San Leandro Portals to Past History for Fun

“It was in the year 1892 that the first trolley cars began to operate throughout San Leandro from Oakland to Hayward, known as the Oakland-San Leandro and Hayward Electric Railway.  It consisted of a one line track with wooden posts and cast iron extensions projecting out to hold the trolley wire. A year or two later, one bright sunny day, a gang of construction workers began to tear up our main street.  On inquiry, it was learned that they were about to install a double track system through town.  This the citizenry did not desire, claiming the street too narrow for a two-track line.  Quite a crowd gathered ordering the construction crew to cease work.   This they refused to do, and a battle took place right there – even throwing a rope over one of the trolley posts with the intention of a lynching party.                 The construction boss was put in the old town jail a...

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. 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 Palomares Canyons. Cas...

Castro Valley sold for $400,000 worth of gambling debts! Castro Valley was part of the original 28,000 acre (110 km²) land grant given to Don Guillermo Castro, called  Rancho San Lorenzo . This land grant included  Hayward ,  San Lorenzo , and Castro Valley, including Crow Canyon, Cull Canyon, and Palomares Canyons.  Don Guillermo Castro - The San Lorenzo Land Grant Don Guillermo was born in California, then a Mexican possession in 1810. The son of Don Carlos Castro of Las Lagas Rancho. His birthplace was located near the village of Coyote in Santa Clara County along what is now highway 101.A career soldier, he served in the Mexican army as a lieutenant of militia at the pueblo of San Jose. In 1838, he was listed as a surveyor of government lands in San Jose, and it is about this time he acquired his land grant, roughly 28,000 acres, then known as Rancho San Lorenzo. This land included those areas we...

Saturday, June 4, 2016 Parade (1 0-11 am) &  Festival  (11am-6 pm) Downtown San Leandro #SLCHERRYFEST It was a lovely time to be alive and the most spectacular sight of all was the cherry trees in blossom, thousands of cherry trees as far as the eye could see...There were little villas hidden in the valleys of blossoms." June 5, 1902 San Leandro hosted the 1st Cherry Festival.  Bessie  Best....was considered on the San Leandro's fairest maidens was chosen queen of the Cherry Festival.  The festival was opened with parades, flag raising and a 21 gun salute. An estimated 25,000 people attended and 15 tons of cherrys were given away!  This year on June 4, 2016, the 107th Cherry Festival will again celebrate the tradition. Come visit the San Leandro Historical Society Booth.  I'll be there between 1-3pm. Download the app on Google Play or Itunes

"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 ...

  "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 th...