The line to get into Dorothea Puente’s former boarding house at 1426 F St. stretched down the street and half a block around the corner around noon Sunday.
The house was the marquee attraction during Preservation Sacramento’s 50th Annual Historic Home Tour. More than 1,000 people bought tickets for the event, raising more than $30,000 for the nonprofit.
Puente’s house was once the site of unspeakable horrors. Sacramento Police dug up the bodies of several of her former residents in November 1988. She faced charges of killing nine people, was convicted of three counts of murder and later died in prison.
On Sunday, people went through Puente’s former room, walked around the outside of the property where bodies were once buried and seemed generally nonplussed.
Visitors line up to visit the former home of serial killer Dorothea Puente, now known as The Innocent House, during Preservation Sacramento’s annual historic home tour in Sacramento on Sunday. Puente, who operated the home as a boarding house, murdered nine of the home’s lodgers and buried them in the yard in the 1980s. HANNAH RUHOFF hruhoff@sacbee.com
“I think they’re kind of excited about coming through,” said Barbara Holmes, who owns the house with her husband Tom Williams. “I haven’t seen any frightened souls, but so far, so good. They all seem to be happy to be here.”
The house was previously on Preservation Sacramento’s Historic Home Tour in 2013.
Historical value of Puente’s former home
Catherine Turrill-Lupi, a retired Sacramento State professor and chair of the tour committee for Preservation Sacramento, said Puente’s home was on the tour partly because of its historical value.
The light blue house dates to 1895 and has been on Sacramento’s local historic register since 1977. Were it not for the house’s historic status, it might have been torn down, as sometimes happens with notorious properties. That was the fate of Jeffrey Dahmer’s former apartment building and the Idaho house where Bryan Kohberger murdered four college students.
But Turrill-Lupi also conceded that there was a pragmatic reason for including Puente’s former boarding house on the tour.
“We like to have at least one house that people know about and are interested in visiting,” Turrill-Lupi said.
A sign that reads “the house is innocent” hangs outside the former home of serial killer Dorothea Puente in Sacramento on Sunday. HANNAH RUHOFF hruhoff@sacbee.com
For Preservation Sacramento, getting a property people want to see onto the home tour has tangible impacts.
The funds raised from the tour help support Preservation Sacramento’s activities, such as raising awareness of properties and adding sites to the National Register of Historic Places. The tours also help bring in new members.
And the tours can showcase under-the-radar parts of Sacramento.
“I see it as a way of getting people to know a part of the city they might not know,” Catherine Turrill-Lupi said. “This is not an area that many people come to necessarily, even if they’re going to the performances at the theater, which is not that far away.”
A Preservation Sacramento docent shows fake pill bottles filled with Tic Tacs at the former home of serial killer Dorothea Puente, now known as The Innocent House, during Preservation Sacramento’s annual historic home tour in Sacramento on Sunday. Puente, who operated the home as a boarding house and murdered her lodgers, was known to have drugged her victims. HANNAH RUHOFF hruhoff@sacbee.com
The house was also on the tour because Holmes and Williams have steadfastly recognized its interest to the public since they purchased the property at auction in 2010.
“We kind of knew what we were getting ourselves into,” Holmes said.
People come to the house on a more or less daily basis to take photos in front of it. Williams and Holmes keep their gate closed and ask people to not step foot on the property, though they have a QR code out front that provides information about the documentary “The House is Innocent.” Approximately 9,000 people have scanned the QR code, according to Williams.
The couple wasn’t paid for having the house on the tour.
“We’re happy to make money for the nonprofits here,” Williams said.
Visitors look around the former home of serial killer Dorothea Puente, now known as The Innocent House, during Preservation Sacramento’s annual historic home tour in Sacramento on Sunday. HANNAH RUHOFF hruhoff@sacbee.com ‘Kind of creepy’
Elise Arata, a former employee of the Sacramento County Coroner’s Office, treated two friends to the tour and brought info on her phone related to Puente, including a map showing where bodies were buried.
“I think I’m smiling because I feel lucky to be in here,” Arata said.
Christian Dulay toured the home while wearing a T-shirt with the words “Bury Me in Sacramento” and a picture of Puente. Dulay grew up in Sacramento and was a child when police dug up bodies at Puente’s boarding home.
“I can still remember all the descriptions on the news and the speculation,” Dulay said. “So it was really fascinating to sort of connect that and be in those spaces.”
Mannequins dressed as serial killer Dorothea Puente and a Sacramento police officer are posed outside Puente’s former house, now known as The Innocent House, during Preservation Sacramento’s annual historic home tour in Sacramento on Sunday. Puente, who operated the home as a boarding house, murdered nine of the home’s lodgers and buried them in the yard in the 1980s. HANNAH RUHOFF hruhoff@sacbee.com
Elaine Heieck, a Granite Bay resident, said she found it “kind of creepy” to be in the house.
“It’s very surreal,” Heieck said. “It’s hard to imagine that something like that could happen.”
Holmes’ late mother once told her she’d seen a ghost in the basement. While there were no known ghost sightings Sunday, Sarah Smith said “the vibes were off” in Puente’s former bedroom, where police believe she handled deceased bodies.
A Preservation Sacramento docent stands in the bedroom of the former home of serial killer Dorothea Puente, now known as The Innocent House, during Preservation Sacramento’s annual historic home tour in Sacramento on Sunday. HANNAH RUHOFF hruhoff@sacbee.com
“It was weird energy in there,” Smith said. “Felt very heavy, very dark, very creepy.”
Kim Linman said the house is owned by the right people.
“I feel like the owners were really mindful of the history of the house and were very respectful with it,” Linman said. “But you can also tell that they’re people that appreciate more of the macabre. So I think it’s done really respectfully, and I think it’s in the right hands.”
The house is bright and cheerful inside and looks remodeled.
“It’s actually neater than I thought it was,” said Mihai Lopazan of Roseville. “I expected it to be more rundown.”
A crime scene tape shower curtain hangs in the bathroom at the former home of serial killer Dorothea Puente, now known as The Innocent House, during Preservation Sacramento’s annual historic home tour in Sacramento on Sunday. Puente, who operated the home as a boarding house, murdered nine of the home’s lodgers and buried them in the yard in the 1980s. HANNAH RUHOFF hruhoff@sacbee.com Other stops on Preservation Sacramento’s tour
Puente’s former house was not the only part of Preservation Sacramento’s tour Sunday.
The tour also included Washington Elementary School at 520 18th St., the Van Hall House at 614 19th St., IreneHouse at 1630 F St., the James H. Winn House at 1523 G St. and Washington Neighborhood Center at 400 16th St.
Visitors walk up the steps to the James H. Winn House during Preservation Sacramento’s annual historic home tour in Sacramento on Sunday. The home is the oldest building on this year’s tour. HANNAH RUHOFF hruhoff@sacbee.com
As she toured the house with her family, Peggy Etzler praised the James H. Winn House, which architect James Ough designed in 1878, according to Preservation Sacramento.
“This is the best one,” Peggy Etzler said of the house. “It’s been kept the best from what I’ve seen.”
A Preservation Sacramento docent tells visitors about the James H. Winn House during Preservation Sacramento’s annual historic home tour in Sacramento on Sunday. The home is the oldest building on this year’s tour. HANNAH RUHOFF hruhoff@sacbee.com
South Land Park resident Jennifer Kennedy, touring with her husband and her mother, said she loved Victorian buildings and Sacramento’s history. It was cool to her that IreneHouse, an 1894 Queen Anne Revival, was still standing.
As for Puente, Kennedy said she would have “absolutely” been on the tour regardless of if Puente’s former house was on it.
“She’s a pull, but she’s not the only reason,” Kennedy said.
A Preservation Sacramento docent tells visitors about a Royal Chicano Air Force mural inside the Washington Neighborhood Center during Preservation Sacramento’s annual historic home tour in Sacramento on Sunday. HANNAH RUHOFF hruhoff@sacbee.com
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Graham Womack is a general assignment reporter for The Sacramento Bee. Prior to joining The Bee full-time in September 2025, he freelanced for the publication for several years. His work has won several California Journalism Awards and spurred state legislation.