KNAVE
Oakland Tribune Sun., Sept. 30, 1973 Page 23
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Thompson & West photo from Bancroft Library Last building on left is where swimming pool of Holy Names College is now located. . . It burned in 1953 with the Magee residence at right |
Peralta Heritage Languishes on Holy Names College Campus
FESTIVITIES reminiscent of those colorful Spanish pastoral days so delightfully tranquil in California prior to the Gold Rush will be revived by campus dons and donas next Sunday when the Sons of the American Revolution install a bronze plaque on campus of the Holy Names College, 3500 Mountain Boulevard, marking two historic sites.
The proposed plaque will mark both the route of the old Redwood Road across the college campus that was used from 1856 to 1867, and also the long forgotten adobe Peralta chapel that became a part of the George A. McCrea home on the campus.
Sister Irene Woodward, president of the college, hopes all of Oakland will turn out for the 3 p.m. ceremonies on October 7. Following the plaque dedication there will be an informal reception on the patio of the Kennedy Art Center.
The Peralta heritage at Holy Names College will be apparent throughout the afternoon. From Sister Gertrude Mary Gray, professor of history emeritus at Holy Names College, we learn that two properties make up the present campus. Both trace back to the Antonio Peralta grant, and both had distinguished owners in the William A. Magee family of Alder Farm and in the George McCrea family who loved the historic home they created in the Fruitvale foothills.
EIGHTEEN years have gone by already since Holy Names College moved its campus from the former lands of Vicente Peralta on the shores of Lake Merritt up to the hillside acres where the redwoods flourished and Antonio Peralta's cattle roamed. The year of transfer was 1955. The romance and intrigues of the giant Rancho San Antonio that Don Luis Maria Peralta divided among his four sons has fascinated Sister Gertrude Mary since she first joined the Holy Names College faculty back in 1943. But not until her emeritus days after retirement in 1967 has she devoted time to research on campus history.
Domingo and Ygnacio were the other two Peralta brothers. Antonio's share of the Rancho included Alameda and the fertile land from the Estuary to the hills that became known as Fruitvale or Brooklyn Township. This has been the basic history that includes the change in the 1840s when overland emigration began. Not until February 1850 did Antonio part with any of his land. It was then that he leased 150 acres to be used for farming to the three Patten brothers - Robert, William and Edward. Their settlement east of the Slough that became famed Lake Merritt grew into the town of Clinton, a community with foundation even earlier than that of Oakland.
Sister Gertrude Mary's probing into history centers chiefly from the establishment of the United States Land Commission to settle ownership of land. Here her devotion and diligent work has uncovered considerable information that seems to have remained either forgotten or hidden down through the years. A lot more remains to be uncovered.
IN JUNE 1874 the United States issued its patent for 15,206.59 acres to Antonio Peralta, just five years before his death. Meanwhile, lawyers' fees and court costs created financial problems for the Peraltas to add to the difficulties of controlling their land from squatters.
Antonio built two adobes on what is present 34th Avenue along Peralta Creek, one in 1821 and a larger one in 1840. Both are gone. Still standing at 34th Avenue and Paxton Avenue is his two-story frame dwelling constructed after the 1868 earthquake. This homestead area of 18 acres remained in the family until 1897 when sold to Henry Z. Jones for real estate subdivision.
In the hills above Antonio's rancho home were the redwoods where timber was cut as early as 1852. Lumber was brought down to the wharf on the Estuary where the town of San Antonio developed. One road followed present Park Boulevard and 13th Avenue. Need for a shorter route led to establishment of the old Redwood Road which was marked first as County Road 663, then during 1856 to 1867 as County Road 809 when there were no more redwoods to be cut. This shorter but more difficult route began near Thomas Eager's mill, passed south of Redwood Peak to follow a steep decline through the hills and eventually join the road that led to the San Antonio embarcadero.
DURING the years that the old Redwood Road was used, Antonio Peralta sold considerable property in the area of the road. Peralta and his second wife Maria Dolores Archuleta de Peralta signed these deeds, Sister Gertrude Mary tells us: G. W. Adams, 50 acres in 1855; 18 acres in 1860; Edson Adams, 200 acres in 1860; William Toler 150 acres, 186, and A. Hirschfelder and Sam Levy 98 acres the same year; J. M. Redding, 150 acres, 1862; Michael Feeney, 12 acres, 1863, and James Quigley 54 acres the same year; Jose Archuleta (his brother-in-law) 24 acres in 1865, and Francois Bigasson 694 acres the same year.
By the end of the 1860s Antonio no longer owned land on the old road.
Bigasson sold his great acreage in two parts. One parcel of 182 acres on the south side of the old road went to Miguel Mella, and in a chain of titles became in 1908 the property of George and Mary McCrea. The large portion north of the road was used for speculation until Charles L. Low, brother of Civil War Governor Frederick Low, established Alder Farm of 181 acres for his wife Susan. Peter A. Finigan held this as his home for seven years until 1884. Thomas Magee and his son William Magee held title for 66 years, until the latter's death in 1950. During the years they reduced the acreage considerably but retained the southern area where the big home was located.
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Photo from the Bancroft Library Archives The George and Mary McCrea home now a part of Holy Names College campus includes a tiny pioneer chapel left of entrance where cowboys once sought blessings |
MIGUEL Mella held his 182 acres for six years before a span of years found Theodore Wolleb the title holder for 16 years and then Egerton Card for another 15 years.
In 1908 when George and Mary McCrea purchased the property as 192 acres an interesting period began. First of all, reports Sister Gertrude Mary, the property was divided when Mary McCrea sold the southern 13 acres that finally became the Golden Gate Academy in 1946. The McCreas kept 6.6 acres just south of the Magee residence, land that had long ago been an Indian camping ground. There were also buildings there that intrigued George McCrea who was an architect and engineer. Here he found what he described as an adobe chapel within the walls of one dwelling. In 1913 he redesigned the six-room house that stood in the western part of the land and converted the adobe chapel into the dining room of their home.
So pleased was was Architect McCrea with his homesite he wrote in the May 1919 issue of The Architect and Engineer of California that "It was a poor Indian who could not pick a better site for his home than a white man could."
Continuing his story, McCrea added: "I realized this several years ago when I purchased a large piece of property in the hill section of Oakland. The property embraced an old Red Man's camp...
"From his unseen wickiup here the Red Man commanded the entire landscape in every direction... Evidently, the padres, in the days when they mingled with the California Indians, thought the Red Man had chosen wisely, for here on this same site they built a chapel, and from this site carried on early intercourse with the aborigines. I found relics both of the Indian and of the padre... I tackled the problem of remaking what was left..."
THIS unique home George McCrea created for his wife Mary, who was a well known musician, and for his son Robin who lived there until he entered Santa Clara College to study engineering, eventually became the Art Department for the College of Holy Names in 1962, and continued so until the James Kennedy Art Center was completed on the campus. At present the college's Music Department makes good use of it for the Suzuki program teaching little children to play the violin.
After the death of Robin McCrea's parents and some years later when Holy Names College established its campus on the Magee property, Robin McCrea gave the five acres of the Indian camping grounds to the college, substituting the George McCrea Park and Playground on Carson Street for the five-acre gift they had originally made to the City of Oakland.
The remaining 1.7 acres with the charming house belonged to William Schulte for 12 years, and to the Immaculate Heart Sisters of Tucson for six years before being sold to Holy Names College.
Mr. and Mrs. William A. McGee died in 1950 hardly more) than three months apart. The big Magee home burned to the ground in February 1953. Alder Farm was abandoned.
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| Knave - Peralta Heritage Languishes on Holy Names College Campus, part 1 |
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| Knave - Peralta Heritage Languishes on Holy Names College Campus, part 2 |
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