Stories From Albany, CA

Retrospect – A Local History Blog

Albany is a small city—approximately 1.8 square miles—but it has a rich history, full of interesting people and intriguing events. In this blog, we’ll explore some of these, in no particular order.

© Karen Sorensen

Why is Albany Only 1.8 Square Miles?

Border Disputes from 1908 Reveal Answers

Oakland Tribune Headline, 1908 — Oakland Tribune, 1908.

It was a clear winter day when the tour of the proposed new state capitol site began. After a lavish banquet with their local guides, the California State legislators were escorted up the hill—with 60 automobiles and a 250-person delegation—to the area envisioned for their new home.

They gathered near a huge boulder (likely Indian Rock) draped with a large banner featuring the slogan of the day: “State Capital for Berkeley.” As the legislators gazed out over the bay, taking in the sunset through the Golden Gate, it became apparent to their hosts: this was not a hard sell.

Not long after their return to Sacramento, the legislators voted overwhelmingly to move the state capital to Berkeley. “…many were the declarations that the proposed spot was one of almost unsurpassed natural beauty and emphatically fitting for the state’s capitol building,” declared The Berkeley Daily Gazette.

This 1907 effort, orchestrated by a group of East Bay developers and Berkeley businessmen, is well-known local history. What is less known is Albany’s involvement in it, which sparked a border dispute that resulted in a much smaller Albany.

After the legislators voted to approve the capital move, the next step was gaining approval from California voters. But the election to do so would not happen for many months. In the meantime, real estate interests had a golden opportunity to promote and sell property near the new capitol site (multiple acres in the Northbrae neighborhood near the top of Solano Avenue).

What they didn’t count on was a move by the nearby community of Ocean View (Albany’s original name) to incorporate and include the area within its new city.

A real estate ad from the Berkeley Daily Gazette, 1907

Ocean View (Albany) and Berkeley Clash Over Capitol Site

After struggling to stop Berkeley’s garbage dumping near its waterfront, unincorporated Ocean View decided to become a city so it could enact a law to prevent others from dumping within its borders. However, the original proposed city boundaries encompassed much more land than that of today—like Berkeley and Oakland, Ocean View was designed to stretch from the bay shore to the hilltops.

But this area included the proposed Northbrae capitol site, which at this time was still unincorporated land north of Berkeley’s city line at Eunice Street. When the Berkeley capital group received word of Ocean View’s plans, they moved quickly to block the effort, so the capitol site could become part of Berkeley instead.

Berkeley was not happy to hear of Ocean View’s incorporation plans and launched its own effort to annex the proposed state capitol site (Berkeley Daily Gazette headline).

For a time, each group struggled to make sure its petition to acquire the land was first to be approved. The residents of Northbrae (a still-developing area of high-end homes) preferred to become part of Berkeley, so some speculated that Ocean View included the area in its proposed city in retaliation for Berkeley’s unwanted garbage dumping. However, both cities may have found Northbrae a desirable tract to acquire as the area promised to supply significant property tax revenue.

After some back and forth petition filing and paperwork errors, the two groups met and Ocean View agreed to simply eliminate the Northbrae area from its proposed city. This left the capitol site to be annexed by Berkeley, which local voters approved in August 1908, adding some 300 acres in the Northbrae area and reportedly $10,000 in tax revenue (a significant sum at the time) to Berkeley.

“Berkeley has added to its assessable property some of the choicest building sites to be found in the city and the new addition is destined to become a select residence section,” said The Berkeley Daily Gazette.

While Berkeley succeeded in obtaining Northbrae, it was not so lucky regarding the state capital. When California voters went to the polls in November 1908, the proposition to move the capital to Berkeley was soundly defeated: only a handful of Bay Area counties supported it. Some speculated that the effort was largely concocted by local real estate interests who promoted the Berkeley capital idea solely to help sell nearby property.

Left, San Francisco Examiner. Right, San Francisco Call.

Spring Construction Company and Edward Gill Oppose Ocean View Incorporation

The proposed city of Ocean View was now significantly smaller. But the capitol area was not the only section of land Ocean View struggled to include in its new city.

Just north of Solano Avenue near Neilson St., the Spring Construction Company, run by developer John Spring, had a camp where numerous workers lived. Given Spring opposed the incorporation of Ocean View, city founders decided it best to also cut this area from their proposed town, helping ensure victory at the incorporation election.

Today, this cut is reflected in an odd zigzag boundary along Solano Avenue where the northern side of the street from Neilson to Tulare is in Berkeley and the southern side is in Albany.

Developer John Spring’s construction company, seen here working on San Pablo Ave. about 1910, had a workers’ camp near Neilson and Solano Ave. Spring was against Albany incorporation so city founders cut the camp area from the proposed city.

A third area was also nearly eliminated from the city: the 104 acres of the Gill Tract. Edward Gill and family, who ran their nursery business on the site, did not want their land to be included in the city of Ocean View. However, this would mean Gill’s property would become one of the only remaining tracts of unincorporated land in northern Alameda County and would need to operate its own election precinct and possibly its own school.

Fortunately for Ocean View, which was rapidly shrinking in size, the county Board of Supervisors denied Gill’s request to be excluded.

A Bayshore City Combining West Berkeley and Ocean View?

Yet another situation arose at the time of Ocean View’s incorporation that could have had a major impact on the formation of the city: a secession effort by West Berkeley.

Various disputes had arisen for some time between West Berkeley, a working-class manufacturing district near the bay shore, and East Berkeley where the university was developing. These differences reached a tipping point in 1908 over the prohibition of alcohol sales.

San Francisco Call Bulletin headlines, late 1906

East Berkeley favored the decision to ban alcohol sales citywide, beyond the state-mandated one-mile limit around the university. But many in West Berkeley, which had more saloons, were opposed and they eventually launched a secession movement.

The pre-Albany Ocean View district—where most residents lived near San Pablo Avenue—shared some of West Berkeley’s sentiments. Not only had the district adopted the original West Berkeley name—Ocean View—it also did not want to be part of the city of Berkeley. Previous Berkeley attempts to annex the Ocean View district to the north had been rejected by Ocean View voters living close to West Berkeley.

Now that West Berkeley had announced a secession movement, it was not out of the question that the Ocean View district and West Berkeley might join together as one city. News accounts from the time indicate this was on the minds of some bay shore residents, even though West Berkeley was also entertaining the idea of joining with Oakland.

But the secession movement lost ground when various groups, including the Berkeley Manufacturers’ Association, came out against the plan. Berkeley city trustees also claimed there were not enough signatures on the secession petition to qualify it for a vote. As a result, the West Berkeley secession never appeared on a ballot for a formal vote.

In the end, the city of Ocean View—now just 1.8 square miles in size—incorporated in September 1908. One year later the name was changed to Albany, the hometown of the city’s first mayor, Frank Roberts.

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How the Fear of Plague Wreaked Havoc at the Waterfront and Led to the Formation of Albany

Albany Incorporation Part 1—The Full Story on the East Bay Garbage Wars and the Armed Albany Women who Stood Their Ground

© Karen Sorensen

The auditorium was packed. Two hundred citizens gathered that spring evening in 1908 at Dugan’s Hall and raised angry voices to make clear West Berkeley would not be the site of a city garbage dump.

“We are tired of the way we have been treated,” declared Daniel Dugan, the hall owner. “The trustees have no more right to dump garbage along any section of the West Berkeley waterfront than they have to dump it in the residence district in the fashionable part of East Berkeley…If they persist in dumping garbage despite our objections, serious trouble will result.”

In short order, the group formed the West Berkeley Protective Association, appointed 10 residents as guards to patrol the new waterfront dump site, and soon appeared before the city trustees demanding the dumping be stopped.

Several days later when garbagemen tried to unload their refuse in the area, they were blocked by hostile residents who reportedly threw stones at the garbage wagons.

The conflict was the latest clash between the west and east sides of Berkeley. Previous disagreements had occurred over the location of City Hall, the location of schools, and the town prohibition on alcohol sales. Now the city was proposing West Berkeley’s waterfront as a site for the city’s trash.

But there was another concern—beyond the unsightly, odoriferous nature of garbage—that made trash dumping extremely controversial in the early 1900s: the fear of bubonic plague.

Plague Arrives in North America

The plague was still relatively new to North America. The first recorded incidence had occurred in the Bay Area just eight years earlier in 1900. At that time, the spread of the disease, via the fleas of infected rats, was still not well understood. However, by the second outbreak in 1907, the rat connection was clear.

Health workers at a San Francisco laboratory dissect rats to determine the presence of plague (early 1900s).

While neither incidence of plague in the early-20^th century Bay Area developed into a widespread epidemic, there was enough concern at the time that federal health authorities were sent to San Francisco (the center of the outbreaks) to limit the spread of the disease. As a result, San Francisco and other Bay Area cities were asked to undertake vigorous sanitation and rat extermination campaigns, designed to clean up excess trash and kill as many rats as possible.

While Berkeley had not discovered large numbers of infected rats, plague concerns soon developed into a major conflict. Early in 1908, the fear of plague had closed the city’s long-term garbage dump, located near the waterfront at the northern county line. Finding a new place to dump trash proved extremely difficult.

The Garbage Wars Begin

Trash dumping had always been controversial, but during a time of plague, no one wanted a rat-infested garbage dump. In the East Bay, the conflict became known as the “Garbage Wars.”

Headlines and cartoons from East Bay newspapers, 1908.

Up and down the East Bay shoreline disputes arose over trash, which had been dumped at various waterfront locations for years. Oakland residents, up in arms about the garbage dumps in West Oakland, appeared before the city council and demanded officials take action. Soon expanded cleanup efforts were underway and the city began hauling its refuse away by barge and dumping it in the ocean.

Berkeley went through a series of garbage conflicts that lasted more than a year during the plague scare. When its county-line dump closed, the city first asked for an extension of time to continue trash deliveries there, but residents of the nearby Stege region vigorously refused.

Next, the city attempted garbage dumping along its own waterfront, on two sites offered at the foot of Gilman and Harrison Streets, but was shut down by the vociferous protests of West Berkeley residents. Also considered was placing the garbage on flat cars and having trains haul it to outlying marsh areas, such as near Suisun. But residents of this area issued harsh warnings against the idea.

Another option was to join with Oakland to have the trash dumped at sea. This alternative was not ideal due to high cost. Yet another idea was building a garbage incinerator, but this was also expensive, controversial and would take more time.

Conflict Erupts with Ocean View (Albany)

With trash piling up across Berkeley and the mounting pressure of plague concerns, the city sought an immediate solution: it rented a piece of waterfront property in the unincorporated area just north of the town line in the pre-Albany area known as Ocean View. The dump site would cost the city $250 per month, a high price in the early 1900s, and was owned by the San Francisco Chemical Co. (near today’s Golden Gate Fields racetrack).

But the residents of rural Ocean View did not want the garbage more than anyone else, and the garbage wars continued.

Ocean View petitioned the district attorney to help prevent the dumping. The DA issued a warning to Berkeley’s garbagemen (known as “scavengers”) that they could be arrested if their dumping became a nuisance in Ocean View. Berkeley’s scavengers remained undeterred, stating they would continue dumping.

Armed Women Block Berkeley Garbage Wagons

The angry residents of Ocean View decided the time had come for action. On a spring morning a group (mostly women) armed themselves with shotguns and rifles, formed a line across Buchanan St., and blocked Berkeley’s garbage wagons as they approached the waterfront dump. This effort proved highly effective until the sheriff arrived to inform the women—led by Mrs. H. C. Hanscom and Mrs. F. A. Olson—that they would be thrown in jail if they continued to threaten people with firearms.

The incident became a major Bay Area news event. Not only the presence of guns—but perhaps more importantly the fact that women were using them—resulted in numerous sensational headlines.

Bay Area headlines about the armed women of Ocean View (Albany).

Ocean View Incorporates to Stop Trash Deliveries

The Ocean View residents subsequently returned to legal methods to stop the dumping. Efforts to secure an injunction against the scavengers, who obtained a second dump site in Ocean View, had mixed results, so Ocean View incorporated as a city and adopted an ordinance that prohibited others from dumping within its borders. One year later the city changed its name to Albany.

Berkeley continued to struggle to find a solution for its trash. Attempts to dump garbage in the bed of Cerrito Creek and to pay Ocean View to permit continued dumping proved controversial and unsuccessful. For a time, Berkeley joined with Oakland to have refuse hauled out to sea.

Ultimately, a garbage incinerator was built, which came with its own set of problems and controversies. Later, garbage was dumped along the bay again and a landfill was operated near the Berkeley Marina until the 1980s.

Eventually, plague concerns subsided in the Bay Area. Although unknown at the time, a major epidemic was avoided largely due to the different anatomy of the flea found in the western United States, which prevents its bite from releasing large quantities of plague bacteria.

Today, plague is still found in rodents throughout the American West. While modern medicines have lessened health concerns, every year a small number of people contract the plague—a reminder of the disease that once caused consternation and conflict throughout the Bay Area and along the East Bay waterfront.

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Golden Gate Fields—The 83-Year-Old Track that Barely Left the Starting Gate

Golden Gate Fields—the now-former racetrack in Albany—was much easier to close than it was to open. Not many today know of the multi-year struggle the original Golden Gate Turf Club went through to open its gates to the public, including bankruptcy, destroying half of Flemings Point, and more….

© Karen Sorensen

The rain had finally stopped. The enormous three-tiered grandstand—the first of its kind in the country, built with 1,000 tons of steel—stood new and gleaming. The final touches to the elaborately landscaped grounds and lavishly decorated clubhouse were complete—and more than 30,000 horse racing fans had reportedly filed through the turnstiles. But there was one thing missing from the January 1941 opening day at the racetrack known today as Golden Gate Fields—horses.

The last-minute cancellation of races—due to a muddy, dangerous track—by the California Horse Racing Board may have taken some race fans by surprise that day, but it was not the first (or the last) disappointment experienced by the Golden Gate Turf Club, the original horse racing entity at the racetrack in Albany. In fact, it was just the latest setback in a years-long struggle to open the new, highly anticipated racecourse.

Local Groups Opposed to Track

First had come the opposition of Berkeley/Albany religious and civic groups, which were morally against a nearby gambling institution. The UC Regents were also opposed for similar reasons.

Then came multiple challenges and delays in the construction of the state-of-the-art facility, originally scheduled to open in July 1940. Not the least of these difficulties was removing half of Flemings Point, a major endeavor that flattened the bayside hill near the Albany/Berkeley border where an 1800s dynamite factory once stood. Tons of dirt were moved to create a space for the grandstand and fill in some 60 acres of tideland for the track and parking lot.

Once construction of the facility itself began, delays caused the horse racing board to postpone the assignment of racing days. When the board finally gave the green light, the Turf Club scrambled to finish the track in time for its first attempted grand opening in late December 1940.

No expense was spared—including numerous hours of overtime pay—to finish the track, which cost $2.5 million to build (roughly $55 million in today’s dollars). The Golden Gate Turf Club was to be the largest of three horse racing tracks in the Bay Area.

Horse Racing was Once as Popular as Football

Thousands of race fans were expected for the opening of the Albany track (in the 1940s horse racing was as popular as football is today). Newspapers were filled with information about the four-day “Gala Celebration” opening, advising fans on everything from the horses, to what to wear, to where to go after the races.

Concern about the health and safety of racehorses—seen regularly today—was not as prominently on the minds of the public in 1940. Headlines leading up to the grand opening often declared the racecourse the “largest and finest in America.”

“California’s Calamity Track” Goes Bankrupt

Then the rain came. Days and days of record-breaking rain turned into weeks and weeks. The Albany track became so soggy and muddy it was declared unfit for racing.

After the California Horse Racing Board delayed the track’s opening several times, the Golden Gate Turf Club finally began operating in February 1941. But after just five days of racing, the track filed for bankruptcy and the facility was shut down due to poor track conditions.

The Golden Gate Turf Club was so besieged by problems, the San Francisco Examiner called it “California’s calamity track…harassed constantly by rain, light mutuel play and creditors.”

Early Horse Racing in Emeryville Shut Down

Initially, the return of horse racing to the East Bay was trumpeted as a big deal. Fans had not seen East Bay racing since the old Emeryville track (originally called the Oakland Trotting Park) was closed in the early 1900s.

At that time a nationwide push against gambling resulted in the 1909 Walker-Otis Anti-Racetrack Gambling Bill, which made gambling on horse racing illegal in California. Horse racing collapsed in the state and did not return in earnest to California until the early 1930s with the opening of tracks like Bay Meadows and Santa Anita, and the reopening of Tanforan.

Hollywood Adds Glamour to the Return of Horse Racing

With the Great Depression taking its toll on government budgets, California legalized pari-mutuel betting on horse racing in 1933, and as racetracks began opening once again, the state quickly enacted taxes on racing revenues. In Southern California, racing was aided by Hollywood stars like Bing Crosby, an investor in both racetracks and racehorses, who attended meets and brought glamour to the sport.

The announcement of a modern new racetrack at the Berkeley/Albany border meant some of that glamour would arrive in the East Bay (Crosby was initially listed as a member of the Golden Gate Turf Club’s board of directors). Initial moral objections to racetrack gambling were drowned out by supporters. With predicted crowds of 25,000+, East Bay businesses were excited by the opening of a racecourse and quickly jumped on the bandwagon of promotion.

Prior to construction, a groundbreaking ceremony was attended by thousands of people, including film celebrities. When the track finally opened, the newspapers exploded with ads and coverage, including society pages with a who’s who of attendees and photo spreads of fashionably dressed race fans.

Army and Navy Take Over Track

Fans were disappointed when the track quickly went bankrupt, then were buoyed by several reorganization attempts—but they would have to wait longer than expected for the return of East Bay horse racing. The United States entered World War ll in December 1941 and soon the track became more valuable for military operations than for racing.

In the spring of 1942, the army began using the Golden Gate Turf Club as a training center. By February 1944, the Navy took over the track to establish the Naval Landing Force Equipment Depot, the largest of three depots in the U.S. built for servicing and repairing small landing craft used during the war.

Soon some 3,000 Navy personnel were working at the site. Landing craft were lined up along the track, infield and parking lot, and the grandstand and clubhouse were converted for barracks, repair shops, and offices. A pier was built into the bay to facilitate launching and testing of the craft.

The Naval Landing Force Equipment Depot operated at the Albany racetrack during World War II.

Racing Returns to Albany

The Navy would occupy the site until mid-1947. Horse racing did not return to the Albany track until September 1947, two years after the end of the war and nearly seven years after the track was built.

When racing finally began again, the public responded. More than 30,000 fans thronged the September 9 grand re-opening of the newly named Golden Gate Fields racetrack, creating a massive traffic jam on local highways.

Over the next several decades thousands of people showed up for race days at the track, which attracted top jockeys including Bill Shoemaker and Russel Baze, and famous horses such as Silky Sullivan (buried in the track’s infield) and Citation.

End of an Era

In more recent years, the popularity of horse racing has declined. Increased gambling competition, online betting, and news of numerous horse deaths have all affected the industry, reducing the number of fans showing up at racecourses. Tanforan (the oldest inner Bay Area track) was the first Bay Area racecourse to close in 1964. Bay Meadows shut down in 2008 and Golden Gate Fields held its last race on June 9, 2024.

As the era of major Bay Area horse racing comes to a close, Golden Gate Fields—the track that had so many problems beginning—finished its run as the last track standing.

Comments from 9-2024 (brought forward after site update):

9-6-2024 Emma: Congrats on the new blog!!

Karen: Many Thanks!

9-7-2024 Kate: Thanks for this background on GGF. I didn’t realize how popular horse racing was in the 40’s and 50’s. And I never would’ve guessed the Fields were used to store Naval equipment!

Karen: Yes, so much of the East Bay was transformed during WWII. Thanks for reading!

9-7-2024 Carol Fitzgerald: So interesting, Karen. I knew of the hill removal but not the use by the Navy. Thank God we never let the city or developers saw off the top of Albany Hill.

Karen: It’s interesting that there were multiple proposals to remove the top of Albany Hill. The idea of moving massive amounts of dirt was not that uncommon a few decades ago.

9-9-2024 Rochelle Nason: Fascinating history Karen, I am excited to follow your blog!

Karen: Thank you Rochelle!

9-10-2024 Keith Marengo: Nice work Karen….most complete and comprehensive history of GG fields I’ve come across. I wonder if it should mention the countless number of young drivers that learned to drive in the 2 acre parking lot on off racing days? Ha! I am one of them! Living and playing on Albany Hill, Golden Gate fields meant a lot to me. The beautiful little beach behind the Turf Club was a place for reflection and unwinding with a great view of the Golden Gate and the City. THanks, Karen. Keith Marengo

Karen: Thanks for reading Keith. And thanks for your memories!