Sacramento Pioneer Association
Restoring Pioneer Hall

The lovely, old building, on Seventh Street between J and K Streets, will be all ours again in July 2015. Until then Pioneer Hall is occupied by the Sacramento Housing and Redevelopment Agency who helped us finance the 1987 reconstruction. All her vicissitudes will be over, and she will come home to the Sacramento Pioneer Association. How did this happen?

In the 1980s the building had fallen on hard times and was in sore need of repair. It was, after all, 117 years old. The Sacramento Pioneer Association built it in 1868 to house their extensive circulating library and to serve as a meeting and business hall. The Association used the hall for many of those years and later rented parts of it to a saloon, a dance studio, a barber shop, a museum of Sacramento archives, and many other enterprises.

The hall was designated a Sacramento Historic Landmark on April, 19, 1967 during the time when the building was used by the City to house the Sacramento Archives and Museum Collections Center.

Time passed. Pioneer Hall had become a hazard, not productively rentable, and a liability to the Association. There had been many band aid efforts to repair it through the years, but finally more extreme measures were in order. It had to be restored to code and to its former grandeur at great cost.

Or, the unthinkable had to be addressed: Should the Association simply sell the building? A horseback appraisal of its value was between $150,000 and $200,000 in its current condition. Heated discussion ensued, and one board member said that, should the decision to sell be made, he would see them in court! Several board members were directed to seek funding by any means short of illegal.

In 1986 Sacramento Heritage, Inc., a non-profit arm of the Sacramento Housing and Redevelopment Agency, came forward to offer financial help if the organization could see its way clear to subordinate to make the project possible. Architectural drawings and cost estimates were made for the complete restoration. In October, 1986 Pioneer Association President Robert P. Heringer, met with members Burnett Miller, Robert Livingston, and Ralph Scurfield and representatives of the Sacramento Heritage Inc. and the Sacramento Housing and Redevelopment Agency Finance committee. The group arranged a $300,000 loan for Pioneer Hall and a $100,000 back up, with the rest of the financing to be completed by the Sacramento Pioneer Association. This was undertaken through a drive to raise the Association’s immediate share, approximately $125,000. Pioneer members donated this amount. A construction loan of $400,000 was provided by Wells Fargo Bank. After many City agencies signed off on the plans, negotiations resulted in a construction contract with the firm John F. Otto, Inc

In preparation for the restoration, all tenants were asked to vacate the building. The tenants, at that time, were a tobacco shop, artist Jack  Ogden, and the TNT Club. All leases were on a month to month basis and were cancelled as of September 1, 1987. The contractor began the interior dismantling and rehab, and the renovation was under way.

The Pioneers gathered at the hall on June 30, 1988 to rededicate the building while construction was going on. Most were in vintage costumes. Speeches, music, and a repast were enjoyed by all.

The City Planning Department had not allowed balconies to be built over sidewalks in Sacramento for many years at the time of the Pioneer Hall restoration. The original hall had such a balcony, removed in earlier times. A balcony was finally approved because of its historical significance. Colors of original exterior and interior paint were found from paint chips of original surfaces and were closely matched with lead-free paint. When the Housing and Redevelopment Agency signed a lease to move into the second floor space, it became necessary for the Pioneers to put an in elevator at an additional cost of $69,000. An additional loan for this amount was granted by the Agency.

Businesses applied to be tenants, moved in, and presented the grave problem of rent defaults and collection difficulties. The total loans owed by the Sacramento Pioneer Association at this time totaled approximately $786,000, more than the building was worth. On May 31, 1994 the Sacramento City Council approved a lease of all the space of Pioneer Hall to the Sacramento Housing and Redevelopment Agency from July 1, 1994 until July 1, 2015 in return for taking over much of the debt.

Thus, Pioneer Hall is sturdy, strong, and beautiful, though occupied by others at the moment. It will revert to our care in 2015, enough reason to remain alive and well to see it.

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Sacramento Pioneer Association
1721 - 2nd Street #100, Sacramento, CA 95811
TEL: 916-447-7411 | FAX: 916- 447-7430
E-mail: history@sacramentopioneer.org