Boulevard Park Christmas Light Installation

Your house may be sitting on the backstretch. Boulevard Park was carved out of the old state fairgrounds racetrack in 1905, and the roughly 300 buildings that followed now make up the largest Sacramento neighborhood on the National Register of Historic Places. So when we talk about Boulevard Park Christmas light installation, we start with a promise: nothing we hang will leave a mark on a house that has made it this far.

Urban renewal in the 1970s reclaimed Boulevard Park, and many of these homes were restored. We treat that woodwork with the same respect. That means:

• No nails, staples, screws or hooks into original trim, siding, columns or railings.
• Clips that hold by tension on a gutter or a board edge, and soft ties anywhere a clip won’t suit.
• Cords run along existing lines of the house, not draped across carved or painted details.
• Everything off in January, with nothing left behind to weather on the wood.

If there’s a piece of trim you’d prefer we not touch at all, tell us at (916) 313-4551. We’ll design around it.

Homes of this age are usually tall, with a deep front porch and a roof that sits well above the sidewalk. We find they look best lit from the porch outward, not from the ridge down.

Begin at the front door. Hang a lit wreath there, run lit garland around the frame or along the porch rail, and you have the classic look. It’s right for a house with this much history. Porch columns take a pillar wrap, wound carefully so the ties sit on the shaft and not on any detailed cap or base.

Roofline lights come next, and we keep them modest. The porch eave and one street-facing gable are usually plenty. On a tall house we work from ladders set on firm ground and stay off steep old roofs whenever we can.

Out front, stake lighting along the walk leads people to the steps, and a tree wrap on a yard tree adds a glow at eye level. We place stakes clear of sprinklers and established plantings. More detail on the door pieces lives on our wreath hanging page.

Boulevard Park has no HOA. Neighbors run the Boulevard Park Neighborhood Association as volunteers, and it doesn’t set holiday display dates. You decide when the lights go on.

The historic listing is about the buildings themselves. We can’t speak for the city on preservation rules, and we won’t pretend to. What we can tell you is how a Boulevard Park Christmas light installation works with us: every piece is temporary, nothing is altered, and the house in February looks exactly like the house in the fall.

The district runs from E Street to J Street and from 16th Street to 24th Street, close enough to downtown that people walk it in the evenings. Families head to and from Washington Elementary on 18th Street, and dinner traffic drifts over from J Street. Houses are close together too. So we set a timer on every job: on at dusk for the walkers, off late in the evening for the neighbor whose bedroom faces your porch.

We quote without coming over. Dial (916) 313-4551, tell us what the place looks like, or send pictures by text, email or the contact page: one of the full front, one of the porch, and one of any trim you’re worried about. We’ll reply with a plan that spells out what gets attached where.

We bring every strand and clip, and if a section goes dark mid-December, (916) 313-4551 gets us back. We’re based downtown, so Boulevard Park and the rest of Midtown are practically our own block. We also look after a lot of older homes in Curtis Park.

The racetrack is long gone. The houses made it. We’d like to keep it that way.

Will you attach anything to the original trim on my Boulevard Park house?

No fasteners go into it. We use tension clips and soft ties only, and if you point out trim you want left completely alone, we route around it.

Who decides when holiday lights go up in Boulevard Park?

There is no HOA. Neighbors join the Boulevard Park Neighborhood Association by choice, and it hands out no light schedule. We take the lights down in January.

Do holiday lights need historic district approval?

We can’t answer for the city. Our installs are fully temporary and change nothing on the building. If you want certainty, ask the city’s preservation staff.

My house is very tall. Can you still light the roof?

Often we light the porch eave and one front gable from ladders and leave the highest ridge alone. A photo lets us tell you what’s sensible for your house.