U.S. Route 40: Auburn Boulevard

[See also my other blog entries on US 40, West Sacramento's Motel Row, and North Sacramento's Del Paso Boulevard. I periodically update these entries as I gather more information and photos.]

As automobile ownership, travel by car, and building of highways exploded all over America, the highway routes just outside of city limits were where auto camps, then motor camps, then motor hotels, and finally motels sprang up to meet travelers' needs. The motel row approach to the city of Sacramento from the west along the Lincoln Highway, and later US Route 40, was locally known as the Davis Highway--what is today West Capitol in the city of West Sacramento. The approach from the northeast was to the once-separate city of North Sacramento along Auburn Boulevard. Dozens of mom and pop motels lined the route, trying to lure in visitors with bold neon signs.

Auburn Boulevard begins where it crosses the freeway that supplanted it as US Route 40--to the north it is Roseville's Riverside Avenue in Placer County. But heading south, it is Auburn Boulevard, beginning in Citrus Heights, and ending at El Camino where the city of Sacramento meets an unincorporated part of the county formerly known as Ben Ali, and now part of the larger community of Arden Arcade.

During World War II, plans were made for a post-war freeway in the Sacramento area, supposedly for defense purposes. In 1947, the North Sacramento Freeway opened, bypassing the city of North Sacramento, and that section of Auburn Boulevard from El Camino north to just past Marconi, where Auburn Boulevard curves in a more easterly direction.

In addition to the freeway bypass, the proximity of the railroad tracks helped to speed the decline of the businesses along this section of old Route 40. This portion of Auburn Boulevard did not even remain a main thoroughfare for residents, as the overpasses across the railroad tracks for major streets that used to intersect Auburn Boulevard now make them pass over it. This makes just following the old route difficult at times. Instead of keeping straight on Auburn Boulevard, a few times the road curves to the right and a stop sign, and you have to make a left-hand turn to continue on Auburn Blvd. A larger detour is required when you get close to Business 80 (originally the North Sacramento Freeway) and Marconi. This area, from El Camino to Business 80, once lined with motels and restaurants, is now predominantly light industrial, as a result of being bypassed.

The motels and restaurants along the next stretch of Auburn Boulevard survived quite a bit longer. When the Roseville Freeway was proposed to bypass this stretch, the Auburn Boulevard Improvement Association was formed to fight it. They sought to make Auburn Boulevard an express way, rather than having a freeway bypass it altogether. In 1948, the State Motor Hotel Association joined in the struggle to prevent construction of the freeway. But in the world view of most Americans at the time, it was self-evident that freeways were essential for progress and security. Nobody ever asked why. The Ben Ali-Roseville Freeway opened on April 24, 1956.

Government officials have never had much sense of history, or sympathy for small business owners. After forcing through a freeway that cut off the businesses and led to their decline, a new generation of officials viewed the surviving businesses as blight, and sought to have them demolished. This is what happened to three motels I was lucky enough to see, before progress swept them aside: The Rolling Green, The Ritz, and the Pacific Motel.

The destruction of the Pacific Motel particularly upset me. I remember how delighted I was to see the place. Not only was the fabulous neon sign in perfect condition--and those old signs with exposed neon tubing require continual maintenance, which can be quite expensive over the years--but the grounds were immaculately groomed, with a lovely flower garden. This was not some absentee landlord neglecting a property, and the owner did not roll over for county officials. He fought, and lost, and the result is that today we are blessed with a cheaply constructed shopping center, the kind developers purposefully build not to last, but to tear down in 20 years.

Here's what little history of the route I've been able to preserve with my research and photos, starting from the border with the current city of Sacramento and heading out towards Citrus Heights and the limits of Sacramento County:

As US 40 left the former city of North Sacramento, it passed under the railroad tracks via a subway, then curved to the north from El Camino onto Auburn Boulevard. Before the subway was put it in, it was a dangerous crossing point, and the curve was originally dangerous too, and was realigned at least twice.

This is where the Curve Inn Motel used to stand, but now either an office building or part of the wider overpass that replaced the subway occupies the space now. The curve is still there, and shortly after it you hit an exposed section of cement that was the surface of US 40, as opposed to the more recent asphalt. The subway, made irrelevant by the overpass, was filled in as part of the Sacramento light rail project. Then comes . . .

Chima's Food Store
1530 Auburn Boulevard

Stevenson's Grocery Mart in 1955, and Eng's Market in 1965, somehow they keep managing to sell groceries at this little store.

M&M Mobile Home Park
1750 Auburn Boulevard


In the 1950s, it was pretty much the same, but named M&M Auto Court & Trailer Park

A&M Bottle Shop
1840/1838 Auburn Boulevard


Sometimes it's not the name but the address that changes over the years. This placed opened sometime from 1957-1961, and is still in business.

Railroad Cafe
1844 Auburn Boulevard


This was Bushers Club from at least 1952 to 1994, and the business was even older, being listed at 3040 Auburn Boulevard in 1950. I didn't see it as Bushers, but here is my friend Mike's photo. It opened as the Railroad Cafe in April of 2007. I just had a nice burger there the other day.

Oak Haven Mobile Park
2150 Auburn Boulevard

It has been around since at least 1939, when it was Oak Haven Trailer Camp. I don't know, staying in a trailer camp sounds more fun to me than a mobile park.

The Sands Motel
2160 Auburn Boulevard


The motel is still there, but the county decided the sign was not solid enough. Apparently it took quite a lot of effort to tear it down. My photo here is not my own idea, but now I can't find the photo I copied to give credit to the person I copied it from.

Pacific Motel
2224 Auburn Boulevard


I've already told you about how I feel about this one. Wanton destruction. Developers Lux Taylor and Skip Maggiora wanted to built a shopping center, and in addition to their parcel of land, they wanted the land where the Pacific Motel and the Ritz Motel stood. Officials from the Sacramento Housing and Redevelopment Agency were threatening to use eminent domain to take the land if the owners would not sell to the developers. Patel in an article in the Sacramento Business Journal in 2002: "If Maggiora wants to build a store, he should build it on his land only. This is not real fair."

Ritz Motel
2228 Auburn Boulevard


Destroyed.

Rolling Green Motel
2230 Auburn Boulevard


Destroyed.

Casa Grande Mobile Village
2314/2312 Auburn Boulevard, or 3402 Killeen Circle

49'er Motel
2720/2730 Auburn Boulevard


Or earlier the 49'er Lodge, from at least 1948 to 2006. Now a lovely garbage-strewn vacant lot.

Transtar International
2840 Auburn Boulevard


I've always been curious about this thing: a merman on horseback? Surely it couldn't have anything to do with Telstar International. In the 1960s and 1970s it was Zorba's Bar and Oven, but the building looks like it dates from when it was a nightclub called Cleopatra in the 1950s, as there are classical columns on the front of it.

Tradewinds Motel
2844 Auburn Boulevard


Since at least the early 1970s, but before that it was the Town & Country Motel.

Johanna's Restaurant
2906 Auburn Boulevard


This place was a recent discovery of mine--it was Eddie's Irish Village Coffee Shop in the late 1960s, when the Econo Lodge next door was Eddie's Irish Village Inn. It has been Johanna's since at least 1990. It's not of the age I really admire for diners, the 1930s and 1940s, but it's still pretty cool.

La Rosa Blanca
3032 Auburn Boulevard


My very favorite Mexican restaurant. It's small, vividly decorated, and serves great food. It has been La Rosa Blanca since at least 1982, and in the 1960s and 1970s was Mission La Palma.

Surf Motel
3204 Auburn Boulevard


For a plastic, back-lit sign, it has a pretty cool one, but still I resisted photographing it. I love neon. The motel probably had a neon sign when it was the Palms Motel in the 1960s, but since at least 1971 it has been Surf Motel. Then I saw this lovely shot on Flickr. I've since seen two more like it, and knew I needed a photograph of the sign as well, only I took mine at night.

Golden Tee Inn & Restaurant
3216 Auburn Boulevard

It was built in 1964, after the freeway was, but was still an interesting place. The restaurant had a real Rat Pack feel. I never got a photo, but once again, a contact of mine on Flickr got a shot.

Orbit Station
4716 Auburn Boulevard


It's a pleasure to support this old googie gas station--it usually has some of the lowest prices in the area.

Cricket County Kitchen
4745 Auburn Boulevard


That's what it has been since 1986, and it is a delight inside--decorated with much kitsch, and model trains running around above your head. I'm no sure how old it is, but in the 1970s it was Pat & Mae's Restaurant.

12 Mile House
5919 Auburn Boulevard


We're all the way out in Citrus Heights now, but this is the most historic structure in my overview. It operated from 1884-1998, when a Bay Area investor who had purchased the property shut it down, telling the Sacramento Bee she had no emotional stake in the property--it was just an investment. Ah, the discrete charm of the bourgeoisie. The previous owner who operated it for many yeas and told the Bee of finding hand-made nails in the place, traveled from out of town to come back and visit the place one last time before it was closed.

Rocky's 7440 Club
7440 Auburn Boulevard



An old bar with utilitarian name, a great old neon sign, and a newer neon sign. Here's my friend Joe's close-up shot of the sign.

Sam's Classic
7442 Auburn Boulevard



This is a great old drive-in restaurant that I neglected for too long. I stopped there for a chili cheeseburger and a Dr. Pepper on the way back from a hike recently. The burger was not photogenic, but it was delicious.

If you've traveled throughout the Central Valley, you might recognize this building as an old Sno-White Drive In. There were once nearly 200 such franchises in California, and a few still survive. It was still a Sno-White in 1970, but by 1975 was Lou's Burgers.



Lodge Coffee Shop
8191 Auburn Boulevard


This was probably built in the 1960s, when A-frame coffee shops seemed to be all the rage, which would make it after US 40 was already bypassed by the freeway. It was previously called Ski Lodge Coffee Shop.

From here, Auburn Boulevard passes a major bus station for connecting Sacramento County and Placer County routes, and heads across the freeway that bypassed it into Roseville.

highway40

U.S. Route 40: West Sacramento's Motel Row

R.I.P. El Rancho Neon

[If you're interested in Highway 40 history in Sacramento, see also my blog entries on Del Paso Boulevard and on Auburn Boulevard.]

While most Americans on roadtrips today are content to speed along controlled-access freeways sealed inside climate-controlled cars and SUVs, only pulling off for the safe and familiar comforts of chain restaurants and gas stations, they are also nostalgic for a bygone era when the traffic on the highway slowed to go through the heart of business districts of both small towns and large cities, and drivers could impulsively pull over to unique roadside diners, motels, service stations, and tourist traps.

While U.S. Route 66 from Chicago to L.A. (omitting the eastern seaboard, the most populous area in the country) has become a focal point for this nostalgia, Sacramento has been home to old highways of arguably greater importance and interest, U.S. Routes 40 and 50. U.S. Route 50's distinction is that it is the only surviving transcontinental highway that is not all Interstate freeway. U.S. 40, now supplanted by Interstate 80 in the West, ran from Atlantic City to San Francisco, and in California is notable for the fact that it mostly followed the route of the old Lincoln Highway, the first transcontinental highway. (U.S. 50 also followed, and in some portions still follows, part of the Lincoln Highway route, the "Pioneer Branch" from Sacramento through Folsom, Placerville, and South Lake Tahoe before rejoining the northern route.)

One of the quickly disappearing local legacies of the pre-freeway routing of both historic highways is the motel row in West Sacramento. This was the major approach to Sacramento from the Bay Area on U.S. 40 for many years, and was part of the original routing of 50, when it originated in West Sacramento, as it does today. (In intervening years, 50 was routed down Stockton Blvd. and then Cherokee Lane through Lodi and into Stockton before heading over to Oakland via the Altamont Pass.) In the then unincorporated area of Yolo County, motels, restaurants, and a drive-in movie theater lured tourists off the road with boldy designed buildings and bright neon lights before they reached Tower Bridge, constructed in 1935, to enter the city proper. The main artery carrying traffic across the Sacramento River now, the Pioneer Bridge, was not opened until 1966.

When the freeway bypassed West Sacramento in 1954, the inevitable decline began. The El Rancho Hotel had once accommodated stars and high-ranking politicians, but when the Cleveland Cavaliers were booked there in 1985, several players refused to stay and paid for their own rooms on the other side of the river. The El Rancho Drive-In Theater became the El Rancho Mobile Park. Being in an unincorporated area without a local police force, the old motel strip became a place to escape strict law enforcement and harassment in the city, making it a popular gay cruising ground, but also an area blighted by prostitution, drug dealing, and fights. Adapting to the times, some of the motels became adult-oriented, like the Experience Motel, which became the Adult Experience.

In that area that now lies within the city of West Sacramento (incorporated only in 1987), there are still a few interesting remnants of the Route 40 heydays, including many surprisingly well-maintained motels, although they are fast disappearing. I started taking an interest in roadside relics in 2000 and photographed many with my old APS camera. Later I got a digital camera and with extensive practice improved my crude skills, and I went back to get better photos of the area, but some I would find were no longer there. And they keep vanishing on me.


West Sacramento City Hall

Newly incorporated West Sacramento worked to turn around the area's image in the typically American fashion: by destroying the past. The Capitol Inn where Clark Gable once stayed was razed, rather than rehabilitated or reinvented, and became the site of West Sacramento's City Hall. In 1993, only 6 years after incorporation, West Sacramento instituted a comprehensive sign ordinance, strictly limiting the size of free-standing signs. Businesses were given a generous 15-year period in which to bring their signage into compliance with the ordinance, but no exceptions were allowed for. When I first started taking pictures of the signs along this route, I thought all the small, plastic, back-lit signs were there because the motels had changed names when they changed ownership over the years, but my research shows that most of them have been under the same name for 50 years. Those with plastic signs were ones to quickly adhere to the new city ordinance. While the city of Sacramento has sought to protect its identity by protecting its historic signage, like the Joe Marty's sign, the city of West Sacramento is mandating the removal of this important part of its history by May 1, 2008.


Sacramento's Historic Joe Marty's Sign

Meanwhile, the proximity of West Sacramento to downtown is finally attracting the interest of major developers after the development of Raley Field, the Ziggurat Building, and the associated waterfront park area. Big changes are in store for the city in the near future, but for the moment let's look to the past.
Much of that past is nothing more than tantalizing hints I find in the library, like the names of the Pink Cucumber, or the Hawaiian Hut, old restaurants, or the old motel post cards in the Sacramento Room of the Sacramento Central Library. But I did get to see, and photograph, some of the remaining vestiges of this rich history, and have seen others' photos. Here's a review from west to east:

Ortega's West
4205 West Capitol

In the 1960s, this was the Road House. All that remains from those days, at least outside, are the two arrows indicating where to turn off the road.



Walnut Trailer Villa
2355 West Capitol



The sign must have disappeared not longer after I photographed it, as I was never able to find it again. Here's a better photograph of it.

Red's Drive-In
2328 West Capitol



At least since 1961, this has been a liquor store: Henri's Drive-In Liquors, then Springer Bottle Shop, and currently A&B Liquors. But its shape betrays its origin as a drive-in restaurant, and the old city directory confirms this, indicating that in 1957 it was Red's Drive-In. When photographing it recently, a man bicycled by and told me that it used to have a giant top hat on top.

Yolo Club
2216 West Capitol



The Yolo Club probably opened in the 1930s. The vintage sign remained until at least 2000, although a Sacramento Bee restaurant review in 1986 of The Western Rib House at the Yolo Club mentions "the site of the old Yolo Club." Now it is operated as Puerto Azul, and the sign has been altered. Here's an advertisement for the Yolo Club from 1978:

"Mention the word 'barbecue' and Yolo Club immediately pops into mind. Long famous for its barbecued pork spare ribs and chicken, the specially-blended, tangy Yolo barbecue sauce is the same recipe developed by the original owners more than 40 years ago. Or try the special Yolo steak, hand cut right on the premises from the finest of choice meats. Yolo Club has a real western atmosphere, with a completely circular bar right in the middle of the dining room! Take the entire family!"


Puerto Azul

Plaza Motel
2007 West Capitol

In the last couple of years all of the neon tubing has been broken off of this large sign, and both arrows are now gone.



El Rancho Drive-In Theater
2000 West Capitol



The El Rancho Mobile Park was once the El Rancho Drive-In Theater, which seems more fitting for the glorious sign that once welcomed people to its entrance. A year or two ago I had a call from the owner, from Sonoma. She inquired if I was "Tom Spaulding the photographer," to which I hesitantly answered "yes" (I take a lot of photos, but have never made any money from it). She was looking for a photo of the old sign lit at night, but I was never fortunate enough to see it that way. The sign was taken down early in the summer of 2007.

Part of the El Rancho in 1946.

El Tejon Motel
1821 West Capitol



It has been there since 1946, and likely a decade longer than that, yet it looks beautifully maintained. But there has been one change. Their motto used to be "Watch for the motel with the blue glass windows," but I've never found any blue glass windows there.

Denny's
1638 West Capitol



The building has now been divided to house two different businesses, and much of the distinctive roofline has been covered over, but from the side you can still spot the old Denny's underneath. Later it had a long run as Torrey's Coffee Shop.

Fremont Motel
1550 West Capitol





This motel is a particular favorite of mine, as I love the design of the building as much as its wonderful neon sign. I got to talk to the manager (and possibly the owner) when first photographing the sign at night and he seemed as fond of it as me. It is from him that I first learned of the city ordinance and the impending destruction. I don't see how this could possibly be considered a blight on the city that would hold it back from prosperity. To me it’s a treasure.

The Dude Motel and the Golden Motel
1501 & 1917 West Capitol







Just two old motels that managed to keep the same name and the same sign in good repair for all these years until the city intervened.

King's Chinese Restaurant
1500 West Capitol



What a beauty! Yet it didn't inspire me to eat there until after the sign was gone, I'm ashamed to admit. This was a massive sign that towered above everything, a true West Sacramento landmark.. Perhaps it was out of spite (a waiter there told me the owner was very upset to have to remove the sign) that it was replaced in 2005 with the most lowly and unobjectionable sign you can imagine, a small, back-lit, plastic thing hugging the ground. Now that's a "low-rent" sign, a term city officials have used repeatedly over the years in interviews when talking about redevelopment efforts (although I now see that the sign has been placed on a pedestal, making it look more typical). The old sign was first class. See it at dusk.

Budget Motel
964 West Capitol



This was built in the early 1950s as the St. Francis Motel, advertised as "THE HOUSE OF DISTINCTION." It was still the St. Francis as late as 1980, but was the Budget Motel, with another boring new sign, by 1990. The office building is original though.

The Flamingo Motel
920 West Capitol

This motel never captured my eye, until I saw a postcard in the Sacramento Room of what the sign for it used to look like. One of my contacts on Flickr has posted his photo of that sign here.

Capitol Bowl
900 West Capitol





Formerly the El Rancho Bowl, the neon signs on the building should be allowed to stay under the ordinance, as long as they are in good repair, but the free standing sign with a bowling ball for the letter "o" is likely doomed. People have told me that the owners always kept it in good repair, but part of it was flickering weakly when I photographed it at night, and there's no point in spending money to repair a doomed sign.

Old Town Inn
826 West Capitol



The horse statue standing outside this motel always struck me as peculiar, but it might have been part of the original decorative scheme, as before this was the Old Town Inn, it was the Pony Express Inn.

The Experience Lodge
824 West Capitol



This sign featured a diving beauty and a mixture of neon tubing and incandescent bulbs, a style that is a particular favorite of mine (see Plaza Hof Brau at the corner of Watt and El Camino for a fine working example). It has been gone for a few years now, although the motel is still in business, again with a plain and unobtrusive plastic, back-lit sign.

Welcome Grove Motel
600 West Capitol



Motel and trailer park, actually. Plus, there's a small house sitting on top of the motel. The approach to the Tower Bridge in this area is being reworked, and I don't know how that will effect the Welcome Grove.

Tower Bridge





The bridge has marked the transition from West Sacramento to Sacramento since it opened on 15 December 1935 is closed right now, but just temporarily, as the sidewalks are widened. The future of this structure is secure as only the Capitol Building rivals it for status as the representative landmark of the city of Sacramento.

For 25 years this was the main portal for traffic entering Sacramento from the west, as Mayor Arthur Ferguson envisioned it in his comments during the opening ceremony: "These towers shall stand through the years indicating the true friendliness and welcome of the City of Sacramento" (qtd. in Sacramento Bee 12/16/1935).

Once the freeway was opened on June 15, 1954 bypassing West Sacramento, the bridge became a real bottleneck for traffic, especially since the train tracks crossed the approach to it. This was not alleviated until the Pioneer Bridge was finished sometime in late 1966, carrying the freeway across the Sacramento River.
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Highway 40 continued:

North Sacramento's Del Paso Boulevard
Auburn Boulevard