Late-1800s streets. The Broadway corridor: coffee, a bookstore, restaurants, new townhouse infill. Close to UC Davis Med Center.
Billed as Sacramento’s first suburb in the late nineteenth century, Oak Park is known both for its proximity to the grid and working-class roots. Oak Park is still today appreciated by first time buyers and those who want to be close to Midtown/downtown. The Broadway corridor has seen a lot of improvement over the last 20 years and features coffee shops, a book store, popular restaurants, and modern townhouse infill. The north portion of Oak Park is an attractive area for medical professionals who work at UC Davis Med Center, while the central and south portions have more affordable options. This makes Oak Park an area that can appeal to a variety of buyers and residents.
Joseph Olson · on Oak Park
Every active listing in Oak Park, updated hourly. See one you like? Call me and I’ll tell you what the photos leave out.
Sacramento’s first streetcar suburb, laid out in 1887 just southeast of downtown, with a historic Broadway corridor, McClatchy Park and UC Davis Medical Center on its northern edge.
Oak Park is informally bounded by Highway 50 to the north, Stockton Boulevard to the east, Highway 99 to the west and Fruitridge Road to the south, across ZIP codes 95817 and 95820. Broadway and Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard are its main streets, and Curtis Park and Midtown are its neighbors to the west and north.
In 1887, Edwin K. Alsip subdivided the 230-acre William Doyle ranch and named the new tract for an eight-acre grove of oaks. Alsip owned the Central Street Railway and ran it out to Oak Park, making it Sacramento’s first streetcar suburb. The city annexed Oak Park in 1911, its first expansion since 1848.
The Broadway corridor, roughly 33rd to 36th Streets, became the Oak Park Historic District in 2007. Its landmarks include the 1914 Sacramento Bank Building at 3418 Broadway, listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and the Guild Theater on 35th Street, built around 1915 and restored in 2003.
Oak Park’s houses span its whole history: Victorian-era Queen Anne and Stick/Eastlake homes, Craftsman and airplane bungalows, Mission and Mediterranean Revival, and postwar minimal traditional houses. Newer infill includes small modern homes and affordable senior housing on Broadway.
Prices vary a lot across Oak Park. For the 95817 ZIP code as a whole, Redfin’s median sale price was $579,000 for the three months ending August 2026. In Central Oak Park it was $402,500 over the same period, while North Oak Park homes, closer to UC Davis Medical Center, had a median list price of $598,000 in September 2026 (Realtor.com).
Oak Park is in the Sacramento City Unified School District. Father Keith B. Kenny Elementary (K–6) is on Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, and Bret Harte Elementary serves part of the neighborhood. Sacramento Charter High School is on 34th Street. Check the assigned schools for a specific address with SCUSD’s School Finder.
Highways 50 and 99 run along Oak Park’s north and west edges. SacRT bus routes 51 (Stockton/Broadway) and 68 (Oak Park) serve the neighborhood. UC Davis Medical Center’s 142-acre campus sits between Oak Park, Elmhurst and Tahoe Park. Redfin rates Central Oak Park 73 for walking and 80 for biking.
McClatchy Park (3500 5th Avenue), on land Valentine McClatchy bought in 1927 and gave to the city, has a public pool and hosts the neighborhood’s big events. On Broadway and 35th Street you’ll find the Guild Theater, Underground Books in the 40 Acres Cultural Center, and Oak Park Brewing Co.
The Oak Park Neighborhood Association hosts Celebrate Oak Park, a free summer festival in McClatchy Park. Each October the Guild Theater hosts the Oak Park Black Film Festival, and the Oak Park Farmers Market runs on Saturdays in McClatchy Park during the growing season.
Facts checked October 2026. Sources: Wikipedia · City of Sacramento, Oak Park Historic District Plan · National Register listing · St. HOPE (Guild Theater, Underground Books) · Redfin, 95817 · Redfin, Central Oak Park · Realtor.com · Ed-Data (Father Keith B. Kenny) · SCUSD School Finder · UC Davis Medical Center · Sacramento365, Celebrate Oak Park
The Guild was built in 1915 for Joseph Lewis as the Victor Theatre, and the Sacramento Bee reported at the time that it was “fitted with all the latest appliances for vaudeville and motion pictures.” It later ran as the Oak Park Theatre before becoming the Guild, and by the late 1950s it was known for foreign and art-house films.
Its round-arched windows and geometric Moorish-style facade make it easy to spot, and it is the only one of Oak Park’s early movie houses still standing. St. HOPE restored the 200-seat theater and reopened it in 2003, then updated it again in 2020. Today it hosts more than 200 events a year, from films and comedy to poetry, plays and concerts, including the Oak Park Black Film Festival each October.
Long before it was a city park, this was Oak Park’s amusement ground. Streetcar operators opened an eight-acre pleasure ground here in the 1890s, and by 1913 it had grown into Joyland, with a carousel, a wooden roller coaster called the Scenic Railway, a zoo and a miniature train. A fire in 1920 ended Joyland. In 1927 Valentine McClatchy bought the land and gave it to the city, naming it for his father, James McClatchy, the founding editor of The Sacramento Bee.
A major renovation nodded to that history with Joyland-themed playgrounds, a play structure styled after the Scenic Railway, a carousel-inspired water play area, a skate park and a butterfly garden. The park also has Oak Park’s public pool, and it hosts Celebrate Oak Park and a seasonal Saturday farmers market.
At Broadway and 35th Street, the Lewis Building went up in 1915 with shops and offices on the ground floor and apartments upstairs that served for years as the Hotel Woodruff. St. HOPE finished restoring it in 2003 as 40 Acres, a 22,000-square-foot mixed-use complex, and opened Underground Books, a nonprofit bookstore, that summer. Oak Park had been without its own library since the 1970s, and the store still hosts author talks and a speaker series.
The complex around it holds the Guild Theater, Old Soul Co., Fixins Soul Kitchen and other local businesses, and it is home base for the Sac BlkLit Book Fest and a Juneteenth block party.
Oak Park is just southeast of downtown Sacramento, informally bounded by Highway 50, Stockton Boulevard, Highway 99 and Fruitridge Road. Its ZIP codes are 95817 and 95820.
Oak Park was subdivided in 1887 and connected to downtown by Edwin K. Alsip’s streetcar line, making it Sacramento’s first streetcar suburb. The city annexed it in 1911.
It depends on the part of Oak Park. Redfin’s median sale price was $402,500 in Central Oak Park and $579,000 for the 95817 ZIP code as a whole (three months ending August 2026). North Oak Park, near UC Davis Medical Center, runs higher.
The historic Broadway corridor has the Guild Theater, Underground Books, Oak Park Brewing Co., coffee shops and restaurants, with McClatchy Park a few blocks south.
Yes. The UC Davis Medical Center campus borders Oak Park, which is why North Oak Park is popular with people who work there.
Oak Park is in Sacramento City Unified. Father Keith B. Kenny Elementary is in the neighborhood and Bret Harte Elementary serves part of it. Confirm the assigned schools for any address with SCUSD’s School Finder.
The 1915 Guild Theater on 35th Street, McClatchy Park on the site of the old Joyland amusement park, and Underground Books in the restored 40 Acres complex at Broadway and 35th.
Joyland was an amusement park in Oak Park, with a carousel, a wooden roller coaster, a zoo and a miniature train. It burned in 1920, and the land became McClatchy Park in 1927.
Curtis ParkBuilt around a pedestrian-friendly park. Craftsman, Tudor and Mission homes under Valley Oaks.
MidtownCraftsman, Victorian and high-water bungalows under mature trees. Chalk It Up! and Second Saturday.
South SacramentoFrom historic bungalows to modern ranches, South Sacramento has a little of everything.
Tell me what you’re looking for. I’ll tell you what it’s really like to live in Oak Park, and which streets I’d look at first.
“The best part of this job is helping people on a human level.”Joseph Olson