Place:Locke, Sacramento, California, United States

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Locke, also known as Locke Historic District, is an unincorporated community in California's Sacramento–San Joaquin River Delta. The 10 acre town was first developed between 1893 and 1915 approximately one mile north of the town of Walnut Grove in Sacramento County.

The village of Lockeport (shortened to "Locke in 1920) began where the Sacramento Valley Railway and Union Pacific Railroads merged at the southwest corner of the 490 acre swampland parcel deeded on July 6, 1883 to founder, George W. Locke, and his mercantile business partner, Samuel P. Lavenson. Both men were lured in their youth by the California Gold Rush from their birthplaces in New Hampshire. Initially, the settlement consisted of a few wood boarding houses, a saloon, gambling houses, and houses of ill repute that supported a rail yard, shipping wharf/fruit packing shed, and canneries that employed and housed hundreds of immigrants, mostly from Spain, Portugal, Russia, China, Italy, and several other countries from all around the world. The earliest known newspaper reference to Lockeport, California is found in “San Francisco Call” newspaper, dated September 11, 1885. The original Lockeport two-story wood buildings were built for approximately $800 each by lead carpenter named Cleveland Hill. The lack of foundations beneath Locke's Main Street two-story wood buildings has caused many to lean over the past century and has dramatically warped their sides and floors, which has added to the town's rustic charm, enticing modern photographers, artists and tourists.

After a fire destroyed the Chinatown of nearby Walnut Grove in 1915, many Chinese immigrants from the town resettled in and further developed Locke. Chinese-owned businesses, gambling halls, and opium dens were established, along with a Chinese language school. The town continued to thrive as a uniquely Chinese American agricultural community until after World War II, when younger residents begin leaving the town for better educational and employment opportunities in urban centers.

Today, Locke is still a primarily agricultural community near State Route 160, south of Sacramento. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1971 and further was designated a National Historic Landmark District in 1990 due to its unique example of a historic Chinese American rural community.^[1] The population as of 2021 was estimated to be about 100, with Chinese Americans no longer forming the majority.

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