The district tells the story of the Gold Rush, the railroads, Sacramento’s beginnings and more, but it has a reputation as being merely a tourist novelty spot with gag gift and candy shops.

For years, Mike Baddley walked his dog from his J Street office past a dilapidated little house on the corner of 24th and I Streets in Midtown. “I was fascinated with it,” he says. The abandoned folk Victorian-style house, built in 1893 for H.L. Cuthirth, had been deemed by the city a substandard building, meaning not safe for occupancy.  

At a time when anyone can order lighting fixtures off Amazon or wander the aisles of Home Depot or Lowe’s and select something readily available and cheap, visiting Hobrecht or Lofings can feel like a trip to a different era. Still, there’s a story worth telling connected to each of these Sacramento stores which shows how family businesses can endure even in changing times.

They are the fourth owners but the first to make major renovations. The property has been updated to the highest standard, from the front yard, designed and planted by Eastwood, to the sophisticated, art-filled interior, and through to the jewel box of a backyard complete with a saltwater pool of their own design. 

In the last four years, Sacramento has approved more than 11,000 housing units, the third-highest total in the state, according to figures from the California Department of Housing and Community Development. The city’s total of approved housing trails only Los Angeles and San Diego, both of which are much larger cities.

The region has been suffering through a housing shortage for several years. But environmentalists worry about the impacts of greenfield development: It increases greenhouse gas emissions as people commute longer distances and causes the loss of habitat and open space, which gives the region its character and makes it a good place to live.