Historic Sites
The tiny city of San Pablo-only 2.6 square miles-is one of the only East Bay cities to have two major streams flowing openly through it; San Pablo and Wildcat Creeks. San Pablo also has two other creeks, Rheem Creek and another small, unnamed stream to the north. The San Pablo Creek watershed is a wealthy one-rich in history, culture, and natural resources.
The first human residents of the area were discovered by Spanish explorers Pedro Fages and Juan Crespi in 1772. But the first to describe them in any detail were Capitán Juan Bautista de Anza and Franciscan missionary and diarist Padre Pedro Font, who rode through the San Pablo area in April 1776. The people the Spanish found here were Ohlone Indians, most likely of the Huchiun clan, a group that lived throughout the East Bay flatlands. The early native American inhabitants of the San Pablo Creek watershed drank from this deep and powerful creek and caught the steelhead that swam in its waters. The middle and upper watershed, too, were first inhabited by Ohlone Indians although it is uncertain whether they were of the Huchiun or Saclan clans. They ate the tubers and roots of the plants that grew in the fertile soils deposited by the creek, and buried their artifacts, the shells and bones of the creatures they ate, and even their own dead along its banks. These mounds are known as kitchen middens, or shellmounds. Shellmounds are man-made mounds of earth and organic matter that were built up by the indigenous peoples over thousands of years. The mounds served many purposes.
Those who came to San Pablo settled in the lower watershed in the mid-1800s and built their modest homes. Unfortunatley, as settlers flooded into the San Francisco area during the Gold Rush, the leveling and desecration of shellmounds began, clearing the way for development. Noticing the rate at which the mounds were vanishing, an archeologist from UC Berkeley named Nels Nelson worked to create a map in 1909 of those which remained. His map identified 425 distinct shellmound sites ringing the San Francisco Bay. Today, only a handful of those remain in a natural state. Most lie buried beneath parking lots and buildings.
Like many of the modest homes built in San Pablo, this one, featured below, was constructed on the remains of one of the Native American shellmound along the lower portion of San Pablo Creek (visiting the home today, you can see that it stands on a small hill).
918 Randy Lane
According to a preliminary Historic Resources Inventory prepared by the Contra Costa County Planning Department in 1976, Bernardo Andrata, from Portugal, constructed his home in the early 1900's along lower San Pablo Creek on the remains of one of the Native American shellmounds (918 Randy Lane), on land purchased from Henri Emeric, son of Joseph [Henri was a former state Fish and Game Commissioner who had become one of the largest property owners in the area after suing the Alvarado/Castro family over title to their land].
He was able to buy a considerable amount of land from his employer who had to sell land to help pay the cost of legal fees. Andrata later sold his home to the Luiz family, who operated a dairy nearby. During the Depression, the Luiz family sold their business and their herd. Later, another farmer grew rhubarb on the former dairy land, and later, lettuce was grown here.
[A Cultural and Natural History of the San Pablo Creek - http://thewatershedproject.org]
Gutierréz Adobe Rancho c1936
Gutierréz Adobe remains c1945
The westernmost land along San Pablo Creek between San Pablo and Wildcat Creeks was owned by another Portuguese settler, Candido Lourenço Gutiérrez. In 1850, Gutiérrez built a large adobe house in Rancho San Pablo along San Pablo Creek's south bank, near the end of present-day Brookside Drive, west of the Southern Pacific tracks. The adobe measured 24 by 48 feet with thick walls sheathed in wood and resting on a stone foundation. This adobe was known as one of the finest mansions of its day. It was also said to be the first house in Contra Costa County with a fireplace. Candido was married to Narcissa "Jovita" Castro, daughter of Juan José Castro and granddaughter of Francisco Castro of Rancho San Pablo.
Candido and Narcissa "Jovita" shipped farm goods off to San Francisco and received supplies literally at their back door, as schooners were able to sail that far up lower San Pablo Creek in those days. Candido Gutiérrez was an business entrepreneur who never gave up despite losing everything numerous times. He died of pneumonia on 4 January 1903 in Emeryville (then considered Oakland). He was buried at Laurel Hill cemetery in San Francisco. The Gutiérrez adobe was razed in 1946.
Another historic home that still stands along the creek was built by Azro Rumrill [1831-1901] in 1884, at what is now 930 Road 20. Rumrill, who was from Vermont, was a farmer and early pioneer. He arrived in California the Spring of 1853 and settled on 54 acres of the old San Pablo Rancho by 1856. An avid promoter of education, he became a school trustee/director. Elected in 1877, he served as a Justice of the Peace for San Pablo and a Supervisor of Contra Costa County. Rumrill's daughter, Maria (Mary) married Walter Theodore Helms in 1907 and eventually lived in the house with her husband. Helms was the first Richmond School District Superintendent, and helped establish an educational system in San Pablo. Rumrill Boulevard was named to honor Azro Rumrill, and Helms Middle School in San Pablo, which backs onto San Pablo Creek, is named in honor of Mr. Helms.
Manual Machado [1830-1908] bought land (30 acres) for truck farming as early as 1852. He built a home along San Pablo Creek c1882 at what was then known as #2022 County Road No. 20, which he used as a guest house for travelers on their way to San Francisco.
Today this historic house is known as the Stanley Alter home, named for one of San Pablo's early city councilmen who purchased the house in 1948.
San Pablo remained a community of small ranches and farms into the early 1930s, although many of its male residents had begun working in the various manufacturing industries cropping up along the Bay.
In 1901, Pacific Coast Oil Company (later Standard Oil) built a refinery on Potrero San Pablo, and by 1920, many men were either working there, for the Southern Pacific railroad, at one of the many powder works (munitions factories) along San Pablo Bay, or at Richmond's brick factory. Chinese settlers, who had come to the area after helping build the transcontinental railroads, worked in shrimp camps along San Pablo Bay and in the powder works, where they were given the most dangerous jobs and paid the lowest wages. As San Pablo's population began to grow, some of the farms were sold and subdivided and replaced by housing tracts. But several remained, yielding rhubarb, celery, lettuce, cauliflower, cabbage, sugar beets, and other "truck crops."
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