Sacramento Journal: Downtown

Ruhstaller Buiding (photo:Toyz1988)

When you’re walking along the leafy tree-lined streets of Sacramento’s Midtown, filled with beautiful old houses and quirky stores, you forget that the city is the capital of the third largest state in the union (and the largest in population). Sacramento’s Downtown with its imperious looking governmental buildings, housing agencies like the office of the state’s Attorney General are a reminder of the provenance and initial purpose of the city, which at one time was the last stop on Transcontinental Railroad. You can visit the California State Railroad Museum in the Old Town section that with its restored l9th century structures looks a little like a theme park. Then returning along J, you’ll come upon the Ruhstaller Building, a grand old Queen Anne style structure which houses the Church of Christ Science and is just a stone’s throw from several other churches including that of Scientology, along with a Masonic temple and the Center of Praise Ministries. Nearby a lone figure parades a placard which reads “Christ Saves Souls.”