“The residences of the citizens in the suburbs of town are noted for their substantial character and the neatness and taste displayed in their structure. Fruit and flowers flourish in unsurpassed abundance and luxuriance, and each of these homes is surrounded by its orchard and embowered with clambering vines of almost perennial bloom.” – Placer County Directory of 1861

The orchards may be gone, but Auburn still is charmed with a plethora of grand old homes and long-established neighborhoods.
Since the days of the Gold Rush, Auburn has been a residential haven with home design influences reflecting the heritage of its settlers. The tracts of one-of-a-kind dwellings form an architectural timeline, reaching back to when the city was a parched precinct laced with ribbons of greenery nourished by Auburn Ravine creek.
As it grew from a rough and rowdy mining camp to a sophisticated city, growth rippled out from Lower Town into the low hills and high bluffs. Naturally, the city’s oldest homes are in the Old Town district where stately abodes stood
above the business district.
Two of the oldest frameworks in the vicinity are the Fred Brye home, near the Historic Placer County Courthouse on Lincoln Way; and the Traveler’s Rest inn on Auburn Folsom Road, which is now the Bernhard Museum. A few of the oldest abodes remain in Old Town, with younger siblings filling in the streetscape.
As Auburn prospered, many of its wealthiest families had homes built along High, Pleasant and Orange streets. Development fanned out to Almond and Placer streets to the east, and to farming and ranching territory to the south.
When the Central Pacific Railroad made tracks for the east side of the city, new businesses and homes followed. The gaps between the upper and lower parts of town eventually filled in with homes that climbed the steep hills or nestled into thin ridges above the canyons holding the forks of the American River.
The structure at 1125 High Street was built in 1888 and occupied for more than six decades by members of the Robie family who were pioneers in the lumber industry. The Eastlake-style Laing House at 1111 High Street became its neighbor in 1890. Many of the elderly homes along High Street now hold offices, shops and other enterprises, blending vintage elements with modern amenities.
Although many homes sat on large parcels, the earliest subdivisions carved raw land into smaller building lots. Custom homes blossomed into clustered developments.
Recorded in 1884, the College Heights subdivision was named for the Sierra Normal College that sat on Chicago Boulevard, which now is known as College Way. The parcels sprouted homes in an eclectic array of styles, with most occupied by the school’s faculty and administrators.
On narrow thoroughfares like Cherry Street, Linden Avenue and California Street, modest houses and magnificent manors came together on roads that followed the undulating contours of the hilly terrain. The patchwork quilt of homes stitched together a mixture of asymmetrical Queen Annes; fussy Victorians; rococo Italiante facades; Dutch Colonials — and everything in between.
Jutting out toward the canyons, the Robie Point and Aeolia Heights also developed into eclectic blends of architectural themes and eras. Some of the jewels in these neighborhoods display Gothic Revival style, such as the Threlkel-Farabe Home at 235 Olive Street.
The Burns Home at 175 Aeolia Drive is an example of English Cottage Revival design. In Linden Heights, the Francis Home at 359 Linden Avenue exhibits Eastlake characteristics. The Hayward Home at 165 Almond Street is a Craftsman bungalow; a home constructed from a kit ordered through the Sears & Roebuck catalog.
Now fused with post-World War II bungalows, mid-20th century apartment complexes and modernistic domiciles, Auburn’s oldest neighborhoods have become a colorful collage. It’s the art of the city.