Old Tavern

Sacramento, United States

Exterior only

Visible from the street; the inside is private.

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Heritage registerNational Register of Historic Places↗

The Old Tavern in Sacramento, California, is a Tudor Revival commercial building with a complex history spanning from the early nineteenth century to the present. Originally constructed by John Sutter as a storage structure near Sutter's Fort, it was expanded in the early 1850s by Philip Scheld into a two-story brewery known as Scheld's Sacramento Brewery. Over subsequent decades, the building evolved through multiple uses—functioning as a tavern and stagecoach stop, speakeasy, residential apartments, and data-processing center—while additional floors and structures were progressively added to the estate. The site earned renown as a landmark in frontier Sacramento, and tradition holds that a brothel operated on its upper floors during the nineteenth century. Following a comprehensive renovation in the mid to late 1980s, the building was repurposed with an Italian restaurant occupying the original tavern section and medical offices in other areas. It is now listed on the National Register of Historic Places.