Growing up in Curtis Oaks nearly 100 years ago

By Dan Murphy
Viewpoint Staff Writer

This month is the 100th anniversary of the Curtis Oaks subdivision, running east from 24th Street to Franklin Boulevard and north from Donner Way to Portola Way. Don Rivett, born in December 1917, spent his childhood in Curtis Oaks, at 2728 Portola Way. His grandmother, on Fifth Avenue, and his future wife, Virginia Moore, on 27th Street, were also early residents.

The Rivett name may ring a bell. Ring up Rivetts carpet and flooring company on Broadway recently closed after 75 years in business. (See Oct. 2006 Viewpoint article.)

Don's great grandfather, John Rivett, came out from New York in 1849 to start business as a merchant. He survived a flood and the profiteers he had to pay to cart his stock to the levee. The next year a great fire burned much of Sacramento to the ground. In a letter to his fiancée, waiting in Essex, England, he assured her their house would be rebuilt in time for her arrival-in brick this time. Across the bottom of the letter he penned what became a family motto: "And such is life in California."

Don recalls Portola Way as renowned for its smooth paving. "Every evening there was a roller skates hockey game out in front of our house." Hockey was occasionally interrupted when "the fire engines left from 26th Street, the old fire house. They would come by clanging the bell and turning the siren by hand." If you missed the departure of the fire engine, you could run to Franklin Boulevard and follow the black turning tracks left on the pavement by the solid rubber tires.

The nearby Western Pacific Shops, now the rail yards, drew commuters through the neighborhood. "The whistle would blow when the guys had to be at work," Don recalls. "Prior to that time it was a constant parade of black bicycles… coming out of Oak Park. Because that was where most of the rail yard workers lived, in the Oak Park area, beyond 32nd Street."

The neighborhood had a lot more open space during his childhood. "Now, at that point, Curtis Park and Curtis Oaks was not built," he said. "It was pretty much open country with a few scattered trees. And a little truck garden, here and there, the Japanese had rented from Curtis. Marshall Way had some homes on it and Donner [Way] had homes on it. But it was scattered."

Eventually, William Curtis Park, our neighborhood's namesake, was developed. "It was open for a long time with only a few scattered trees," said Don. "You could look clear up to Sutterville Road and see. That was great for us."

The south was not the only open vista. "Beyond us to the north it was pretty much open country," said Don. "In fact, when we first started at Sierra School, we waded through grass that was taller than we were. Beautiful stuff, played the darndest games of hide and go seek in there, you ever heard of."

Don entered Sierra School's kindergarten when it opened in 1923. "Miss Leola was our teacher," offered Don. "We all remembered her so well. We liked that nap time, with the blanket on the floor."

"There were three oaks in the school yard. There was this one which had tremendous big branches on it, reached clear to the ground. Many of them were above the ground and we had more fun. We'd go over there in the morning and bounce on those oak trees and make them swing."

Don served in the infantry in WW II, fighting from North Africa to Hitler's bunker in Berchtesgaden. After the war, he and Virginia Moore married and settled in Land Park, near Raley's.

Return to Viewpoint Index