San Leandro Portals to Past History for Fun

San Leandro Creamery Truck KANAKA ROW of San Leandro boundaries were: Pacific Street to the west, Alvarado Street to the east, Davis Street to the north, and Williams Street to the south. Kanaka Row derived its name from the nickname established Portuguese gave to Portuguese settlers from Hawaii. The other Portuguese enclave in San Leandro, Dutton Avenue, also known as Chicken Lane, is pictured c. 1890. Portuguese immigrants along Chicken Lane thriving chicken farms. Portuguese women often served their own chickens for dinner and crocheted to let down at night. Their hobby was also practical; many Portuguese women made tablecloths and other lace items to give as presents.  #KanakaRow #KanakaLane #ChickenLane #LittlePortugal Andrade standing on Dutton Ave (Chicken Lane ) 1890 Dutton Ave Area 1890 258 Dabner - Old Lamplighters House 1871 "The historical-architectural value of these properties lies in their combination as a "perio

"THE BROADMOOR" Located in the famed garden belt, San Leandro was a great center of floriculture in the 1800's. Flowers grown here in orchards and hothouses were sweet peas, camellias, gardenias, orchids as well as cherry and apricot trees.  At one time it was a $10,000,000 industry supplying flora to places and events such as the Pasadena Parade.  The Oakland firm of Breed and Bancroft had been developing a tract, north of Dutton Ave, which they named "Broadmoor".  After a struggle to get all the land north of the creek annexed into the school district they formally opened the development in 1908. Street Names Breed 1908 Broadmoor 1908  Beverly 1908  Warwick 1908  Dowling Blvd 1908  Sunnyside 1920 Cambridge 1911 SAMPLES OF HOME STYLES IN the broadmoor   TO CHECK OUT ACTIVE/SOLD LISTINGS PLEASE CLICK HERE Broadmoor Manor Homes and Surrounding Areas Most of the homes were built in the 1920's and a

In 1870 flourishing poultry farms along the road leading to Jane Dutton's farm northeast of San Leandro's town center caused it to be described as 'Chicken Lane".  Jane was a pioneer and a widow who had large poultry farms on the land we know today as Dutton Manor. Originally mapped as part of the San Antonio/Ygnacio Peralta land grant, it was then mapped as the Moorlands and then in the 1920's as Dutton Manor.  This development was bordered on the east by Hollywood Blvd (MacArthur Blvd), Bancroft Ave (Santa Clara Blvd), Durant Ave (Stanley Rd) and Dutton Blvd (Chicken Lane).  The area has separate tracts inside of it such as LeBon and Cherry City. Some Street Names Dates Deeded to City Dutton Ave 1899 Dowling 1908 Durant 1908  (Stanley Rd) Kenilworth 1908 Helen Ave 1912 Lewis Ave 1912 Mitchell Ave 1912 W. Merle 1912 Westbay 1915 Victoria Ave 1915 Broadmoor Near Macarthur was Mathey 1915 Fortuna Ave 1926 Superior Ave 1926 Samples of H

March 20, 2015 Robert S. Farrelly’s home was built in 1869 at Farrelly Drive & Oakland Road (E.14 th  St) Another Gold Rush squatter, Farrelly was a farmer from Pennsylvania who purchased a tract of land and began to develop it as a cherry orchard. & flower gardens.   He was one of the early shippers of fruit in 1891.  In addition to being located on a main route, there was a shipping station on the San Leandro Creek at Toler Road. The Farrelly home and orchard became one of the show places of the county  Mrs. Farrelly helped establish Broadmoor Mother’s Club in 1915.  The original site was at the corner of Breed @ Broadmoor. It is now located on the grounds of Roosevelt School.  The school property also host the Farrelly Swimming Pool and Farrelly Building which is on Dutton Ave (formally Chicken Lane) Mrs. Farrelly owned a property at the corner of Washington & Ward.  She donated it to the Masonic Lodge aka. Legion Hall.  It was later dedicated as the Henriet

In the last post we covered the spilt of the land grant between Castro and Estudillo but there was a 3 rd area left alone to the Native Americans, the Costanoan, who lived in the hills above Fairmont Hospital.  Archeologists have found the remains of shellmounds and burial grounds.  (When I was growing up the area was off limits but we would sneak up there to look at the area.)  Studies have revealed at least ten archeological sites between the north fork of San Leandro Creek and San Lorenzo Creek.  Three of these were on the banks of the inlets in the Marina Area, one at Oakland Airport, four along the north side of the reek and one on San Lorenzo Creek.   The largest was Fairmont. Since the “Indian lands” exempted from Castro and Estudillo grants the borders and other lands on the fringe of Estudillo lands were not clearly defined they provided an excuse for squatters to encroach upon both grants disregarding the rights of any Indians still in the neighborhood. Squatters f

.   IF YOU LIVE HERE YOU PRONOUNCE ESTUDILLO “ESTA-DILLO”.  Sorry Spanish speakers… As I tell you this story you will recognize some of our street names with origins in our founding families. The 1 st settler was Don Jose Joaquin and this wife Dona Juana .   Don Joaquin, as he was referred to, was friends with the new governor, Don Juan Alvarado . Alvarado was put to the task of was dividing up grazing lands between friends.  Some of the Estudillo land was redistributed to Guillermo Castro , who was related to the governor by marriage.  The hills of Castro Valley to Eastern Hayward was appropriated and Estudillo was left with all the grazing land below that.  Estudillo Home Corner of W. Estudillo & Carpentier Now San Leanders Church Castro Valley was part of the original 28,000 acre (110 km²) land grant given to Castro, called Rancho San Lorenzo. This land grant included Hayward, San Lorenzo, and Castro Valley, including Crow Canyon, Cull Canyon, and Palomar

  "Come, my sons, I would show you your inheritance. In such a manner Don Luis Peralta of Mexico,  might have gathered his four sons and journeyed to the high points of Oakland and Berkeley hills, from which could be seen the vast stretches of Rancho San Antonio. "To you, Ignacio, my oldest son, shall fall the southern plain from El Arroyo de San Leandro (river/creek) to this point, where tradition says that El Capitan Fages and Padre Crespi made camp 70 years ago.  Antonio, yours shall be the fertile land from here to El Arroya de San Antonio and down to the estuary (Oakland).   Vincente shall have the temescal the wooded peninsula, and all the land to the line bearing from the island of the Pelicans (Alcatraz) to the arroyo yonder and.... To you, Domingo, shall own all from that line to the little bald hill called San Antonio (El Cerrito)". Original Plat Map of San Antonio Land Grant Who was this man that could give away more than 43,000 acres of the &q

San Leandro is nestled in the hills of the east bay was a cradle to the beginning of a distinct and significant western town in the 1870's but before that home to the Costanoan Indians. The dialect of the local tribes was Chochenyo. They lived at two camp sites: 3 miles northwest and 2 miles southwest of city.  Both of these sites are now shell-mounds near the San Leandro southern border in the area now known as Coyote Hills.  You can still see the shell mounds if you stand on the small hill in the Oyster Point Dog Park by the San Leandro Bay.  PS.  Great off leash dog park! Each week I will post some anecdotal information about street names and neighborhoods but first a little history about these names. As of 1971 there were about 584 street names.  With so much to be told about each street, I will begin with the first known which was the Mission Trail, part of the great El Camino Real which became Oakland Road (north of Davis St) and Hayward Road (south of Davis St), now kno