City Council to consider renaming historic Old Sacramento park in honor of this woman

The Sacramento City Council will Tuesday consider changing the name of a small historic park in Old Sacramento.

The Center for Sacramento History, keeper of the city’s historical records, requested the name change from Pioneer Park to Mary Gregory Park, according to a city staff report.

The small park is located along J Street between Front and Second streets. The report states that a white entryway has a sign with the words “Pioneer Park” and a photo of a horse and carriage. The entryway to the park was covered with a plywood board and the sign was nowhere to be found, when a Sacramento Bee photographer visited the site on Friday morning.

Gregory is an early Sacramento businesswoman who owned the land that is now the park, the report said.

“The contributions made by Gregory and other women in establishing the city of Sacramento have generally been overlooked by the historic record of the Gold Rush era in Sacramento,” the staff report stated. “By renaming the park for Mary Gregory, the city is taking an important step in recognizing the contributions of women in the economic, social, and political development of the area.”

In Sacramento in the 1850s, although men outnumbered women by as much as 10-1, women like Gregory weren’t just homemakers but also started businesses, acquired land and became politically engaged, the report said.

English-born Gregory and her husband ran a business in 1857 at 126 J St. selling produce and local products, the report said.

That building is now the Sacramento Visitors Center.

When her husband died, Gregory took over the business and bought more properties along the block, the report stated. She built a large three-story building along Second Street and rented it to Hall, Luhrs and Co. to ship California products across the country by rail.

Gregory died in 1898 and is buried in Historic City Cemetery.

If the council approves the change, the center plans to add new signage on Gregory, the report stated.

The meeting will be held at 2 p.m. Tuesday in City Hall’s council chambers.