...........................................
THE
SUTTERVILLE
BREWERY BUILDING
1853 - 1952
Sutterville
Brewery in 1906 , Heilbron Ranch, Sutterville California
..........................
This Page
Is Dedicated To The Sutterville Brewery Building And My Friend
Al Wilson
Who Compiled
This Informative Collection Of Words
........................
New Helvitia Chapter
of the E Clampus Vitus and the Author Both Express
Their
AppreciatiationTo Mr. Clovis McGuire , An Owner Of The Site ,
For His
Interest
In The History OfThe Sutterville Brewery And His Permission To
Place This Marker
On
The Site .
We Are Equally
Endepted To Mrs E H Heilbron Bellmer For Numberless
Courtesies
In Researching TheHistory Of The Building . Mrs Bellmer A Grandaughter
Of
Mrs. August Heilbron , loaned the picture ofthe brewery in 1906
and permitted us the use
of
an Abstract of Title which she has . She also granted freeaccess
to the scrap book her father kept on
the
building and told her of her expierences during the year she and
her husband made
the
building their home . We cannot thank her adequately for her assistance
, so shall not make an attempt .
Alan
L. Wilson
Sacrsamento
, Ca.
July
1 , 1983
..........................................................
The beginning was on
August 15 , 1839 when John Sutter , from the landing on the American
River ,
sighted
the rise which is now the of Sutters Fort . This was to be the
center of his empire .
The
land on the north bank of the American River was later to be granted
to Eliab Grimes . That land ,
the
Rancho Del Paso was occupied by John Sinclair on behalf of Grimes
, who obtained the grant
in
1844 .
By
August 1840 his party numbered 25 ; 17 whites and 8 Kanakas .Sutter
wanted neighbors and craftsmen .
Because
his fort wsa a place of safety and he had established friendly
relations with
Indians
, people began to settle nearby . He also encouraged parties from
Oregon or
from
the States to seek land grants on their own .
He
deeded one mile of land on the Feather River to Nicholas Altgeyer
in 1841 and another mile
to
Edward Farwell in 1844 . It was Sutter's dream to amass a fortune
. He could
do
this , he felt , with the support of other people settled in the
area ,
but
he didn't want everyone crowded up at the fort . By 1844 Sutter
had
probably
completed his first fort .
By
January 1846 , Sutter had had enough expierence with the high
waters of the winter
to
realize that the land west of the fort was mostly a flood plain
.
He
determined to found a village or town and set John Bidwell and
L . W. Hastings to the task ,
The
town was Sutterville , located on high ground , less than half
a mile east of the Sacramento River , and
about
four miles south west of the fort .
W.
T. Sherman , who was in the area during the summer of 1849 wrote
in his memoirs ,
AT SUTTERVILLE .
. . .
and it
would have made a better site for a town than the low , submerged
land
where the city now stands .
In
1847 George Zins and his wife commenced
the manufacture of brick at Sutterville and
built
a house 18 by 35 feet . His first kiln was of 40.000 brick . In
the fall of 1848
he
burned another kiln of one hundreed thousand brick. A school house
was planned to
be
built that year. That same year Sutter sold 350 acres
to
Laneford W. Hastings, which land included the site of McDougal
were
the
elected delegates to the Sutterville in 1849.
Hastings
attempted to sell lots, but was not too successful until after
the floods of 1852.
At
that time the people who had evacuated Sacramento
began
to look with more favor on Sutterville.
As
his part of a real estate program, Hastins
transfered
his inter in the town to a group composed of Hastings, William
K. and
S.T.
Weston, Henry A. Breed, Robert H. Vance and others.
The
transfer was conditioned on the buyers
building
a pier and dock, anchoring a barge on the river,
building
an elevated roadway
to
the high ground and constructing certain buildings with 90 days.
in
all five brcik buildings were build in Sutterville during 1853.
The
building at the SE corner of Willow and Crystal Street was two
stores with
a
full basement of brcik, build for Robert H. Vance of
San
Francisco at a cost of $27,000.
Vance's
building came to be known as the Sutterville Brewery. The bricks
for
all of the buildings were obtained from the brickyeard of
Pettit
and Queens in the SW coring of the town.
Vance's
building was let to Lockwood and Tilden of Sacramento
and
to S.T. Weston for two stores.
A
sawmill was erected by T.F. Gould and Jefferson Lake in 1853 at
Sutterville.
It
had three upright saws and on circular
With
Thielan's bankruptcy the operation of the brewery ceased and was
never
resumed.
The savings and loan held onto the
estate
until May 1890 when it was sold to J.P. Melchior.
He
transferred it to he wife the following year.
Six
years later, she deeded the property to her son, Frederick William
Melchior
and
the deed stated, being the place now occupied
and
resided upon by me as my house.
The
properted rested under this ownership until May1905
when
it was purchased by Mrs. August Heilbron.
After
1905 no tenant occupied the building for a prolonged periord,
although it
rented
as a dance hall and used for other parties up until
the
beginning of World War Two.
For
one year after the war it became the residence of Mr. and Mrs.
E.H. Bellmer.
Mrs.
Bellmer is the granddaughter of Mrs. Heilbron.
The
tracks which border the west side of the property are the river
branch of the
Southern
Pacific which originated at Front and I Street
and
was completed as far south
as
Freeport in June 1909. Sacramento County records show that Mrs.
heilbron
sued the railroad in connection with
granting
the right of way.
In
December 1947 an annexation election in the area designated as
Sutterville Heights
failed
by 10 votes. I was not until August 1950 that the land which Jon
Sutter
had
originally sold to L.W. Hastings became a part of
Sacramento.
Shortly thereafter the brewery
property
was sold to R.G. Schmidt, and salvaged the brick in 1952.
Thus
ended the history of the Sutterville Brewery
after
99 years. It was the last to be torn
down
in the old town of Sutterville. Although there is a California
Historical
marker
across the street marking Camp Union
it
is considered most appropriate to mark this site. Mr. Robert H
Vance
had
vision and he built well. The brewery
gave
succor early in the Civil Way to the 5th Infantry Regiment
and
provided a pleasant summer outing as long as
the
brewery was open. I remember the brewery fondly, as do most people
over
fifty who grew up in Sacramento. I have
attended
a number of parties in the old building.
................................
THE
SUTTERVILLE BREWERY
1952
The
Roadway In Front Is Sutterville Road
MORE
INFORMATION ON CAMP UNION SUTTERVILLE