The Teixeira Home - San Pablo City Hall Building 6

The Teixeira Home is believed to have been built in the early 1890s, and was initially located at the corner of Van Ness and Standard Avenue in San Pablo. From at least as early as 1918, the home was occupied by Guilherme (William) Jacinto Teixeira and his wife Luzia (Lucy) Bettencourt Teixeira. Both were born in Portugal, and had arrived in the United States in 1905 and 1912 respectively (United States Census Bureau 1930). The family grew to include four children, Manuel (born 1917), Edward (born 1920), Eugene (born 1923), and Mary (born 1926). No documentation has been found to identify the builders and/or occupants of the house before Guilherme Teixeira’s arrival in the United States in 1905. Occupied by members of the Teixeira family from at least the early 20th century until the 1970s, the Teixeira home is associated with the immigration and settlement of Portuguese families into western Contra Costa County. Beginning in the 1850s with agricultural laborers, migration at time of Guilherme Teixeira’s arrival in 1905 also provided labor for the growing industrial employers in the area, including oil and gas processors and explosives manufacturers, as well as congregation members for nearby St. Paul’s Catholic church.

As long-term San Pablo residents and contributors to the city’s economic and social development, the Teixeira family who occupied this building are considered to be significant individuals in the city’s past. Mrs. Teixeira, the last occupant of the home before it was used as a City of San Pablo building, continued to represent this aspect of the building’s history as its occupant after its relocation to Alvarado Square.

The building was moved not far from its original location in 1974. The 1913 and 1928 Sanborn maps show that the house was originally situated among widely spaced residences, in a broader neighborhood centered around the I.D.E.S. hall, St. Paul’s Catholic church, and Alvarado Street’s (San Pablo Avenue’s) small-scale commercial strip of garages, saloons, billiard halls, and stores (including the grocery store that incorporated the Alvarado Adobe as a storage space). Even after it was moved, “Mrs. Teixeira” remained living in the house – an undated document provided by the City of San Pablo states that “…the structure has been moved to a new San Pablo Avenue location. Mrs. Teixeira will continue to live there for the balance of her life, at which time the house will become a historical structure and used as part of the park facilities.”

Today, the Teixeira home is on the western margin of Alvarado Square, overlooking Wildcat Creek to the west of the main City Hall grouping, at the rear side of the 1978 Maple Hall Community Center and the covered parking lot used by visitors and staff of the city buildings. Although it is not eligible for a *CRHR listing, the building was considered to be of historical significance. The historical significance of the building was stated in 1975 as “local,” as the house was “Home of one of San Pablo’s leading families.” The plans for the relocated building included that it become “a community facility at its new location in the Alvarado Square Historic Park Complex.” It was also used for City Hall functions and as a youth center.  The Teixeira home is listed as a Building of Historical Significance (No. 16) in the San Pablo General Plan 2030 (2011:7.25), and “Structure of Historical Significance” according to the Contra Costa County Historic Resources Inventory (2016:55). *[California Register of Historical Resources]

Just a little over two blocks from the original location of the Teixeira’s home, the I.D.E.S. (Society of the Divine Holy Spirit) hall, built in 1908 near the current location of the Maple Hall Community Center, served the Portuguese community spiritually and socially until it was demolished in 1975 to make way for the current City Hall complex. Today a monument in the complex’s northernmost courtyard commemorates the San Pablo Holy Ghost Association’s contribution to the city. Through this association, the Teixeira home possesses adequate historical significance.

Photos from the City of San Pablo Historic Resource Assessment Report May 2017