By Sara Beth Williams–
The city plans to install new placards along Auburn Boulevard, commemorating four historic points along the old Lincoln Highway route.
In partnership with Andrew Saunders, Treasurer of CHANT Area 3 Neighborhood Association and member of the Lincoln Highway Association California Chapter, the city has identified four historical route points along Auburn Boulevard and plans to install historical placards to denote each location.
The four locations include: Auburn Boulevard adjacent to Sylvan Cemetery District, Auburn Boulevard adjacent to 14-Mile House near Donegal Drive, Auburn Boulevard near 12-Mile House near Devecchi Avenue south of Greenback Lane, and Auburn Boulevard at the northern city limits.
The fabrication of placards is already in progress, according to Citrus Heights General Services Director Regina Cave, who presented a preview of the new placards during a July 10 City Council meeting. The rectangular placard design has a brown, red, white, and blue color scheme, with “HISTORIC” written on top across a brown banner and a large L in the center of the words “LINCOLN HIGHWAY.”
Citrus Heights Historical Society President Larry Fritz said in an interview that the Lincoln Highway was established in 1913 and followed Auburn Boulevard from Sacramento, turned left at what is now Sylvan Corners, and traveled through Roseville to the city of Auburn.
Along the route from Sacramento to the city of Auburn, there were once six different mile houses located in the vicinity of what is now Citrus Heights dating back to the 19th century. The houses were used as way stations where people traveling the two-day route could spend the night.
“That’s how Citrus Heights got started,” Fritz said. The 14-Mile House is the only structure that has survived, and in the 1930s, a bar was built on the site of the original 12-Mile House, which is located near the western city limits.
According to the Lincoln Highway Association, the Lincoln Highway was the first coast-to-coast transcontinental highway that traveled from New York to San Francisco. The Lincoln Highway Association pieced together existing roads to establish the route and has published a guide and other resources online to help motorists follow the route.
The first attempts to commemorate the Lincoln Highway route came in 1928, Fritz said, when the Boy Scouts of America built over 2,000 concrete markers at each mile along the route because “they knew it was going away.”
Related: The history behind those ‘Lincoln 40’ signs in Citrus Heights
The Lincoln Highway transitioned into Highway 40 in the mid-1920s, when the government dropped named highways and transitioned to a numbered highway system, Fitz said. To this day, a sign at the intersection of Antelope Road and Auburn Boulevard denotes both names, Fritz says.
“The markers had a brass emblem of Abraham Lincoln, and they had an arrow to tell you which direction the highway went,” Fritz said, adding that a replica of a concrete marker stands at Sylvan Corners near the site where the original would have been built.
The city will coordinate the installation of the Historic Lincoln Highway placards in the coming months, Cave said, adding that she hopes the placard to be placed at the northern city limits can be incorporated into a planned archway and monument welcoming residents to the city of Citrus Heights.
Several City Council members complimented the design, and Mayor Bret Daniels said it would “look great” incorporated into the new monument.
Also on The Sentinel: The story behind the towers at Sylvan Corners
