General
90 Years of East Bay Regional Parks. Today, the East Bay Regional Park District features 73 parks and is the largest regional park district of its kind in the nation. The Park District manages over 126,809 acres of parklands, 55 miles of shoreline, and over 1,330 miles of trails in Alameda and Contra Costa counties, available for hiking, biking, swimming, horseback riding, boating, fishing, picnicking, camping, and nature discovery. Learn more about the history of this park system.
Alameda info has information and historic images, such as old postcards, photos and maps, mainly of Alameda City and County, in California.
Alameda Japanese American History Project Oral History Collection – This collection consists of interviews with Nisei and Sansei talking about the Japanese American community in Alameda, California. The project partners include The Internet Archive (archive.org), the Alameda Library, the Buddhist Temple of Alameda, Buena Vista United Methodist Church, Rhythmix Cultural Works, and Densho. The Alameda Museum also contributed but was not a partner in the process. The goal of the Alameda Japanese American History Project is to reach and educate the world wide general public.
Alameda Japanese American History Project – For the past three years, Densho has been working with the Alameda Japanese American History Project to research, document and preserve the history of the Japanese Americans of Alameda who lived through the era of forced removal, incarceration and post-war return.
Ardenwood Historic Farm — East Bay Regional Parks District website on the Patterson House and the surrounding farm.
BARTalk – BART once had an employee-only magazine, and 87 issues from 1981-2003 have been digitized. Learn more about what BARTalk covered.
California Bricks — Dan Mosier co-author of “History of Tesla, a California Coal Mining Town” has a website on California Bricks. There were several brick yards in Fremont which provided material for local buildings and structures, and they are listed and discussed on his site.
Dorothea Lange Exhibit – Dorothea Lange was in the Washington Township in 1942 as part of the War Relocation Authority project, 1942-1945
Kristi Yamaguchi
- Team USA Hall of Fame Bio
- The Enduring Legacy of Kristi Yamaguchi, Skating Authority
- Olympics.com Bio
- Kristi Yamaguchi, AAPI History
- Wikipedia
- Barbie Inspiring Women Kristi Yamaguchi Collectible Doll in 1992 Winter Olympics Fashion
Nancy Pratt’s historical artwork, featuring Bay Area locations, including Fremont, Newark, and Mission San Jose.
Ohlone/Coastanoan Information: Alameda County Library
Paleontology: Alameda County Library
Paleontology: Wesley Gordon Collection (Boy Paleontologist)
Pacific Bus Museum — The Pacific Bus Museum, an active organization of “bus enthusiasts” based in Northern California, is dedicated to honoring the history of this unique form of transportation.
San Francisco Bay Wildlife Society
Tankhouses – Tankhouses were a once common sight on Fremont farms: small buildings topped with a wooden water tower, used to store and pressurize water before piped water reached the area. This site resurrects a website originally created by Margaret Thornberry, President Emerita of the Fremont Cultural Arts Council, who researched and documented them after moving to Fremont. Margaret moved to Fremont in 1996 and bought an old, run-down house on a quarter acre. She later found out the property once had a well, though the tankhouse itself was already gone. She grew up in timber country in Oregon, so tankhouses were strange and new to her. The more she saw around Fremont, the more she wanted to learn about them. At the time, she was building websites for work, so she started documenting what she found online. Over time, that old site was lost, but it lived on in an archived snapshot, which is what brought it back today.
Olivia P. attends American High School (2026). As an intern for the Fremont Cultural Arts Council, she took on this fun opportunity to learn about local history by diving into the history of these buildings. Through this research, she learned how closely the tank houses are tied to Fremont’s roots. Now she has a deeper connection to her own community and feels inspired to stay involved in preserving it.
Washington Hospital Healthcare System History & Historic Photos — A history of the hospital.
Visit the hospital in person to view a large selection of colorized photographs of Washington Township history. These photos line the walls of the main hospital and the Morris Hyman Critical Care Pavilion.
Wines and Vines of California: a treatise on the ethics of wine-drinking by Frona Eunice Wait
250 page book, scanned, text-only view – mentions Santa Clara and Alameda Counties, among many others.
Fremont
Centerville
Centerville Depot — On Saturday morning May 29, 1909, the first steam-powered passenger train into Centerville received a hearty welcome. A cannon was fired, the locomotive was decorated with flags, and the train crew was presented with Centerville’s choicest fruits and flowers.
Historic Mission San Jose
Historical Marker at Mission San Jose
Historic Mission San Jose — The official website of the mission.
Mission San Jose History — The Franciscan missionaries had long hoped to establish a “chain” of missions in which each link of the chain would be a day’s ride apart on horseback.
Ohlone College Archives — The official website of the Ohlone College Archives
Gardens at Palmdale Walking Tour — Palmdale has a long history reaching back to the Ohlone Native Americans. They were once part of the old Mission San Jose. The gardens were later owned by a series of owners: E.L. Beard, Juan Gallegos, Henry Lachman, the Metzger family, and the Starr and Best families. Most recently, Palmdale was home to the Sisters of the Holy Family for seventy years, from 1948-2017. The gardens continue to be a significant feature of the historic Mission San Jose District. Please check the website and Facebook page for updates.
Irvington
Sabercat Historical Park Signs / Interpretive Panels – Learn the history of Sabercat Historical (linear greenway) Park
Niles
Belvoir Springs Hotel — When Charlie Chaplin dined at the Hotel Belvoir, he sat in a formal dining room under 15-foot ceilings, while waiters served up famous chicken dinners from stained glass trays.
Save Niles Canyon — Information about Niles Canyon History and about a community to Preserve Niles Canyon.
Niles Canyon Railway (NCRY) — A railway museum where the exhibits come alive.
Niles Depot Website — includes information about Niles Depot Museum, Tri-City Society of Model Engineers, Niles Depot Historical Foundation. There is also historical information about Western and Southern Pacific Railroad Depots in Niles, Centerville and other nearby depots.
Niles Tower and Environs — A history of southern Pacific and Western Pacific Railroad in the East Bay.
California Nursery Historical Park — The 20.1 acre property is the remnant of the California Nursery Company, a once a grand nursery operation that brought notable presence to the East Bay and was significantly associated with the evolution of the nursery industry on a statewide level. See also this page on the Math/Science Nucleus site.
