The line to get into Dorothea Puente\u2019s former boarding house at 1426 F St. stretched down the street and half a block around the corner around noon Sunday.<\/p>\n
The house was the marquee attraction during Preservation Sacramento\u2019s 50th Annual Historic Home Tour. More than 1,000 people bought tickets for the event, raising more than $30,000 for the nonprofit.<\/p>\n
Puente\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n
On Sunday, people went through Puente\u2019s former room, walked around the outside of the property where bodies were once buried and seemed generally nonplussed.<\/p>\n
Visitors line up to visit the former home of serial killer Dorothea Puente, now known as The Innocent House, during Preservation Sacramento\u2019s annual historic home tour in Sacramento on Sunday. Puente, who operated the home as a boarding house, murdered nine of the home\u2019s lodgers and buried them in the yard in the 1980s. HANNAH RUHOFF hruhoff@sacbee.com <\/p>\n
\u201cI think they\u2019re kind of excited about coming through,\u201d said Barbara Holmes, who owns the house with her husband Tom Williams. \u201cI haven\u2019t seen any frightened souls, but so far, so good. They all seem to be happy to be here.\u201d<\/p>\n
The house was previously on Preservation Sacramento\u2019s Historic Home Tour in 2013.<\/p>\n
Historical value of Puente\u2019s former home<\/p>\n
Catherine Turrill-Lupi, a retired Sacramento State professor and chair of the tour committee for Preservation Sacramento, said Puente\u2019s home was on the tour partly because of its historical value<\/a>.<\/p>\n The light blue house dates to 1895 and has been on Sacramento\u2019s local historic register since 1977. Were it not for the house\u2019s historic status, it might have been torn down, as sometimes happens with notorious properties. That was the fate of Jeffrey Dahmer\u2019s former apartment building and the Idaho house where Bryan Kohberger murdered four college students.<\/p>\n But Turrill-Lupi also conceded that there was a pragmatic reason for including Puente\u2019s former boarding house on the tour.<\/p>\n \u201cWe like to have at least one house that people know about and are interested in visiting,\u201d Turrill-Lupi said.<\/p>\n For Preservation Sacramento, getting a property people want to see onto the home tour has tangible impacts.<\/p>\n The funds raised from the tour help support Preservation Sacramento\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n And the tours can showcase under-the-radar parts of Sacramento.<\/p>\n \u201cI see it as a way of getting people to know a part of the city they might not know,\u201d Catherine Turrill-Lupi said. \u201cThis is not an area that many people come to necessarily, even if they\u2019re going to the performances at the theater, which is not that far away.\u201d<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n \u201cWe kind of knew what we were getting ourselves into,\u201d Holmes said.<\/p>\n 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 \u201cThe House is Innocent.\u201d Approximately 9,000 people have scanned the QR code, according to Williams.<\/p>\n The couple wasn\u2019t paid for having the house on the tour.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re happy to make money for the nonprofits here,\u201d Williams said.<\/p>\n Elise Arata, a former employee of the Sacramento County Coroner\u2019s Office, treated two friends to the tour and brought info on her phone related to Puente, including a map showing where bodies were buried.<\/p>\n \u201cI think I\u2019m smiling because I feel lucky to be in here,\u201d Arata said.<\/p>\n Christian Dulay toured the home while wearing a T-shirt with the words \u201cBury Me in Sacramento\u201d and a picture of Puente. Dulay grew up in Sacramento and was a child when police dug up bodies at Puente\u2019s boarding home.<\/p>\n \u201cI can still remember all the descriptions on the news and the speculation,\u201d Dulay said. \u201cSo it was really fascinating to sort of connect that and be in those spaces.\u201d<\/p>\n Elaine Heieck, a Granite Bay resident, said she found it \u201ckind of creepy\u201d to be in the house.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s very surreal,\u201d Heieck said. \u201cIt\u2019s hard to imagine that something like that could happen.\u201d<\/p>\n Holmes\u2019 late mother once told her she\u2019d seen a ghost in the basement. While there were no known ghost sightings Sunday, Sarah Smith said \u201cthe vibes were off\u201d in Puente\u2019s former bedroom, where police believe she handled deceased bodies.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was weird energy in there,\u201d Smith said. \u201cFelt very heavy, very dark, very creepy.\u201d<\/p>\n Kim Linman said the house is owned by the right people.<\/p>\n \u201cI feel like the owners were really mindful of the history of the house and were very respectful with it,\u201d Linman said. \u201cBut you can also tell that they\u2019re people that appreciate more of the macabre. So I think it\u2019s done really respectfully, and I think it\u2019s in the right hands.\u201d<\/p>\n The house is bright and cheerful inside and looks remodeled.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s actually neater than I thought it was,\u201d said Mihai Lopazan of Roseville. \u201cI expected it to be more rundown.\u201d<\/p>\n Puente\u2019s former house was not the only part of Preservation Sacramento\u2019s tour Sunday.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is the best one,\u201d Peggy Etzler said of the house. \u201cIt\u2019s been kept the best from what I\u2019ve seen.\u201d<\/p>\n South Land Park resident Jennifer Kennedy, touring with her husband and her mother, said she loved Victorian buildings and Sacramento\u2019s history. It was cool to her that IreneHouse, an 1894 Queen Anne Revival, was still standing.<\/p>\n As for Puente, Kennedy said she would have \u201cabsolutely\u201d been on the tour regardless of if Puente\u2019s former house was on it.<\/p>\n \u201cShe\u2019s a pull, but she\u2019s not the only reason,\u201d Kennedy said.<\/p>\n A sign that reads \u201cthe house is innocent\u201d hangs outside the former home of serial killer Dorothea Puente in Sacramento on Sunday. HANNAH RUHOFF hruhoff@sacbee.com <\/p>\n
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\u2019s 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 <\/p>\n
Visitors look around the former home of serial killer Dorothea Puente, now known as The Innocent House, during Preservation Sacramento\u2019s annual historic home tour in Sacramento on Sunday. HANNAH RUHOFF hruhoff@sacbee.com \u2018Kind of creepy\u2019<\/p>\n
Mannequins dressed as serial killer Dorothea Puente and a Sacramento police officer are posed outside Puente\u2019s former house, now known as The Innocent House, during Preservation Sacramento\u2019s annual historic home tour in Sacramento on Sunday. Puente, who operated the home as a boarding house, murdered nine of the home\u2019s lodgers and buried them in the yard in the 1980s. HANNAH RUHOFF hruhoff@sacbee.com <\/p>\n
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\u2019s annual historic home tour in Sacramento on Sunday. HANNAH RUHOFF hruhoff@sacbee.com <\/p>\n
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\u2019s annual historic home tour in Sacramento on Sunday. Puente, who operated the home as a boarding house, murdered nine of the home\u2019s lodgers and buried them in the yard in the 1980s. HANNAH RUHOFF hruhoff@sacbee.com Other stops on Preservation Sacramento\u2019s tour<\/p>\n
Visitors walk up the steps to the James H. Winn House during Preservation Sacramento\u2019s annual historic home tour in Sacramento on Sunday. The home is the oldest building on this year\u2019s tour. HANNAH RUHOFF hruhoff@sacbee.com <\/p>\n
A Preservation Sacramento docent tells visitors about the James H. Winn House during Preservation Sacramento\u2019s annual historic home tour in Sacramento on Sunday. The home is the oldest building on this year\u2019s tour. HANNAH RUHOFF hruhoff@sacbee.com <\/p>\n
A Preservation Sacramento docent tells visitors about a Royal Chicano Air Force mural inside the Washington Neighborhood Center during Preservation Sacramento\u2019s annual historic home tour in Sacramento on Sunday. HANNAH RUHOFF hruhoff@sacbee.com
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