Ramona Neighborhood History

RAMONA VILLAGE – THE NAME

The name “Ramona Village” was chosen by the Village Advisory Group of faculty and staff after plenty of discussion, based on historical factors described below.  The name was reviewed by Native American advocates and found quite acceptable, again based on its history.  The name has been approved by the University Enterprises Development Group Board of Directors.

NEIGHBORHOOD HISTORY

Many have wondered how Ramona Avenue got its name, and how the name represents the larger neighborhood.  That turns out to be a very interesting story of the Victorian era, connected to the evolution of the tourist economy in California, and to the beginnings of Native American legal rights and humanitarian treatment.  There is a clear Sacramento connection described below, but the significance of that connection (if any) is not so clear.

The novel Ramona was written in 1884 by author Helen Hunt Jackson.  It was a regional romance set in southern California at the end of the “Californio” era, as American society was expanding westward into California.  The novel portrayed the plight of the Mission Indians at the hands of the incoming Anglos in a romantic context that Americans of the day would enjoy.  It characterized the Californio lifestyle as lovely, genteel, and pious, although it did not describe the socio-economic injustice and discrimination that went along with it.  But inadvertently, Ramona also perpetrated the then-conventional theories about the “inevitable” disappearance and subjugation of Native American life and culture in the face of Anglo Manifest Destiny. 

H. H. Jackson had an early understanding of the abusive treatment of Native Americans.  Her 1881 book A Century of Dishonor and several magazine articles documented the abuses, but their dry legalistic style did not gain much readership.  In 1883 Jackson was appointed commissioner of Indian Affairs for southern California, and traveled widely throughout the southern state.  Jackson’s travels intensified her respect for the Indian cultures and her sympathy for the abusive treatment and cultural destruction inflicted by first Spanish, then Mexican, and finally Anglo intruders.  She was pivotal in convincing the U.S. government to establish reservation lands and federal benefits for Indians in California.  (Even today, there is a Ramona Indian Reservation not far from Palm Springs.)

In contrast to Jackson’s first book, Ramona was a huge success.  Thousands of copies were sold, reviews were stellar, and the novel is still in print today.  Ramona eloquently combined descriptions of lush southern California agriculture and climate with wistful scenes of the dying Californio rancho lifestyle and a stylized love story involving a half-Indian half-Scottish maiden named Ramona and a handsome and gallant Cahuilla Indian sheepherder named Alessandro.  It also described in wrenching detail the destruction of Alessandro’s family and ancient Cahuilla culture at the hands of Anglos who wrested away control of Indian lands.

Jackson intended that the book’s vivid portrayal of cruel and heartless practices towards the Native Americans would provoke outrage and sympathy.  To some extent, that occurred.  However, such sentiments were rapidly overshadowed in the popular culture by the romantic southern California appeal so aptly described in the novel.  As a result, Ramona quickly became a major contributor to an emerging California tourist economy. 

In the late 19th century, railroads were the major means of travel.  Reduced fares due to competition among railroad companies helped fuel tourism as a new American pastime.  Then in the early 20th century, the automobile entered the picture.  As autos also became less costly, they became the newest primary means of facilitating tourism.  Ramona was a significant catalyst for this nascent industry.

Ramona drew tourists to southern California from all over the nation to view firsthand the places where Ramona’s tragic romance with Alessandro supposedly happened (although the book was fiction). Soon Ramona-inspired tourist attractions sprung up from San Diego to Santa Barbara to Riverside County.  In the early 20th century, several movies were made of the book.  The outdoor Ramona Pageant continues to be performed in Hemet California, as it has every year but a few since 1923.  Ramona collectibles and old copies of the book are widely traded and sought after.  An early theme park called “Ramona Village” was begun in Culver City in 1928, but was never finished, in part due to the Great Depression that began the following year. 

But what does all this have to do with an industrial area in Sacramento?  That is a question we have been trying to answer.

Southwest of the intersection of Folsom Blvd. and Howe Ave., the triangle of Sacramento land between the Union Pacific Railroad, Brighton Ave., and Power Inn Rd. was formally subdivided on January 10, 1888.  The subdivision was called “New Ramona Colony”.   (“Colony” was a popular term for many subdivisions of that era.)  The streets in the Colony were named Cucamonga, Ramona, Helen, Hunt, and Jackson Avenues.  The latter four are not likely a coincidence, and surely are a reference to Jackson’s novel.

The developer who created the New Ramona Colony was named Michael Joel (M. J.) Dillman.  He previously and subsequently developed several blocks in East and South Sacramento, had outlying holdings in Placer and Yuba County and even Ontario in southern California.  Dillman was also the Manager (later owner) of the Bell Conservatory, the Victorian “glass house” built by Margaret Crocker to supply flowers to the City Cemetery across the street.  In 1885, he went on to form the Capital Telephone and Telegraph Company, leaving his real estate (including New Ramona Colony) in the hands of a partner, yet unidentified. 

There are records of several property transactions between Dillman and Crocker, in both directions.  Also, a C. F. Dillman (not M. J.’s father, maybe another family member) sold a parcel to Crocker.  But it’s unknown whether Crocker supported or financed any of Dillman’s real estate investments.

The New Ramona Colony was apparently not a huge success.  There were newspaper advertisements in early 1888 (3 to 6 acre tracts at $270 - $335 per acre) and a few records of property transactions later that year.  But the advertising only ran for a few months, and evidently the properties did not sell well.  No doubt, the “Panic of 1893” – the largest economic depression in the country to date – did not help matters much.  And, the Colony was far out of town.

In 1910, New Ramona Colony was renamed “Ramona Villa”, and Helen and Jackson Avenues were renamed to Heinz and Del Monte.  (Hunt Ave. did not change.)  The lots were divided into smaller ones, mostly just under ½ acre, a pattern which remains today.  We’ve searched, but have not been able to identify any link to tomato processing, as implied by the new street names.  The County’s 1917 Assessor’s map of Ramona Villa shows the majority of land in the name of M. J. Dillman, Jr., Dillman’s son born in 1891.  It seems the smaller lots were still not selling very well.

About 1950, the California Youth Authority assembled many of the parcels together for its 25-acre correctional institution.  The facility was opened in approx. 1953.  It was still far out of town.  Aerial photos from 1937, 1952, and 1961 show very few buildings, and minor areas of planted fields or orchards.  But many of the parcels were simply vacant. 

In 1965 the area was annexed into the City of Sacramento, and things started to change.  By 1971, Howe Avenue had been extended south and connected to Power Inn Avenue.  The Highway 50 freeway was under construction, and industrial buildings were locating along Power Inn Ave.  But the area remained a relative backwater.  Even in the 1980s and 1990s, there were many vacant parcels.  Finally in 1990, streets were improved and piped water and sewer was made available to the area.  The construction drawings for that project were entitled “New Ramona Colony”.

We still have not established a tangible link between Helen Hunt Jackson’s novel and our Ramona Village neighborhood.  It’s possible that Dillman was simply trying to capitalize on the Ramona mania that swept southern California and the nation.  (At that time, there were many other commercial uses of the word “Ramona” in subdivisions, towns, streets, hotels, consumer items, food products, cosmetics, and more.)  Perhaps Dillman or his family was just a big fan of Ramona.  Possibly, there’s a clue in his southern California real estate ventures.  And, as an intriguing sidelight, perhaps there was some involvement or financing from the Crocker family.  (The Ramona Colony was, after all, adjacent to the Sacramento Valley Railroad at Brighton – California’s first commercial railway.  But Charles Crocker, Margaret’s brother-in-law who later became one of the Central Pacific Railroad’s famous Big Four magnates, was not involved with the SVRR.)

We will continue researching the history of Ramona and Sacramento, and report any new findings on this web page. 

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Dydia Delyser’s book Ramona Memories extensively describes the cultural and economic impact created by the novel Ramona.  A synopsis of the book is available at the link above.

A Native American interpretation of Ramona (framed in the context of Indian gaming issues) appeared in the article “Ramona Redeemed” by Carole Goldberg and Duane Champagne, which appeared in the Spring 2002 Journal of Native American Studies, also available on line.

Another Native American view can be found at the website “Indian Myths and Stereotypes”, created in 2004 by Elisa Duangputra at UC Irvine. 

A feminist Latina interpretation of Ramona is found in the 2004 Frontiers:  A Journal of Women Studies 25.3.  Yolanda Venegas’s article “The Erotics of Racialization” discussed Ramona extensively.

There is considerably more reference material available regarding Helen Hunt Jackson and her novel Ramona, on-line and in most libraries.