| Curtis Park, for purposes of this history, is the land within the
Sierra Curtis Neighborhood Association boundaries. That is the area within
the green line on the map to the right. Curtis Park is predominantly a
residential neighborhood of approximately 2,500 homes. These are mostly
single family residences. The houses form a quilt of architectural styles,
e.g., Victorian, Colonial Revival, Arts and Crafts, Tudor Revival, and
Spanish Revival. The eclectic mix reflects more than a century of
development of residential subdivisions. Indeed, there are more than
thirty subdivisions within Curtis Park. You can see most of them on the
map on the right.
Prehistory in Curtis Park and the first few years after the acquisition of California by the United States are beyond our scope. (For information on local Native Americans there is a masters thesis available in the Sacramento Room at the Central Branch of the Public Library, Cultural and Physical Evidences of the Prehistoric People of Sacramento County (1961) Clifford Curtice.) We will begin with the early 1850s. |
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The part of Curtis Park north of the broken red line clipping the top of the Sierra 2 site on the map was in the Mexican land grant of New Helvetia to John Sutter. Click here for a map showing the entire New Helvetia Grant. The Sutter land outside the city grid, south of present day Broadway, was sold to settlers and speculators in ten acre lots.
The southern part of Curtis Park was ungranted land owned by Mexico. Hence, it passed to the United States government when it acquired California. This land then passed to individuals under homestead laws or by direct or indirect sale from the government.1/
Our local history begins with the pioneering families that settled on that land.
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Copyright 2003  Dan
Murphy |