Lafayette Cemetery Talk and Tour

Who’s Who in the Lafayette Cemetery! 

Join us at one or both of our October events and find out!

Lafayette’s Cemetery has been a landmark for many years.

Henrietta Hodges died of tuberculosis in 1854 when she was only 13 years old. Unfortunately, there was no cemetery to properly bury young Henrietta.  Medford Gorham permitted her burial on a portion of his land which was adjacent to the Hodges’ homestead.  “It was a pleasing grassy knoll with good drainage and a vista of lovely valleys and hills and hillsides.”

“The route of a road to commence at the road leading from Martinez to the Redwoods at or near the Grave Yard” was the official description given to the main thoroughfare that is now the interchange near Mt.Diablo Boulevard and Pleasant Hill Road on January 8, 1856!

Lafayette Cemeterybecame official on October 15, 1874, when Medford Gorham sold four and a half acres of his land for $100 to the newly formed Cemetery Corporation of Lafayette.  By that time many other settlers had been laid to rest there.  John Standish died in 1867 and is buried in the cemetery.  He is a direct descendent of Myles Standish, the Mayflower pilgrim.

Learn more about the history of Lafayette’s cemetery on October 26 from Mary McCosker and Nancy Flood  as part of our speaker’s series – plus take part in our first ever walking tour of Lafayette Cemeteryon October 30.  Attend both events and receive a $5 discount from your requested donation.

Seating is limited for the talk on October 26 and the cemetery grounds can be difficult to navigate because of the unpaved uneven grounds.  For questions or reservations email lafayette.history@comcast.net or call the History Room at (925) 283-1848.

Town Hall Theatre Tour July 2011

Clive Worsely, Artistic Director of Town Hall Theatre took almost 40 attendees on an exclusive tour of Town Hall Theatre on July 21.  Visitors learned much of the history as well as current productions and the education that happens in the historic building.  We toured behind the scenes and the dressing room.  Refreshments were enjoyed while thoughts of the past were shared.

Exclusive Tour of Lafayette’s Town Hall Theatre

Take a Back Stage Tour of Lafayette’s Unknown Gem

Julie Sullivan, Author

Artistic Director Clive Worsley calls Lafayette’s Town Hall Theatre, which has stood at 3535 School Street since 1914, an unknown gem because many Lamorinda residents aren’t aware it exists. 

On Thursday, July 21, from 7:00 – 8:30 p.m. Lafayette Historical Society is providing an insider’s tour of this historic structure, including back stage, prop and dressing rooms and Worsley’s overview of the building’s history. 

The tour is limited to the first 50 people who make reservations, and a donation of $10 for LHS members and $15 for non-members is requested.   (Handicap access is limited to the theatre itself and is not available backstage.  Parking is on School Street.)

Those attending will sit in on a rehearsal of Thornton Wilder’s Our Town currently in production, visit with directors Joel Roster and Dennis Markam, and be able to purchase refreshments at the concession stand.  Worsley will outline future productions and offer any new subscriber who signs up that evening a discount on season tickets. 

Town Hall is the oldest continuously active theatre in Contra Costa County, according to  the Town Hall website, http://www.thtc.org.  Check there for more information about future performances. 

“We decided to sponsor this tour because Town Hall is one of the few remaining historical buildings in Lafayette,” according to Mary McCosker, LHS president.  “This year is also the one hundredth anniversary of the Lafayette Improvement Association (LIA), the group that raised the money to build Town Hall.” 

Mary provided a history of the building and the groups that have met there.  Under the impetus of the Lafayette Improvement Club (renamed the Lafayette Improvement Association in 1941) the building, originally intended for community and social events, was constructed in 1914 on land donated by Frank and Rosa Ghiglione.  Hundreds of people attended the Saturday night dances, many arriving by train from Oakland, Martinez and Antioch.  Often the trains waited at the station on School Street until 3 a.m. to take revelers home.

Use of the building for theatrical performances began in 1941 with the Lafayette Playshop, and in the late 1940’s the Straw Hat Review held summer productions there.  In 1955 the Dramateurs began performances and contributed time and money in modernizing the building.  In 1956 the Laf-Frantics began performing at the hall, and both groups entertained residents for many years. 

In 1964 Town Hall was temporarily shut down for safety reasons, and LIA and the Dramateurs conducted a Save Town Hall fundraising drive that successfully restored the building.   The Laf-Frantics ended their performances in 1986 after 30 years, and in 1991 the Dramateurs reorganized as the Town Hall Theatre Company of Lafayette.     

For more information call (925) 283-1848 or visit the History Room in the Lafayette Library and Learning Center – Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday, 10 a.m. – 2 p.m.

The Caldecott Fourth Bore-Tunneling Through Time

The locale is the Caldecott Tunnel Fourth Bore between Orinda and Oakland.  Imagine the time is the late Miocene period, about 10 million years ago.  The climate is warmer and abundant greenery flourishes.  Gone are the rugged, rocky hills, the freeways, the cities.  In their place is a verdant river flood plain where small, rodent like creatures nest in the savannah grassland, and antelope and gazelle graze peacefully on lush foliage.  Let your imagination move forward several million years to the Pleistocene period, a mere one million years ago.  The scene is much the same, but suddenly the earth trembles.  An enormous hairy creature emerges from the thick undergrowth and lumbers toward the river to drink.  It’s a giant sloth bigger than a 17-person van.

This is the picture geologist Jim Allen creates of what the tunnel locale used to look like, partially from fossils similar to those being found in the Caldecott Fourth Bore excavation.  Jim will share the discoveries paleontologists have found at the Lafayette Library and Learning Center, part of the Lafayette Historical Society’s (LHS) speakers series.

Along with Jim, Caldecott Fourth Bore public information officer Ivy Morrison will give an overview of the tunnel progress and a glimpse of the complicated excavation process.  The Fourth Bore project is a partnership between the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans), the Contra Costa Transportation Authority (CCTA) and the Alameda County Congestion Management Agency (ACCMA).

Jim will bring rock samples from both the eastern (Orinda) and the western (Oakland) excavations, showing how different the rock formations are on each side of the tunnel.  The tunnel is projected to open to traffic in 2013 and to be completely finished with all landscaping in 2014.  A complete history of the tunnel, the excavation process and photos are available on the website www.caldecott-tunnel.org. 

For more information or to make reservations for the June 14 presentation call 925-283-1848 or send an email to lafayette.history@comcast.net.  Or visit the History Room in the Library and Learning Center – enter on Golden Gate Way

Treasure Island’s 1939 Golden Gate Exposition

What do the Lafayette Historical Society, The Treasure island Museum Association and the 1939 Golden Gate International Exposition have in common?

The mystery began one morning here in the History Room in early 2010 and will end on May 10 at the Annual Meeting & Potluck Dinner!

Join your friends, neighbors and fellow Lafayette Historical Society members at our Annual Meeting and Potluck Dinner on Tuesday, May 10 at 6:00 pm in the Community Hall in the Lafayette Library & Learning Center and you will find out!

Anne Schnoebelen, vice president of the Treasure Island Museum Association and curator of the artifacts on display in the Library & Learning Center and the History Room, is the featured speaker at the meeting. Anne and her colleagues will bring unique and very interesting artifacts from the 1939 Exposition for everyone to view.

Don’t miss this annual event and very special presentation!

For questions or reservations please call (925) 283-1848, send an email to lafayette.history@comcast.net or send your check to P.O. Box 133, Lafayette, CA 94549

Donations are requested $10.00 LHS Members and $15.00 for Nonmembers. PLUS please bring your favorite hearty salad or casserole – and serving utensils. Dessert and coffee provided by LHS Board Members.

“What’s Happened Since the Railroad’s Been Gone”

Our Speaker Series continues on Wednesday, April 6 at 3:00 pm with Stuart J. Swiedler.  His presentation,  The East Bay Hills Project  is a collection of largely unpublished aerial images accompanied by ground-based photos that follows the 17-mile right-of-way of the Sacramento Northern Railroad.  You’ll see highlights and details of Rockridge, Lake Temescal, the Mountain Boulevard Freeway, Montclair, Shepherd and Redwood Canyons, Moraga, Lafayette, Saranap and downtown Walnut Creek. You’ll feel as though you’re part of a group of hikers taking a direct route from the base of the Oakland hills to the oldest section of central Walnut Creek.  You see the beauty of the area, including scenic paths, lakes, reservoirs, creekbeds, redwood forests and small communities that have been shielded from major highways and large public centers. You’ll discover changes in the landscape brought about by major public works projects, development and preservation efforts that came to a head in the 1950′s and 1960′s. 

Stu will show special images including chilling photos of the Sacramento Northern Railroad tunnel connecting Redwood and Shepherd Canyons.  He will provide the location of a Roger Heller photo posted on the Web that has baffled experts and share never before published views of the Lafayette “Loop”. He will also address the challenge of documenting changes from the 1950′s in Lafayette’s southern- and eastern-most sections of Burton Valley, Glenside and the section shared with Saranap traversed by Olympic Boulevard.

Stu, an Oakland resident is a member of the Lafayette and Moraga Historical Societies.

For questions or reservations please call (925) 283-1848, send an email to lafayette.history@comcast.net or send your check made payable to LHS to  P.O. Box 133, Lafayette, CA 94549

February Speaker Series: “Old Bones in the New Tunnel”

You may have seen the article in the July 19, 2010 Contra Costa Times titled “Fourth Bore Bones”.  Dr. Lanny Fisk, principal paleontologist for PaleoResources Consultants based in Auburn, CA was quoted as saying “It’s rare to tunnel through a sequence like this. It’s like laying time on its side.” The article went on to say that this is the first time Caltrans has hired paleontologists at the beginning of a freeway project to monitor for fossils.

The fourth-bore drilling project is carving through many layers of earth formation 9-million to 10-million years old.  Construction workers have unearthed fossils from the Miocene period in previous sites in our region and now we know that bones are being discovered in this project!

We will have professionals involved with the Caldecott Tunnel Fourth Bore project speak to attendees on their findings.

The presentation will be held in the Arts and Science Room in the new Lafayette Library and Learning Center (Mezzanine level). Enter on the First Street side of the building. Donations are requested to defray the cost of room rental. ($10/members – $15/nonmembers)

Seating is limited.  Call 925.283.1848 or email Lafayette.history@comcast.net for more information or reservations!