History

William Gardiner Transportation Collection     This building stood at Atlantic Avenue and Webster Street. It served first as a carbarn and stables for Theodor Meetz’ horse-car lines and later as a power station when the lines were converted to electic-powered streetcars, like the one pictured.

Horse-Drawn Streetcars Once Plied Our Streets

Apr 14,2021

Part one in a series

Mid-19th-century Alamedans did not have a convenient way to travel to Oakland. This was especially true for West Enders who had to travel — oftentimes walk— across the peninsula to catch J. P. Potter’s omnibus that ran from Park Street to Oakland.

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These illustrations, perhaps appropriate and stylish for the time, accompanied an article and advertisements in the Encinal. The depictions of policemen in the image at left may have meant to discourage drunken revelers and “roughs” known to frequent Alameda’s bayside resorts and multiple drinking establishments.

Alameda Celebrates Rebirth as ‘Island City’

Apr 08,2021

On an auspicious date in Alameda history often overlooked, Aug. 8, 1902, at 7:30 a.m., the Alameda peninsula was detached from the mainland after decades of engineering work. “The city attained to insular importance ...

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With sideburns like those, you’ve got to believe Dr. A. W. K. Newton’s claims on 19th-century miracle cures.

Side Effects May Include Universal Satisfaction

Mar 18,2021

Lately I’ve come across social media postings from people who are surprised at just how many pharmaceutical advertisements Americans are subjected to on a daily basis, and how Americans can rattle off the names of such fabulous products as Skyrizi, Ozempic and Trempfya.

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File photo Members of Alameda Fire Department Station No. 1 on Webb Avenue stand in front of their hook and ladder truck and the station in 1910. The first wooden firehouse on Webb Avenue rose up in 1877 to house the Citizens Hook and Ladder Company. The building in this photograph went up in 1908. A hook and ladder apparatus required two drivers, one to steer and control the horses, the other to steer the rear wheels; both are in position in the photograph. Firefighters use ladders to gain access to fires

Ordinance 175 Created Alameda Fire Department

Feb 25,2021

Pull up the Alameda Daily Evening Encinal edition of Sept. 29, 1891, and printed inside is a copy of the original text that created Alameda Fire Department (AFD). Ordinance 175 delinated how AFD would operate. Prior to this, Alameda had several unaffiliated fire companies.

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Two airports served Alameda and one the Army Air Force before the United States Navy arrived in 1940. (From left to right): Alameda Airport opened in 1929 on a strip of land along the Oakland Estuary. Benton Field opened in 1927. This Army Air Force field was bounded roughly by today’s Pan Am Way, West Red Line Avenue, Monarch Street and West Tower Avenue. In 1930, planes began landing at the San Francisco Airdrome, which stood on the site of today’s College of Alameda. The light blue on the map defines the

Alameda: The Airport City

Feb 17,2021

Dennis Evanosky

The Alameda Naval Air Station opened on November 1, 1940. However, the Navy arrived in a city with an aviation history that stretched back more than 30 years to 1909 and Sunset Aviation Field.

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