Meet Our Neighborhood's First Homeowner

I had the pleasure to sit and talk with Antoinette Sanburg and her daughter Elise a few weeks ago and ask some questions about what our neighborhood was like in the 60's and how she came to live here.

Antoinette was born Christmas Day 1919 in the very small town of Helper, Utah. (The town got its name in 1881 because of the “helper” locomotives that were standing by at the train depot to help the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railway travel up the nearby steep grade of Soldier Summit.)

Antoinette met her husband Harold in German class at college in Grand Junction, Colorado. The couple fell in love and married in 1942. Six weeks after the wedding, Harold was sent to England serving in the Air Force. During the war while waiting for Harold to return, Antoinette lived at the Travelers Hotel in downtown Sacramento and worked full time as a clerk-typist at McClellan. She used to take the bus back and forth.

After WWII the couple lived in various places including their small cattle ranch in Colorado. As the couple began having children, Harold’s job as a sales manager took him to various places throughout the west, and then
they moved to the Sacramento area.

In 1961, this area was all pastures and orchards. The new development “Overbrook 1” was nothing but bare streets and foundations, ready for construction. The couple was already familiar with Streng homes from seeing other local neighborhoods that were built in the late 50’s. The modern style of the homes reminded them of the Eichler homes they admired from living earlier in Palo Alto. So the Sanburgs were the first family to purchase a home here, followed by Dick and Lois Parker soon after.

Antoinette and Harold settled in and raised their five children here. When I asked Antoinette how the neighborhood has changed since the 60’s, she said, “It was quiet. It was surrounded by farms and there were many fig trees. The neighborhood dogs bothered the farmers, they would bark at their animals. The kids used to play in the fields and orchards. They rode horses and went to Hemlock Grammar School.”

I asked Antoinette if there was anything she missed. She said, “There was a nice K-Mart on Auburn, and also a market called Giant Foods at Auburn and Hemlock we all used to shop at.”

Daughter Elise remembers the neighborhood as very quiet and rural, with lots of kids. “We all played in the street, there was no traffic around. We were always making tree houses in the orchards and playing along the creek. We had big block parties then too.”

Elise ended up marrying the boy next door, the son of neighbors Bob and Louise Towers. They have been married now for 24 years.

One of Antoinette’s other daughters Alix, liked the neighborhood so much that she eventually bought the original old farm house that had remained in this neighborhood from before the Strengs built the development.

Antoinette has always liked the modern style of her house. She commented on the aggregate entry floors typical to many of the homes here, “Elise learned to walk at 8 months old because she was tired of trying to crawl across that floor!”

Antoinette says, “Back then this neighborhood was… well, I wouldn’t call it exactly Bohemian, but it was an upscale neighborhood, full of artists and teachers, lawyers and professional people. Very creative types.”

I think it still is! Thanks to Antoinette and Elise for sharing their story.