Not only did many of our businesses get started on that long ago Main Street, but so did our fire department, our water service, and our chamber of commerce. In addition, we have two great historical markers to note great progress in education that took place there, and both were firsts in California! We had the first union free high school in 1893 and the first free county library branch in 1908. Main Street/Elk Grove Boulevard was the dividing line between the properties of two brothers, Joseph and George Harvey Kerr, who bought the 320 acres in 1852. Although the Elk Grove Stage Stop goes back to 1850 and it gave us our name, the town of Elk Grove started on the Kerr property a few years later in 1868 when the railroad came through. The Western Division of the Central Pacific Railroad made its way south from Sacramento to Stockton, and it came across the Kerr property. It did not take long for business men to recognize the potential that the railroad would bring to the area, and Elk Grove has never been the same. Our main street had two names to the east. It was known as Elk Grove-Sheldon Road, and to the west it was known as Elk Grove-Franklin Road. And, to the north, as we still call it today, was Elk Grove-Florin Road. Central Pacific built a railroad depot on the east side of the tracks, south of today's Main Street. Little did the railroad folks, the Kerr brothers, or the first business folks know that a great city would rise from their efforts of so long ago. It took a while, but finally in the year 2000, the city of Elk Grove was born, 132 years after the railroad came through.
