{"id":378181,"date":"2026-06-28T11:48:21","date_gmt":"2026-06-28T11:48:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/378181\/"},"modified":"2026-06-28T11:48:21","modified_gmt":"2026-06-28T11:48:21","slug":"costume-mansion-returns-to-life-on-old-sacramentos-k-street","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/378181\/","title":{"rendered":"Costume mansion returns to life on Old Sacramento\u2019s K Street"},"content":{"rendered":"

From the Railroad Museum to the overstuffed candy barrels at Candy Heaven, I unapologetically love Old Sacramento.<\/p>\n

And now, after more than a year out of commission, Sacramento\u2019s favorite costume mansion is back in business, once again claiming its rightful place as a must-see stop on any visit to our city\u2019s historical neighborhood.<\/p>\n

Evangeline\u2019s \u2014 \u201cpurveyors of whimsy and wonder\u201d \u2014 in the historic Howard House and Lady Adams building on 113 K St. in Old Sacramento officially reopens this weekend, after a fire inside the first floor\u2019s gift shop last summer.<\/a><\/p>\n

Sacramento mayor Kevin McCarty, City Council member Phil Pluckebaum and City Historian Ty Smith joined Evangeline\u2019s owner, Deborah Chauss\u00e9 in a ribbon cutting event Friday morning on the boardwalk outside the store.<\/p>\n

The \u201ccold dense smoke\u201d from a suspected electrical fire<\/a> in June 2025 led to serious smoke damage on the second and third floors. The gift shop on the first floor, which suffered the worst fire damage, remains closed for the time being, and will reopen in a few months, said shop owner, Chauss\u00e9. The shop had recently celebrated its 50th anniversary<\/a> less than a year before.<\/p>\n

\"Evangeline\u2019s Evangeline\u2019s Costume Mansion owner Deborah Chauss\u00e9 poses for a portrait during the store\u2019s grand reopening in Old Sacramento on Friday. The store was closed for just over a year due to fire damage. HG BIGGS hg.biggs@sacbee.com \"Workers Workers rebuilt Evangeline\u2019s Costume Mansion in March after a fire last June. Hector Amezcua hamezcua@sacbee.com <\/p>\n

The costume mansion and gift shop is named after Chauss\u00e9\u2019s mother, Dorothea Evangeline, who opened the store in 1974. (And did you know it\u2019s pronounced Evange-lynn\u2019s \u2014 not Evange-leen\u2019s? I\u2019ve been saying it wrong for years.)<\/p>\n

I deeply mourned my annual visit to the store before Halloween last year while the shop was still being renovated; it just didn\u2019t feel like autumn in Sacramento without popping inside the old building on K Street. Apparently, last year isn\u2019t the first fire the Howard House and Lady Adams building has survived either, said city historian Smith; the \u201cGreat Conflagration\u201d of 1852 burned down nearly all of Old Sac, but the building Evangeline\u2019s now resides in was saved only because it was built with brick.<\/p>\n

Perhaps because it\u2019s a survivor, there\u2019s something enticing about visiting the Victorian-era building with its tight, winding aisles and darkly lit corners. The polished wood stairs and wrought-iron elevator with deep purple walls are completely refurbished, but the store somehow still looks exactly the same as before, just brighter and cleaner.<\/p>\n

The top floor is a sparkly heaven of thousands of costumes, each organized into categories, from floor length medieval dresses and swords to nerdy schoolgirl outfits and full-body fur costumes. (Do you want to be an abominable snowman? Or perhaps a Wookie?) Pop a quarter into a box and ride a snarling fiberglass tiger, prowling eternally next to the old bar.<\/p>\n

But it\u2019s the second floor that feels most like home to me; a year-round ode to the best and spookiest month of the year: October. Foreboding music pipes in from hidden speakers, and skeletons dance along the purple walls packed with creepy costumes, masks and accessories for sale.<\/p>\n

\"Masks Masks and cloaks line the walls on the second floor of Evangeline\u2019s Costume Mansion in Old Sacramento. The store celebrated its grand reopening on Friday after being closed for just over a year due to fire damage. HG BIGGS hg.biggs@sacbee.com <\/p>\n

Let me loose in Evangeline\u2019s on a payday with an iced coffee in hand, and I\u2019ll walk out a poorer, but far happier, woman.<\/p>\n

And now that it\u2019s reopened, I can indulge in my spooky side year-round once more. It\u2019s a perfect, homegrown antidote to the online fast fashion that has tried so hard to ruin the experience of shopping inside an eclectic, local store like Evangeline\u2019s. Cities need weird, but beloved, places like this.<\/p>\n

\"Evangeline\u2019s Evangeline\u2019s Costume Mansion owner Deborah Chauss\u00e9, second from left, chats with visitors during the store\u2019s grand reopening in Old Sacramento on Friday, June 26, 2026. The store had been closed for just over a year due to fire damage. HG BIGGS hg.biggs@sacbee.com <\/p>\n

Of course, the reopening of the costume mansion is just the beginning of a revitalization for Old Sac that\u2019s been in the works for years. In the Public Market buildings along the riverfront, a new restaurant and a family-friendly biergarten will open soon. Next door, a new playground for kids is being developed between the city and the Shingle Springs band of Miwok Indians and Wilton Rancheria, featuring indigenous-inspired play areas with tule boats, huts and a central play structure.<\/p>\n

Old Sac has always been a first-rate gathering area for Sacramentans and tourists alike, and it\u2019s great to have one of the cornerstone shops open once again for business. Thousands of Sacramentans have eagerly awaited this day, and I\u2019m so grateful Chauss\u00e9 made the decision to reopen, rather than let Evangeline\u2019s fade into history.<\/p>\n

Hopefully, it heralds a new beginning for Sacramento\u2019s waterfront, and our city\u2019s best \u2014 and spookiest \u2014 tourist attraction.<\/p>\n

Related Stories from Sacramento Bee<\/p>\n


\n \"Profile
\n <\/a><\/p>\n

Robin Epley is an opinion writer for The Sacramento Bee, focusing on state and local politics. She was born and raised in Sacramento. In 2018, she was a Pulitzer Prize finalist with the Chico Enterprise-Record for coverage of the Camp Fire.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"From the Railroad Museum to the overstuffed candy barrels at Candy Heaven, I unapologetically love Old Sacramento. And…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":378182,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[121,123,122],"class_list":["post-378181","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sacramento","tag-sacramento","tag-sacramento-headlines","tag-sacramento-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/378181","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=378181"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/378181\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/378182"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=378181"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=378181"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=378181"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}