Sacramento’s Newton Booth and Poverty Ridge

In Gold Rush-era Sacramento, turbulent floodwaters chased early citizens to a temporary island–a prominent hill near the Sacramento and American Rivers that came to be known as Poverty Ridge. In the ensuing years, as small farms developed across the southeastern corner of the original city grid, a two-room wooden schoolhouse was erected to serve the educational needs of surrounding families and was named in honor of California’s 11th governor, Newton Booth. The surrounding neighborhood came to share the school’s name. Since the 1850s, Poverty Ridge and Newton Booth have been home to Gold Rush pioneers, gifted vintners and brewers, devout nuns and nurses, celebrated authors, media giants, and larger-than-life politicians, all with visions of a better life–a California life.