Phone: 916-685-8115

E-Mail: eghs@elkgrovehistoricalsociety.com

Mailing Address:

P.O. Box 562, Elk Grove, CA 95759

 

Congratulations!

The Elk Grove Historical Society is proud to announce that long-time member Louis Silveira has been chosen to receive Elk Grove’s highest honor given to a community member, the 2025 Citizen of the Year. Louis’ parents brought their dairy to Elk Grove in 1951 where Louis grew up and participated in community activities all his life. In his later years he dedicated most of his efforts to the Historical Society which we feel was the key in his selection.  He is our newsletter editor, webmaster, speaker series organizer, was key in organizing and elevating our Tom Russell Research Library, was able to secure the Elk Grove Citizen archives, and volunteers for many of the society’s activities. He also writes history articles for the website, magazines and newspapers, as well as three organization’s newsletters. He has taken the societies Mission Statement of “gathering, preserving, and sharing history” with the community he loves, very seriously. We are proud to count him as one of our volunteers and feel he is well deserving of the award.

Good job and thank you for all your hard work, you make us proud.

Next Major Event You Won’t Want to Miss!

The historical Society is preparing to list candidates for society offices for the 2026 year to be voted upon in November by the membership. Bios and information coming in 10 days …

President

1st Vice-President

2nd Vice-President

Recording Secretary

Corresponding Secretary

Treasurer

 

Next Event ……

Black Tie & Santa

November 30

An Old Fashioned Christmas

First three weekends in December (Friday-Saturday-Sunday)

 

Speaker Series

The Historical Society hosts eight 1-hour long history presentations a year and they are always on the third Monday evening of the month, at 6:30 pm (doors open at 6:00 pm) at the Presbyterian Church at 8153 Elk Grove Boulevard. It’s a free event and open to the public.

See list on the Menu to the left under “SPEAKER SERIES” to see the year’s entire slate.

 

Our next speaker on October 20 is Bob Crowley and Crew

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“Survivors and Hero’s: The Stephens-Townsend-Murphy Party”

This wagon train was the first to cross the Sierra’s and the first to use oxen, arriving here in 1844. This is their story.

 

Volunteering

Do you have a little time on your hands and want to help out at your own pace and when you are available, give us a call. Everybody at the Elk Grove Historical Society volunteers at many levels and we always have a lot of things going on (see below). We appreciate any help and we have a great bunch of people to work with and we have a lot of fun.

Annual Events

The Elk Grove Historical Society hosts, supports and/or partners with SEVEN specific events through the year. See list on Menu under “Annual Events.”

 

First Saturday and Virtual Museum Tours

The Museum (Heritage Park) and Rhoads School are open for FREE tours every first Saturday of each month (February through October) from noon to 4:00 pm (Rhoads School 1:00 pm to 4:00 pm) or upon request. We close in November to get ready for our “Old Fashioned Christmas” event.

We also have made a short six minute virtual tour video to give you an idea on what you may experience when you visit.

Click here to view video

If at anytime you would like a personal tour of the museums other than on 1st Saturday, please contact Dinah Withrow at (916) 204-4656 or dinahcct@comcast.net and we will schedule a tour with you.

Tom Russell Research Center

The Elk Grove Historical Society has become the history research center of Elk Grove and has spent many years gathering, collecting, and organizing information of the area. We have ten file drawers of local family sir names and there are other files labeled Churches, Schools, Cemeteries, Organizations, Clubs, Businesses, Events, Places, Elk Grove, Local Cities, etc. We have the entire collection of Elk Grove High School yearbooks from the very first issued in 1912. Also, we are fortunate to have the entire Elk Grove Citizen newspaper archives. Plus, we have a huge variety of books in the library on a multitude of topics, including the Donner Party, the Miwok, Railroads, and Genology, to name just a few.

The whole purpose is to allow the community access to our history. If you want to search our files, just call and make a two hour appointment and peruse the subject matter at will. We have a copy machine at 25 cents a copy. Call the museum and leave a message at (916) 685-8115 or eghs@elkgrovehistoricalsociety.com and we will call back and set up a time to visit. Or you can call Louis Silveira at (916) 682-1335 or lssilveira@comcast.net who gladly accommodate and set up a meeting.

Enjoy. Thank you.