The excitement and world wide importance of Folsom’s past is certainly worth building upon and the setting is perfect for it.
Folsom is one of the few places where even the prison is a tourist atraction.
Folsom builds on the past
A plan to develop the city's historic railroad block with housing, shops wins approval.
By Mary Lynne Vellinga - Bee Staff Writer
Published 12:00 am PDT Monday, August 6, 2007
Folsom has spent the past 20 years focusing mainly on its future. Thousands of new homes, jobs and stores have transformed this Old West town into one of the region's major suburbs.
Now, the city is returning to its 19th century roots. After six years of starts and stops, the Folsom Historic District Commission in June approved a design for the redevelopment of the city's historic railroad block into housing, shops and restaurants.
If construction starts next year as planned, the project could be one of the region's most significant developments of entertainment, dining, shopping and housing next to a light-rail line. The last station on the route from Sacramento to Folsom sits just across the street.
Today's trains traverse the same path as those that once ferried passengers to the railroad block, which was the terminus of the 22-mile Sacramento Valley Railroad. Opened in 1856, this line was the first railroad west of the Mississippi.
Bounded by Sutter, Wool, Leidesdorff and Reading streets, the railroad block is now used for surface parking and various city events. Its centerpiece is a train turntable refurbished by the city in 1999. The city is building a $14 million parking garage on one end of the property.
