San Lorenzo, CA 94580

Home, historic site tour planned in San Lorenzo Hayward Daily Review - 8/06/2008 SAN LORENZO — The San Lorenzo Heritage Society is bidding summer goodbye with a Sept. 21 house and historic site tour in the greater Eden area. Autumn begins Sept. 22. Society President Betty Moose said the self-guided tour is a fundraiser for a museum that the society wants to build at Hayward's Kennedy Park, on the Hayward-San Lorenzo border. The cost is $25 per person. The Eden area includes Hayward, San Leandro, Castro Valley, San Lorenzo and other unincorporated areas. People signing up for the tour will receive a map of places to visit between noon and 4 p.m. Sept. 21. Stops will include the San Lorenzo Cemetery, homes from the Victorian era to the mid-1950s, and gardens. A realty office, which has pictures of old San Lorenzo, also is one of the listed stops. Refreshments also will be served at one of the homes. The society meets at 7 p.m. on the third Monday of each month at Christ Lutheran Church, 100 Hacienda Ave. For reservations, send a $25 check to the San Lorenzo Heritage Society, P.O. Box 52, San Lorenzo CA 94580. For more information, call 510-278-2094, 510-782-4874, or 510-278-2405.

William Meek's 2,200 acre farm San Lorenzo, California, circa 1877. (From Official and Historical Atlas of Alameda County, 1878)   The residence of William Meek in San Lorenzo was begun in 1869 and completed in 1870 for $40,000. Meek spent $5,000 on furnishings. By the time the Meek mansion was under construction Meek had acquired some 3,000 acres. The estate included all of the land between what is now Mission Blvd. and Hesperian Blvd., starting from near the San Lorenzo Creek to just past A Street in Hayward. His former partner, Henderson Lewelling, purchased adjoining land to the north (see the 1877 map). Most of Meek's vast acreage was gradually sold off as residential lots. Real estate brokers touted the evolving community as "Cherryland" because of the many cherry trees planted by Meek. The remainder of Meek's estate was held by the Meek family until 1940, when Dr. Milton P. Ream purchased the last 10 acres and the mansion. In 1964 the mansion was slated to be razed in preparation for a housing development. The Hayward Area Recreation and Park District (HARD), with citizen backing, bought the estate. In 1973 the Mansion was placed on the National Register of Historic Places. For a number of years the mansion was available to the public for rental for parties and wedding receptions. However, over-use and the need for greater supervision caused HARD to discontinue the rental policy. Restoration of the carriage house was completed in 1995. In May 1996 undertook restoration of the mansion.

Did you know... The original town of San Lorenzo was at Hesperian (then called Telegraph) and Lewelling (then called Main). John L. Shiman opened the first store in San Lorenzo in 1853. A blacksmith was essential to the community because he didn't just shoe horses. The trip from San Jose to Oakland was slow enough that people often wanted to stop overnight at The Willows Hotel (1863) in San Lorenzo. A second hotel, called the San Lorenzo House, was located at Lewelling and Hesperian. The hotel was a stagecoach stop, and mail was left there for local residents.  David Bohannon developed San Lorenzo Village and became a celebrity within the property development community. His "California Method" of assembly line-style home construction was written about in many building industry publications because of its remarkable results: 1,500 San Lorenzo houses were built in 500 days. Mervin Morris opened his firt Mervyn's store in San Lorenzo in 1948.  It was located at 341 Paseo Grande, although within a few years he moved to a larger store across the street.  By 1960 the store had been expanded 13 times.    Click here for more information on the Did You Know blurbs.

For information on buying or selling east bay homes, please contact me at 510-429-4800 or send me a note on the Contact Joanne form.  Sign up for email alerts   Joanne L. Gardiner, Broker, e-PRO Realtor Advantage Realty Advantage Mortgage Associates 3205 Whipple Road - Union City, California 94587 (510) 429-4800 San Francisco Bay Area  San Francisco East Bay Real Estate Our primary services in the San Francisco Bay Area include East bay real estate: Hayward real estate, Castro Valley real estate,  Danville real estate,  Dublin real estate,  Fremont real estate,  Newark real estate, Niles real estate, Pleasanton real estate, San Leandro real estate, San Lorenzo real estate, San Ramon real estate, Sunol real estate and Union City real estate. We are active on the San Francisco Peninsula: Foster City, San Mateo, Burlingame, Palo Alto and Menlo Park. The types of real estate in which we specialize are:  houses, homes, condominiums, townhomes, garden homes, PUDs, single family homes, manufactured homes, mobile homes, modular homes, duets, residential income property, duplexes, tri-plexes, four-plexes, small apartment complexes and special use properties.