Sacramento History Museum

The Sacramento History Museum sits on the traditional territory and ancestral homelands of the Nisenan Tribal people. The Sacramento Valley was, and still is, land that has been inhabited for thousands of years since time immemorial by the Nisenan, Miwok, Patwin, and Maidu people.

Specifically, for Sacramento, the area was made up of small villages consisting of a couple dozen to a few hundred members that enjoyed prosperous and secure lives and were stewards of the land and its natural resources prior to European-American contact. Some of the Nisenan village names that inhabited what is today the City of Sacramento are Momoi, Sa’cum, Sama, Pusune, Sekumni, Yusumne, and Kadema.

Today, active members of Native Californian Tribes remain committed to holding and preserving their cultural heritage and working with historic sites and museums to make sure a more holistic history is discussed and interpreted.

The Sacramento History Museum is a reproduction of the 1854 City Hall and Waterworks building, which sat on our current site. The original building was completed in the spring of 1854 and was the city’s first municipal structure. It housed the City Waterworks, City Offices – including the Mayor’s office and Fire Department – the City Jail, and Police Court.