Sacramento's Land Park

Book excerpt: Sacramento wasn't always so proud of the area now called Land Park. In fact, due to a notorious roadhouse at Sutterville and Riverside roads, the city took great pains to distance itself from here in the early days, calling the roadhouse and environs a "foul plaguespot" and a "sink of iniquity," and purposely excluding it from city borders! But times change, and the 1911 death of hotelier and philanthropist William Land set the stage for Land Park's remarkable renaissance. A bequest in Land's will directed that some monies be used to find "a recreation spot for the children and a pleasure ground for the poor," and so began the pleasant area of homes, parklands and riverfront paths we know today.