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Publication Date: Friday, July 05, 2002

Hooked on history

Charles Huff, local architect and historian, begins his downtown tours in the beginning.

"Ten thousand years ago there was water here," he told the 200 or so people who assembled in front of the museum on a sunny morning in May. Water is still near the surface in the northern part of town, which made it good for growing the hops that were responsible for much of Pleasanton's early growth, he explained.

He quickly passed through the centuries to the Indians, whom he called the original commuters, who traveled on the arroyos. The town of Alisal was founded on this spot in the 1850s, chosen because it is on high ground, and was renamed Pleasanton in 1868.

As Huff spoke, his wife Kay displayed photographs of the buildings in the old days, and Jim Hoge, president of the Pleasanton Downtown Association that sponsors the tours, held high the bullhorn speaker so those in the back could enjoy Huff's anecdotes.

Huff turned to look behind him at the museum building. It was constructed in 1915, he said, as the Police Department and old City Hall.

"The constable would roam around the streets. When the siren went off they came back here to find out where to go," Huff said. In 1983, it was Huff who did the restoration before it reopened as the Amador-Livermore Valley Historical Museum.

"When I came here in the 1980s and saw the old buildings, I wondered what they were and why they had not been torn down," Huff said. As he began to do research he soon became hooked on history.

Next he called everyone's attention to the Pleasanton sign. It was erected in 1932 by the Women's Improvement Club, he told the crowd. "They got together and raised money for the sign. Phoebe Hearst was involved and probably gave a lot. The cost was $535, and that was a lot of money in those days."

At the end of this year the sign is scheduled to be taken down and repaired. "But they're afraid people won't know where they are so they will put a temporary sign up," he explained.

Huff headed north on Main Street, his fans hurrying to keep up. The first stop was Christesen's Western Wear, 633 Main St., to admire its old terra cotta brick. "This was used in the '30s on buildings," said Huff. "There are maybe eight of them left on Main Street."

A few doors up, at 641, he explained that the Wine Steward used to be the Roxy Theatre. "It was open until 1955, then they started drive-ins. Then the big theaters came in and the little ones closed down," he said.

"Strizzi's was a drug store in 1930, and it was the only source of alcohol during Prohibition," he said, pausing at 649 Main. "It had a still, but they moved the still to another part of town when the federal agents came." He said that the Pleasanton Hotel was a popular spot for doctors and their friends to gather, and they would have runners come down to the drug store for alcohol. Law enforcement was not easy, with only one constable in town and the sheriff over the hill in Oakland, he noted.

The tour turned west on St. Mary Street and went down an alley to the left of the old Oddfellows Hall, 328 St. Mary St., built in 1911. Huff pointed out the barred windows on the back of the corner building, which was a post office back when people would mail cash. From the parking lot behind the Oddfellows Hall, Huff pointed out the old structure of the Presbyterian Church, built around 1888.

"In the early days we had lots of people from New England and they had different types of churches," Huff said. "As time went on, there were more bars, too. At one time there were 19 bars on Main Street. Life magazine in the '60s called Pleasanton the drinking-est town in the United States," said Huff, adding that some of the business came from nearby Camp Parks.

Back on Main Street, everyone paused at Coast Gasoline station for Huff to reminisce about its days as the Super Station, when uniformed attendants would hurry out to pump the gas, check under the hood and wash all the windows.

Huff said the site was previously the location of the Pleasanton Hotel, although the name had first been given to a grand hotel built in 1863 where Roundtable Pizza is now. When Jason Rose bought the original Pleasanton Hotel in 1881, he changed its name to the Rose Hotel, so the Germania Hotel (on the gas station site) took the name Pleasanton Hotel. The Germania closed in 1930, and the gas station was built in 1931. The old Farmer's Hotel up the street took the name Pleasanton Hotel, where it remains. "The name kept moving north," Huff commented.

Everyone paused at the Union Jack Pub at 725 Main to hear that during Prohibition it had an ice cream parlor in front and a speakeasy in the back. "Everyone knew the bar was there but the police were getting a reward to ignore it," said Huff. "Once the government arrested all the people with bars on Main Street and the 1930s newspaper said they were all being shipped off to Folsom Prison." But some event intervened because they were all back to life as usual the next day, he said.

Near the Pleasanton Hotel, Huff recounted tales of bandit Joaquin Murrieta, and of gangster Mickey Cohen's brother, who was kicked out of "San Francisco and the Bay Area" so began to frequent poker games at the Pleasanton Hotel.

Old Pleasanton is also famous for its tunnels. "The main one was from the Pleasanton Hotel to Kottinger Barn," Huff said. "Then in 1870, the Chinese were here building the railroads and they built a long tunnel from St. John to the Gay Nineties (288 Main)." They constructed the tunnel both for convenience and to stay out of sight of a population that did not always welcome their appearance, he said. The tunnels are all pretty well caved in now, he added, "only occupied by rats."

A trip down Ray Street led to the Kottinger Barn, an adobe built in 1852 by John Kottinger, who became the county's first Justice of the Peace in 1853. "It was named Reyes Street meaning 'king,' and Kottinger was king. Then they Americanized it," said Huff. He pointed out the stately palm trees on Ray and said they were planted in front of prominent people's homes.

The Kottinger Barn, the only Pleasanton building on the National Register of Historic Buildings, holds its own architectural wonders. "The adobe needs to be at least 18-24 inches thick to have a strong wall system," Huff said. "Adobes were always built at a 45-degree angle by the Spanish, not a north-south orientation, so the buildings would get equal sun and dry out evenly. It's amazing how well the bricks are intact after 150-160 years."

Talk of prisoners when the adobe barn served as a jail brought up another popular topic in town: ghosts. They're believed to be in Kottinger Barn and the owner will not come there at night, Huff said. He also told the tale of a resident ghost of the old St. Vincent de Paul building who remained on the site after it was demolished and now inhabits the new Rose Hotel. "At the front desk they can see on a computer screen when doors open and close. Even when no one is staying in a room, it has been recorded that a door had been opened, as well as the door to the exercise room," Huff said. "It's a healthy ghost."

Back on Main Street, Huff pointed out architecture from the 1920s and 1930s that copied the early missions, although some buildings were covered with stucco in the 1950s and 1960s, much to his dismay.

The group stopped at Century 21 at the corner of Spring Street and Huff told about its history as a bank. "One day in 1926 four guys came into the bank and said, 'This is a holdup,'" he said. "At first they thought they were from the movies. But they got $9,000 in cash." Movies were often filmed in Pleasanton, especially before Main Street was paved in the late '20s.

Down the street at Dean's Cafˇ, 624 Main, Huff noted that although people think it is a historical restaurant, it was opened in the 1950s. The site once housed Kolb's General Mercantile Store. "It had everything from petticoats to farm equipment," said Huff. "Mr. Kolb had a credit system and you could sign a paper till the crops came in. Sometimes people would give him part of their land, and he ended up owning half the town."

Again Huff lamented the stucco. "Under the stucco is ornate woodwork, and when they stuccoed they also got rid of the porches," he said. "My dream is that when people do remodeling they take the stucco off."

Down the street, he explained how two buildings were pulled together by a team of horses to form the building that now houses Kolln Hardware. The style is Italianate Colonial Revival, and the building has become a Pleasanton landmark. "The top floor is not occupied because the wiring is not up to code," Huff explained.

Everyone paused at the old Rose Hotel site, 548 Main, to hear about its famous guests, including Calvin Coolidge, Leland Stanford, Henry Ford and Seabiscuit, the famous racehorse who, of course, was given accommodations in the stable.

When a garage was built near the site, Huff recounted, "privy diggers" were onsite, people who dig up old outhouses to recover objects discarded years before. "They found refreshment and medical bottles dating back to the late 1860s. They also found old china and bottle caps from the Rose Hotel."

At the corner of Main, Neal and Rose, everyone stopped again and looked across the street. "The Pastime used to be a theater," Huff said. He pointed out its slot windows, which were installed when it became a pool hall. "Bars once had slot windows so you could sneak down and have a few drinks," he said. "Today they have big windows - everybody can see everybody drinking."

The tour moved west on Neal and stopped across the street from Hap's, which was owned by Milt and Julie Dunham in the 1950s. "The family used to be living there in the back," Huff recalled. "Then as the restaurant expanded they moved out. They were really being eaten out of house and home."

Charles Gale, later a well-known judge, practiced law in the brick office at 62 W. Neal. The Meadowlark Dairy on Neal was once the Senate Saloon, across the street from the railroad station. A person could arrive on the railroad, go to the saloon and get into trouble, and find a lawyer all at one handy location, Huff noted.

"In 1965 the trains stopped coming through on a regular basis," he said. In the late '80s Huff renovated the old train station, and his architectural firm is located in the old stationmaster's quarters.

Most of the people stayed with the tour until the end, although it lasted more than two hours and the temperature was rising. Dorothy and George Mayo have lived in Pleasanton for many years but felt they learned a lot. "It's fun," said Dorothy Mayo, "and it's good to go over things. This is what keeps Pleasanton Pleasanton."

Eileen Campbell and Stan Sitko came from San Ramon for the tour. "We've always loved downtown Pleasanton," Campbell said, "and thought it would be interesting to learn more."

Claude Mandell moved to Pleasanton in 1976 but wanted to be informed about downtown history. "I want to be knowledgeable when I bring dates downtown for dinner," he said.

Pleasanton was off the beaten track in the 1950s to 1970s, when old buildings in other places were being torn down in the name of progress. When it began to boom in the '80s, many old downtown buildings were still intact and renovations were done with an eye toward preservation. Now old-fashioned Main Street is one of Pleasanton's greatest draws - and a great place to visit the past.
History tours

The Amador-Livermore Valley Historical Museum offers two ways to explore downtown on your own. A Downtown Walking Tour Guide, available for a donation of $2, offers a mapped out route and a wealth of historic facts to make a jaunt down Main Street one of discovery. It was published in 2001 by the Pleasanton Downtown Association under the guidance of Charles Huff. The museum also has a 26-minute video recently completed by Goal Line Productions of Pleasanton's history from 1850-2002, with about 150 photographs and a voiceover, that starts at the Pleasanton Hotel and ends at Gay Nineties, for $20. Museum hours are 11 a.m.-4 p.m. Wednesday-Saturday; 1-4 p.m. Sunday. For information, call 462-2766