posters at the center. With no evidence, they claimed that vulnerable women who had been

41 Lillian Faderman, Odd Girls and Twilight Lovers: A History of Lesbian Life in Twentieth-Century America (New York: Columbia University Press, 1991), 201-206.
42 Jan May Bassett, "Women's Center Will Have 'Feminist Perspective,' Sacramento Bee, 29 November 1972: 67.

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physically and emotionally abused, would be coerced into becoming lesbians.43 Despite this opposition, the City awarded the Sacramento Women’s Center a $10,000 grant.44

In 1974, the center received a $178,000 grant from the federal Law Enforcement Assistance Administration (LEAA) to set up a program for women who were the victims of rape and other forms of sexual abuse.45 The grant was one of the largest federal grants for any project in the country at the time and made RCC one of the first rape crisis center to receive federal funding in the United States. However, it required $10,000 in matching funds from local sources. To match the federal funds, RCC borrowed the money from ten local woman, and RCC held self-defense classes, taught by Midge Marino, a black belt martial artist who taught self-defense at Sacramento State University’s Women’s Studies Program. RCC charged money for some of these classes to reimburse the women. Some of them in turn donated their money to RCC and others were paid back.46 RCC turned down a second year of funding from LEAA, after LEAA required that RCC disavow that any lesbians worked there and that the program establish a governing board, 50% of which consisted of law enforcement personnel, as conditions for continued funding. Both conditions were untenable to the Women’s Center.47

Initially led by Women’s Center members Inga Mountain and Kathy “Kit” Mahoney, by 1975, Kate Guzman, the newly formed Rape Crisis Center (RCC) provided 24-hours services for rape victims, including individual and group counseling, assistance dealing with the legal and hospital systems, self-defense classes and speaker series on women’s issues, and a 24-hour telephone hotline, which was staffed by volunteers who provided immediate emotional support to rape victims. The hotline received 145 calls in its first three months alone. It also gave educational sessions about sexual assault and abuse on local public television and at other women’s centers across California.48

Figure 8. A group of women and children at the Sacramento Women's Center at 1221 20th Street (1974).

Source: Sacramento Bee.

With calls for help pouring in, the staff of the Women’s Center discovered there were other serious unmet needs facing the women of Sacramento. Women who called in that were experiencing abuse needed a safe place for themselves, and sometimes their children, to stay to escape their abusers. The idea for a shelter evolved into a broad-reaching range of services for Sacramento’s low-income mothers. Claudia Deuel (also known as Claudia Desmangles) was a key figure in the development of such an agency within the Sacramento Women’s Center. Deuel was, herself, a single mother, who knew the struggles of low-income single mothers well. While completing her bachelor’s degree in psychology, she used welfare to care for her son and eventually became so physically

43 Jeff Raimundo, “Women ‘Appalled,’” Sacramento Bee, 12 July 1974: 21. 44 Bathen, “Women’s Center Raps Council Unit On Rape Crisis Funding.” 45 Sigrid Bathen, “Women’s Center Raps Council Unit On Rape Crisis Funding,” Sacramento Bee, 2 July 1975: B3. 46 Theresa Corrigan, conversation with Clare Flynn and Henry Feuss, July 25, 2024, Sacramento, CA. 47 Theresa Corrigan, “Edits,” email to Clare Flynn, September 25, 2024. 48 Sigrid Bathen, “Capital Rape Victim Helped Inspire New Legislation,” Sacramento Bee, 15 September 1974.

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debilitated that she had to be hospitalized with rheumatic fever and permanent heart damage.49 Initially, the Sacramento Women’s Center assisted single mothers by serving as a home for women to share childcare and household expenses, as well as an emotional outlet to discuss and process their feelings. In Spring 1974, the Sacramento Women’s Center submitted a grant proposal to Sacramento County to expand their services for low- income mothers into a more comprehensive program, which would include a 24-hour hotline, a drop-in center, counseling services, a children’s playroom, a lending library, emergency clothing closet, and a referral service for legal aid, child care, pregnancy and birth control information, and housing assistance.50 The county awarded the center a $71,000 grant. The resulting organization was named Mothers Emergency Stress Service (MESS).51

In 1975, a group of abused Hispanic women formed a second separate organization to aid victims of domestic violence called Women Escaping A Violent Environment (WEAVE).52 In 1978, WEAVE was formally established as a nonprofit organization, and funding sources that had previously been allotted to MESS were shifted to WEAVE.

MESS dissolved shortly after. By the mid-1980s, services offered by RCC were also absorbed into WEAVE.53

Despite this internal turmoil, the Sacramento Women’s Center persevered and continued to grow. Under Guzman’s coordination, by the late 1970s, the organization had matured into a sophisticated and professional government- funded service center.54 In 1979, a new program, Women’s Employment Services Training (WEST), was established under the Women’s Center’s umbrella of services. The program was funded by a $200,000 federal grant for funds from the Comprehensive Employment and Training Act (CETA).55 Led by Robin Purdy, editor of the early feminist newsletter Gibbous Rising, WEST provided training for women who were struggling to find long-term employment and had been on welfare. The program offered trainings and workshops on topics such as resume writing and interview techniques, on-site career counseling, and travel vouchers and a clothing closet for women to attend job interviews.56

In 1980, Theresa Corrigan, who had been involved with the Women’s Center in many capacities – including as a staff member at RCC, author of the grant proposals that funded WEST and Women’s Stress Alternatives, and president of the center for a period – purchased the stock of the Women’s Center’s bookstore along with her partner Kathy Haberman and Karie Wyble with plans to continue the bookstore at a new location under a new name, Lioness Books. Seeking a property that the Sacramento Women’s Center and bookstore could call their own, without the risk of being forced to move, Corrigan and Haberman purchased a converted Colonial Revival house at 2224 J Street (extant, contributor to the Lavender Heights Historic District) in 1982. More than 35 volunteers, most of whom were women, volunteered their time mostly on weekends to renovate the old building for reuse. Haberman, who was a builder and handyperson, typically working 14-hour days, seven days a week, to bring the building up to commercial code.57 While the building at 2224 J Street was being renovated, Corrigan reopened the bookstore at a temporary location at 1311 21st Street (extant, non-contributor outside the Lavender Heights Historic District). Corrigan had renamed the bookstore Lioness Books, drawing inspiration from the role of female lions in a pride, because “in a pride of lions, the [male] lion gets all the credit, but the lionesses do all the work.”58 The Sacramento Women’s Store’s bookstore and Lioness Books were the first and only women’s and gay/lesbian bookstores in Sacramento for a number of years. Lioness Books fostered a welcoming and inclusive environment and worked together with other local bookstores to service the Sacramento community. Tower Books stopped carrying feminist and gay/lesbian literature and directed customers to Lioness Books, while staff at Lioness Books directed clientele who came looking for other types of literature to Tower and other local stores.59 Lioness Books was more than a bookstore; it was an important alternative for social gatherings, entertainment, and personal connection to the lesbian bar scene. For many lesbians who moved to Sacramento, it was the first place they came after they arrived and helped them make

49 Sigrid Bathen, "Women's Center Is for a Woman Alone Who Need Not Be," Sacramento Bee, 23 June 1974: 19. 50 Bathen, "Women's Center Is for a Woman Alone Who Need Not Be.” 51 Sigrid Bathen, "Control of Women's Center May Have Been Spark for Fatal Fray," Sacramento Bee, 3 April 1975: 17-19. 52 “WEAVE’s Journey,” WEAVE, accessed August 14, 2024, https://www.weaveinc.org/sites/main/files/file-attachments/40-yr- timeline-8.5x11_2.pdf?1518826703.
53 Nurk Franklin, conversation with Clare Flynn and Henry Feuss, August 8, 2024, Sacramento, CA; Theresa Corrigan, conversation with Clare Flynn and Henry Feuss, July 25, 2024.
54 Cheryl Clark, "Women's Centers," Sacramento Bee, 12 April 1977: B4. 55 Nurk Franklin, conversation with Clare Flynn and Henry Feuss, August 8, 2024, Sacramento, CA. 56 Corrigan, conversation with Clare Flynn and Henry Feuss, July 25, 2024. 57 Corrigan, conversation with Clare Flynn and Henry Feuss, July 25, 2024; Alison apRoberts, “First Women’s Building True Labor of Love,” Sacramento Bee, 18 August 1983: 29.
58 Corrigan, conversation with Clare Flynn and Henry Feuss, July 25, 2024. 59 Corrigan, conversation with Clare Flynn and Henry Feuss, July 25, 2024.

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some of their first connections. The bookstore hosted events and social gatherings, had bulletin boards with information about women’s and lesbian social groups and organizations, sponsored a softball team for Black lesbians called Sisters and Friends, and provided referrals to women’s, lesbian, and gay service providers.60

Around the same time the Women’s Center was relocating from Capitol Avenue to J Street, Kate Guzman left the Women’s center to become the executive director of the Sacramento AIDS Foundation. In 1983, Mayor Anne Rudin participated in the official opening ceremony of the building at 2224 J Street, which she designated the First Sacramento Women’s Building. Lioness Books occupied the first floor, and the offices of the Sacramento Women’s Center’s programs – including RCC and WEST – were located on the second floor. As previously described, RCC’s services were eventually absorbed into WEAVE. Lioness Books closed in 2000, making it the longest continuously operating location of the Sacramento Women’s Center and its associated agencies.61

Figure 9. Theresa Corrigan on the porch of the First Women's Building at 2224 J Street (1983). Source: Sacramento Bee.

Other Social & Community Connectors
In addition to Lioness Books and events at the Lambda Community Center, Lavender Heights offered several opportunities for members of the LGBTQ+ community to meet and make connections outside the gay bar scene. The First Methodist Church at 2100 J Street (extant, contributing property to the Lavender Heights Historic District) hosted the earliest recorded LGBTQ+ event in Lavender Heights in 1967. That year, Sacramento’s earliest LGBTQ+ advocacy group, Americans For Responsible Citizenship (ARC), hosted a forum titled “The Homosexual 1967 Sacramento” at the church.62 The First Methodist Church has had a continuous reputation for welcoming and offering a spiritual outlet for the LGBTQ+ community since that time.

In 1989, David Kwong, a former banker and founding member of the Sacramento Gay Men’s Chorus, opened a gardening supply and design store called the Gifted Gardener in 2220 J Street (extant, contributing property to the Lavender Heights Historic District), one of the locations previously used by the Sacramento Women’s Center. The store operated there for a little more than a year, before moving to a new location at 1730 H Street (extant, non- contributor outside the Lavender Heights Historic District), where it remained for nearly 30 years.63

60 Corrigan, conversation with Clare Flynn and Henry Feuss, July 25, 2024. 61 Haines Criss-Cross directories, Sacramento, 1982-1999; Theresa Corrigan, conversation with Clare Flynn, August 27, 2024. 62 William Burg, Sacramento Renaissance: Art, Music & Activism in California’s Capital City (Charleston, SC: The History Press, 2013), 113.
63 Cathie Anderson, “Midtown Sacramento’s Gifted Gardener Will Close,” Sacramento Bee, 28 March 2017: A2.

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In 1996, Larry Bailey and Ron Grantz opened a second gay and lesbian bookstore, The Open Book, in the neighborhood at the building formerly occupied by Dr. Harvey Thomson and Dr. Sandy Pomerantz’s offices at 910- 912 21st Street (extant, contributing property to the Lavender Heights Historic District). The Open Book stayed open until midnight and also contained a café that hosted small live music performances, offering an important alternative for late-night socializing.64

Classified ads published in issues of the Mom Guess What…! newspaper frequently provided a means for gay and lesbian individuals met each other and found romantic relationships. People would place an ad in the newspaper and typically list a P.O. box address as their contact in order to keep their personal addresses private. According to Sacramento resident and former State Assemblyman Dennis Mangers, it was common for gay individuals to meet for coffee at New Helvetia café located in the former fire station at 1215 19th Street (extant, contributing property to the Lavender Heights Historic District) or for some other activity after work.65

Lavender Heights Post-2000s
The tight-knit character of Lavender Heights as an enclave primarily by and for members of the LGBTQ+ community shifted by the early 2000s as social acceptance of LGBTQ+ people, identities, and expressions became more common and a growing number of straight people began to patronize the area’s gay bars and businesses. As the LGBTQ+ community became more mainstream and the number of LGBTQ+-friendly businesses grew, competition increased and the drive to support LGBTQ+ businesses as an act of resistance, survival, and pride from within the LGBTQ+ community declined. Terry Sidie reflected that Lavender Heights lost much of its previous “oomph” by 2005. “There’s not the same energy as before,” he said.66 That year, the Open Book, a gay and lesbian bookstore closed, citing competition from other stores and waning support from LGBTQ+ patrons. Looking back on the evolution of Lavender Heights since the 1970s, Fred Palmer, publisher of the LGBTQ+ publication Outword Magazine, reflected in 2005, “[Lavender Heights] used to be a true 'gay ghetto' business district, but it's lost a lot of its gay focus. What that tells you is that the local gay community has grown up, that Sacramento in general is a safer place to be publicly gay."67 Several community members confirmed in oral history interviews conducted in 2024 for the Sacramento LGBTQ+ Historic Experience Project that the close community-oriented character of Lavender Heights dissolved around the year 2000.

D6. Significance: (continued)
California Register of Historical Resources Evaluation
The California Register of Historical Resources (California Register) is an inventory of significant architectural, archaeological, and historical resources in the State of California. The evaluative criteria used by the California Register for determining eligibility are closely based on those developed by the National Park Service for the National Register of Historic Places. In order for a property to be eligible for listing in the California Register, it must be found significant under one or more of the following criteria:

1. (Events): Associated with events that have made a significant contribution to the broad patterns of local or regional history or the cultural heritage of California or the United States.

2. (Persons): Associated with the lives of persons important to local, California or national history.

3. (Architecture): Embodies the distinctive characteristics of a type, period, region or method of construction or represents the work of a master or possesses high artistic values.

4. (Information Potential): Has yielded, or has the potential to yield, information important to the prehistory or history of the local area, California or the nation.

Criterion 1 (Events): The Lavender Heights Historic District is significant under Criterion 1 as a distinct geographic area that contains a concentration of properties with significant associations to the history of Sacramento’s LGBTQ+ community. Properties within the district represent the founding locations, headquarters, primary meeting places, or

64 Walt Yost, “Booksellers Provide Rare, Eclectic Works,” Sacramento Bee, 13 June 1996: 2A. 65 “Sacramento Oral History Episode 2: Linda Birner and Dennis Mangers,” May 30, 2023, Center for Sacramento History, YouTube, accessed April 18, 2024, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O8t3BwNfUXk. 66 Jon Ortiz, "No Longer a Sure Sell," Sacramento Bee, 14 April 2005: A1. 67 Ortiz, "No Longer a Sure Sell.”
State of California ⎯ The Resources Agency Primary # _____________________________________ DEPARTMENT OF PARKS AND RECREATION HRI # __________________________________________ CONTINUATION SHEET Trinomial _____________________________________

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places of activity for LGBTQ+ businesses, clubs, organizations, advocacy groups, community or service centers, or other social, cultural, or community groups that made a significant contribution to the LGBTQ+ community during its formative years. The district is also significant for its association with historic patterns of the LGBTQ+ community’s participation in commercial, social, artistic, cultural, spiritual, or recreational pursuits and other aspects of daily life.

Lavender Heights is significant as the home of several longtime LGBTQ+ cultural landmarks and for its role in fostering safe and accepting spaces for LGBTQ+ business owners and patrons since the late 1960s. Following the early establishment of several gay bars and pioneering social clinics in the 1970s and early 1980s including the Mercantile Saloon, Faces, the Lambda Community Center/LGBT Community Center, and Sacramento Women’s Center and Bookstore (later Lioness Books), the neighborhood flourished into a hub for the LGBTQ+ community and has continued to attract new residents and businesses. Lavender Heights has played an important role in providing avenues for kinship, safe social networks, and mutual aid services to the LGBTQ+ community. The district became a self-defined space in which LGBTQ+ individuals could express themselves freely, pursue business opportunities, and seek a range of intersectional services during the HIV/AIDS epidemic of the 1980s and 1990s, when harsh discrimination was prevalent in most realms of society. Lavender Heights continues to be an important landmark of LGBTQ+ cultural heritage in Sacramento. For these reasons, the Lavender Heights Historic District appears eligible under Criterion 1.

Criterion 2 (Persons): The Lavender Heights Historic District is significant under Criterion 2 for its association with several LGBTQ+ persons who played an important role in the formation of a vibrant, tight-knit LGBTQ+ community in the City of Sacramento from the late 1960s to the early 2000s. The district is closely associated with the important historic contributions of LGBTQ+ persons and community leaders, including Mom Guess What…! newspaper founder Linda Birner; Lambda Community Center/LGBT Community Center founder Reverend Jerry Sloan; AIDS treatment, research, and education pioneers Dr. Harvey Thompson and Dr. Sandy Pomerantz; local business and community leader and philanthropist Terry Sidie; and women’s services leaders Theresa Corrigan and Kate Guzman, among many others, each of whom played an important role in establishing a sense of community visibility, identity, connectedness, safety, support and standards of care for the LGBTQ+ community within Lavender Heights and across the broader Sacramento region. For these reasons, the Lavender Heights Historic District appears to be significant under Criterion 2.

Criterion 3 (Architecture): The Lavender Heights Historic District does not appear to be significant under Criterion 3.

As a grouping of buildings with construction dates ranging from around 1895 to 1972, the district contributors include several architectural styles, none of which are distinct examples. District contributors vary in scale, massing, and style, and do not conform to any cohesive style or period of construction. The district contributors also do not represent the work of a recognized LGBTQ+ architect, builder, designer, or creative individual, nor do they possess high artistic or historic value. Therefore, the district is not eligible under Criterion 3.

Criterion 4 (Information Potential): The Lavender Heights Historic District does not appear to be significant under Criterion 4. The “potential to yield information important to the prehistory or history of California” typically relates to archeological resources, rather than built resources. When Criterion 4 (Information Potential) does relate to built resources, it is relevant for cases when a building itself is the principal source of important construction-related information. The historic district as a grouping does not appear to include construction methods or materials which, with further research, would yield important historical information.

Integrity
In order to qualify for listing in any local, state, or national historic register, a property or landscape must possess significance under at least one evaluative criterion as described above and retain integrity. Integrity is defined by the California Office of Historic Preservation as “the authenticity of an historical resource’s physical identity evidenced by the survival of characteristics that existed during the resource’s period of significance,” or more simply defined by the National Park Service as “the ability of a property to convey its significance.”68

The Lavender Heights Historic District retains overall integrity of location, setting, feeling, and association. The historic district and its contributing buildings remain in their original locations, and no buildings have been moved or

68 California Office of Historic Preservation, Technical Assistance Series No. 7: How to Nominate a Resource to the California Register of Historical Resources (Sacramento: California Office of State Publishing, 4 September 2001), 11; U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service, National Register Bulletin: How to Apply the National Register Criteria for Evaluation (Washington, D.C.: National Park Service, 1995), 44.

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rotated. While the surrounding neighborhood in Midtown Sacramento has evolved and experienced some development and changes in demographics since 2000, Lavender Heights retains its characteristic eclectic mixture of moderately scaled residential, commercial, and institutional buildings, which were built from the late 19th century to the present day and house a variety of businesses and community services. The district continues to have a thriving nightlife scene and retains its feeling of inclusivity and safety for the LGBTQ+ community thanks to the presence of new and legacy LGBTQ+ owned and occupied businesses, institutions, and service organizations, several of which have remained in continuous operation in their original locations since the district’s period of significance. Although some contributors to the historic district have been physically altered since 2000, integrity of materials, design, and workmanship are less essential for a district that is significant under Criteria 1/i and 2/ii. The contributors would still be recognizable today to LGBTQ+ individuals who visited them during the district’s period of significance. Lavender Heights continues to be strongly identified by the general population as the cultural, social, and historic center of Sacramento’s LGBTQ+ community and, therefore, retains its historic association with the community. As such, the Lavender Heights Historic District retains overall historic integrity.

Sacramento Register of Historic and Cultural Resources
The Sacramento Register of Historic and Cultural Resources (Sacramento Register) is the City of Sacramento’s official inventory of historic and cultural resources. In order to be listed as a local landmark, historic district, or contributing resource to a historic district, a building, structure, site, or feature must meet the following criteria and requirements for listing on the Sacramento Register, as outlined in Chapter 17.604.210 of the City’s municipal code:

B. Listing on the Sacramento Register—Historic districts. A geographic area nominated as a historic district shall be listed on the Sacramento register as a historic district if the city council finds, after holding the hearing required by this chapter, that all of the requirements set forth below are satisfied:

1. Requirements.
a. The area is a geographically definable area; or
b. The area possesses either:
i. A significant concentration or continuity of buildings unified by: (A) past events or (B) aesthetically by plan or physical development; or
ii. The area is associated with an event, person, or period significant or important to city history; or
c. The designation of the geographic area as a historic district is reasonable, appropriate and necessary to protect, promote and further the goals and purposes of this chapter and is not inconsistent with other goals and policies of the city.

2. Factors to be considered. In determining whether to list a geographic area on the Sacramento register as a historic district, the following factors shall be considered:
a. A historic district should have integrity of design, setting, materials, workmanship and association; b. The collective historic value of the buildings and structures in a historic district taken together may be greater than the historic value of each individual building or structure.

C. Listing on the Sacramento register-Contributing resources. A nominated resource shall be listed on the Sacramento register as a contributing resource if the council finds, after holding the hearing required by this chapter, that all of the following requirements are satisfied:

1. The nominated resource is within a historic district;

2. The nominated resource either embodies the significant features and characteristics of the historic district or adds to the historical associations, historical architectural qualities or archaeological values identified for the historic district;

3. The nominated resource was present during the period of historical significance of the historic district and relates to the documented historical significance of the historic district;

4. nominated resource either possesses historic integrity or is capable of yielding important information about the period of historical significance of the historic district; and

5. The nominated resource has important historic or architectural worth, and its designation as a contributing resource is reasonable, appropriate and necessary to protect, promote and further the goals and purposes of this chapter.

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(B) Listing on the Sacramento Register – Historic Districts (1) Requirements
(a) As described in the previous discussion on California Register Criterion 1, the Lavender Heights Historic District meets requirement (a) for listing on the Sacramento Register, because it is a geographically definable area, consisting of a collection of extant properties with known historic associations to the city’s LGBTQ+ community that are concentrated around the enclave’s epicenter at the intersection of 20th and K streets.
(b) (i) As described in the previous discussion on California Register Criterion 1, the Lavender Heights Historic District meets requirement (b)(i) as an area that possesses a significant concentration of buildings unified by their association with the development of an identifiable LGBTQ+ enclave within the City of Sacramento during the LGBTQ+ community’s its formative years from the late 1960s to approximately the year 2000.
(b) (ii) The Lavender Heights Historic District meets requirement (b)(ii). As described in the previous discussion for California Register Criterion 2, the historic district is strongly associated with the development of a visible LGBTQ+ community within the City of Sacramento, as well as several significant individuals who were instrumental in the establishment, development, and growth of the LGBTQ+ community, including but not limited to Linda Birner, Reverend Jerry Sloan, Dr. Harvey Thompson, Dr. Sandy Pomerantz, Terry Sidie, Theresa Corrigan, Kate Guzman, and others. (c) The Lavender Heights Historic District meets requirement (c) as it aligns with the goals and purposes of historic preservation in Sacramento, as well as the city’s other goals and policies.

Lavender Heights is a vibrant, beloved centerpiece of Sacramento. Per the Sacramento City Code, the preservation of districts such as Lavender Heights enhances the “city’s economic, cultural and aesthetic standing, its identity and its livability, marketability, and urban character.” (2) Factors to be considered
(a) As discussed in the integrity evaluation, the Lavender Heights Historic District retains integrity of location, setting, feeling, and association. As such, it retains sufficient overall integrity to meet this factor for consideration as a historic district.
(b) The Lavender Heights Historic District meets factor (2)(b), because its contributing properties represent a significant and distinguishable entity whose collective historic value is greater when taken as a whole.

(C) Listing on the Sacramento Register – Contributing Resources Address Historic Name Property meets all contributing resource criteria specified in Sacramento City Code section 17.604.210.C.1-5
1215 19th Street New Helvetia
Roaster
The New Helvetia Roaster, located within the Lavender Heights Historic District, was an integral part of the district's community fabric from 1991 to 2002. As a site representing LGBTQ+ community life during the 1990s, it contributed to the district’s social and cultural narrative. Although no longer in use, it remains a key reflection of the district’s social and architectural characteristics from its active years.

Its role in representing the district's evolution justifies its status as a contributing resource.
919 20th Street Lambda Community
Center, Lambda
Players, and AIDS
Response Programs
(ca. 1997-1999)
The Lambda Community Center, Lambda Players, and AIDS
Response Programs, active from approximately 1997 to 1999, were significant in addressing AIDS and supporting LGBTQ+ communities.

Situated within the Lavender Heights Historic District, this site played a crucial role in the district’s history of health advocacy and LGBTQ+ support. Despite no longer being in use, it maintains historical importance and reflects the district’s past efforts in these areas. Its historical impact supports its designation as a contributing resource. 912 21st Street Dr. Harvey
Thompson and Dr.

Sandy Pomerantz
offices / The Open
Book
The offices of Dr. Harvey Thompson and Dr. Sandy Pomerantz, which later became The Open Book, were significant from 1978 to 1987 and again from 1996-2005. Located within the Lavender Heights Historic District, these offices were pivotal in the LGBTQ+ cultural and social landscape. They were present during crucial periods of the district's history, including early in the AIDS crisis, adding to its narrative.

Page 24 of 26 ends

*Recorded by Page & Turnbull, Inc. *Date September 25, 2024  Continuation  Update

DPR 523L (Rev. 1/1995)(Word 9/2013)
(C) Listing on the Sacramento Register – Contributing Resources Address Historic Name Property meets all contributing resource criteria specified in Sacramento City Code section 17.604.210.C.1-5
Although the site is no longer in use, it retains historical significance and contributes to the district’s understanding of LGBTQ+ culture. 2100 J Street First United
Methodist Church
The First United Methodist Church, an ongoing institution from around 1967 to the present, is a key site within the Lavender Heights Historic District. It has been a continuous venue for LGBTQ+ events and activities, reflecting its importance in the district’s religious and social history. Its ongoing operation underscores its historical integrity and significance, making it a vital contributing resource for the district. 2115 J Street Sacramento AIDS
Foundation offices
The First United Methodist Church, an ongoing institution from around 1967 to the present, is a key site within the Lavender Heights Historic District. It has been a continuous venue for LGBTQ+ events and activities, reflecting its importance in the district’s religious and social history. Its ongoing operation underscores its historical integrity and significance, making it a vital contributing resource for the district. 2220 J Street Sacramento
Women's Center/
The Gifted Gardener
The Sacramento Women’s Center, active from 1975 to 1976, was an important site within the Lavender Heights Historic District. It contributed to women’s and LGBTQ+ advocacy during its operational years, enhancing the district’s historical narrative of support for marginalized groups. Despite its closure, the site’s historical significance in early advocacy efforts supports its designation as a contributing resource. The Gifted Gardener, a popular gay-owned business that operated in Sacramento for nearly 30 years, first opened at 2220 J Street in 1989.
2224 J Street Lioness Books,
Sacramento
Women's Center,
Rape Crisis Center,
WEST
Lioness Books, the Sacramento Women’s Center, Rape Crisis Center, and WEST, operating from approximately 1982 to 1999, were integral to the Lavender Heights Historic District’s advocacy network. These organizations contributed significantly to LGBTQ+ and women’s services, reflecting the district’s role in social activism. The site’s historical importance and its multifaceted role in community services justify its contributing status, despite its current non-use. 1900 K Street Sacramento AIDS
Foundation offices
The Sacramento AIDS Foundation offices at 1900 K Street, active from 1986 to 1994, were an important part of the Lavender Heights Historic District’s efforts to address the AIDS crisis. While the offices are no longer operational, their historical role in health support and advocacy during a critical period of the district’s history underscores their significance. This historical impact supports its designation as a contributing resource.
2000 K Street K Street
Station/Faces gay
bar
K Street Station, known as Faces gay bar since 1985, remains an active and significant venue within the Lavender Heights Historic District. It has played a crucial role in LGBTQ+ nightlife and culture, contributing to the district’s social and cultural history. Its ongoing operation and importance in the district’s LGBTQ+ community validate its status as a contributing resource.
2001 K Street The Western/The
Depot gay bar
The Western, later known as The Depot gay bar, has been a prominent LGBTQ+ venue since around 1997. Located within the Lavender Heights Historic District, it has significantly contributed to the district’s nightlife and cultural scene. Its continued operation and role in the district’s LGBTQ+ history affirm its historical integrity and importance as a contributing resource.
1928 L Street Mercantile Saloon
gay bar
The Mercantile Saloon, a gay bar active since 1976, is a significant site within the Lavender Heights Historic District. It has been a key venue for LGBTQ+ social activities, reflecting the district’s historical narrative. Its ongoing operation and long-term contribution to the district’s community life support its designation as a contributing resource.

Page 25 of 26 ends

*Recorded by Page & Turnbull, Inc. *Date September 25, 2024  Continuation  Update

DPR 523L (Rev. 1/1995)(Word 9/2013)
(C) Listing on the Sacramento Register – Contributing Resources Address Historic Name Property meets all contributing resource criteria specified in Sacramento City Code section 17.604.210.C.1-5
1931 L Street Lambda Community
Center, Lambda
Players, Stop AIDS
Project
The Lambda Community Center and Stop AIDS Project, active from 1987 to approximately 1998, were pivotal in providing services and support to the LGBTQ+ community and addressing the AIDS epidemic within the Lavender Heights Historic District. This site significantly contributed to the district’s advocacy and support network during a critical period, underscoring its importance in the district's history.

Although the site is no longer operational, its historical impact on public health and LGBTQ+ support justifies its status as a contributing resource.

Conclusion
The Lavender Heights Historic District appears to be eligible for listing on the California Register and Sacramento Register under Criterion 1/i for its association with important developments in establishing, supporting, and increasing the visibility of Sacramento’s LGBTQ+ community and as the home to many important LGBTQ+ businesses and organizations during the community’s formative years from the late 1960s to around the year 2000.The Lavender Heights Historic District also appears to be eligible for listing under Criterion 2/ii for its association with several important LGBTQ+ community leaders and businesspersons who made important contributions to the development and visibility of the community as a whole.

*D7. References
Anderson, Cathie. “Midtown Sacramento’s Gifted Gardener Will Close.” Sacramento Bee. 28 March 2017: A2.

apRoberts, Alison. “First Women’s Building True Labor of Love.” Sacramento Bee. 18 August 1983: 29.

Bassett, Jan May. "Women's Center Will Have 'Feminist Perspective.'” Sacramento Bee. 29 November 1972: 67.

Bathen, Sigrid. “Capital Rape Victim Helped Inspire New Legislation.” Sacramento Bee. 15 September 1974.

Bathen, Sigrid. "Control of Women's Center May Have Been Spark for Fatal Fray." Sacramento Bee. 3 April 1975: 17-

19. Bathen, Sigrid. "Women's Center Is for a Woman Alone Who Need Not Be." Sacramento Bee. 23 June 1974: 19.

Bathen, Sigrid. “Women’s Center Raps Council Unit On Rape Crisis Funding.” Sacramento Bee. 2 July 1975: B3.

Burg, William. Midtown Sacramento: Creative Soul of the City. Charleston, SC: The History Press, 2014.

Burg, William. Sacramento Renaissance: Art, Music & Activism in California’s Capital City. Charleston, SC: The History Press, 2013.

Clark, Cheryl. "Women's Centers." Sacramento Bee. 12 April 1977: B4.

Claussen, Michael Andrew. “Lavender Heights: The Emerging Gay Community in Downtown Sacramento, California.” (M.A. thesis, California State University, Chico, 1998,).

Corrigan, Theresa. Conversation with Clare Flynn and Henry Feuss. July 25, 2024. Sacramento, CA.

Davila, Robert D. “Noted AIDS Physician Dead at 4.” Sacramento Bee. 6 October 1993: B1.

Facha, Taylor. Text conversation with Clare Flynn. August 30, 2024. Sacramento, CA.

Faderman, Lillian. Odd Girls and Twilight Lovers: A History of Lesbian Life in Twentieth-Century America. New York:

Columbia University Press, 1991.

Page 26 of 26 ends

*Recorded by Page & Turnbull, Inc. *Date September 25, 2024  Continuation  Update

DPR 523L (Rev. 1/1995)(Word 9/2013)
Ferris, Bernie. “Bernie Ferris History.” Undated. Courtesy of Christine Ferris.

Ferris, Christine. “1980’s History of Sacramento LGBTQ Community.” Email to Henry Feuss. July 10, 2024.

Franklin, Nurk. Conversation with Clare Flynn and Henry Feuss. August 8, 2024, Sacramento, CA.

“Genevieve Mary ‘Gen’ (Domich) Dallosta,” Sacramento Bee, 27 November 2018.

Graves, Donna J., and Shayne E. Watson. “Citywide Historic Context Statement for LGBTQ History in San Francisco.” 2016.

Haines Criss-Cross directories, Sacramento, 1982-1999.

“History.” Sacramento LGBT Community Center. Accessed April 11, 2024, https://saccenter.org/history.

Jahn, Cameron. "Club Plan Ignites Dispute." Sacramento Bee. 20 June 2002: D1.

Lindelof, Bill. "Gay Bars Flourish in Downtown Area As Places to Relax, Find Partners." Sacramento Bee. 12 September 1983.

Macias, Chris. "Celebrating Inclusion." Sacramento Bee. 5 September 2015: B1, B6.

Ortiz, Jon. "No Longer a Sure Sell." Sacramento Bee. 14 April 2005: A1.

Piona, Amber Elena. “How To Create Policy in an Epidemic: Aids in Sacramento, 1981-1989.” California State University, Sacramento, 2010.

Raimundo, Jeff. “Women ‘Appalled.’” Sacramento Bee. 12 July 1974: 21.

Reynold, Tina. Conversation with Clare Flynn and Henry Feuss. May 22, 2024. Sacramento, CA.

“Sacramento Oral History Episode 2: Linda Birner and Dennis Mangers.” May 30, 2023. Center for Sacramento History, YouTube. Accessed April 18, 2024, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O8t3BwNfUXk.

Stanley, Don. “AIDS Nightmare: Puzzling, Deadly – And Spreading.” Sacramento Bee. 4 January 1983: A18-A19.

"Story - Bar History I, 1955-1995." Undated. George Raya collection.

Tierney, Jolanne. Conversation with Clare Flynn and Henry Feuss. August 2, 2024. Sacramento, CA.

Walker, Mike. "Damron Guide Reveals Sacramento Past." 2005. George Raya collection.

“WEAVE’s Journey.” WEAVE. Accessed August 14, 2024, https://www.weaveinc.org/sites/main/files/file- attachments/40-yr-timeline-8.5x11_2.pdf?1518826703.

Witt, Robin. "Gays Gain Acceptance, Visibility in Sacramento." Sacramento Bee. 12 September 1982: A1-A17.

Yost, Walt. “Booksellers Provide Rare, Eclectic Works.” Sacramento Bee. 13 June 1996: 2A.

DPR 523A (9/2013) *Required information
State of California  The Resources Agency Primary #______________________________________________ DEPARTMENT OF PARKS AND RECREATION HRI #__________________________________________________ PRIMARY RECORD Trinomial______________________________________________ NRHP Status Code
Other Listings_____________________________________________________________________ Review Code________ Reviewer________________________ Date_______________

Page 1 of 6 ends

P1. Other Identifier: Incredible Edible Place restaurant

*P2. Location: Not for Publication  Unrestricted *a. County Sacramento and (P2c, P2e, and P2b or P2d. Attach a Location Map as necessary.) *b. USGS 7.5' Quad Sacramento East, CA. Date 2021 T 8N ; R 5E ; of Mt. Diablo of Sec 00 ; B.M. c. Address 1401 Alhambra Boulevard City Sacramento Zip 95816 d. UTM: (Give more than one for large and/or linear resources) Zone , mE/ mN e. Other Locational Data: (e.g., parcel #, directions to resource, elevation, decimal degrees, etc., as appropriate)

*P3a. Description: (Describe resource and its major elements. Include design, materials, condition, alterations, size, setting, and boundaries) 1401 Alhambra Boulevard (APN 007-0215-001 and 007-215-002) is a one-story, 1,610-square-foot commercial building located on the southeast corner of the intersection of Alhambra Boulevard and N Street in the East Sacramento neighborhood of Sacramento.

The building was constructed in 1975 and has a roughly square footprint with a hipped parapet roof with broadly overhanging boxed wood eaves and clay tile roofing. The northwest, northeast, and roughly two-thirds of the southwest facades are clad with painted concrete blocks, while the west third of the southwest façade and all of the southeast facades are clad with vertical wood siding. The northwest facade, facing Alhambra Boulevard, and northeast façade, facing N Street, are the primary facades of the building and contain public entrances to the building (Figure 1 and Figure 2). These entries are located in arched openings with glazed metal storefront doors. (Continued on Page 3)

*P3b. Resource Attributes: (List attributes and codes) HP6. 1-3 story commercial building

*P4. Resources Present:
 Building  Structure  Object
Site District Element of District
Other
(Isolates, etc.)

P5b. Description of Photo:
(view, date,
accession #) View southeast of 1401
Alhambra Blvd., taken August 13, 2024.

*P6. Date Constructed/Age and
Source: Historic Prehistoric Both
1975, Source: Sacramento County
Assessor.

*P7. Owner and Address:

Alhambra 1401 LLC, 6040 Bayville Ct.

Granite Bay, CA 95746

*P8. Recorded by:
(Name, affiliation, and
address) Page & Turnbull, Inc., 1007 7th
Street, #404, Sacramento, CA 95814

*P9. Date Recorded: October 8, 2024

P10. Survey Type: (Describe) Intensive

*P11. Report Citation: (Cite survey
report and other sources, or enter "none.")
Sacramento LGBTQ+ Experience
History Project Historic Context Statement (LGBTQ+ HCS) *Attachments: NONE Location Map Continuation Sheet Building, Structure, and Object Record Archaeological Record District Record Linear Feature Record Milling Station Record Rock Art Record Artifact Record Photograph Record Other (List):

P5a. Photograph or Drawing (Photograph required for buildings, structures, and objects.)

DPR 523B (9/2013) *Required information

State of California  The Resources Agency Primary #__________________________________________ DEPARTMENT OF PARKS AND RECREATION HRI#______________________________________________

BUILDING, STRUCTURE, AND OBJECT RECORD

Page 2 of 6 ends

*Resource Name or # 1401 Alhambra Boulevard
B1. Historic name: Incredible Edible Place
B2. Common name:

B3. Original Use: Commercial
B4. Present use: Commercial
*B5. Architectural Style: Spanish Eclectic
*B6. Construction History: (Construction date, alterations, and date of alterations) Jerry Staveris submitted a permit to construct a restaurant at 1401 Alhambra Boulevard in 1974.1 According to the Sacramento County Assessor, the building was completed in 1975.2 (Refer to continuation sheet, Page 4.)

*B7. Moved? No Yes Unknown Date: Original Location: ____________________________ *B8. Related Features: None
B9a. Architect: Unknown b. Builder: Unknown
*B10. Significance: Theme Out & Proud: Development of Visible Sacramento LGBTQ+ Community Area Sacramento, California Period of Significance 1977-1992 Property Type Commercial Applicable Criteria 1/I, 2/ii__

Historic Context:

Incredible Edible Place (1977-1992)
Gay businessman Paul Fitzgerald opened the Incredible Edible Place restaurant at 1401 Alhambra Boulevard in 1977. According to a 1979 article in Mom Guess What…! highlighting gay businesses in Sacramento, Fitzgerald’s goal for the Incredible Edible Place was to give Sacramento’s LGBTQ+ community “good and affordable service.”3 Though he desired for Sacramento to have a restaurant solely for the LGBTQ+ community, he recognized that when his restaurant opened in the late 1970s, the local LGBTQ+ community was not yet large enough to support an openly gay restaurant in the numbers required to sustain a healthy business.

The restaurant’s staff were evenly split between gay and straight employees, and patrons also included a mix of both gay and straight people. Fitzgerald was a prominent advocate for Sacramento’s LGBTQ+ community. He was particularly committed to the development of a gay business community. In his interview with Mom Guess What…!, he stated: “I feel that gay people should support gay businesses and that the gay business community should educate the rest of the community as to the advantages of gay businesses such as: political clout, getting more gay people into other fields such as doctors, mechanics, etc.” 4 With this goal
in mind, he extended the hours of the Incredible Edible Place into the evening on weekends to provide a space for LGBTQ+ patrons to gather for a late-night snack or cup of coffee.

As a result of the welcoming and safe environment fostered by Fitzgerald, the Incredible Edible Place became a popular meeting place for local LGBTQ+ clubs and organizations. It was the site of the first meeting of the Advocates for Gay State Employees (AGSE) in 1979. AGSE was formed by a group of State employees earlier that year to provide input to the State Personnel Board about implementation of Governor Jerry Brown’s executive order, prohibiting discrimination against State employees on the basis of sexual preference.
5 (Refer to continuation sheet, Page 4.)

B11. Additional Resource Attributes: N/A

*B12. References: Refer to footnotes
B13. Remarks: N/A
*B14. Evaluator: Page & Turnbull, Inc.
*Date of Evaluation: October 8, 2024

1 “City Building Permits,” Sacramento Bee, 23 June 1974: E13. 2 Sacramento County Assessor, Assessor Parcel Viewer, accessed September 4, 2024, https://assessorparcelviewer.saccounty.gov/jsviewer/assessor.html#. 3 James K. Graham, “Gay Business…Right Here in River City,” Mom Guess What…!, April 1979. 4 Graham, “Gay Business…Right Here in River City.”
5 "Gay State Employees Have a Voice," Mom…Guess What…!, 1 September 1979.

Source: Sacramento County Assessor, Online Parcel Viewer, 2024. Subject Parcel shown outlined in red.

(This space reserved for official comments.)

State of California  The Resources Agency Primary # _____________________________________________ DEPARTMENT OF PARKS AND RECREATION HRI # ________________________________________________ CONTINUATION SHEET Trinomial _____________________________________________

Page 3 of 7 ends

*Recorded by Page & Turnbull, Inc. *Date October 8, 2024  Continuation  Update

DPR 523L

*P3a. Description (continued):

Large arched storefront openings flank the entrances. The door and window openings are surrounded by projecting concrete block borders. A large coffee cup sculpture and signage for Starbucks Coffee sits on a flat semicircular platform on the roof at the northwest corner of the building. The southwest façade faces a small surface parking lot and has one arched storefront window (Figure 3). The southeast façade faces a small concrete paved patio that is surrounded by a low concrete block wall with metal pickets (Figure 4). The subject block is bounded by Alhambra Boulevard to the northwest, N Street to the northeast, 32 nd Street to
the southeast, and Carly Way to the southwest. 1401 Alhambra Boulevard is zoned C-2-SPD (General Commercial/Special Planning District).

Figure 1. Northwest facade, view southeast.

Figure 2. Northeast facade, view southeast.

Figure 3. Southwest facade, view north.

Figure 4. Southeast façade, view west.

Page 1 of 6 ends

P1. Other Identifier: Offices of Mom…Guess What…!

*P2. Location: Not for Publication  Unrestricted *a. County Sacramento and (P2c, P2e, and P2b or P2d. Attach a Location Map as necessary.) *b. USGS 7.5' Quad Sacramento East, CA. Date 2021 T 8N ; R 5E ; of Mt. Diablo of Sec 00 ; B.M. c. Address 1725 L Street City Sacramento Zip 95811 I d. UTM: (Give more than one for large and/or linear resources) Zone , mE/ mN e. Other Locational Data: (e.g., parcel #, directions to resource, elevation, decimal degrees, etc., as appropriate)

*P3a. Description: (Describe resource and its major elements. Include design, materials, condition, alterations, size, setting, and boundaries)

1725 L Street (APN 006-0126-010) is a one-story, 2,716-square-foot commercial building located on the north side of L Street in Midtown, Sacramento. 1725 L Street consists of a one-story brick masonry commercial storefront built in 1923 attached to a two- story, wood-frame, former residential building constructed around 1880. The primary south façade fronts L Street and features brick cladding with an asymmetrical fenestration, including divided- and single-lite fixed wood storefront windows and a glazed door beneath a fabric awning. The east façade faces a narrow alleyway, and the west façade is attached to the neighboring building at 1729-1731 L Street. The rear façade is obscured from the public right-of-way. The subject block is bounded by 18th Street to the east, Kayak Alley to the north, 17th Street to the west, and L Street to the south. 1725 L Street is zoned C-2-SPD (General Commercial/Special Planning District).

*P3b. Resource Attributes:
(List attributes and codes) HP6. 1-3 story commercial building

*P4. Resources Present:
 Building  Structure  Object
Site District Element of District
Other (Isolates, etc.)

P5b. Description of Photo: (view, date,
accession #) View north of the south facade,
taken July 15, 2024.

*P6. Date Constructed/Age and
Source: Historic Prehistoric Both
Ca.1880, Source: Sanborn maps

*P7. Owner and Address:

St John’s Lutheran Church
Sacramento, 1701 L St., Sacramento,
CA 95811

*P8. Recorded by: (Name, affiliation, and
address) Page & Turnbull, Inc., 1007 7th
Street, #404, Sacramento, CA 95814

*P9. Date Recorded: October 8, 2024

P10. Survey Type: (Describe) Intensive

*P11. Report Citation:
(Cite survey report and other sources, or enter "none.") Page & Turnbull, Sacramento LGBTQ+ Historic Experience Project Historic Context Statement (2024) *Attachments: NONE Location Map Continuation Sheet Building, Structure, and Object Record Archaeological Record District Record Linear Feature Record Milling Station Record Rock Art Record Artifact Record Photograph Record Other (List):

P5a. Photograph or Drawing (Photograph required for buildings, structures, and objects.)

DPR 523B (9/2013) *Required information

State of California  The Resources Agency Primary #__________________________________________ DEPARTMENT OF PARKS AND RECREATION HRI#______________________________________________

BUILDING, STRUCTURE, AND OBJECT RECORD

Page 2 of 6 ends

*Resource Name or # 1725 L Street
B1. Historic name: Offices of Mom…Guess What…!
B2. Common name:

B3. Original Use: Residential
B4. Present use: Commercial/Residential

*B5. Architectural Style: Commercial storefront
*B6. Construction History: (Construction date, alterations, and date of alterations) The property first appeared on Sanborn insurance maps in 1895, although the address was referenced in local newspaper records as early as 1887 (Figure 1). From 1895 to 1952, several additions were added to the rear façade, along with infill of an addition to the primary façade of the house portion. The commercial storefront was added in 1923 (Figures 2 and 3). (Refer to continuation sheet, page 3).

*B7. Moved? No Yes Unknown Date: Original Location: ____________________________ *B8. Related Features: None
B9a. Architect: Unknown b. Builder: Unknown
*B10. Significance: Theme Out & Proud: Development of Visible Sacramento LGBTQ+ Community Area Sacramento, California Period of Significance 1988-2003 Property Type Commercial/Residential Applicable Criteria 1/i; 2ii

Historic Context:

Mom…Guess What…! Newspaper
The longest-running and most influential of all of Sacramento’s LGBTQ+ media was the Mom...Guess What…! (MGW) newspaper.

MGW operated from its longtime location at 1725 L Street (the subject property) from circa 1988-2003. The newspaper was founded by local resident Linda Birner and ran its first issue in November 1978, roughly around the same time that similar newspapers launched in major North American cities, including New York, Boston, Washington, D.C., Toronto, Philadelphia, Montreal, San Francisco, Denver, Los Angeles, and others. 1 Early staff members, all of whom initially worked as volunteers, included publisher and design director Linda Birner, executive editor David S. Weinerth, editor James K. Graham, associated editors Bill Spiller and J. Anne Wessel, and photographers Jan-Michelle Sawyer and Adam Ciesielski. Contributing writers included Allen Chamberlain, Sue Diehl, Ron Drum, Colleen Moreland, Greg Low, Doug Biggert, Arthur Corbin, and Zana S. Blazer. 2 Former
State Assemblyman Dennis Mangers later contributed to sections on politics, art, and culture.3 The group initially worked out of Birner’s house at 3441 Fair Oaks Boulevard, where they brainstormed the name of the paper and assigned and wrote stories, before eventually moving to an office of its own at 1919 21 st Street (extant) from 1980-1982.
(Refer to continuation sheet, page 3).

B11. Additional Resource Attributes: N/A

*B12. References: Refer to footnotes
B13. Remarks: N/A
*B14. Evaluator: Page & Turnbull, Inc.
*Date of Evaluation: October 8, 2024

1 David. C. Weinerth, "From the Inside Out," Mom…Guess What…!, 1 December 1978. 2 Mom…Guess What…! , 1 November 1978.
3 “Sacramento Oral History Episode 2: Linda Birner and Dennis Mangers,” May 30, 2023, Center for Sacramento History, YouTube, accessed April 18, 2024, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O8t3BwNfUXk.

Source: Sacramento County Assessor, Online Parcel Viewer, 2024. Subject Parcel shown outlined in red.

(This space reserved for official comments.)

Page 3 of 8 ends

*Recorded by Page & Turnbull, Inc. *Date October 8, 2024  Continuation  Update

DPR 523L
*B6. Construction History (continued):

From visual analysis during a July 2024 site visit, it appears that aluminum windows were installed at an unknown time on the primary façade of the wood-frame house portion. Apart from cosmetic changes to retail signage and awning at the front storefront addition, no other major exterior alterations appear to have taken place to the house or storefront portions of the property during or after the period of significance.

Figure 1: Sanborn-Perris Map
Company fire insurance map of
Sacramento, 1895. Page 17L. Subject
property outlined in red. Source:

Historical Information Gatherers, San
Francisco Public Library. Edited by
Page & Turnbull.

Figure 2: Sanborn Company fire
insurance map of Sacramento, 1915.

Volume One, Page 41. Subject property
outlined in red. Source: Historical
Information Gatherers, San Francisco
Public Library. Edited by Page &
Turnbull.

Figure 3: Sanborn Map Company
fire insurance map of Sacramento,
1952. Volume One, Page 41.

Subject property outlined in red.

Source: Historical Information
Gatherers, San Francisco Public
Library.. Edited by Page &
Turnbull.

*B10. Significance:

Historic Context (continued)
In contrast to many of the sexually oriented publications directed toward the gay community at the time, Birner insisted that MGW be a “clean” newspaper without sexually explicit content so that it could appeal to a broader audience, could be openly displayed on coffee tables in public places, and could improve the self-esteem of the gay community.4 The newspaper was published monthly and distributed at gay bars and restaurants, the Sacramento Women’s Center, and other local gay businesses, establishments, and social gathering places.
5 At a time when the gay and lesbian communities were often distinctly separate from each other, MGW was designed as a newspaper for both gay men and lesbians across the Sacramento area and wider region. Reflecting one of its goals of increasing awareness, understanding, and acceptance toward the gay community among the broader population, it also notably targeted straight allies, or “Friends,” as part of its main readership base. This mission was explicitly stated on the first page of its first issue:

“MOM…GUESS WHAT…!" is a tabloid newspaper that happens to be Gay. It's for women and men in the Sacramento Valley area and the Mother Lode countries who happen to be gay and for their friends who happen to like sharing the enjoyment of their friends who happen to be gay.

"MOM…GUESS WHAT…!" is designed to appeal to the interests of a lot of nice people who may not know each other yet but probably should. After all, Sacramento's a big place. In and around River City there are thousands of Lesbians, Gay Men, and Friends of all ages and all walks of life who are not only interesting and unique in themselves, but who are also eager to find out more about each other and about their many opportunities for social activity, recreation, and personal growth through involvement with each other. 6 As demonstrated by its original mission statement, MGW went beyond political activism and was explicitly intended to foster the creation of a gay community in Sacramento. In the newspaper’s one-year anniversary issue, associate editor James Graham

4 “Sacramento Oral History Episode 2: Linda Birner and Dennis Mangers,” Center for Sacramento History. 5 Mom…Guess What…! , 1 November 1978.
6 Mom…Guess What…!, 1 November 1978.

DPR 523A (9/2013) *Required information
State of California  The Resources Agency Primary #______________________________________________ DEPARTMENT OF PARKS AND RECREATION HRI #__________________________________________________ PRIMARY RECORD Trinomial______________________________________________ NRHP Status Code 3CS, 5S3
Other Listings_____________________________________________________________________ Review Code________ Reviewer________________________ Date_______________

Page 1 of 6 ends

P1. Other Identifier: Gay Alternative Coffeehouse

*P2. Location: Not for Publication  Unrestricted *a. County Sacramento and (P2c, P2e, and P2b or P2d. Attach a Location Map as necessary.) *b. USGS 7.5' Quad Sacramento East, CA. Date 2021 T 8N ; R 5E ; of Mt. Diablo of Sec 00 ; B.M. c. Address 2215 P Street City Sacramento Zip 95816 d. UTM: (Give more than one for large and/or linear resources) Zone , mE/ mN e. Other Locational Data: (e.g., parcel #, directions to resource, elevation, decimal degrees, etc., as appropriate)

*P3a. Description: (Describe resource and its major elements. Include design, materials, condition, alterations, size, setting, and boundaries) 2215 P Street (APN 702-540-190-000) is a two-story, 1,440-square-foot multi-family residential building located on the north side of P Street in the Winn Park neighborhood of Sacramento. The building was constructed in 1900 and has a rectangular footprint with a hipped roof, overhanging boxed wood eaves, and composite roofing. It is clad with horizontal clapboard siding throughout. The north facade, facing P Street, is the primary facade of the building (Figure 1 and Figure 2). A detached ADU is located behind the main residential building. The subject block is bounded by 23rd Street to the east, Opera Alley to the north, and 22nd Street to the west. 2215 P Street is zoned R-3A-SPD (Multi-family Alternative Residential 36 units/acre/Special Planning District).

(Continued on Page 3)

*P3b. Resource Attributes:
(List attributes and codes) HP3. Multiple family property

*P4. Resources Present:
 Building  Structure  Object
Site District Element of District
Other
(Isolates, etc.)

P5b. Description of Photo:
(view, date,
accession #) Primary façade, view north,
taken August 13, 2024.

*P6. Date Constructed/Age and
Source: Historic Prehistoric Both
1900, Source: Sacramento County
Assessor.

*P7. Owner and Address:

Keith R/Alice M. Kelly Family Revocable
Trust, P.O. Box 162612
Sacramento, CA 95816

*P8. Recorded by: (Name, affiliation, and
address) Page & Turnbull, Inc., 1007 7th
Street, #404, Sacramento, CA 95814

*P9. Date Recorded: October 8, 2024

P10. Survey Type: (Describe) Intensive

*P11. Report Citation:
(Cite survey
report and other sources, or enter "none.")
Sacramento LGBTQ+ Experience History Project Historic Context Statement (LGBTQ+ HCS) *Attachments: NONE Location Map Continuation Sheet Building, Structure, and Object Record Archaeological Record District Record Linear Feature Record Milling Station Record Rock Art Record Artifact Record Photograph Record Other (List):

P5a. Photograph or Drawing (Photograph required for buildings, structures, and objects.)

DPR 523B (9/2013) *Required information

State of California  The Resources Agency Primary #__________________________________________ DEPARTMENT OF PARKS AND RECREATION HRI#______________________________________________

BUILDING, STRUCTURE, AND OBJECT RECORD

Page 2 of 6 ends

*Resource Name or # 2215 P Street
B1. Historic name: Gay Alternative Coffeehouse
B2. Common name:

B3. Original Use: Residential
B4. Present use: Residential
*B5. Architectural Style: Queen Anne Free Classic
*B6. Construction History: (Construction date, alterations, and date of alterations) 2215 P Street was built in 1900. In 2009, a permit was issued for reroofing the rear porch with composite shingles.1 In 2022, two permits were issued: the first to convert the second story of the main residential building to an ADU, and the second to construct a detached ADU at the rear of the property.2 Windows appear to have been replaced with vinyl sash and a new concrete staircase was constructed at an unknown date. (Refer to continuation sheet, Page 4.)

*B7. Moved? No Yes Unknown Date: Original Location: ____________________________ *B8. Related Features: None
B9a. Architect: Unknown b. Builder: Unknown
*B10. Significance: Theme Out & Proud: Development of Visible Sacramento LGBTQ+ Community Area Sacramento, California Period of Significance 1971-1972 Property Type Residential Applicable Criteria 1/i__

Historic Context:

Gay Alternative Coffeehouse
The intersection of P and 22nd streets was a hub for local LGBTQ+ activity in the late 1960s and early 1970s. In 1971, the first known LGBTQ+ coffeehouse opened at a building around the corner from the Pink Fairy Palace at 2215 P Street. The coffee shop was located in Apartment #2, which was the apartment of a man named Edgar, who was a writer for Gay Voice Sacramento, one of the first LGBTQ+ newsletters in Sacramento. Edgar was likely Edgar Carpenter, a student at Sacramento State College (now California State University, Sacramento and also known as Sacramento State University or CSUS) at the time and a leader in the gay liberation group, the Society for Homosexual Freedom (SHF), that was founded at the college. SHF held its early meetings at the coffeeshop in 1971.149 It also hosted a series of gay community potluck dinners.

The coffeeshop, appropriately known as the Gay Alternative Coffeehouse, was created as space for young gay people to socialize outside the gay bar scene. It operated from approximately 1971-1972. According to a piece written by Edgar in Gay Voice Sacramento around the time the coffee shop opened:

The reason the coffeehouse has been started is that there is no gay scene in Sacramento outside of the bars (no gay scene for those of us under twenty-one) where we are charged exorbitant prices for drinks in a noisy, impersonal, meat-rack atmosphere which is the opposite of the atmosphere of community and brotherhood/sisterhood.
3 To furnish the coffeehouse, Gay Voice Sacramento solicited donations of pillows, rugs, artwork, other décor items and a refrigerator.4 In 1972, the Gay Alternative Coffeeshop moved to another apartment building at 1516 29th Street (extant).5

B11. Additional Resource Attributes: N/A

*B12. References: Refer to footnotes
B13. Remarks: N/A
*B14. Evaluator: Page & Turnbull, Inc.
*Date of Evaluation: October 8, 2024

1 City of Sacramento, Community Development Department. Permit #9800095. Sacramento, California: June 16, 2009. 2 City of Sacramento, Community Development Department. Permit #RES-2204147. Sacramento, California: February 24, 2022; City of Sacramento, Community Development Department. Permit #ADR-2200078. Sacramento, California: March 8, 2022. 3 Gay Voice Sacramento, No. 1, 1971.
4 Gay Voice Sacramento, No. 1, 1971.
5 Gay Voice Sacramento, No. 2, undated.

Source: Sacramento County Assessor, Online Parcel Viewer, 2024. Subject Parcel shown outlined in red.

(This space reserved for official comments.)

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*Recorded by Page & Turnbull, Inc. *Date October 8, 2024  Continuation  Update

DPR 523L
*P3a. Description: (Continued)
The subject property is two stories in height with a hipped roof and hipped dormers on the south, east, and west facades. The primary north façade features a two-story wood frame porch with simple Tuscan columns and wood baluster. The second story of the porch is accessed from a set of concrete stairs with metal railings. The east façade is partially visible and features a bay window at the second floor and double-hung windows. The west and rear north facades are mostly obscured from view (Figure 3).

At the rear of the property, there is a two-story ADU with hipped roof (under construction as of August 2024). (Figure 4).

Figure 1. Primary south facade, view northeast.

Figure 2. Oblique view of south and east facades, view
north.

Figure 3. Partial view of the rear façade and detached
ADU, view southwest.

Figure 4. Context view of detached ADU, view southwest.

Page 1 of 6 ends

P1. Other Identifier: The Blue Moon___

*P2. Location: Not for Publication  Unrestricted *a. County Sacramento and (P2c, P2e, and P2b or P2d. Attach a Location Map as necessary.) *b. USGS 7.5' Quad Sacramento East, CA. Date 2021 T 8N ; R 5E ; of Mt. Diablo of Sec 00 ; B.M. c. Address 2565 Franklin Boulevard City Sacramento Zip 95818 d. UTM: (Give more than one for large and/or linear resources) Zone , mE/ mN e. Other Locational Data: (e.g., parcel #, directions to resource, elevation, decimal degrees, etc., as appropriate)

*P3a. Description: (Describe resource and its major elements. Include design, materials, condition, alterations, size, setting, and boundaries) 2565 Franklin Boulevard (APN 010-0247-040) is a one-story, 2,554-square-foot brick masonry commercial building located in the Curtis Park neighborhood of Sacramento on the east side of Franklin Boulevard between Broadway to the north, 2nd Avenue to the south, and State Highway 99 to the east. The building was constructed in 1925 and has a rectangular footprint with a low-pitched hipped roof with built-up roofing that is surrounded on the north, south, and east sides by a flat parapet wall and on the west (front) side by a projecting false hipped roof with red clay tile roofing and boxed wood eaves. The west and south façades are clad with vertically scored red facing bricks laid in a running bond, while the north façade is clad with smooth bricks laid in a common bond.

The west (front) façade faces Franklin Boulevard and has two bays. The main entrance is centered in a recessed opening in the right (south) bay and consists of a flat metal door with a diamond-shaped peephole window (Figure 1). The facade appears to have originally had large storefront window openings, which were infilled at an unknown date with vertically grooved plywood cladding. A vinyl picture window with flat wood trim is located in the plywood infilled opening to the left (north) of the entrance (Continued on Page 3).

*P3b. Resource Attributes:
(List
attributes and codes) HP6. 1-3 story
commercial building

*P4. Resources Present:
 Building  Structure  Object
Site District Element of District
Other
(Isolates, etc.)

P5b. Description of Photo:
(view, date,
accession #) View northeast of 2565
Franklin Blvd., taken August 25, 2024.

*P6. Date Constructed/Age and
Source: Historic Prehistoric Both
1925, Source: LoopNet.

*P7. Owner and Address:

Campus Plaza Assoc, Care Of
Brocchini Partners,
3801 W. Pacific Ave. Ste. A
Sacramento, CA 95820

*P8. Recorded by: (Name, affiliation, and
address) Page & Turnbull, Inc., 1007 7th
Street, #404, Sacramento, CA 95814

*P9. Date Recorded: October 8, 2024

P10. Survey Type:
(Describe) Intensive

*P11. Report Citation:
(Cite survey report and other sources, or enter "none.") Sacramento LGBTQ+ Experience History Project Historic Context Statement (LGBTQ+ HCS) *Attachments: NONE Location Map Continuation Sheet Building, Structure, and Object Record Archaeological Record District Record Linear Feature Record Milling Station Record Rock Art Record Artifact Record Photograph Record Other (List):

P5a. Photograph or Drawing (Photograph required for buildings, structures, and objects.)

DPR 523B (9/2013) *Required information

State of California  The Resources Agency Primary #__________________________________________ DEPARTMENT OF PARKS AND RECREATION HRI#______________________________________________

BUILDING, STRUCTURE, AND OBJECT RECORD

Page 2 of 6 ends

*Resource Name or # 2565 Franklin Boulevard
B1. Historic name: The Blue Moon
B2. Common name:

B3. Original Use: Commercial
B4. Present use: Commercial
*B5. Architectural Style: 20th-Century Commercial
*B6. Construction History: (Construction date, alterations, and date of alterations) 2565 Franklin Boulevard was constructed in 1925 for property developers Anderson-Govan Company by an unknown architect and builder. Research did not uncover any historic photographs of the building. A fire insurance map published by the Sanborn Map Company in 1950 shows the building as a masonry building with a roughly rectangular footprint with an angled front façade aligned with Franklin Boulevard. At the time, the building contained two commercial units and its south façade faced 1st Avenue (now a surface parking lot). The building’s earliest known tenant was a lighting and ornamental iron work designer and manufacturer in 1931. By 1935, the building was in use as Leejo’s Tavern, a Prohibition-era bar that was raided for possessing an illegal cache of untaxed alcohol in a secret cabinet behind sliding doors.1 Various bars, including the lesbian bar The Blue Moon from 1985 to 1990, occupied the building through 2021, when the interior of the building was remodeled to convert it into a drive-in style restaurant.

*B7. Moved? No Yes Unknown Date: Original Location: ____________________________ *B8. Related Features: None
B9a. Architect: Unknown b. Builder: Unknown
*B10. Significance: Theme Out & Proud: Development of Visible Sacramento LGBTQ+ Community Area Sacramento, California Period of Significance 1985-1990 Property Type Commercial Applicable Criteria 1/I __

Historic Context:

Lesbian Bars in Sacramento (ca. 1969-2000)
Gay white men were historically, and continue to be, the most visible and recognized LGBTQ+ subgroup both in Sacramento and the broader LGBTQ+ population nationwide. As in other cities, lesbians in Sacramento often felt angered, embittered, and alienated by the treatment they received from gay men and the lack of recognition or representation they often received. Some gay businesses and organizations explicitly did not welcome lesbians. Many gay bars, which catered to a majority white male clientele, did not welcome and often rejected lesbian patrons. The practice of “carding” lesbians and LGBTQ+ persons of color to discourage their presence was not uncommon. If carded, those seeking admission would have to produce multiple forms of personal ID to secure entrance, making it difficult if not impossible for them to be admitted.2 As a result, lesbians in Sacramento were forced to establish their own safe spaces, social gathering places, clubs, and organizations where they could openly and comfortably express themselves. Known lesbian bars that operated in the City of Sacramento during the formative period of the LGBTQ+ community’s development from the late 1960s to approximately the year 2000 included the Crescent Moon at 1704 Broadway (extant but extensively altered), the Blue Moon (the subject property), the Buffalo Club at 1831 S Street (demolished), The Mirage at 601 15
th Street (extant, primarily a bar for Black lesbians), and Jammin’ Jo’s Sports and Dance Bar at 2721 Broadway (extant). (Refer to continuation sheet, Page 4.)

B11. Additional Resource Attributes: N/A

*B12. References: Refer to footnotes
B13. Remarks: N/A
*B14. Evaluator: Page & Turnbull, Inc.

1 “Caches Uncovered in Liquor Raids,” Sacramento Bee, 8 March 1935: 5. 2 Carson Anderson, “Comments on Draft LGBTQ HCS,” July 9, 2024.

Source: Sacramento County Assessor, Online Parcel Viewer, 2024. Subject Parcel shown outlined in red.

(This space reserved for official comments.)

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DPR 523L
*P3a. Description (continued):

The south façade faces a large surface parking lot and has another large window opening that is infilled with plywood cladding and a vinyl picture window (Figure 2 and Figure 3). An exit door with a metal security door is at the east end of the façade. The north façade is clad with brick laid in a common bond and has iron ties across the upper courses (Figure 4). The rear (east) façade is not visible from the street. 2565 Franklin Boulevard is zoned C-2 (General Commercial).

Figure 1. South facade, view northeast.

Figure 2. Parking lot south of the building, view north.

Figure 3. North facade, view southeast.

Page 1 of 6 ends

P1. Other Identifier: Bo Jangles

*P2. Location: Not for Publication  Unrestricted *a. County Sacramento and (P2c, P2e, and P2b or P2d. Attach a Location Map as necessary.) *b. USGS 7.5' Quad Sacramento East, CA. Date 2021 T 8N ; R 5E ; of Mt. Diablo of Sec 00 ; B.M. c. Address 7042 Folsom Boulevard City Sacramento Zip 95826 d. UTM: (Give more than one for large and/or linear resources) Zone , mE/ mN e. Other Locational Data: (e.g., parcel #, directions to resource, elevation, decimal degrees, etc., as appropriate)

*P3a. Description: (Describe resource and its major elements. Include design, materials, condition, alterations, size, setting, and boundaries) 7042 Folsom Boulevard (APN 079-0222-034) is a one-story, 4,266-square-foot commercial building located on the south side of Folsom Boulevard between Brighton Avenue to the west, State University Drive to the west, and U.S. Highway 50 to the southeast in the East Sacramento neighborhood of Sacramento. The building was constructed in 1940 and has an irregular footprint.

Approximately two-thirds of the front of the building has a hipped parapet roof with overhanging boxed eaves and standing seam metal roofing. The rear third of the building has a flat roof. The building is clad with stucco. The front (north) façade faces Folsom Boulevard and contains the main entrance to the building, which is covered with plywood (Figure 1). The east façade contains a secondary entrance, consisting of two metal doors (Figure 2). The west façade features two fixed window openings and another door opening. One of the windows and the door opening are covered with plywood. The rear (southeast) facade is not visible from the public right-of-way but appears to face a rear patio that is enclosed by a stucco-clad wall. The building is located on a 0.75-acre triangular parcel that is enclosed by a metal chain link fence. A small patio surrounded by a wood board fence with concrete and wood posts is located in front of the main entrance. Paved surface parking lots flank the building on its east and west sides. 7042 Folsom Boulevard is zoned C-2 (General Commercial).
*P3b. Resource Attributes: (List attributes and codes) HP6. 1-3 story commercial building *P4. Resources Present:
 Building  Structure  Object
Site District Element of District
Other (Isolates, etc.)

P5b. Description of Photo:
(view, date,
accession #) View southeast of 7042
Folsom Blvd., taken August 25, 2024.

*P6. Date Constructed/Age and
Source: Historic Prehistoric Both
1940, Source: Sacramento County
Assessor.

*P7. Owner and Address:

Malkah J LLC
6236 Mahala Dr.

Carmichael, CA 95608

*P8. Recorded by:
(Name, affiliation, and
address) Page & Turnbull, Inc., 1007 7th
Street, #404, Sacramento, CA 95814

*P9. Date Recorded: October 8, 2024

P10. Survey Type: (Describe) Intensive

*P11. Report Citation:
(Cite survey
report and other sources, or enter "none.")
Sacramento LGBTQ+ Experience History Project Historic Context Statement (LGBTQ+ HCS)

*Attachments: NONE Location Map Continuation Sheet Building, Structure, and Object Record Archaeological Record District Record Linear Feature Record Milling Station Record Rock Art Record Artifact Record Photograph Record Other (List):

P5a. Photograph or Drawing (Photograph required for buildings, structures, and objects.)

DPR 523B (9/2013) *Required information

State of California  The Resources Agency Primary #__________________________________________ DEPARTMENT OF PARKS AND RECREATION HRI#______________________________________________

BUILDING, STRUCTURE, AND OBJECT RECORD

Page 2 of 6 ends

*Resource Name or # 7042 Folsom Boulevard
B1. Historic name: Bo Jangles
B2. Common name:

B3. Original Use: Commercial
B4. Present use: Commercial
*B5. Architectural Style: Vernacular
*B6. Construction History: (Construction date, alterations, and date of alterations) The building at 7042 Folsom Boulevard was constructed in 1940.1 Research did not reveal its original owner or builder. The earliest known photographs of the building consist of aerial photographs from the 1950s and 1960s, which show the building with a rectangular footprint and low-pitched gabled roof (Figure 3 and Figure 4). The building has had numerous uses over the course of its existence, but has most frequently been used as a bar, nightclub, or music venue. From the late 1960s to early 1970s, the building was occupied by the Pink Tiger Tavern, a go-go dance club. In 1966, three large windows were broken and the interior was damaged after burglars set off an explosion inside the building.2 One week later, someone threw a stone through glass in the front door and poured flammable liquid along 10 feet of the rear wall and set it on fire, causing smoke damage.3 In 1976, an addition for a card room was constructed. The addition is visible in an aerial photograph taken in 1981 (Figure 5) (Refer to continuation sheet, Page 4.)

*B7. Moved? No Yes Unknown Date: Original Location: ____________________________ *B8. Related Features: None
B9a. Architect: Unknown b. Builder: Unknown
*B10. Significance: Theme Out & Proud: Development of Visible Sacramento LGBTQ+ Community Area Sacramento, California Period of Significance 1976-1986 Property Type Commercial Applicable Criteria 1/I, 2/ii__

Historic Context:

Early Gay Bars in the City of Sacramento
Through the late 1960s and into the early 1970s, as much of the gay community remained closeted and being publicly “out” could still put one at risk of arrest, losing one’s job, and being ostracized from family, friends, and coworkers, gay and lesbian individuals continued to meet in secret. Gay bars—which had covertly served a vital role as some of the only places LGBTQ+ individuals could openly express their sexual identities since the first decades of the 20 th century—blossomed into the public center of LGBTQ+ life in the decades after the late 1960s. Gay bars became not just places to meet sexual partners; they developed into the de facto center of gay life, where LGBTQ+ individuals received and exchanged news, formed lasting friendships and romantic relationships, and organized social, professional, and political groups, clubs, and events.

While some gay bars existed in Sacramento’s Central City grid prior to the late 1960s, California’s anti-sodomy laws, which had been used to harass and imprison LGBTQ+ individuals for over 100 years, and the City of Sacramento’s strict enforcement of those laws, prevented the formation of any recognizable concentration of gay-owned or gay-friendly establishments within the boundaries of the City of Sacramento until the state laws were repealed in the 1970s. In 1975, Assembly Bill 437, which ended California’s sodomy laws, passed both houses of the California state legislature and was signed into law by Governor Jerry Brown, Jr.4 (Refer to continuation sheet, Page 4.)

B11. Additional Resource Attributes: N/A

*B12. References: Refer to footnotes
B13. Remarks: N/A
*B14. Evaluator: Page & Turnbull, Inc.
*Date of Evaluation: October 8, 2024

1 Sacramento County Assessor, Assessor Parcel Viewer, accessed September 4, 2024, https://assessorparcelviewer.saccounty.gov/jsviewer/assessor.html#. 2 “After-Hours ‘Visitors’ To Bar Take Coins and Then Really Have a Blast,” Sacramento Bee, 22 September 1966: D1. 3 “Pink Tiger Is Target Again – Flames, Stone,” Sacramento Bee, 29 September 1966: A11. 4 Donna J. Graves and Shayne E. Watson, “Citywide Historic Context Statement for LGBTQ History in San Francisco,” 2016 227-228.

Source: Sacramento County Assessor, Online Parcel Viewer, 2024. Subject Parcel shown outlined in red.

(This space reserved for official comments.)

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DPR 523L
*P3a. Description (continued):

Figure 1. North facade, view southwest.

Figure 2. East facade, view southwest.

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DPR 523L
*B6. Construction History (continued):

LGBTQ+ entrepreneur, community leader, and philanthropist Myron “Terry” Sidie purchased the property in 1976 and remodeled it into a popular gay dance club called Bo Jangles. The rear patio appears to have been added around this time. Permit records describe the installation of a new door to the patio and outdoor fireplace in 1977. In 1980, the building had another fire that damaged approximately 20 percent of the building.
5 The damage was repaired. City directory listings indicate that Bo Jangles closed around 1986, but building permit records show that the property continued to be owned by Sidie through at least 1990.

From the mid-1980s through 2007, the property was used as a live music venue, known for primarily hosting alternative rock bands and musicians. The venue went by several different names during this time period, including Club Me!, The Cattle Club, and The Library. Additional fires resulted in unspecified damage to the building in 1998 and again in 2002. A fire protection system was installed in 2005.6 Three windows in the north (front) façade were repaired in 2007. The Library closed in 2007, after a gang fight resulted in the accidental death of a 20-year-old student who was sitting in her car outside the bar. Bisla’s Sports Bar subsequently occupied the building from 2009 to 2013. Google Street View shows that the front façade was modified around 2014 as part of remodeling the building into a barbeque restaurant, Fahrenheit 451. A new outdoor patio seating area with wood and concrete posts was constructed at the front of the building at this time, and three fixed windows at the front façade were replaced with glazed doors that opened to the patio. Chain link fencing was added around the property around 2022.7 The only other exterior alterations that are documented in building permit records consist of the installation of signs for the various tenants that have occupied the building.8

Figure 3. 1966 aerial photograph. The subject building is indicated by a white arrow. Source: HistoricAerials.com.

Edited by Page & Turnbull.

Figure 4. 1971 aerial photograph. The subject building is indicated by a white arrow. Source: Cartwright Aerial
Surveys, Flight CAS-3069, 1971, UC Santa Barbara
FrameFinder. Edited by Page & Turnbull.

Figure 5. 1981 aerial photograph. The subject building is indicated by a white arrow. Source: Cartwright Aerial
Surveys, Flight CAS-81081, 1981, UC Santa Barbara
FrameFinder. Edited by Page & Turnbull.

Figure 6. 2024 aerial photograph. The subject building is indicated by a white arrow. Source: Google Maps. Edited by Page & Turnbull.

5 “Bojangles Bar Burns,” Sacramento Bee, 28 October 1980: B3. 6 Building permit records, City of Sacramento.
7 Google Street View, accessed September 18, 2024.
8 Building permit records, City of Sacramento.

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DPR 523L
*B10. Significance:

Historic Context (continued)
The impact of the repeal of the state’s sodomy laws is visible in the pattern of development of gay bars and gay-friendly establishments in the Sacramento area. Locations where queer people could openly gather and interact were initially scattered throughout the city, though the largest concentrations remained across the Sacramento River in the City of West Sacramento through the mid-1970s. The Damron Guides recorded only two queer-friendly establishments in Sacramento from the publication of the first issue in 1965 through 1970: the Topper Club and Mark Twain Hotel bar located along the cruising area on the K Street Mall in downtown Sacramento.

Over the course of the 1970s and 1980s, however, the number of gay bars and queer-friendly establishments steadily increased and spread throughout the City of Sacramento as policing of sexual activities decreased. A small number of new establishments emerged within the city in the early 1970s. The first, though short- lived, gay bar on 21
st Street that was listed in the Damron Guides was Raye’s Inn at 1617 21st Street in 1971. A few years later, the Cruz’in/Y-Not bar was located a few blocks to the north at 2026 I Street near the intersection of 21st and I streets. By 1973, the Corker Club (later Bob and Frank’s Underpass and Corral/Broadway Limited) at 1946 Broadway.9 The Topper Club and Mark Twain Hotel were demolished at an unknown date. The building at 2026 I Street has been replaced with contemporary infill housing, while the exterior of 1946 Broadway has been extensively altered beyond recognition.

Bo Jangles (1976-1986)
Many of the most popular and successful early gay bars within the boundaries of the City of Sacramento opened in outlying neighborhoods outside the Central City in the 1970s. In 1976, Wisconsin-native Myron “Terry” Sidie opened his first of several gay bars and businesses in Sacramento, a dance club called Bo Jangles at 7042 Folsom Boulevard (extant) just outside the campus of California State University, Sacramento in East Sacramento. However, despite the growing visibility of gay men and lesbians in Sacramento, anti-gay discrimination and violence remained a constant reality. In 1979, four patrons at Bo Jangles were wounded when someone fired a gun into the crowded patio outside the bar from nearby Highway 50. No arrests were recorded in the Sacramento Bee’s reporting.10 Despite the continuing threat of violence and harassment, Bo Jangles was an important social outlet for the community. The bar was a popular spot for young people due to its proximity to the campus of Sacramento State University and the fact that most of the bar was open to people under the age of 21.11 Bo Jangles became a place where many members of Sacramento’s LGBTQ+ community first publicly came out, had their first openly LGBTQ+ experiences, or first met others in the LGBTQ+ community. Jolanne Tierney, known by her DJ-ing name Jammin’ Jo, remembered the bar as the first place where she publicly came out. When she walked into Bo Jangles for the first time as a high school student in 1979, she said it “was the first time [she] knew she wasn’t alone,” adding, “It felt like home.”12 City directories list Bo Jangles until 1986, after which the property was primarily used as a live music venue.

Myron “Terry” Sidie
Born and raised on a farm in Wisconsin, Terry Sidie left home at the age of 19 to live with an aunt in Detroit, where he came out as gay. He later moved to Los Angeles, where he worked as a private-duty nurse before enlisting in the military in 1971. Though hoping “to see the world,” he was stationed at the hospital at Mather Air Force Base in the Sacramento area. During the evenings, he moonlighted as a bartender at bars in Sacramento and West Sacramento, gaining experience with the local gay bar scene.

After opening Bo Jangles in 1976, Sidie became one of the most successful and influential figures in Sacramento’s LGBTQ+ community, opening several other bars, restaurants, and establishments, and supporting community clubs and organizations through donations and fundraisers. In 1985, he purchased the building that contained another early gay bar, K Street Station, located at 2000 K Street (extant), and reopened it as a new gay dance club called Faces, which continues in operation. Sidie envisioned Faces as a destination for dancing and a luxurious alternative to the typical dive bar. Sidie wished to combat the exclusionary attitude of the gay community and the bar scene in the 1970s by creating a place that welcomed everyone. Under Sidie’s leadership, Faces became akin to a community center. The success of the bar has often been credited by community

9 Mapping the Gay Guides, accessed August 14, 2024, https://mappingthegayguides.org/viz/map/. 10 “Shots Fired at Bar Crowd,” Sacramento Bee, 29 July 1979: A26. 11 Alan LoFaso, conversation with Clare Flynn, September 13, 2024, Sacramento, CA. 12 Jolanne Tierney, conversation with Clare Flynn and Henry Feuss, August 2, 2024, Sacramento, CA.

Figure 7. Advertisement Bo Jangles (ca.
1980). Source: Mom…Guess What…!
Lavender Library.

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DPR 523L
members, business and political leaders as a catalyzing force in the development of Sacramento’s LGBTQ+ neighborhood, Lavender Heights.
13 In addition to Bo Jangles and Faces, at one point, Sidie also owned Club 21, a restaurant called Head Hunters, the Verona Village Resort in Sutter County, and a farm in his home state of Wisconsin. Sidie used the success of his business endeavors to benefit and empower Sacramento’s LGBTQ+ community. Faces became a hub for the community and arguably the most well-known and recognizable landmark for the LGBTQ-life in Sacramento. In addition to its regular business, the bar hosted events such as voter drives for the Sacramento chapter of the gay political advocacy group the Stonewall Democratic Club, fundraisers for LGBTQ+- friendly politicians, and the first meeting of the Sacramento Gay and Lesbian Softball League. 14 In 1987, Sidie helped start the
Rainbow Festival with Hamburger Mary’s owner Richard Boriolo. The festival, which is held annually as a fundraiser for local LGBTQ+ charities and organizations, was Boriolo’s idea and continues to use Faces as its main hub.15 In reflecting on Sidie’s impact on the community, Reverend Jerry Sloan, founder of the Lambda Community Center (now the Sacramento LGBT Community Center), stated, “"A lot of people and groups, including myself, have certainly gone to him and said, 'Terry, we need,' and he never hesitates. And we're talking thousands of dollars, not 20 bucks."16 By 1997, Sidie, himself, estimated he had given $120,000 to local LGBTQ+ charities and organizations.17

Sidie has also been a leader in other important LGBTQ+ organizations in Sacramento. He helped found the Lambda Community Center (now the LGBT Community Center) in 1986 and was crowned Emperor XIII and XXXVII of the Imperial Court of Sacramento (also known as the Court of the Great Northwest Imperial Empire, or CGNIE), a local chapter of the drag social club and charitable organization the International Court System. He was named Emperor I of the Americas, one of the two highest ranked people in the International Court System in 2020. 18 Sidie’s prominence in the Imperial Court System has given Sacramento power and distinction within the drag community worldwide.19

Figure 8. Terry Sidie at Faces (2015). Source: Paul Kitagaki for The Sacramento Bee.

Statement of Significance:

In order for a property to be considered eligible for the California Register of Historical Resources (California Register), or the Sacramento Register as a landmark, the property must possess significance and retain integrity to convey that significance. Refer to the Sacramento LGBTQ+ Experience History Project Historic Context Statement (LGBTQ+ HCS) and Survey Methodology & Framework for evaluative criteria of each theme.

13 Chris Macias, "Celebrating Inclusion," Sacramento Bee, 5 September 2015: B1, B6. 14 Macias, "Celebrating Inclusion.”
15 Jolanne Tierney, conversation with Clare Flynn and Henry Feuss. 16 Macias, "Celebrating Inclusion.”
17 Macias, "Celebrating Inclusion.”
18 “History,” Sacramento LGBT Community Center, accessed April 11, 2024, https://saccenter.org/history; “Imperial Court Emperors and Empresses,” The United Courts of CGNIE, accessed August 24, 2024. 19 “Official Message from Queen Mother 1 of the America’s, Nicole the Great,” International Court System, August 26, 2019, accessed August 24, 2024, https://internationalcourtsystem.org/official-message-from-queen-mother-1-of-the-americas-nicole-the-great/.

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California Register of Historical Resources Evaluation
The California Register of Historical Resources (California Register) is an inventory of significant architectural, archaeological, and historical resources in the State of California. The evaluative criteria used by the California Register for determining eligibility are closely based on those developed by the National Park Service for the National Register of Historic Places.

In order for a property to be eligible for listing in the California Register, it must be found significant under one or more of the following criteria:

1. (Events): Associated with events that have made a significant contribution to the broad patterns of local or regional history or the cultural heritage of California or the United States.

2. (Persons): Associated with the lives of persons important to local, California or national history.

3. (Architecture): Embodies the distinctive characteristics of a type, period, region or method of construction or represents the work of a master or possesses high artistic values.

4. (Information Potential): Has yielded, or has the potential to yield, information important to the prehistory or history of the local area, California or the nation.

A. Listing on the Sacramento Register—Landmarks. A nominated resource shall be listed on the Sacramento Register as a landmark if the city council finds, after holding the hearing required by this chapter, that all of the requirements set forth below are satisfied:

1. Requirements.
a. The nominated resource meets one or more of the following criteria:
i. It is associated with events that have made a significant contribution to the broad patterns of the history of the city, the region, the state or the nation;
ii. It is associated with the lives of persons significant in the city’s past; iii. It embodies the distinctive characteristics of a type, period or method of construction; iv. It represents the work of an important creative individual or master; v. It possesses high artistic values; or
vi. It has yielded, or may be likely to yield, information important in the prehistory or history of the city, the region, the state or the nation;
b. The nominated resource has integrity of location, design, setting, materials, workmanship and association. Integrity shall be judged with reference to the particular criterion or criteria specified in subsection A.1.a of this section; c. The nominated resource has significant historic or architectural worth, and its designation as a landmark is reasonable, appropriate and necessary to promote, protect and further the goals and purposes of this chapter.

2. Factors to be considered. In determining whether to list a nominated resource on the Sacramento register as a landmark, the factors below shall be considered.
a. A structure removed from its original location is eligible if it is significant primarily for its architectural value or it is the most important surviving structure associated with a historic person or event. b. A birthplace or grave is eligible if it is that of a historical figure of outstanding importance and there is no other appropriate site or structure directly associated with his or her productive life. c. A reconstructed building is eligible if the reconstruction is historically accurate, if the structure is presented in a dignified manner as part of a restoration master plan, and if no other original structure survives that has the same association. d. Properties that are primarily commemorative in intent are eligible if design, age, tradition, or symbolic value invests such properties with their own historical significance.
e. Properties achieving significance within the past 50 years are eligible if such properties are of exceptional importance.

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California Register Criterion 1/Sacramento Register Criterion i (Events): Associated with events that have made a significant contribution to the broad patterns of local or regional history or the cultural heritage of California or the United States.

The property at 7042 Folsom Boulevard appears eligible under Criterion 1/i as the location of Bo Jangles, one of the earliest openly gay bars and nightclubs within the limits of the City of Sacramento. Opened in 1976 at a time when the LGBTQ+ community still remained primarily hidden and underground, Bo Jangles was an important social gathering place and outlet for personal expression for the LGBTQ+ community, where people came out publicly for the first time, met and made meaningful connections with other LGBTQ+ people, and freely expressed themselves. The property, thus, is significantly associated with establishing, supporting, and increasing the visibility of Sacramento’s LGBTQ+ community and is eligible under Criterion 1/i.

California Register Criterion 2/Sacramento Register Criterion ii (Persons): Associated with the lives of persons important to local, California or national history.

The property at 7042 Folsom Boulevard appears to be eligible under Criterion 2/ii for its association with prominent gay entrepreneur, business owner, and philanthropist Myron “Terry” Sidie. Bo Jangles was the first of several gay bars and other businesses Sidie opened. Starting with Bo Jangles, he realized his vision of creating spaces where the LGBTQ+ community felt safe and welcome to be themselves. Sidie’s businesses, many of which have been located near the intersection of 20th and K street, played a critical role in the development of Lavender Heights into Sacramento’s recognized LGBTQ+ neighborhood. Sidie used the success from his businesses to support the LGBTQ+ community through donations to LGBTQ+ groups, causes, and organizations and fostering the development of the annual Rainbow Festival. He has also been a leader in several local LGBTQ+ organizations. Through his businesses, beginning with Bo Jangles, and his philanthropic work, Sidie has contributed in numerous ways to the establishment of Sacramento’s LGBTQ+ community from its formation in the 1970s to the present. As such, the property is eligible under Criteria 2/ii.

California Register Criterion 3/Sacramento Register Criteria iii-v (Architecture): Embodies the distinctive characteristics of a type, period, region or method of construction or represents the work of a master or possesses high artistic values.

The property at 7042 Folsom Boulevard does not appear to be individually eligible under Criterion 3/iii-v. The subject property has not been identified as the work of a notable architect or builder and does not possess high artistic merit. The building is a vernacular commercial building that does not display the characteristics of any particular architectural style or important building type. Therefore, it is not eligible for listing based on its architectural design under Criterion 3/iii-v.

California Register Criterion 4/Sacramento Register Criterion vi (Information Potential): Has yielded, or has the potential to yield, information important to the prehistory or history of the local area, California or the nation.

The property at 7042 Folsom Boulevard does not appear to be individually eligible for listing in the California Register or Sacramento Register under Criterion 4/vi as a building or property that has the potential to provide information important to the prehistory or history of the City of Sacramento, state, or nation. It does not feature construction or material types, or embody engineering practices that would, with additional study, provide important information. Evaluation of this property was limited to age-eligible resources above ground and did not involve survey or evaluation of the subject property for the purposes of archaeological information.

Sacramento Register Factor e.: Factor e. for consideration of properties for listing on the Sacramento Register states that properties that achieved their historic significance less than 50 years ago should be of exceptional significance. The subject property was constructed in 1940 and is over 50 years old. However, its historic association with the LGBTQ+ community began in 1976, less than 50 years ago at the time of this evaluation. The property is exceptionally significant for its cultural importance to the LGBTQ+ community. Based on a reconnaissance-level survey of properties identified through the Sacramento LGBTQ+ Historic Experience Project in 2024, relatively few properties remain that have a strong individual association with the development of the City of Sacramento’s LGBTQ+ community, particularly outside the Midtown area, and that retain sufficient historic integrity.

Operating as Bo Jangles, 7042 Folsom Boulevard possesses a high level of intangible cultural and social significance as a place where many people had their first or formative public experiences, both individually and collectively, as members of the LGBTQ+ community. The building holds a meaningful place in the memories of many and had a lasting role in fostering the establishment of the community. Therefore, the property meets consideration Factor e.

Integrity
7042 Folsom Boulevard retains all seven aspects of integrity (setting, location, design, materials, workmanship, feeling, and association). The building remains in its original location and its setting continues to be characterized by surface parking lots and its proximity to Folsom Boulevard, U.S. Highway 50, and the campus of Sacramento State University, all of which were present during Bo Jangles’ years of operation. The building appears to have undergone limited exterior alterations since the closure of Bo Jangles in 1986, primarily consisting of the conversion of three windows at the front façade into a door opening and the construction of an exterior seating area in 2014. Although the alterations to the front façade have modified its appearance somewhat, the building retains the same overall form, footprint, massing, and roofline from the early period of Terry Sidie’s ownership and, therefore, retains enough of its design, materials, and workmanship from its period of significance (1976-1986) to remain recognizable to someone who visited the bar while it was in operation. As such, the building retains integrity of feeling and association with the development of early gay bars within the City of Sacramento.

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Character-defining Features of 7042 Folsom Boulevard

Character-defining features of 7042 Folsom Boulevard that reflect its period of significance (1976-1986) include but are not limited to the following features:

• One-story height
• Stucco cladding
• Hipped parapet roof with overhanging boxed wood eaves • Rear patio surrounded by stucco wall

Conclusion
The property at 7042 Folsom Boulevard appears to be individually eligible for listing in the California Register and the Sacramento Register under Criteria 1/i (Events) and 2/ii (Persons) for its association with Bo Jangles, a prominent early gay bar and nightclub within the boundaries of the City of Sacramento, and its owner, Terry Sidie. Bo Jangles was an important gathering place for members of Sacramento’s LGBTQ+ community as it became increasingly open and visible in the 1970s through the 1980s and was the first business opened by Sidie, an important figure in the development of Sacramento’s LGBTQ+ community through his work as a businessman, entrepreneur, and philanthropist. 7042 Folsom Boulevard appears to retain all seven aspects of historic integrity from its period of significance. California Historical Resource Status Code (CHRSC) of “3CS, 5S3” has been assigned to the property, meaning “Appears eligible for CR as an individual property through survey evaluation” and “Appears to be individually eligible for local listing or designation through survey evaluation.”20

References

“After-Hours ‘Visitors’ To Bar Take Coins and Then Really Have a Blast.” Sacramento Bee. 22 September 1966: D1.

“Bojangles Bar Burns.” Sacramento Bee. 28 October 1980: B3.

Building permit records. City of Sacramento.

Graves, Donna J., and Shayne E. Watson. “Citywide Historic Context Statement for LGBTQ History in San Francisco.” 2016.

“History.” Sacramento LGBT Community Center. Accessed September 19, 2024, https://saccenter.org/history.

“Imperial Court Emperors and Empresses.” The United Courts of CGNIE. Accessed August 24, 2024.

“Official Message from Queen Mother 1 of the America’s, Nicole the Great.” International Court System. August 26, 2019.

Accessed August 24, 2024, https://internationalcourtsystem.org/official-message-from-queen-mother-1-of-the-americas- nicole-the-great/.

LoFaso, Alan. Conversation with Clare Flynn. September 13, 2024. Sacramento, CA.

Macias, Chris. "Celebrating Inclusion." Sacramento Bee. 5 September 2015: B1, B6.

Mapping the Gay Guides. Accessed August 14, 2024, https://mappingthegayguides.org/viz/map/.

“Pink Tiger Is Target Again – Flames, Stone.” Sacramento Bee. 29 September 1966: A11.

Sacramento City Directories. 1976-1986. Sacramento Public Library.

Sacramento County Assessor. Assessor Parcel Viewer. Accessed September 4, 2024, https://assessorparcelviewer.saccounty.gov/jsviewer/assessor.html#.

“Shots Fired at Bar Crowd.” Sacramento Bee. 29 July 1979: A26.

Tierney, Jolanne. Conversation with Clare Flynn and Henry Feuss. August 2, 2024. Sacramento, CA.

20 California State Office of Historic Preservation Department of Parks and Recreation, Technical Assistance Bulletin #8: User’s Guide to the California Historical Resource Status Codes & Historical Resource Inventory Directory, Sacramento, November 2004.

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*B6. Construction History (continued):

Building permit records document few exterior alterations to the building over time aside from the installation of various exterior signs, reroofing in 1991, and the installation of new concrete paving in 1999.3 Based on visual observations made during an August 2024 site visit, additional exterior alterations include infilling large storefront window openings at the front (west) and south facades with vertically grooved plywood siding and vinyl picture windows and installing hanging metal pendant lights from the projecting hipped roof at the front façade.

Figure 4. 1950 fire insurance map by the Sanborn Map Company, showing the subject building.

Source: Library of Congress.

*B10. Significance:

Historic Context (continued)

The Blue Moon (1985-1990)
A lesbian bar called The Once Upon a Blue Moon, more commonly known as the Blue Moon, opened around 1985 at 2565 Franklin Boulevard. The bar was owned and operated by Shannon Morgan, an out lesbian and local blown-glass artist who played in the local women’s sports leagues. Lesbian residents of Sacramento have described that Sacramento historically could only support one lesbian bar at a time. If a new bar opened, it would pull patrons away, and the previous lesbian bar would close soon after. The Blue Moon was the only lesbian bar in Sacramento for much of the 1980s and became one of the most prominent and popular social gathering places for Sacramento’s lesbian community during that decade.

Members of the local women’s slow and fast pitch softball leagues and other sports teams often gathered at the bar after weekly Sunday games to socialize.
4 Morgan was a member of the local women’s rugby team the River City Ruggers, which also gathered at the Blue Moon after games and practices for food, entertainment, and socializing. The first Ms. Leather Sacramento competition, a leather title competition that was a feeder to the International Leather Competition in Chicago, was held at the Blue Moon in 1987 and annually until the bar closed in 1990.5

3 Building permit records, 2656 Franklin Boulevard, City of Sacramento Planning Department. 4 Jolanne Tierney, conversation with Clare Flynn and Henry Feuss, August 7, 2024, Sacramento, CA. 5 Haines Criss-Cross Directory, Sacramento, 1990, Sacramento Public Library.

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Figure 5. Artwork from an advertisement for The Blue Moon (1986).

Source: The Patlar Gazette, January 1986.

Statement of Significance:

California Register of Historical Resources Evaluation
The California Register of Historical Resources (California Register) is an inventory of significant architectural, archaeological, and historical resources in the State of California. The evaluative criteria used by the California Register for determining eligibility are closely based on those developed by the National Park Service for the National Register of Historic Places.

In order for a property to be eligible for listing in the California Register, it must be found significant under one or more of the following criteria:

1. (Events): Associated with events that have made a significant contribution to the broad patterns of local or regional history or the cultural heritage of California or the United States.

2. (Persons): Associated with the lives of persons important to local, California or national history.

3. (Architecture): Embodies the distinctive characteristics of a type, period, region or method of construction or represents the work of a master or possesses high artistic values.

4. (Information Potential): Has yielded, or has the potential to yield, information important to the prehistory or history of the local area, California or the nation.

Sacramento Register of Historic and Cultural Resources
The Sacramento Register of Historic and Cultural Resources (Sacramento Register) is the City of Sacramento ’s official inventory
of historic and cultural resources. In order to be listed as a local landmark, historic district, or contributing resource to a historic district, a building, structure, site, or feature must meet the following criteria and requirements for listing on the Sacramento Register, as outlined in Chapter 17.604.210 of the City’s municipal code:

1. Requirements.
a. The nominated resource meets one or more of the following criteria:

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i. It is associated with events that have made a significant contribution to the broad patterns of the history of the city, the region, the state or the nation;
ii. It is associated with the lives of persons significant in the city’s past; iii. It embodies the distinctive characteristics of a type, period or method of construction; iv. It represents the work of an important creative individual or master; v. It possesses high artistic values; or
vi. It has yielded, or may be likely to yield, information important in the prehistory or history of the city, the region, the state or the nation;
b. The nominated resource has integrity of location, design, setting, materials, workmanship and association. Integrity shall be judged with reference to the particular criterion or criteria specified in subsection A.1.a of this section; c. The nominated resource has significant historic or architectural worth, and its designation as a landmark is reasonable, appropriate and necessary to promote, protect and further the goals and purposes of this chapter.

California Register Criterion 1/Sacramento Register Criterion i (Events): Associated with events that have made a significant contribution to the broad patterns of local or regional history or the cultural heritage of California or the United States.

The property at 2565 Franklin Boulevard appears eligible under Criterion 1/i as the location of The Blue Moon, a lesbian bar that opened in 1985 when Sacramento’s LGBTQ+ community became a visible and recognizable part of the city’s population for the first time. During this formative period, gay bars served as the center of social life for many in the LGBTQ+ community and were the place where people went to form social and sexual connections, exchange news, share life experiences, discuss important topics to the community, and openly express themselves at a time when being gay was still not generally accepted by mainstream society. Rejected from most of the gay bars and spaces in Sacramento, which catered primarily to gay white men, lesbians in Sacramento were forced to establish their own spaces, including their own lesbian bars, where they could socialize safely and openly. According to numerous community members, Sacramento typically only had one lesbian bar at a time. During the 1980s— a highly potent era in the development of Sacramento’s LGBTQ+ community when many LGBTQ+ businesses, clubs, and organizations were founded—The Blue Moon was the most prominent, and perhaps the only, lesbian bar in the city. The bar was the place where lesbian social groups and organizations, including local women’s sports teams, gathered and the annual Ms.

Leather competition was held. As such, it became an important incubator and connective force for Sacramento’s lesbian community. The property, thus, is significantly associated with establishing, supporting, and increasing the visibility of Sacramento’s LGBTQ+ community and is eligible under Criterion 1/i.

California Register Criterion 2/Sacramento Register Criterion ii (Persons): Associated with the lives of persons important to local, California or national history.

The property at 2565 Franklin Boulevard does not appear to be eligible under Criterion 2/ii for association with an individual of historic significance to local LGBTQ+ history. The owner of the Blue Moon, Shannon Morgan, was well-known within the lesbian community for her connection to the bar and was active socially in local women’s sports leagues and as an artist. However, research did not indicate that she was personally recognized as a leading figure in the establishment and development of Sacramento’s LGBTQ+ community. As such, the property is eligible under Criteria 2/ii.

The property at 2565 Franklin Boulevard does not appear to be individually eligible under Criterion 4/vi. The subject property has not been identified as the work of a notable architect or builder and does not possess high artistic merit. The building is a modest and undistinctive commercial building built in the early 20th century. The building is not exemplary representation of an architectural style. Therefore, it is not eligible for listing based on its architectural design under Criterion 3/iii-v.

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Criterion 4/vi (Information Potential): Has yielded, or has the potential to yield, information important to the prehistory or history of the local area, California or the nation.

The property at 2565 Franklin Boulevard does not appear to be individually eligible for listing in the California Register or Sacramento Register under Criterion 4/vi as a building or property that has the potential to provide information important to the prehistory or history of the City of Sacramento, state, or nation. It does not feature construction or material types, or embody engineering practices that would, with additional study, provide important information. Evaluation of this property was limited to age-eligible resources above ground and did not involve survey or evaluation of the subject property for the purposes of archaeological information.

Sacramento Register Factor e.: Factor e. for consideration of properties for listing on the Sacramento register states that properties that achieved their historic significance less than 50 years ago should be of exceptional significance. The subject property was constructed in 1925 and is over 50 years old. However, its historic association with the LGBTQ+ community began in 1985, less than 50 years ago at the time of this evaluation. The property is exceptionally significant for its cultural importance to the LGBTQ+ community. Based on a reconnaissance-level survey of properties identified through the Sacramento LGBTQ+ Historic Experience Project in 2024, relatively few properties remain that have a strong individual association with the development of the City of Sacramento’s LGBTQ+ community, particularly outside the Midtown area, and that retain sufficient historic integrity.

Additionally, only a handful of lesbian bars existed in the City of Sacramento during the formative period of the community’s development from the late 1960s to approximately 2000, several of which have been extensively altered. Properties that were significant as community social gathering spaces that were not gay bars are also rare. Therefore the property meets consideration Factor e.

Integrity
2565 Franklin Boulevard retains all seven aspects of integrity (setting, location, design, materials, workmanship, feeling, and association). The building remains in its original location and continues to be surrounded by a variety of commercial, residential, and mixed-use development, most of which was present during its period of significance (1985-1990). The building appears to have undergone minimal exterior alterations since the closure of The Blue Moon in 1990, primarily consisting of re-roofing and the installation of new concrete paving. The building would still be recognizable from the street to someone who visited the bar while it was in operation in the 1980s.

Character-defining Features of 2565 Franklin Boulevard

Character-defining features of 2565 Franklin Boulevard that reflect the period of significance (1985-1990) include but are not limited to the following features:

• One-story height
• Fluted and smooth brick masonry cladding
• Hipped false parapet roof with overhanging boxed wood eaves and red clay tile roofing • Recessed front entrance

Conclusion
The property at 2565 Franklin Boulevard appears to be individually eligible for listing in the California Register and the Sacramento Register under Criteria 1/i (Events) for its association with the lesbian bar The Blue Moon. The bar was one of the most popular and well-known social gathering places for lesbians in Sacramento during the 1980s, when the LGBTQ+ community became a visible and recognizable part of Sacramento’s population for the first time. It was the location of many social gatherings for local lesbian groups that fostered connections within the community and played an integral role in the community’s development. 2565 Franklin Boulevard appears to retain all seven aspects of historic integrity from its period of significance. California Historical Resource Status Code (CHRSC) of “3CS, 5S3” has been assigned to the property, meaning “Appears eligible for CR as an individual property through survey evaluation” and “Appears to be individually eligible for local listing or designation through survey evaluation.”6

References

Anderson, Carson. “Comments on Draft LGBTQ HCS.” July 9, 2024.

Building permit records. City of Sacramento.

“Caches Uncovered in Liquor Raids.” Sacramento Bee. 8 March 1935: 5.

6 California State Office of Historic Preservation Department of Parks and Recreation, Technical Assistance Bulletin #8: User’s Guide to the California Historical Resource Status Codes & Historical Resource Inventory Directory, Sacramento, November 2004.

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California State Office of Historic Preservation Department of Parks and Recreation. Technical Assistance Bulletin #8: User’s Guide to the California Historical Resource Status Codes & Historical Resource Inventory Directory. Sacramento, November 2004.

Sacramento City Directories. 1978-1994. Sacramento Public Library.

Sacramento County Assessor. Assessor Parcel Viewer. Accessed September 4, 2024, https://assessorparcelviewer.saccounty.gov/jsviewer/assessor.html#.

Tierney, Jolanne. Conversation with Clare Flynn and Henry Feuss. August 7, 2024. Sacramento, CA.

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*B6. Construction History (continued):

Sanborn Insurance maps from 1915 and 1950 show that the subject property consisted of two residential flats with a two-story full- width front porch (Figure 5). By 1950, the overall building footprint of the main residential building had remained mostly unchanged, apart from an extension to the rear porch and removal of a detached garage facing Opera Alley (Figure 6).

Figure 5: Sanborn Map Company fire insurance
map of Sacramento, 1915. Volume Two, Page
123. Subject property outlined in red. Source:

Historical Information Gatherers, San Francisco
Public Library. Edited by Page & Turnbull.

Figure 6: Sanborn Map Company fire insurance
map of Sacramento, 1950. Volume Two, Page
123. Subject property outlined in red. Source:

Historical Information Gatherers, San Francisco
Public Library. Edited by Page & Turnbull.

Statement of Significance:

In order for a property to be eligible for listing in the California Register, it must be found significant under one or more of the following criteria:

1. (Events): Associated with events that have made a significant contribution to the broad patterns of local or regional history or the cultural heritage of California or the United States.

2. (Persons): Associated with the lives of persons important to local, California or national history.

3. (Architecture): Embodies the distinctive characteristics of a type, period, region or method of construction or represents the work of a master or possesses high artistic values.

4. (Information Potential): Has yielded, or has the potential to yield, information important to the prehistory or history of the local area, California or the nation.

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A. Listing on the Sacramento Register—Landmarks. A nominated resource shall be listed on the Sacramento Register as a landmark if the city council finds, after holding the hearing required by this chapter, that all of the requirements set forth below are satisfied:

The property at 2215 P Street appears eligible under Criterion 1/i as the location of the Gay Alternative Coffeehouse, a gay-owned and LGBTQ+-friendly coffee shop that opened in 1971 during an important transitional period in the development of Sacramento’s LGBTQ+ community. The coffee shop served as an alternative gathering space for Sacramento’s LGBTQ+ community outside of the bar scene, particularly for young people under the age of 21. Despite operating at 2215 P Street for only one year before moving to another location, the establishment of the Gay Alternative Coffeehouse played an early role within the broader community effort to create new and alternate LGBTQ+ owned and friendly spaces for social connection outside of the gay bar scene. Thus, the property is significantly associated with establishing, supporting, and increasing the visibility of Sacramento’s LGBTQ+ community and is eligible under Criterion 1/i.

California Register Criterion 2/Sacramento Register Criterion ii (Persons): Associated with the lives of persons important to local, California or national history.

The property at 2215 P Street does not appear to be individually eligible under Criterion 2/ii. While the property is potentially associated with Edgar Carpenter, a writer for Gay Voice Sacramento and a leader in the gay liberation group the Society for Homosexual Freedom, research did not definitively confirm that the “Edgar” associated with the coffee shop is the same as Edgar Carpenter. Therefore, it is not possible at this time to confirm an association with Carpenter. No other important individuals with significant association to the subject property were identified. For these reasons, the property is not eligible for listing under Criteria 2/ii.

The property at 2215 P Street does not appear to be individually eligible under Criterion 3/iii-v. The subject property has not been identified as the work of a notable architect or builder and does not possess high artistic merit. The building is a modest residential building designed in the Queen Anne “Free Classic” style with horizontal wood siding, Tuscan columns, hipped roof, and State of California  The Resources Agency Primary # _____________________________________________ DEPARTMENT OF PARKS AND RECREATION HRI # ________________________________________________ CONTINUATION SHEET Trinomial _____________________________________________

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replacement vinyl windows. The building is not a distinctive or exemplary representation of the style. Therefore, it is not eligible for listing based on its architectural design under Criterion 3/iii-v.

The property at 2215 P Street does not appear to be individually eligible for listing in the California Register or Sacramento Register under Criterion 4/vi as a building or property that has the potential to provide information important to the prehistory or history of the City of Sacramento, state, or nation. It does not feature construction or material types, or embody engineering practices that would, with additional study, provide important information. Evaluation of this property was limited to age-eligible resources above ground and did not involve survey or evaluation of the subject property for the purposes of archaeological information.

Integrity
2215 P Street retains all seven aspects of integrity (setting, location, design, materials, workmanship, feeling, and association). The building remains in its original location and continues to be surrounded by a variety of residential properties that were present during its period of significance (1971-1972). While the property has undergone alterations to the exterior including window replacements and the construction of a rear ADU, the building would still be recognizable to someone who visited the coffee shop while it was in operation.

Character-defining Features of 2215 P Street
Character-defining features of 2215 P Street that reflect its period of significance (1971-1972) include but are not limited to the following features:

• Two-story height
• Horizontal wood siding
• Hipped roof with boxed wood eaves and asphalt roofing • Wood frame full-width front porch with Tuscan columns • Double-hung windows and dormer window.

Conclusion
The property at 2215 P Street appears to be individually eligible for listing in the California Register and the Sacramento Register under Criteria 1/i (Events) for its association with the gay-owned and gay-friendly coffee shop Alternative Gay Coffeehouse. The coffee shop was an important gathering place for members of the LGBTQ+ community during the early years of its development in Sacramento in the 1970s and provided an alternative third space outside of the gay bar scene. 2215 P Street appears to retain all seven aspects of historic integrity from its period of significance. California Historical Resource Status Code (CHRSC) of “3CS, 5S3” has been assigned to the property, meaning “Appears eligible for CR as an individual property through survey evaluation” and “Appears to be individually eligible for local listing or designation through survey evaluation.”6

References
Advertisement. Sacramento Bee. 16 September 1976: D6.

Building permit records. City of Sacramento.

California, U.S., Divorce Index, 1966-1984. Ancestry.com.

“City Building Permits.” Sacramento Bee. 23 June 1974: E13.

Classified ads. Sacramento Bee. 11 October 1975: C5.

“Fitzgerald, Paul Neeson.” Sacramento Bee. 22 January 2012: B5.

"Gay State Employees Have a Voice." Mom…Guess What…!. 1 September 1979.

Graham, James K. “Gay Business…Right Here in River City.” Mom Guess What…!. April 1979.

Macias, Chris. "Celebrating Inclusion." Sacramento Bee. 5 September 2015: B1, B6.

“Marriage Licenses.” Record Searchlight (Redding, CA). 12 September 1964.

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“New Club.” Sacramento Bee. 1 April 1 1983: C7.

“Public Notice No. 632.” Sacramento Bee. 2 November 1977: E6.

Sacramento City Directories. 1978-1994. Sacramento Public Library.

Sacramento County Assessor. Assessor Parcel Viewer. Accessed September 4, 2024, https://assessorparcelviewer.saccounty.gov/jsviewer/assessor.html#.

Wiegand, Steve. “Tree-Planting with a Twist.” The Sacramento Bee. March 16, 1992.

U.S. Public Records Index, 1950-1993, Volume 2, Ancestry.com.

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stated, “You can’t decide, ‘we are going to organize a community.’ It has to happen, develop and come together. You can work to create the conditions, and I feel MOM…GUESS WHAT! is doing that.” 7 With that goal in mind, MGW published articles not just about local news, important legislation, and policies that were of special interest to the gay community, it also included a calendar of social events, a guide to local entertainment locations, a list of social organizations along with their contact info, and classified advertisements.

According to local mental health worker Elizabeth Harrison, Sacramento’s gay community had been primarily bar-oriented until MGW began publishing issues. “When Mom...Guess What…! started, it opened a whole new world,” she said. 8 The newspaper
allowed lesbians and gay men to find not just bars and clubs but also doctors, therapists, sports leagues, professional organizations, and other social clubs, events, and services, specifically by and for members of the gay community. Demonstrating its goal of uniting and uplifting the community, MGW was unique in that, as Harrison described it, “the newspaper was kind – it didn’t go after people or do exposés. It elevated people and brought people together.”9

Often the newspaper literally did just that. Classified ads published in MGW were frequently the way gay and lesbian individuals met each other and found romantic relationships. People would place an ad in the newspaper and typically list a P.O. box address as their contact in order to keep their personal addresses private. According to Sacramento resident and former State Assemblyman Dennis Mangers, it was common for individuals to meet for coffee at New Helvetia café located in the former fire station at 1215 19th Street (extant) or for some other activity after work.10

On the newspaper’s tenth anniversary, the newspaper received proclamations from the City of Sacramento, County of Sacramento, and the California State Assembly. It was also recognized by the Human Rights Commission and received numerous journalistic and photography awards from the Gay and Lesbian Press Association (GLPA). 11 MGW ceased publication in 2009,
having published approximately 585 issues over the course of its over 30-year existence.12

Linda Birner
Born in Fort Wayne, Indiana, in 1949, Linda Birner arrived in Sacramento in 1962, where she worked her way through a master’s degree in Psychology at Sacramento State College (now California State University, Sacramento) doing graphic work for state legislators Mervyn Dymally and Leona Egeland. After working for a consulting firm for a period, she started her own graphics design business. Demonstrating the close ties between growing activism among the gay community and other activist movements of the 1960s and 1970s, she became active in the Women’s Movement through the National Organization of Women (NOW), believing that the first step to achieving gay rights was obtaining equal rights for women. “All of it’s related,” she said. “I call it the Gay/Feminist Movement.”
13 Spurred into action by the campaign to pass Proposition 6, known as the Briggs Initiative, which aimed to ban gay and lesbian individuals from working in California’s public schools, she founded MGW to share important information about the initiative and encourage readers to vote against it. The first meeting to share information about plans for the newspaper and solicit interest from potential writers, photographers, artists, and other contributors was held at Earhart's Café in November 1978.14 Linda Birner owned and operated MGW through 2009, after which the newspaper folded and the business became Guess What Media, LLC. Birner passed away on July 3rd, 2024.15

7 “One Year Later…” Mom…Guess What…!, November 1979.
8 “Sacramento Oral History Episode 4: Linda Birner and Elizabeth Harrison,” May 31, 2023, Center for Sacramento History, YouTube, accessed April 18, 2024, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2nWsdfGrixw. 9 “Sacramento Oral History Episode 4: Linda Birner and Elizabeth Harrison,” Center for Sacramento History. 10 “Sacramento Oral History Episode 2: Linda Birner and Dennis Mangers,” May 30, 2023, Center for Sacramento History, YouTube, accessed April 18, 2024, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O8t3BwNfUXk.
11 Sacramento’s Lesbian and Gay Press, “News from Those Who Print the News: Sacramento’s Lesbian and Gay Press, What It’s Been Like and Where They’re Going,” undated, Lavender Library.
12 Graham Womack, “Community Gathers Issues of Sacramento LGBT Newspaper,” Sacramento Bee, 2 July 2023: D1. 13 “One Year Later…” Mom…Guess What…!, November 1979.
14 Mom…Guess What…! , November 1, 1978.
15 Legacy Remembers. “Linda Birner Obituary.” Legacy (blog), July 19, 2024.

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Figure 4. Mom…Guess What…! founder Linda Birner (1998). Source: Hector Amezcua for the Sacramento Bee.

Figure 5. Mom…Guess What…! staff (from left to right): Bill Spiller, J. Anne Wessel, Linda Birner, James K. Graham, and Gary Kimball. Source: Mom…Guess What…!, November 1979. Photo by Rebecca Gregg.

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Statement of Significance:

In order for a property to be considered eligible for the California Register of Historical Resources (California Register) or the Sacramento Register as a landmark, the property must possess significance and retain integrity to convey that significance. Refer to the Sacramento LGBTQ+ Experience History Project Historic Context Statement (LGBTQ+ HCS) and Survey Methodology & Framework for evaluative criteria of each theme.

1. (Events): Associated with events that have made a significant contribution to the broad patterns of local or regional history or the cultural heritage of California or the United States.

2. (Persons): Associated with the lives of persons important to local, California or national history.

3. (Architecture): Embodies the distinctive characteristics of a type, period, region or method of construction or represents the work of a master or possesses high artistic values.

4. (Information Potential): Has yielded, or has the potential to yield, information important to the prehistory or history of the local area, California or the nation.

Sacramento Register of Historic and Cultural Resources
The Sacramento Register of Historic and Cultural Resources (Sacramento Register) is the City of Sacramento ’s official inventory
of historic and cultural resources. In order to be listed as a local landmark, historic district, or contributing resource to a historic district, a building, structure, site, or feature must meet the following criteria and requirements for listing on the Sacramento Register, as outlined in Chapter 17.604.210 of the City’s municipal code:

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e. Properties achieving significance within the past 50 years are eligible if such properties are of exceptional importance.

The property at 1725 L Street appears eligible under Criterion 1/i as the longtime operating headquarters of Mom...Guess What…!, one of Sacramento’s earliest and longest running LGBTQ+ newspapers. MGW was an invaluable asset to the LGBTQ+ community that provided a myriad of news, stories, and advertisements relating to the cultural fabric and daily life of Sacramento’s LGBTQ+ community from the late 1970s through early 2000s. The newspaper was an influential resource that had a profound impact on the social, professional, and political scene for the LGBTQ+ community in Sacramento.

California Register Criterion 2/Sacramento Register Criterion ii (Persons): Associated with the lives of persons important to local, California or national history.

The property at 1725 L Street appears eligible under Criterion 2/ii for its association with Linda Birner, the founder of seminal LGBTQ+ newspaper Mom...Guess What…! and an avid educator, community leader, and advocate for social justice. Under Birner’s direction, MGW thrived as an acclaimed publication and produced queer-centered journalism, stories, and advertising.

Birner advocated for a publication that united and uplifted intersectional voices and that allowed for new avenues of social connection, professional development, and connection to LGBTQ+ owned/operated services.

The property at 1725 L Street does not appear to be individually eligible under Criterion 4/vi. The subject property has not been identified as the work of a notable architect or builder and does not possess high artistic merit. 1725 L Street is a modest commercial storefront added onto the front of a Victorian-era house that is not a distinctive example of any architectural style.

Criterion 4/vi (Information Potential): Has yielded, or has the potential to yield, information important to the prehistory or history of the local area, California or the nation.

The property at 1725 L Street does not appear to be individually eligible for listing in the California Register under Criterion 4 as a building or property that has the potential to provide information important to the prehistory or history of the City of Sacramento, state, or nation. It does not feature construction or material types, or embody engineering practices that would, with additional study, provide important information. Evaluation of this property was limited to age-eligible resources above ground and did not involve survey or evaluation of the subject property for the purposes of archaeological information.

Sacramento Register Factor e.: Factor e. for consideration of properties for listing on the Sacramento register states that properties that achieved their historic significance less than 50 years ago should be of exceptional significance. The subject property used as the offices of Mom...Guess What…! less than 50 years ago. LGBTQ+ communities did not become visible across the United States until the late 1960s and early 1970s, and many of the most significant developments in the community’s history occurred after this period, as it fought to establish itself and achieve equal rights with mainstream society. As such, at the time of this evaluation, the “50 year rule” would eliminate nearly all properties with historic associations with the LGBTQ+ community from eligibility for local designation. 1725 L Street does not appear to be of exceptional significance, but it is clearly historically significant, as demonstrated by its eligibility under Criteria 1/I and 2/ii. Therefore, although Factor e was considered in this evaluation, it should not apply when considering the eligibility of the subject property for listing on the Sacramento Register.

Integrity
1725 L Street retains all seven aspects of integrity (setting, location, design, materials, workmanship, feeling, and association). The building remains in its original location and continues to be surrounded by a variety of commercial, residential, and mixed-use development that was present during its period of significance (1988-2003). The building appears to have undergone minimal exterior alterations since the relocation of Mom...Guess What…! in 2003. The building would still be recognizable to someone who visited the restaurant while it was in operation and continues to convey its identity as a commercial building built in the 1970s.

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Character-defining Features of 1401 Alhambra Boulevard

Character-defining features of 1725 L Street include but are not limited to the following features:

• One-story brick masonry commercial storefront
o Brick masonry construction
o Storefront window openings
o Glazed wood entry door
• Two-story residential building
o Front-facing gabled roof
o Gabled vent
o Horizontal channel rustic wood cladding

Conclusion
The property at 1725 L Street does appear to be individually eligible for listing in the California Register and the Sacramento Register under Criteria 1/i (Events) and 2/ii (Persons) for its association with the publication of the important local LGBTQ+ publication Mom…Guess What…! and for its association with the newspaper’s founder Linda Birner, a leader and activist in Sacramento’s LGBTQ community. The property appears to retain all seven aspects of historic integrity from its period of significance. The California Historical Resource Status Code (CHRSC) of “3CS, 5S3” has been assigned to the property, meaning “Appears eligible for CR as an individual property through survey evaluation” and “Appears to be individually eligible for local listing or designation through survey evaluation.”16

References

Building permit records. City of Sacramento.

California State Office of Historic Preservation Department of Parks and Recreation. Technical Assistance Bulletin #8: User’s Guide to the California Historical Resource Status Codes & Historical Resource Inventory Directory. Sacramento, November 2004.

Legacy Remembers. “Linda Birner Obituary.” Legacy (blog). July 19, 2024.

Mom…Guess What…!. 1 November 1978.

“One Year Later…” Mom…Guess What…!. November 1979

Sacramento City Directories. 1978-1994. Sacramento Public Library.

Sacramento County Assessor. Assessor Parcel Viewer. Accessed September 4, 2024, https://assessorparcelviewer.saccounty.gov/jsviewer/assessor.html#.

Sacramento’s Lesbian and Gay Press. “News from Those Who Print the News: Sacramento’s Lesbian and Gay Press, What It’s Been Like and Where They’re Going.” Undated. Lavender Library.

“Sacramento Oral History Episode 2: Linda Birner and Dennis Mangers.” May 30, 2023. Center for Sacramento History. YouTube.

Accessed April 18, 2024, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O8t3BwNfUXk.

“Sacramento Oral History Episode 4: Linda Birner and Elizabeth Harrison.” May 31, 2023. Center for Sacramento History.

YouTube. Accessed April 18, 2024, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2nWsdfGrixw.

Weinerth, David C. "From the Inside Out." Mom…Guess What…!. 1 December 1978.

Womack, Graham. “Community Gathers Issues of Sacramento LGBT Newspaper.” Sacramento Bee. 2 July 2023: D1. .

16 California State Office of Historic Preservation Department of Parks and Recreation, Technical Assistance Bulletin #8: User’s Guide to the California Historical Resource Status Codes & Historical Resource Inventory Directory, Sacramento, November 2004.

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*B6. Construction History (continued):

Several restaurants operated out of the building in its first few years including a Mexican restaurant called Alimena’s Mexican Restaurant in 1975 and a pizza restaurant called Tower Pizza in 1976.6 Gay bar owner and entrepreneur Paul Fitzgerald purchased the property and applied for a license to sell alcoholic beverages at the building in 1977.7 Fitzgerald’s restaurant, the Incredible Edible Place, opened soon after and remained in operation through approximately 1992.8 In 1994, the property was sold and reopened as a Starbucks Coffee shop. The property continued in this use until 2024.9 The interior of the building has been remodeled numerous times over its history, starting during Fitzgerald’s ownership in 1983. Building permit records document limited exterior alterations to the building after the Incredible Edible Place closed in 1992, including the installation of exterior signage in 1996 and the replacement of existing built-up and tile roofing with new TPO and concrete tile roofing in 2010.10

*B10. Significance:

Historic Context (continued)

Another political advocacy group, the River City Democratic Club, had its first meeting at the Incredible Edible Place in 1983.11 The club spearheaded several political efforts on behalf of the LGBTQ+ community in the 1980s and 1990s, including passage of Sacramento’s Domestic Partnership Ordinance in 1992 and a project to plant 200 memorial trees along Highway 50 as a memorial to victims of AIDS.12

Fitzgerald is also credited with coining the name of one of Sacramento’s most prominent and longest running gay bars, Faces, which was opened by Terry Sidie at 2000 K Street in 1985. The name was reportedly intended to reflect the bar’s goal to be a place that was inclusive and open to all communities and “faces.” 13 City directories record the Incredible Edible Place at 1401 Alhambra Boulevard until 1992. In 1994, the building was remodeled and reopened as a Starbucks Coffee shop.
14 The building remains in use as a Starbucks Coffee location through 2024.

Paul Fitzgerald (1939-2012)

Paul Fitzgerald was born in 1939 in Poteau, Ohio. He served in the 82nd Airborne Division of the U.S. Army from 1960 to 1963. In 1964, Fitzgerald married Bonnie Elyce Raposa in Redding, and the couple had a son and two daughters. Fitzgerald came out as gay by the late 1970s, and he and Bonnie divorced in 1976.15 Fitzgerald worked for a time as a manager at JCPenney in Redding and for eight years at a large food firm outside the Sacramento area. Worn down by the long hours and extensive travel, Fitzgerald moved to Sacramento and began opening a series of gay-friendly businesses in Sacramento. From 1977 to 1992, Fitzgerald owned and managed the Incredible Edible Place restaurant at the subject property.

By 1979, he had also opened a gay bar called Upstairs Downstairs at 1225 K Street in Downtown Sacramento.16 Sometime after 1982, Fitzgerald lived next door to the Incredible Edible Place in a house at 3114 N Street.17 He died of ALS in 2012.18

Statement of Significance:

6 Classified ads, Sacramento Bee, 11 October 1975: C5; Advertisement, Sacramento Bee, 16 September 1976: D6. 7 “Public Notice No. 632,” Sacramento Bee, 2 November 1977: E6. 8 Sacramento City Directories, 1978-1992, Sacramento Public Library. 9 Certificate of Occupancy, 94-7563-C, City of Sacramento Planning and Development Department, 1994. 10 Building permit records, City of Sacramento.
11 “New Club,” The Sacramento Bee, April 1, 1983, C7.
12 Steve Wiegand, “Tree-Planting with a Twist,” The Sacramento Bee, March 16, 1992. 13 Chris Macias, "Celebrating Inclusion," Sacramento Bee, 5 September 2015: B1, B6. 14 Sacramento city directories, 1978-1994, Sacramento Public Library. 15 “Marriage Licenses,” Record Searchlight (Redding, CA), 12 September 1964; California, U.S., Divorce Index, 1966-1984, Ancestry.com. 16 Graham, “Gay Business…Right Here in River City.”
17 U.S. Public Records Index, 1950-1993, Volume 2, Ancestry.com. 18 “Fitzgerald, Paul Neeson,” Sacramento Bee, 22 January 2012: B5.

Figure 5. Advertisement for the
Incredible Edible Place (1981). Source:

The River City Rambler, Vol. 1, Issue
No. 12, December 1981. Lavender
Library.

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In order for a property to be eligible for listing in the California Register, it must be found significant under one or more of the following criteria:

1. (Events): Associated with events that have made a significant contribution to the broad patterns of local or regional history or the cultural heritage of California or the United States.

2. (Persons): Associated with the lives of persons important to local, California or national history.

3. (Architecture): Embodies the distinctive characteristics of a type, period, region or method of construction or represents the work of a master or possesses high artistic values.

4. (Information Potential): Has yielded, or has the potential to yield, information important to the prehistory or history of the local area, California or the nation.

Sacramento Register of Historic and Cultural Resources
The Sacramento Register of Historic and Cultural Resources (Sacramento Register) is the City of Sacramento ’s official inventory
of historic and cultural resources. In order to be listed as a local landmark, historic district, or contributing resource to a historic district, a building, structure, site, or feature must meet the following criteria and requirements for listing on the Sacramento Register, as outlined in Chapter 17.604.210 of the City’s municipal code:

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The property at 1401 Alhambra Boulevard appears eligible under Criterion 1/i as the longtime location of the Incredible Edible Place, a gay-owned and LGBTQ+-friendly restaurant that opened in 1977 during an important transitional period in the development of Sacramento’s LGBTQ+ community, when the community still remained largely underground but was becoming increasingly visible and open. The Incredible Edible Place was one of the earliest openly gay restaurants in the City of Sacramento.

The restaurant was owned and operated by a gay man, Paul Fitzgerald, and had a mix of gay and straight patrons and staff.

Fitzgerald envisioned the restaurant as a gathering place for Sacramento’s LGBTQ+ community, and it became the meeting place for local LGBTQ+ individuals, groups, clubs, and organizations, including the site of the first meetings of political advocacy groups the Advocates for Gay State Employees (AGSE) in 1979 and River City Democratic Club in 1983. The property, thus, is significantly associated with the establishing, support, and increasing the visibility of Sacramento’s LGBTQ+ community and is eligible under Criterion 1/i.

California Register Criterion 2/Sacramento Register Criterion ii (Persons): Associated with the lives of persons important to local, California or national history.

The property at 1401 Alhambra Boulevard appears to be eligible under Criterion 2/ii for its association with gay business owner Paul Fitzgerald. Fitzgerald opened both the Incredible Edible Place and Upstairs Downstairs gay bar, both of which were important gathering places for the LGBTQ+ community when it was developing into a visible part of the broader Sacramento community in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Fitzgerald’s leadership and vision for his businesses to serve as incubators for the LGBTQ+ business community, professionals, organizations, and other groups transformed them into important community gathering spaces that contributed to the development of Sacramento’s LGBTQ+ community during its formative years. As such, the property is eligible under Criteria 2/ii.

The property at 1401 Alhambra Boulevard does not appear to be individually eligible under Criterion 4/vi. The subject property has not been identified as the work of a notable architect or builder and does not possess high artistic merit. The building is a late example of a modest commercial building designed in the Spanish Eclectic style with concrete block cladding, a hipped concrete tile roof, and large arched openings. The building is not a distinctive or exemplary representation of the style. Therefore, it is not eligible for listing based on its architectural design under Criterion 3/iii-v.

The property at 1401 Alhambra Boulevard does not appear to be individually eligible for listing in the California Register or Sacramento Register under Criterion 4/vi as a building or property that has the potential to provide information important to the prehistory or history of the City of Sacramento, state, or nation. It does not feature construction or material types, or embody engineering practices that would, with additional study, provide important information. Evaluation of this property was limited to age-eligible resources above ground and did not involve survey or evaluation of the subject property for the purposes of archaeological information.

Sacramento Register Factor e.: Factor e. for consideration of properties for listing on the Sacramento Register states that properties that achieved their historic significance less than 50 years ago should be of exceptional significance. The subject property was constructed in 1975, 49 years ago. It will be 50 years old in 2025. The property opened as the Incredible Edible Place in 1977, 47 years ago as of the date of this evaluation. The property is exceptionally significant for its cultural importance to the LGBTQ+ community. Based on a reconnaissance-level survey of properties identified through the Sacramento LGBTQ+ Historic Experience Project in 2024, relatively few properties remain that have a strong individual association with the development of the City of Sacramento’s LGBTQ+ community, particularly outside the Midtown area, and that retain sufficient historic integrity.

Additionally, properties that were significant as community social gathering spaces that were not gay bars are also rare. Therefore the property meets consideration Factor e.

Integrity
1401 Alhambra Boulevard retains all seven aspects of integrity (setting, location, design, materials, workmanship, feeling, and association). The building remains in its original location and continues to be surrounded by a variety of commercial, residential, and mixed-use development that was present during its period of significance (1977-1992). The building appears to have undergone minimal exterior alterations since the closure of the Incredible Edible Place in 1992, primarily consisting of re-roofing and the installation of exterior signage. The building would still be recognizable to someone who visited the restaurant while it was in operation, and continues to convey its identity as a commercial building built in the 1970s.

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Character-defining Features of 1401 Alhambra Boulevard

Character-defining features of 1401 Alhambra Boulevard that reflect its period of significance (1977-1992) include but are not limited to the following features:

• One-story height
• Concrete block cladding
• Hipped parapet roof with broad overhanging boxed wood eaves and concrete tile roofing • Arched window and door openings

Conclusion
The property at 1401 Alhambra Boulevard appears to be individually eligible for listing in the California Register and the Sacramento Register under Criteria 1/i (Events) and 2/ii (Persons) for its association with the gay-owned and gay-friendly restaurant The Incredible Edible Place, and its owner Paul Fitzgerald. The restaurant was an important gathering place for members of the LGBTQ+ community during the early years of its development in Sacramento in the 1970s and was the site of some of the first meetings of significant LGBTQ+ clubs and organizations. 1401 Alhambra Boulevard appears to retain all seven aspects of historic integrity from its period of significance. California Historical Resource Status Code (CHRSC) of “3CS, 5S3” has been assigned to the property, meaning “Appears eligible for CR as an individual property through survey evaluation” and “Appears to be individually eligible for local listing or designation through survey evaluation.”19

References
Advertisement. Sacramento Bee. 16 September 1976: D6.

Building permit records. City of Sacramento.

California, U.S., Divorce Index, 1966-1984. Ancestry.com.

“City Building Permits.” Sacramento Bee. 23 June 1974: E13.

Classified ads. Sacramento Bee. 11 October 1975: C5.

“Fitzgerald, Paul Neeson.” Sacramento Bee. 22 January 2012: B5.

"Gay State Employees Have a Voice." Mom…Guess What…!. 1 September 1979.

Graham, James K. “Gay Business…Right Here in River City.” Mom Guess What…!. April 1979.

Macias, Chris. "Celebrating Inclusion." Sacramento Bee. 5 September 2015: B1, B6.

“Marriage Licenses.” Record Searchlight (Redding, CA). 12 September 1964.

“New Club.” Sacramento Bee. 1 April 1 1983: C7.

“Public Notice No. 632.” Sacramento Bee. 2 November 1977: E6.

Sacramento City Directories. 1978-1994. Sacramento Public Library.

Sacramento County Assessor. Assessor Parcel Viewer. Accessed September 4, 2024, https://assessorparcelviewer.saccounty.gov/jsviewer/assessor.html#.

Wiegand, Steve. “Tree-Planting with a Twist.” The Sacramento Bee. March 16, 1992.

U.S. Public Records Index, 1950-1993, Volume 2, Ancestry.com.

19 California State Office of Historic Preservation Department of Parks and Recreation, Technical Assistance Bulletin #8: User’s Guide to the California Historical Resource Status Codes & Historical Resource Inventory Directory, Sacramento, November 2004.

Sacramento LGBTQ+ Historic Experience Project

336 November 14, 2024

IDENTIFIED POTENTIAL HISTORIC RESOURCES
Sacramento
Address Historic Name Extant? Association
1218 K St. Topper Demolished Bar/Club

K St. Mall

Cruising Area
1946 Broadway Corker Club/ Underpass / Bob
& Frank's Underpass / Corral

Bar/Club
590 Morey Ave. Del Paso Park

Cruising Area
1515 Q St. Fremont Park

Cruising Area
2026 Broadway Goldie's Book Stores

Book Store
5644 Stockton Blvd Goldie's Book Stores Demolished Book Store 1305 J St. Goldie's Book Stores Demolished Book Store
1223 K St. Underground Shingle Demolished Bar/Club
1619 R St. Harmony Metropolitan
Community Church
Demolished Religious
2026 I St. Cruz 'In/Y-Not Demolished Bar/Club
922 9th St. Nine-Twenty-Two Club Demolished Bar/Club
5121 El Camino Ave. The Atticus / Male Box

Bar/Club
1923 16th St. Casino

Bar/Club
2551 5th St. Steve's Health and Social Club
/ Steam Works
Demolished Baths
7042 Folsom Blvd Bo Jangles

Bar/Club
1704 Broadway Bob & Frank's Other Place;
The Crescent Moon

Bar/Club
1600 Garden Hwy Discovery Park

Cruising Area
1928 L St. Mercantile Saloon

Bar/Club
2804 Auburn Blvd. Parking Lot Demolished Bar/Club
1214 K St. Star Theatre Demolished Theatre
Sacramento LGBTQ+ Historic Experience Project

337 November 14, 2024
Address Historic Name Extant? Association
6000 J St. California State University,
Sacramento

Cruising Area
1403 I St. Way Station

Organization
2990 Bradshaw Rd. Incredible Edible

Restaurant
1011 L St. Davis Travel Service Likely
Demolished
Business
1905 16th St. Earhart's Cafe

Cafe, Meeting
Location
5423 Franklin Blvd. Adult World

Bookstore,
Erotic Shop
1122 21st St. Club 21 Demolished Bar/Club
1112 26th St. Dignity

Religious
2531 Broadway Fancy's Adult Books & Things

Bookstore,
Erotic Shop
823 J St. Sacramento Film Exchange Demolished Business 1919 21st St. Mom...Guess What offices

Publication
925 20th St. Wreck Room

Bar/Club
701 L St. Greyhound bus Depot

Cruising Area
2232 J St. Lioness Book Store

Book Store
2001 V St. The Rose

Bar/Club
5211 Carlson Drive Paradise Beach

Cruising Area
2701 Marina View
Drive
Miller Park

Cruising Area
731 J St. The Windsor

Bar/Club
910 I St. Plaza Park

Cruising Area
1230 H St. Sacramento Women
Bookstore/Sacramento
Women's Center (1977-1978)
Demolished Organization
Sacramento LGBTQ+ Historic Experience Project

338 November 14, 2024
Address Historic Name Extant? Association
1225 K St. Underground Shingle/Hickory
House/Upstairs Downstairs
Demolished Bar/Club
1107 9th St. California Human Rights
Advocates

Organization
630 I St. Early Meeting location for
California Human Rights
Advocates

Meeting
Location
2721 Broadway Jammin Joe's

Bar/Club
1931 L St. Lambda Community Center

Organization
1304 O St. Aquarian Effort Medical Clinic

Medical
2224 J St. Lioness Books

Bookstore
1729 L St. Flashback

Bar/Club
1401 Alhambra Blvd. Incredible Edible Place

Restaurant
1816 21st St. Power Plant

Bar/Club
2840 Auburn Blvd. The Forum

Bar/Club
4729 El Camino Ave. Stumble Inn

Bar/Club
1517 21st St. Town House

Bar/Club
2000 K St. K St./Faces

Bar/Club
2001 K St. The Western/Depot

Bar/Club
2115 J St. Sacramento AIDS Foundation Organization
1330 21st St. Sacramento AIDS Foundation Organization
1900 K St. Sacramento AIDS Foundation Organization
912 21st St. Dr. Harvey Thompson (office -
1978)
Medical
3033 8th Ave. Dr. Harvey Thompson
(residence?)
Residence
1500 21st St. Center for AIDS Research
Education (CARES)
Medical
Sacramento LGBTQ+ Historic Experience Project

339 November 14, 2024
Address Historic Name Extant? Association
3441 Fair Oaks Blvd. Linda Birner Residence Residence 1831 S St. Buffalo Club Demolished Bar/Club
601 15th St. Mirage Bar/Club
5609 Freeport Blvd. Stardust Room Bar/Club
1311 21st St. Lioness Books bookstore
1215 19th St. New Helvetia

Café, Meeting
Location
3443 La Grande
Blvd.

Double D Manufacturing Shop

Arts Co-op
902 J St. Ruhstaller Building

Meeting
Location
1329 H St. Metrailer, Langenkamp, and
Buscho, Sac Legal

Law Office
2100 J St. First United Methodist Church

Religious
1300 J St. Hickory House Demolished Bar/Club
801 L St. Diamond Club Demolished Bar/Club
619 12th St. Hope House

Medical,
Organization
1454 Del Paso Blvd. Joseph's Town and Country

Bar/Club
2560 Boxwood St The Bolt

Bar/Club
1225 K St. The Metro Demolished Bar/Club
919 20th St. Lambda Community Fund
(1990s)

Organization
2215 P St. Alternative Coffee Shop

Residence,
Café
1516 29th St. Alternative Coffee Shop (2nd
location)

Residence,
Café
926 J St. Citizen Hotel - Older Women's
League (OWL)

Organization
Sacramento LGBTQ+ Historic Experience Project

340 November 14, 2024
Address Historic Name Extant? Association
911 28th St. George Raya residence

Residence
1221 20th St. Sacramento Women's Center
(1974-1975)/Edgar Carpenter
apartment (1972)
Demolished Organization,
Residence
2104 Capitol Ave. Sacramento Women's Center
and Book Store (also included
Rape Crisis Center) (1979-?)
Organization,
Bookstore
2220 J St. Sacramento Women's Center
(1975-1976)
Organization
1725 L St. Mom Guess What offices (ca.
1988-2003)
Publication
2545-2565 Franklin
Blvd.

Blue Moon

Bar/Club
3418 Broadway Metropolitan Community
Church

Religious

Sacramento LGBTQ+ Historic Experience Project

341 November 14, 2024
West Sacramento

Address Historic Name Extant? Association
825 Sunset Ave. Hide and Seek

Bar/Club
1532 Sacramento
Ave.

Jaquette's Court and W Capitol
Log Cabin
Bar/Club
725 Tower CT. Ernie Place / Charlie's Place Bar/Club
1531 Sacramento
Ave.

Yolo Baths, Club Baths of
Sacramento
Bath
? Staircase Bar/Club
4205 W. Capitol Ave. Club Zodiac Bar/Club
3480 W Capitol Ave. Other End / Purple Tortoise Bar/Club 717 Tower Ct. Ben's Books Bookstore
2400 W. Capitol Ave. Hawaiian Hut Restaurant
824 West Capitol
Ave.

The Experience Motel Motel
1432 W. Capitol Ave. Continental Motel Motel
440 W. Capitol Ave. Picardi's Books / Adult World Bookstore 723 Tower Ct. Purple Tortoise / World of
Adults
Bar/Club,
Book Store,
Erotic Shop
160 Sacramento Ave. Awful Annies Cafe

Restaurant
1040 Soule St. Off Key

Bar/Club
1721 West Capitol
Ave.

Kolo Club

Bar/Club

Sacramento LGBTQ+ Historic Experience Project

342 November 14, 2024
Carmichael

Address Historic Name Extant? Association
7436 Fair Oaks Blvd. Fays

Bar/Club
7604 Fair Oaks Blvd. Montana Saloon / Joseph's

Bar/Club
6212 Silverton Way Boyce Hinman Residence,
headquarters of Lambda
Letters Project

Residence,
Organization

Sacramento LGBTQ+ Historic Experience Project
Historic Context Statement

PAGE & TURNBULL 343 November 14, 2024

Images on back cover (from left to right):

1. Volunteer J.B. Hefferlin rubs the feet of an AIDS patient (1987). Source: Sacramento Bee.

2. Members of the Sacramento Men's Chorus, including Denny Mangers (center) (1985). Courtesy of Denny Mangers.

3. Earhart's Café co-owner Pam Musante (ca. 1992). Source: Center for Sacramento History.

SACRAMENTO LGBTQ+ HISTORIC EXPERIENCE
HISTORIC CONTEXT STATEMENT • DECEMBER 2024

Sacramento City CouncilDecember 3, 2024

Sacramento City Council
December 3, 2024