 |
| | | Historical Points of Interest  The City of Rocklin houses several historical points of interest. Browse through the text below or click on the map to see locations (by number) of the historic sites.
 Historic Site Map
City of Rocklin - Historic Sites - Braday’s Quarry
The quarry is located on the west side of Pacific Street, opposite a real estate building (formerly the Deer Creek Lumber Company.) Established in 1861 by  Charles A. Brigham and Elisha Hawes, it was the first granite quarry in Rocklin and is popularly known as Brady’s Quarry. See Granite marker at site for additional information.
- Saint Mary's Chapel
This Chapel is at 5251 Front Street, across from the granite Barudoni Building. It was originally on an oak framed lot at 5420 Front Street, dedicated there in 1883 as Saint Mary's of the Assumption Catholic Church. The Rocklin Historical Society moved the building in 2005 and restored it to save it from demolition. Now, it is primarily a non-denominational wedding chapel. Woodpeckers and foul weather toppled Saint Mary's steeple in 1937 and thieves ran off with the bell. The restoration includes a replica of the steeple. Today's bell is on loan from Rocklin's Community Covenant Church. Each bride pulls the rope to toll the bell as she leaves the Chapel after her wedding ceremony.
- Barudoni Building
The granite Joseph Barudoni building is at 5250 Front Street, across from the Old Saint Mary's Chapel. Meat broker Joseph Barudoni built it in 1905 as a meat market with an upstairs office for Doctor Woodbridge. It was later a feed store and even later an antique shop. It is now a recording studio. In 1954, the owner extracted granite blocks from the upper walls to construct a gas station in Ophir. The station is demolished now and the blocks are strewn about the nearby Ophir landscape. Subsequent owners of the building have filled the upper wall gaps with wooden framing. Notice the remnants of the cantilevered granite steps on the exterior of the north wall leading to Doctor Woodbridge's office.
- Rocklin’s Railroad Depot
This new depot, built in 2007, is on Rocklin Road beside the Union Pacific Railroad tracks, at the corner of Railroad Avenue and Rocklin Road. Rocklin's original depot, built about 1867, was at this same location; it included a telegraph office and John Sweeney's saloon. A freight depot was on the opposite side of the tracks. That original depot burned down in 1891. A second depot, built at this spot that same year, was demolished in 1940, a victim of Rocklin's faltering economy. Notice that the new depot is just a few yards southeast of the site of Rocklin's now-demolished railroad roundhouse. See the plaque by the sidewalk in front of the Crossroads Church.
- Rocklin City Hall
This building is at 3980 Rocklin Road. Adolf Pernu, owner of Rocklin's early 20th Century California Granite Company, built it in 1912 as a company store for his employees. The 1912 date is inscribed in a granite frontispiece over the front entrance. Pernu died in a quarry accident in Sequoia National Park in 1931, and as Rocklin's quarry businesses faltered with the Great Depression, Pernu's creditors took possession of the building. The City of Rocklin bought the building from a successor owner in 1941 and it has been Rocklin's City Hall since then. Rocklin's old timers remember that Rocklin's library occupied the first floor in the early 1940s with City Council meetings were on the second floor. Businessman Chung Moon arrived in California in 1921 from Hawaii and operated a market in the building from some time before 1930 until the late 1930s. His family occupied the second floor until they purchased the home of Dr. Henry Fletcher across the street. Today, the Fletcher home is the site of the Rocklin History Museum.
- Union Granite Company Quarry
Located at the corner of Rocklin Road and Granite Drive, the lake that you see there in front of Rocklin's library fills a quarry operated in the early 20th Century by the Union Granite Company under the management of Finnish immigrant Matt Ruhkala. Business at Rocklin's granite operations flourished in the 1890s and very early 20th century, but competition from building materials other than granite attenuated the industry's growth after 1905. Nevertheless, the Union Granite quarry and several other quarries continued to produce granite curbing and stone for buildings and monuments until at least 1915. Earlier, starting in 1903, Ruhkala had operated a quarry east of the Rocklin cemetery. It is now under the westbound lanes of Highway 80.
- Rocklin Cemetery
The Rocklin Cemetery is at the corner of South Grove and Kannasto Streets. Tradition is that the cemetery started, probably on a day in the 1850s, when a local citizen fell dead and was buried on the spot after a day of inebriation. A kiosk, near the cemetery entrance, maps the burial locations of several people who were important in Rocklin's history.
- Old Finnish Picnic Grounds
The picnic grounds are located about 200 yards past the end of China Garden Road, adjacent to Interstate 80. During the early Rocklin days, these picnic grounds were a gathering place for the Finnish habitants of the Rocklin area. - Quinn Quarry
This quarry is on Winding Lane, about 200 yards west of South Grove Street. Mary Quinn and her children took control of this quarry in 1874 after Mary's husband fell to his death from a hoist to the quarry rocks below. The family operated the quarry until the mid 1890s. In the 1930s, this quarry supplied granite for the Monterey breakwater. It was once, and occasionally still is, one of Rocklin's favorite swimming holes.
 Finnish Temperance Hall
Finn Hall is at the corner of Rocklin Road and South Grove Street. As the granite industry flourished in Rocklin in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, so did Rocklin's saloons. Released from the strictures of Finland's state church, and craving relaxation after hard days in the quarries, some Finns developed worrisome drinking problems. Concerned family members established Rocklin's Finnish Temperance Society in 1889 and the Temperance Society built Finn Hall for social functions in 1905. In her 1967 memoirs, Helen Kesti remembered that granite blocks for the steps and foundation were donated by Finnish quarry owners. Kesti's father and his friends could name the source of every block and whose team of horses delivered it. - Trott Hotel
Located on the northwest corner of Rocklin Road and Front Street, this building was built about 1868 by Samuel Trott. This hotel was Rocklin’s finest. One of Rocklin’s many fires claimed the hotel in 1869, but it was quickly rebuilt and continued to serve as one of the community’s most notable buildings. It burned again on February 20, 1979. Note the Lion’s Club plaque on the front sidewalk. - Rocklin's Roundhouse Site
Rocklin's roundhouse was at the intersection of Front Street and Rocklin Road east of today's Crossroads Church. A plaque near the remnants of the west facing roundhouse wall marks the spot. The Roundhouse opened in May 1867 to service extra engines that trains needed on the 90-mile strain to the Sierra summit. It included 28 engine stalls, a turntable, and an 78,000 square foot woodshed. In 1908, the railroad moved all roundhouse operations to Roseville, and the Rocklin facility closed permanently. In its heyday, just prior to it s move to Roseville, Rocklin's roundhouse employed 300 people with a monthly payroll of $25-$30,000. A report from the time asserts that, from 1906 through 1908, while the roundhouse was closing, Rocklin's population declined by 80%. This is probably an exaggeration since this was also a time when Rocklin's granite quarries were busy providing curbstone and granite blocks to re-build San Francisco after the earthquake of 1906. - The Wickman-Johnson Home
This white farmhouse is at 5200 Fifth Street at the west end of Rocklin Road. Anders Wickman acquired this home in 1919 from the estate of William Huff who had built it in 1886. Wickman's grandson, Gene Johnson restored it in 1999 and occupies it today with his wife Margaret. The Wickman and Johnson families operated a farm and dairy on the surrounding property, including the property now covered by Johnson Springview Park to the south and Springview Middle School to the north. - Victorian Homes
These three homes are near the Wickman-Johnson house at the corner of Rocklin Road and Fifth Street. All are private residences. Matt and Molly Moore built the Queen Anne style house on the SE corner during 1905, the year of their marriage. Matt was the Southern Pacific RR Station Agent; Molly was a schoolteacher and the pianist at Saint Mary's of the Assumption Catholic Church, now Old Saint Mary's Chapel on Front Street. The Scribner family occupied the ornate home on the NW corner. They owned Scribner's Hardware. Their store was just south of the Barudoni building on Front Street. - Whitney Mansion Stained-Glass Windows and Front Doors
The windows and doors are located at Sunset Whitney Country Club, corner of Midas Avenue and Rawhide Drive. The doors can be viewed as you enter the Sunset Whitney Country Club, and the windows are located in the lounge bar. This facility is open to the public during normal business hours. Although the mansion, built in 1885, has been demolished, several remnants, including these hand-made windows have been preserved. The mansion, known as “The Oaks”, was located to the northwest on an estate of 27,000 acres. - Granite Stone Bridge
The bridge is located at the northwest corner of Midas Avenue and Clover Valley Road. This bridge over Clover Valley Creek, constructed in about 1900 by Chinese laborers from the Whitney Ranch, was one of 12 along the “Eight Mile Drive” from the center of Rocklin to the Whitney ranchlands in Spring Valley to the northwest. Imagine members of the Whitney family traveling this lane by horse and buggy on a springtime Sunday afternoon enjoying the beauty of this valley with its willows, live oak trees, and open fields of clover, California poppies, and blazing Scotch broom. - Rocklin Skating Rink (Pleasure Hall)
The skating rink is located on the east side of Pacific Street between Grove Street and Jamerson Drive. Pleasure Hall flourished as the finest ball room between Sacramento and Reno during the early 1900’s and was operated by Steve Subotich. The Rocklin Owls baseball team played their games on a diamond behind the hall. During the 1930’s this building housed a vibrant roller skating rink. It is presently the home for the Greyhound Station, a crafts store, and a bakery. It once accounted for the majority of the town’s bruises and sore elbows due to skating falls.
- Aitken Ranch
The ranch is located on the east side of Pacific Street and to the north of Granite Drive. A large iron trellis over the entry of this former olive orchard marks this ranch site which was established in 1850 by Will Dana Perkins. Dana Perkins was one of Rocklin’s earliest and foremost citizens. At present, it is the home of State Senator Ralph Dills and his wife. - Racetrack
The racetrack is located at Racetrack Circle and Racetrack Road. The Rocklin Racetrack was located on property that now comprises the “Racetrack” housing development. The land for the racetrack was donated in 1893 by Dana Perkins, one of Rocklin’s prominent citizens of the 1850’s and early 1860’s. The racetrack featured buggy racing, horse racing and later, motor cycles raced on the track. Source: Rocklin Historical Society. Updated City of Rocklin, City Manager’s office 4.26.06 and 11.28.11 | |
| |
| |
