maple hall
Cover Photo: Maple Hall Courtyard at Alvarado Square, 13831 San Pablo Avenue. This Hall was completed in October 1977.
Maple Hall : Then and Now
The main center for events and live entertainment that came to San Pablo was centered around and held in our own Maple Hall. Thanks to the Portuguese of San Pablo, the Hall (then known as the I.D.E.S hall) has been in existence since the early 1900s. The original I.D.E.S. Hall was completed in 1907 by Joe Cabral, John Regello, Frank, Ernest and Manual Rose on land owned by the Society for their Holy Ghost festas. Read more about this early history here: https://sites.google.com/sanpablohistoricalsociety.com/museums/san-pablo-history/the-holy-ghost-society
The original hall, I.D.E.S. Hall, built by the Portuguese residents of San Pablo, can be seen at left in this August 1913 Sanborn Company Map. The hall was located east of Wildcat Creek on what was then known as Church Street. The orchard was at the corner of Dover Street (now Avenue).
Out of view at the top is San Pablo Avenue, then known as Alvarado Road.
Sanborn Fire Insurance Map from San Pablo, Contra Costa County, California courtesy of the Library of Congress Geography and Map Division Washington, D.C. 20540-4650 USA
Known as Maple Hall because of its beautiful maple dance floors, this building on Church Lane at San Pablo Avenue was a lively recreation center, especially during WWII. Dances were held three times a week featuring popular western bands of the era. [Portuguese Chamber of Commerce, 2003]
Of course, aside from dances and concerts, Maple Hall was also the popular meeting place for many local clubs and organizations, Boy Scout troops, class reunions and later home base for the San Pablo Bay Gem Festival, including many a wedding reception.
The 1900s
Sept 1910
1910-1911
1912
Polling Place
Richmond Independent
30 Aug 1912
Graduation Ceremonies
Oakland Tribune
28 May 1925
Benefit Dances
Richmond Independent
20 Aug 1938
The 1940s and 1950s
This was the era of Country-Western music. They came far and wide to perform to a packed house.
An early Maple Hall c1940s. Note the banner advertising Ray Wade who established his own dance hall business at Maple Hall.
Photo courtesy of the out-of-print publication, "The Avenue and the Lane...A San Pablo Picture Book" by the San Pablo Historical Society.
Oakland Tribune - 27 Aug 1946: Peggy Repke (left) and Gus Raimondi (right) were the first-round winners in the KLX-Cactus Jack World Championship Western Jitterbug contest at Maple Hall in San Pablo. Luke Wills, whose orchestra furnished the music, is shown with them.
Oakland Tribune - 27 Aug 1946
Bob Wills' Music Started Here
Wills played many engagements to a packed house at Maple Hall
Photos taken at Maple Hall 1948
Oakland Tribune - 17 Jan 1970
12 May 1949
Ray Wade and His Rhythm Riders established his own dance hall business in San Pablo's Maple Hall. With his twelve-piece band, the Rhythm Riders, Wade branched out from his home base of San Pablo to tour clubs throughout Northern California and started his own weekly radio show on Oakland's KWBR. And, as writer Al Turner reports, "an immensely popular act on the West Coast in the early/mid-forties."
[1. The Second Gold Rush: Oakland and the East Bay in World War II by Marilynn S. Johnson; 2. Workin' Man Blues: Country Music in California by Gerald Haslam]
A 1945 poster for a benefit concert featuring one of the Bay Area's most popular radio personalities and Western Music stars, Dude Martin and his Round-Up Gang, appearing at the Maple Hall in San Pablo, along with another local favorite, Shorty Joe and the Red Rock Canyon Cowboys. Poster courtesy David Ferrell Jackson
It Wouldn't Be The Same Without You by Dude Martin and his Roundup Gang; Dude Martin; Rose; Wakely. Mercury (1950)
Billboard Magazine was the place to check for what was happening in the entertainment world. In this excerpt from September 1950, Longhorn Joe, a local KROW radio DJ is promoting the dances being held at Maple Hall in San Pablo.
Barbara Fay Logue
Don Churchill
During that era, up and coming young artists were often given appearances with the more mature acts of the day. One such talent was young Barbara Fay Logue (at left) who started singing with Bud Hobbs when she was just five years old. As a teen-ager she was performing Saturday nights at Maple Hall. She appeared with Don Churchill as well as T. Texas Tyler, Dude Martin, Tommy Duncan and Smokey Rogers. [Hillbilly-Music.com - Don Churchill and the Texas Mavericks]
There were many other country-western groups appearing at Maple Hall besides the popular Dude Martin and Ray Wade; Johnny Texeira, the Texas Stars, the Arkansawyers, the Ozark Playboys, and Elwen Cross and the Arizona Ramblers for starters. The names may not be familiar to us today, but back then, they were the popular stars of radio and television creating a hot country music scene.
Unfortunately, Maple Hall was destroyed by fire in October 1944. Shortly after the fire, committee members of the Portuguese Holy Ghost Association reclaimed their pride and glory, coming together to construct a new and sturdier structure.
Efforts to rebuild were immediate as evidenced in these news articles. San Pablo needed their community center restored, and committees were quick to form. Unfortunately, a new earthquake proofing law the following year, put a temporary hold on construction. However, you can see by the Sept. 1946 article below (right), an event was already taking place at the new Maple Hall.
Oakland Tribune - 3 Nov 1944
Oakland Tribune - 1 Apr 1945
Contra Costa Gazette - 16 Jan 1945
Oakland Tribune - 25 Sep 1946
Interior shot of Maple Hall during a meeting of the Ladies Auxiliary of the Veterans of Foreign Wars c1951.
Photo courtesy of the out-of-print publication, "The Avenue and the Lane...A San Pablo Picture Book" by the San Pablo Historical Society.
The 1960s
Maple Hall has been used for public and private, business and social events for many years. The hall was a venue for shows by many local bands and up-and-coming rock groups in 1966 and 1967. These concert handbills list some of the popular performers during that time: Country Joe and The Fish, The Purple Earthquake, Savage Resurrection and Chosen For. You may have noticed, even the 5th Dimension once performed at Maple Hall in San Pablo! Others that performed were Jefferson Airplane, Lydia Pense and Cold Blood, Big Brother and the Holding Company, featuring a new singer, Janis Joplin as well as Harbinger Complex, Taj Mahal and many more. The list of rock groups is endless. The majority of these then-unknown groups eventually became internationally famous, starting out at small venues like Maple Hall.
Oct 15, 1966: The Purple Earthquake, The Group, The 5th Dimension, The Just V
Jan 7, 1967: The Purple Earthquake appearing with the Vandells, London Fog, the Group and Chosen For
Jan 27, 1967: Country Joe and the Fish, The Group and Chosen For
Feb 4, 1967: The Zoo, and The Rick Sweet Group
Feb 11, 1967: Lincoln's Promise, The New Concept, and The Illusions
May 5, 1967: Savage Resurrection and Hades Blues Work
May 26, 1967: Jackie Lee, Tow Away Zone, Bowdie Wells, Majestic Sound and The Great Mokelumne Hill
Battle of the Bands: The Button Willow, The Day Trippers and The Purple Earthquake
Nov 25, 1966: 13th Floor Elevators, the Group and Chosen For
Dec 20, 1971: Taj Mahal benefit for Discovery House at Maple Hall on Church Lane in San Pablo 7pm $1.50 [Berkeley Barb, December 17-23, 1971]
The Hall was later torn down to make way for a new Civic Center for San Pablo. The construction plans for a new Maple Hall Community Center, announced in 1974 by the city's redevelopment agency, would be part of the new "Alvarado Square" project.
The new Maple Hall at Alvarado Square, completed in October 1977, was the center of social life for the Portuguese community, and also served as a center for dances, concerts and other forms of live entertainment for the surrounding area.
The New Maple Hall
The New Maple Hall (completed in April 2020 by Overaa Construction) is located within the new San Pablo City Hall Complex at 1000 Gateway Ave, San Pablo.
The $18 million City Hall project replaces the current, aging City Hall at San Pablo Avenue and Church Lane, which is about a quarter mile away. The two-story, 42,000 square foot project is located on 2.8 acres.
San Pablo City Council wanted the new building to keep the identity of the old Spanish colonial mission-style influence of the existing City Hall. according to the city and Overaa Construction the concrete tilt-up structure with interior metal framed office spaces will be LEED-silver certified and include a commercial kitchen, council chambers, community rooms, and 11 electric vehicle charging stations.
This latest structure was also dedicated by the San Pablo Holy Ghost Association as their new home with a well-attended ceremony on April 30, 2022. A copy of the invitation is shown below.
