January 3, 1853
On this day in 1853, the Sacramento Daily Union newspaper published Mayor Champion Israel Hutchinson and George Gordon’s plans for a city waterworks building to help prevent any further fires in Sacramento, such as the conflagration that occurred the previous November. That fire burned 80 percent of the city in just a few hours. The next day, January 4th, the mayor proposed an election be held on January 13th for deciding the future of a waterworks and that the plans could be viewed at the Orleans Hotel on Second Street until then.
Voters rejected the plans proposed for a waterworks but approved, in some sense, a small tax for building one so the city moved forward with the building plans despite opposition. Work on the building began at Front and I Street in October and was completed in 1854. The building not only served as a waterworks, but also as Sacramento’s city hall. Today, the Sacramento History Museum is housed in a reconstruction of the City Hall and Water Works building at its original location in the Old Sacramento Waterfront.
In honor of today, Jared printed a modern cut of the Sacramento History Museum.
#OnThisDay #TodayInHistory #sacramento #printing #history #sacramento #museumathome #hereinsac #downtownsac #printing #printingpress #museum #letterpress #tiktok #oldsacramento #oldsac
