Marquis de La Fayette Display

LHS currently has the display shown above on the Marquis de La Fayette. It tries to answer the question: Who was the Marquis de La Fayette and why are we named after him? After you enter the library, walk forward past the media shelves and you will see the display over on the far right by the Homework room. Go up there and check it out!

There is a talk hosted by LHS coming up on the Marquis de La Fayette. Find out more here.

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.

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 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