The Cohen family estate Fernside burned in a spectacular fire that started in the attic on Tuesday morning, March 23, 1897. A man driving a milk wagon noticed smoke coming from the roof of the mansion just after 6 a.m., and sounded the alarm.

The Great San Francisco Earthquake and Fire of 1906 destroyed the bridge that the South Pacific Coast Railroad used to cross San Leandro Bay east to Encinal Avenue. It also made the tracks that ran along today’s Main Street on the West End unusable. 

Alameda wanted 1942 residents ready for gas attack

In this 1918 photo courtesy of the San Francisco Public Library, a San Francisco police officer confronts a man in public for not wearing a facemask. The Spanish flu pandemic 102 years ago, was an unusually deadly influenza pandemic believed to be caused by the H1N1 influenza A virus.

Part Two of a series
 

The Alameda Family Services League will present “49 years of Holiday Magic,” the 49th edition of the annual self-guided Holiday Home Tour this Saturday, Dec. 14. The tour will feature five historic Alameda homes mixing festive holiday décor and Island lore. 

Crolls Garden Court traces its name to a resort called Neptune Gardens, which later bore the name of the man who put the resort on the map, John G. Croll. 

Neptune Gardens Avenue remembers railroad baron James Fair’s resort that once graced the San Francisco Bay shoreline not far from Webster Street and Central Avenue.