What do Old Town Auburn and the Bowman district have in common? Lincoln Way.
Accessing some of the city’s oldest buildings, and leading to a pulsating tourists’ precinct, Lincoln Way is a thread that pulls together opposite ends of the city.
Stretched across the city limits and looping into its unincorporated outskirts in Bowman, Lincoln Way is a byway that has undergone several name changes through the years. According to posted markers, portions of it have even served as the historic Lincoln Highway and U.S. 40.
Originally dubbed Broad Street, Lincoln Way originates in Old Town at the island of buildings known as the James Block. It passes by the Placer County Courthouse, which is undergoing a minor facelift.
The first formal structure — a two-story log building — was erected here circa 1853. After several blazes scorched the hall of justice, citizens started lobbying for a new courthouse that better suited the burgeoning city.
A new three-story building was dedicated in the summer of 1894, but it was not completed until 1898. Local buildings materials were used in the construction of the dignified edifice, with lime and lumber coming from local sources; slate for the roof arriving from El Dorado County; granite trucking in from Rocklin; and terra cotta bricks and ornamentation shipping from the Gladding McBean plant in Lincoln.
Almost a century later, after sitting vacant and losing its luster, the courthouse was renovated and restored to its original majesty. Today, it is a working courthouse, with a Placer County museum tucked under its domed roof.
After cutting past the Fred Brye Home, several other re-purposed residences, and a few contemporary additions to the streetscape, Lincoln Way curves toward midtown Auburn and the Pioneer United Methodist Church. Before this Victorian-Gothic Revival-style structure was built in 1858, the congregation met outdoors on a knoll top at the lower end of town.
Lincoln Way also passes St. Joseph’s Catholic Church, which was erected in 1911. This also was the site of Auburn’s first Roman Catholic house of worship, St. Teresa’s, which was dedicated in 1859.
This stretch of road also holds the Odd Fellows Hall, which was built in 1894 with the lodge upstairs and rented storefronts below. The Masonic Temple, constructed around 1914, also used its upper level for meetings while leasing out its lower floor.
Across the way is the Auburn Grammar School, which was designed by noted industrial architect W.H. Weeks. Built in 1915, the structure was going to be razed until a grassroots group pushed for preserving the elderly schoolhouse. Purchased by the City of Auburn, this State Point of Historical Interest now serves as its Civic Center.
When it was still called Broad Street, the road intersected Central Square — the modern nexus of Lincoln Way, High Street and Lewis Avenue — before changing names to Railroad Street as it rose to meet the tracks above. It carried traffic to the Auburn Hotel — now known as the Auburn Promenade – and to the Auburn Drug Company, where phosphate sodas are still served to customers perching on stools at the marble counter.
Railroad Street originally ended at its terminus with Railroad Avenue, which followed beside the tracks of the Central Pacific — and, later, the Southern Pacific Railroad. Now, Lincoln Way angles around the former intersection and hops on Highway 49 before veering northeast to cruise past the Aeolia Heights and Alta Vista neighborhoods. Some of the city’s oldest homes rest in this section of town.
After leaving mature tracts behind, Lincoln Way ambles into the Bowman district where newer subdivisions, eateries and service stations flank the pavement. The bustling Raley’s Center, Lou La Bonte’s long-established watering hole, Ikeda’s country market and burger stand, and more quick-stop tourist hubs pulse with commerce as Lincoln Way winds down.
Paralleling Interstate 80, Lincoln Road ends quietly at its intersection with Covey Road near the California Division of Forestry site.
Although it has had its share of name changes and redirections, if it gets in the path of progress again, who knows what name and course Lincoln Way might take.