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Greenhaven Pocket History
Before settlement, the area was a riparian forest with woods of deciduous broadleafs growing beside the river and streams in the bend. The center of the bend is a few feet lower than sea level, and drainage was all toward the swampy, tulefilled middle. The bend is 6.8 square miles, has highly fertile alluvium soil, and contains a clay pit that is now Greenhaven  Lake. Before Europeans came, the Maidu Native American tribe most likely inhabited the bend in the summer months when they could fish and hunt. Longtime residents say the bend contains a number of mounds, suggesting that the Maidu also buried their dead here. John Sutter and his crew probably passed by the Greenhaven/Pocket area on their way to establish New Helvetia and Sutter’s Fort. After the Gold Rush, immigrants and former miners began to inhabit the bend. Several Portuguese families were the first settlers in the area. They raised cattle, hogs, and chickens and grew wheat and barley and engaged in dairying.
For the most part, early white settlers did not buy land in the bend because it flooded frequently and was swamp land. The majority of the inhabitants found in the area before its development were Portuguese immigrants from a group of islands called the Azores. Most were farmers who drained their farmland and produced lettuce, cabbage, grain, onions, potatoes, tomatoes, sugarbeets, milo, spinach, asparagus, and raised chickens, pigs and cows. They also had pear, walnut and orange orchards and grew hay to be pressed for sale. These farmers were basically subsistence farmers-the crops were grown for their family’s survival. They also sold crops to stores in downtown Sacramento and to miners during the Comstock Lode.
Other economic activity by the Portuguese included a gasoline service station owned by Frank Enos; Grangers Dairy, owned by the Seamas Family; Da Rosa Grocery store, owned by the Da Rosa family; Pimentel’s Ingleside Cafe owned by Tony Pimentel (this cafe is now The Trap); a slaughterhouse owned by Faustino Silva, and Frank and George Rogers Trucking Co., which delivered hay and produce to customers. The Portuguese created their own schools, upper and lower Lisbon Schools, so that their children could receive an education and at the same time stay close to their cultural roots.
Levees along the Sacramento River were built and maintained by the Portuguese. Only one major flood occurred in the area while the Portuguese farmed the area, after the Edwards levee break in 1904. Ferries were available to transport people to the town of Freeport and across the river to West Sacramento. Some rides were free, while others cost a quarter.
 Within the bend, the Portuguese led their way of life as though they lived in the old country. They celebrated the Holy Ghost festas annually, attended their community church, St. Mary’s, every Sunday, and displayed a communal affection for a landscape that reminded them of their homeland. According to Mary Tash and her daughter Lucille Carter, “In the old days people would leave their farming equipment on the comers of their parcels of land so that others could use the equipment. It was a community of trust and helping others through difficult times that is less apparent in today’s society.”
Before suburban development, the Greenhaven/ Pocket area also had a brickyard within its boundaries. The Sacramento Brickyard Co. was established in 1854 and was considered the first brickyard in Northern California. In its earlier days, Chinese migrant laborers dug clay out of the clay pit and hauled it by mule to the brickyard. The brickyard was strategically placed next to the river so bricks could be transported easily to downtown Sacramento and San Francisco. Bricks from this yard were used for the foundation of the State Capitol. the Memorial Auditorium, and other well-known buildings in the region. The brickyard closed on January 3, 1971 due to encroaching suburban development. After World War I, a sizeable Japanese population came to the bend and established a peaceful co-existence with the Portuguese community. This probably occurred because both ethnic groups were family oriented, experienced prejudice, farmed as a way of life and were immigrants. They celebrated holidays together, shared farm equipment, leased land to each other, and their children went to school and played together. After the internment of the Japanese in World War II, the Portuguese watched their farms and their belongings while they were in the camps.
In 1959, the Greenhaven/Pocket area was incorporated into the City of Sacramento. The City Council passed a general plan for the area in 1961. After this, the land was assessed and zoned urban even though it was agricultural. causing higher property taxes for the farmers. Many of the farmers could not keep up with these higher taxes due to less profitability in farming, and had to sell their land.
The first developers to subdivide the bend were the Lincoln and Parker Development Co. In 1958, they bought the King and Zacharias ranches and planned and developed a new subdivision called Greenhaven 70. In 1962, this project was acclaimed as the best planned community of the year by the National Association of Homebuilders.
The original plan for the Greenhaven/ Pocket area by Lincoln and Parker consisted of five to six Greenhaven 70’s and a large shopping and commercial center the size of florin Mall at the location of present day Lakecrest Village. But neighborhood resistance and the passage of Proposition 13 with its limitation on property taxes, created obstacles to this plan.
By 1986 the last Portuguese farming family sold their land to Lincoln/Parker & Powell/Teichert Development Co. The Dutra house was historically preserved, largely by the Parker Development Co. (formerly Lincoln & Parker), and now serves asa Title Company.
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Five miles south of downtown Sacramento lies a suburban community within a meandering bend of the Sacramento River. Any observer would think highly of the Greenhaven/Pocket area’s attributes: easy access to Interstate 5, many parks, some huge luxury homes, lakefront property, a number of shopping facilities and services, good schools, older suburban ranchetes, and a well established, secure, higher-than-average-income community. But what is the history of our special neighborhood? Carol Ann Gregory, a second-year graduate student in community development at the University of California, Davis, shared her research with us.
