Historic Buildings in San Leandro?

What's your favorite old building in San Leandro? Some years ago, a survey found that one in five San Leandro residents wasn't aware of historic buildings in San Leandro. Yes, "progress" in the 1960s and '70s meant many of San Leandro's old structures were torn down. But many beautiful commercial and residential buildings still grace the streets of our city.

The Best Building in downtown San Leandro is an example of a commercial building from the early 20th century. San Leandro State Bank opened its door in the new building in 1911. San Leandro State Bank is long gone, but the building is still at the corner of E. 14th Street and Estudillo Avenue, and it still houses a bank. Pioneer and inventor Daniel Best financed its construction, after he retired from the tractor company he founded. (Later, his son C. L. Best merged Best Tractor with Holt of Stockton to form Caterpillar Tractor, a major employer in San Leandro for most of the 20th century.) Architect W. H. Weeks designed the classic structure, described in a newspaper at the time as a "magnificent matte-glazed terra cotta and re-inforced concrete building".

Here are some examples of old homes in different San Leandro neighborhoods—an Italianate style on Maud, a Colonial Revival on Estudillo, and a Craftsman on Dutton. They not only add character to San Leandro, but they anchor our community in the styles of the San Francisco Bay area in the late 19th and early 20th century.

What's my favorite? Well, I'm the president of the San Leandro Historical Society, and I do love our charming and historic Little Brown Church. It was once the Sunday School wing of the First Presbyterian Church, then served as a missionary school after the church had been dismantled and moved. Now it serves as our meeting place and shares the lot with the Casa Peralta and the San Leandro History Museum in a beautiful history compound in downtown San Leandro. It still has its original redwood siding and stained glass windows.

But I confess that it's the Casa Peralta that has really captured my heart. Partly because it's a visual representation of the mash-up of Mexican and American California. Two granddaughters of the Peralta Spanish land grant family, whose Rancho San Antonio once sprawled across 44,000 acres in the East Bay, built a Colonial Revival home in 1901 at the corner of Clarke and West Estudillo, fitting in with the new American town of San Leandro. When their niece Herminia Peralta Dargie inherited the home in 1926, she looked back to her ancestry and overlaid a Spanish Revival style on the 1901 home, melding the American and Spanish styles. A walled courtyard, arches, and a red tile roof transformed the Colonial Revival home into a Moorish Spanish villa.

But it's the gorgeous tiles, hand-painted and imported from Spain, that draw me back to visit the Casa Peralta. Abstract and pictorial tiles in saturated reds, yellows, blues, and greens. Tiles creating a beautiful fountain, tiles adding color and design to the stairway, tiles depicting Cervantes' story of Don Quixote. Here's a photo of Juan Sabido and his workers, posing with the newly-created courtyard fountain in 1926.

Here's a photo of Mr. Sabido laying terra cotta tile on the Casa roof:

Mr. Sabido's granddaughter still lives in the area. She remembers going to visit her grandfather when he was in charge of the tile work.

And here's a photo of a tile depicting Don Quixote and Sancho Panza, one of many showing the crazy man from La Mancha who tilted against windmills.

The Casa Peralta is now a historic house museum, thanks to the Casa Peralta Foundation which organized to save it from demolition, and to Barbara Mathews Brooks who donated it to the City of San Leandro in 1971, and to the City of San Leandro who has maintained and is now restoring the buildings. If you've never visited the Casa Peralta, it is open on weekends for tours of the interior when docents are available (call 510-577-3474 for hours). It's located at 384 West Estudillo Avenue. The beautiful courtyard is open daily, and a very pleasant place to sit at one of the tables and enjoy a respite from busy downtown San Leandro.

Would you like to know more about San Leandro's architecture and historic buildings? Then you should attend the San Leandro Historical Society 2018 Gala. Our speaker, Wendy Tinsley Becker, is an expert on architectural history, and she did a survey of historic properties for the City of San Leandro. The Gala takes place Friday, October 19, from 6:00 to 9:00 p.m. (doors open at 5:30). There will be good food, raffle and auction prizes, and fascinating local history—all in support of the Historical Society mission to build awareness and appreciation of the history of our diverse city.

Sponsorships are available. Why should you sponsor us? Market your business, get a tax deduction, demonstrate your support for local history to an enthusiastic crowd (our first two galas sold out).

For information about tickets, sponsorships, dinner entrees, and the Historical Society, click here:

San Leandro Historical Society Website

So, what's YOUR favorite old San Leandro building?