The Panama-Pacific International Exposition -Southern Alameda County Edition -110th Anniversary
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Courtesy of the MAFUN - Museum Alliance of Fremont, Union City, and Newark
More colorful photos from the National Archive
More colorful photos from the National Archive
For 2025, three historic sites in Fremont are again joining California Preservation Foundation's Doors Open on Sunday September 21st.
Find the local schedule here on the Museum Alliance website and for other details that may arise before the event.
California Greeted the World in 1915
and We Were There
California Greeted the World in 1915
and We Were There
We've gathered items for the 110th anniversary of the Panama-Pacific International Exposition.
The Innocent Fair "This documentary of the Panama-Pacific International Exposition in 1915 was produced by Lee Mendelson - his first effort (Mendelson later went on to produce many classic television programs, including the "Charlie Brown" specials). Mendelson found a cache of 1915 Nitrate films in a Tiburon antique store, and in 1961 aired this documentary on KPIX. The film is credited with inspiring the rescue of San Francisco's Palace of Fine Arts, which by 1961 was slated for the wrecking ball." From the California Pioneers of Santa Clara County.
Washington Township Museum of Local History
Washington Township Museum of Local History
Visit the museum to learn about how people in our area – Alvarado, Alviso, Centerville, Decoto, Drawbridge, Irvington, Mission San Jose, Newark, Niles, and Warm Springs (Today’s cities of Fremont, Newark and Union City) – took time from their daily lives to visit the fair once, twice, and even many times over the 10 months that the fair welcomed the world to San Francisco.
Shinn Historical Park & Arboretum - "Emily Goes to the Fair"
Shinn Historical Park & Arboretum - "Emily Goes to the Fair"
The exhibit "Emily Goes to the Fair"!
Florence Shinn's mother, Emily Mayhew, kept a diary on her visit to the PPIE.
What did Emily see? Items from the archives illustrate Emily's notes.
Visit us in the Shinn House Museum. The museum is open first Wednesday and third Sunday when the house is open for tours and for special events. Please contact mphf.secretary@gmail.com if you wish to have a group tour.
Patterson House at Ardenwood Park
Patterson House at Ardenwood Park
The Japanese Commissioner's building came to the Patterson Ranch after the exposition close. See the 1988 report about the excavation of the site by the California State University, East Bay.
Niles Film Museum
Niles Film Museum
- Schedule TBD
California Nursery Historical Park
California Nursery Historical Park
The 20-acre park has new interpretive boards about the history of the California Nursery Company, established in 1884 in Niles. When the museum is open, you can see the exhibit about Moving the Palms from Niles to San Francisco to create the Avenue of Palms, a major feature of the Exposition.
Read about the landscaping of the Exposition in the Summer 2015 Eden Journal . The California Nursery provided plants to the Exposition. See "Nursery Order for the Avenue of Palms." Other articles about Exposition Landscaping were written by Laura Ackley and Marlea Graham,.
The 1915 catalog was well illustrated with photos and included some photos related to the PPIE.
The Show Gardens at the front of the park were created in 1934 and so they were not here in 1915. Instead cars made their way through what is now the Rose Garden. The palms and the olives marked out this nursery block and were here since the late 1880s.
Volunteers of the California Nursery Garden Club are in the Office Gardens most Mondays and Thursdays. Stop by to visit. The Museum has hours, too.
Eberly Siding shows up on iPhone map
Rancho Arroyo Park
Rancho Arroyo Park
Rancho Arroyo Park is on Montecito Drive near Posada Way.
If you walk up to the train tracks and BART tracks, this is where Eberly siding was located - where the palms (and other plants) were loaded onto the Western Pacific Railway cars at Eberly siding. Your phone may say that this location is "Eberly" which was named after the California Nursery manager, W.V. Eberly. The name has stuck. Do the neighbors living next to the park know that the monumental palms and trees that left from here?
BART follows the Western Pacific right-of-way, much of the way to Oakland. Next time you are on BART, you can imagine what the people of Hayward and San Leandro thought about seeing huge palms and other trees passing by.
The Western Pacific Oakland Mole is where passengers and palms would have taken a ferry or barge to the Exposition site. How do we know? The Fremont Main Library has the shipping records.
Horace Cotton wrote his thesis on the landscaping of the Exposition. Two photos from his thesis on p.56-57 are photos taken from Eberly. One other photo is of the palms being boxed. It is not marked as such in the book, but those of us who have seen other photos know!
Pacific Service Feb 1915 issue This fanciful (and impossible) picture would have whetted the appetites of the Pacific Service Magazine readers.
Niles Station
Niles Station
Niles Station is where many Niles passengers would have boarded the train to SF. Visit the Niles Depot Museum in downtown Niles. Take a ride on the Niles Canyon Railway which runs on a portion of the Transcontinental Railroad.
You can drive to Oakland to the Middle Harbor Shoreline Park to see where the palms and passengers would have made a connection to a ferry. A little museum is there to tell the history.
Niles Western Pacific Railway Station
Niles Western Pacific Railway Station
Niles/Shinn Station was the Western Pacific Railway station that crossed the Shinn property. Some visitors (those who lived in Centerville?) would have taken the train to SF from here. The train would have taken passengers to the Western Pacific Mole, which was just south of the Central Pacific Long Wharf. The gravel plant - or whatever that is today - was the location of the old station which no longer exists.
Poppy Nymph at the Niles Library
Poppy Nymph at the Niles Library
The Poppy Nymph - was she at the PPIE or wasn't she? One side and the other. It is still worth a visit to the Niles library which is a very tiny, historic, and charming library. It is only open on Fridays. Have lunch in Niles and browse the shops. and visit the Niles Depot Museum.
Liberty Bell
Liberty Bell
Liberty Bell Day, July 17, 1915. This was a really big deal to have the Liberty Bell come through your town. The Liberty Bell crossed the SF Bay at Dumbarton cutoff at Newark. It did not go through Oakland and then on the ferry. Find the link for this article when CDNC is back up. What towns did it pass through? Niles? Livermore?
Model T Ford
Model T Ford
“A Model-T was produced every ten minutes at Henry Ford’s Concession in the Palace of Transportation."
In the (old) NEWS
In the (old) NEWS
June 10th - Alameda County Day
June 10th - Alameda County Day
Volume 3 of Frank Morton Todd's The story of the exposition : being the official history of the international celebration held at San Francisco in 1915 to commemorate the discovery of the Pacific Ocean and the construction of the Panama Canal
What did the newspapers report?
ALAMEDA DAY AT THE FAIR - June 10th
Practically All of Alameda County Attended the Big Exposition Thursday. WASHINGTON TOWNSHIP IS WELL REPRESENTED Industrial Parade Has Floats Representing Great Variety of Manufactured Goods of Alameda County.
ALAMEDA DAY AT THE FAIR - June 10th
Practically All of Alameda County Attended the Big Exposition Thursday. WASHINGTON TOWNSHIP IS WELL REPRESENTED Industrial Parade Has Floats Representing Great Variety of Manufactured Goods of Alameda County.
ALAMEDA DAY AT THE FAIR Practically All of Alameda County Attended the Big Exposition Thursday. WASHINGTON TOWNSHIP IS WELL REPRESENTED Industrial Parade Has Floats Representing Great Variety of Manufactured Goods of Alameda County.
Alameda county was deserted Thursday, the big Alameda County day at the Panama-Pacific International Exposition at San Francisco. Financially and socially, the county was transplanted from the eastern shores of the bay to San Francisco. Even throughout Washington township business was almost an unknown thing. Practically every store closed that was not compelled by legal procedure or the laws of necessity to keep its doors open. Many people went from the smaller town of the county, more than fifty from Niles, a large number from Irvington, Mision San Jose, Centerville, Newark, Alvarado, Decoto and more northern towns. Livermore and Pleasanton sent a special train. The celebration in San Francisco began with the industrial parade at 10 o’clock. Nearly sixty floats, representing everything from a boat to a tooth pick that is manufactured in this county was in the parade. place at the exposition grounds In the afternoon games ...sports were in order. ...was closed with a spectacular display of fireworks.
The PPIE 100 was a state-wide celebration of the Panama-Pacific International Exposition. Visit the old website to see the many fabulous exhibits.
Articles written for 2015 events
For more on the museum organizations see the MAFUN - Museum Alliance of Fremont, Union City, and Newark
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