Governor Newton Booth

The Newton Booth neighborhood was named for the Newton Booth School, which has existed in the neighborhood since 1896. The School was so named in memorial to Newton Booth, California's 11th Governor, who had passed away just 4-years prior. Booth arrived in California from Indiana in 1850, freshly graduated from law school and holding his certificate from the Indiana State Bar. Soon thereafter, Booth opened a wholesale grocery business at Front Street, and quickly became one of the wealthiest merchants in the city. Booth was elected to the California State Senate in 1862, serving in 1863, and was the eleventh governor of California from December 8, 1871, to February 27, 1875, when he resigned, having been elected to the United States Senate. Upon his death in 1892, Booth was interred in the Old City Cemetery. He is the maternal uncle of Newton Booth Tarkington, who was named in his honor. Booth's nephew later made a name for himself as a renowned novelist and dramatist. He is one of only three novelists to win the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction more than once, along with William Faulkner and John Updike.

Additional historic street markers commemorating Governor Booth are posted at the intersections of 25th and V and 26th and S Streets.

Featured images (in order of appearace): 1) The circa 1910 prairie-style residence of Adolph and Augusta Teichert Jr. located at 2014 25th Street, 2) Portrait of Adolph Teichert Jr., 3) A circa 1890 business card from the Teichert Company.