They don't build them like they used to, fans of century-old houses and historic architecture like to say. That's why it's always worthwhile to take a walk on Sacramento's Capitol Avenue. It's a long, quiet stretch of splendor between Capitol Park downtown and the Capital City Freeway. It makes me feel like people are intelligent, and that beauty and good taste are a critical ingredient of being alive.
The big old gentry houses are carved up now into lawyer and lobbyist offices, and apartments. It's become more common to see scaffolding lately as owners paint and touch up some of the giant residences fallen into disrepair. Here are a few pictures I took as July began, during a lunch hour walk a little after 1 p.m.
Here below are a few more on the street. They remind me sometimes of being a young professional in Fort Wayne, Ind. We wannabe bohemians lived in the fashionable West Central District near downtown. We sat around tables late at night in those ancient, classic dining rooms below chandeliers designed for original well-to-do owners. After we'd met our deadlines for the morning paper and the bars had closed, we drank Stroh's beer brewed in Detroit in those houses, and felt the full flavor of being young and hip in a beautiful old neighborhood. Imagine it, The Journal-Gazette then actually had a neighborhoods beat reporter. She tracked neighborhood associations and preservation efforts for these old beauties. Those beats are long gone in the newspaper business; the beauties endure.
Lest, however, I get too nostalgic for the good old days of design, check out this office building that opened recently on the avenue. It's called 2600 Capitol, built by Fulcrum Property to LEED status. I really like the modern lines and the mix of wood, steel and large windows. It's a clean look that really adds to that part of the avenue.
A close-up below. Beautiful.
And finally, a street mural on the old neighborhood Rick's Market. It's being remodeled for a Food Outlet. The mural isn't long for this world.
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