If you think Sacramento architecture, you probably first think of the California State Capitol. But it's just one of seven standouts in a list compiled by Curbed San Francisco.
It's certainly one of my favorites, but for very personal reasons, I have to go with one from the opposite end of the spectrum in terms of formality and grandeur---Gunther's Ice Cream on Franklin Boulevard.
My mom and dad lived in Sacramento for several years before moving to Los Angeles, where I was born. But they made so many friends while they were here that we always spent a week of every summer here in Sac, until my dad passed away when I was eight. So my last summer in Sacramento was the summer of 1964.
Movies at the Crest and Tower theaters (two other faves not on the Curbed list) and ice cream at Gunther's were traditions during those visits.
When I moved to Sacramento just over five years ago, I told my now-wife Rhonda that I remembered this wonderful place we'd go for ice cream---I described what I could remember of the building---but I couldn't remember the name. She smiled, nodded---and on my third or fourth evening in town, drove me straight to Gunther's and their magnificent animated sign:
I know and love every one of the seven places on the Curbed San Francisco list. But I smile the broadest when I see Gunther's (even when I don't go in).
Thomas Wolfe said you can't go home again. He never had ice cream at Gunther's and went back 49 years later.
What's your favorite Sacramento architecture? Click the "comment" button below. And please join Kitty O'Neal and me for The KFBK Afternoon News today at 4.