Following Auburn's residential path to progress

Despite statistics showing California's housing market is cooling, Auburn is still a hot spot for home buyers. But that wasn't always the case.In 1885, after the rush for gold slowed to a crawl and the city's population dwindled, the Placer County Immigration Society was formed to entice people to move to the area. Today, there is no need to campaign for newcomers, as Auburn's man-made and natural amenities - and its plethora of housing choices and architectural styles - are a natural draw to home seekers.A drive around the city shows a definite progression of residential development, with the senior abodes sitting in Old Town and its youngest siblings arriving in the southern area.The first homes were cradled in the hills of Old Town, where hotels, supply stores, saloons and stagecoach stops served the waves of miners that flowed through the foothills in search of its hidden gold. Above the clusters of galleries, boutiques and restaurants along Sacramento Street, the elderly structures terraced up the hill were some of the earliest formal structures erected in the territory.Today, new homes are interspersed with the elderly dwellings, filling in lots where the Kaiser Brewery and other Gold Rush-era businesses once stood at the base of Snowden Hill. Across Interstate 80, more vintage homes are perched atop Prospector's Hill.Before Interstate 80 was built in the 1950s to provide an all-season path into the Sierra Nevada, Old Town's uneven rows of residential and commercial structures stretched across Auburn Ravine and into the low mountains to the north. Now, the slim lanes reach back to a blend of modest and impressive abodes in a variety of architectural styles.Southeast of Old Town, the bluffs above the canyon of the American River were originally settled by farmers and ranchers. But as early as 1895, properties there were subdivided into home sites, as happened at the Bernhard Subdivision on Auburn Folsom Road. Across the way, the site of a community racetrack was transformed in the mid-20th century into the Midway Heights neighborhood. Two decades later, the Knollwood Estates tract of upscale homes was carved out of land between the Heights and the grounds of neighboring Auburn Recreation Park.Around that same time, the Skyridge and Riverview subdivisions also were adding new homes to the territory above the coursing American River. When Maidu Drive was cut across the mountains in the 1970s to provide access to construction headquarters for the future Auburn Dam, it opened the remaining raw land in that precinct to more residential construction above the canyon. In the 1980s, the area further south of Auburn became the prime target for development, with the Southridge, Auburn Bluffs and Vintage Oaks projects under way. Along Indian Hill Road, the Diamond Ridge, Arbors and Grand Oaks developments eventually filled in gaps along the ridge.Auburn's mid- and downtown districts hold an eclectic mix of modern manses and Victorian, Eastlake, Craftsman, bungalow and Queen Anne edifices. Across the Boardman Canal is a post-World War II tract of homes, with many sharing a common swim and recreation center operated by a homeowners association. It melds with Robie Point, where lovely estates and quirky cottages create a mélange of homes edging the Auburn State Recreation Area.Beyond southbound Highway 49 are the Aeolia Heights, Olive Orchard and Alta Vista tracts, where old and new subdivisions lodge in the hilltops.On the west side of the city, boxed between Highway 49 and Nevada Street, Fulweiler Avenue and Placer Street, there is a cluster of homes built in the 1950s and '60s along streets that follow the contours of the land. Examples of modern mid-century architecture are found here, with flat roofs and long, low lines common for the period.Once Auburn had to advertise for new residents. Now, its abundance of unique homes built throughout the decades are star attractions.