San Leandro Portals to Past History for Fun

  "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