Street Numbers and Signs: Quite A Project in 1920-21
Walking or driving around town, it is easy to assume that street signs and house and building numbers have been there since the town was founded in 1848-49 or at least shortly thereafter. But in fact, it was not until the town was 70 years old that the Martinez Chamber of Commerce pressured the City’s […]
The Story of Martinez Street Names….
Picking up where Charlene left off After Thomas Brown completed the survey, streets began appearing on a north/south – east/west grid. We believe Col. Smith had an ulterior motive for naming the downtown east/west streets after his San Francisco business friends and associates listed above. He was hoping they would invest in the new town. […]
Col. William Smith founded a city. So why not name the streets?
Editor’s Note: The late Charlene Perry, her husband, Al, and a number of other town ‘history buffs’ formed the Martinez Historical Society in 1976. Charlene, the only official “City Historian” in Martinez, spent the next 25 years working to preserve and increase awareness and pride in the history of our city. One of her many […]
Wrapping up the Western Hills – Foster Street etc.
As always, thanks to the late Charlene Perry for the gift she gave to the Historical Society and therefore the City of Martinez by not only working to establish the Borland Home Museum site but for spending hours research and writing about early Martinez history. Many have followed her lead and added to it over […]
The True Story of How Soto Street Got Its Name
Frank Silva Soto and Antonio Bertola: Their History and Streets This week we present something unusual: a correction that is not buried on the right–hand bottom of page umpteen under the lottery results and that day’s list of famous peoples’ birthdays but is actually the lead paragraph of this week’s column. Following the admittedly speculative […]
Street Names, Street Names! Everywhere in Martinez a Street Name!
Todays column will start exploring the origin of street names south of the Alhambra/Berrellessa merge at the county hospital extending towards Forest Hills. But first, one more ‘old town’ street name mystery’s solution: the origin of the naming of Duncan Drive that runs south up a hill off the western part of Arreba. Bill Kelleher, […]
Fran Hammond Recollections, Including a Childhood on Granger’s Wharf
Frances Mary (Gianno) Hammond, a fourth-generation Martizian, was born in Carmel Valley at the Peninsula Hospital on January 7, 1937. Her father, Pietro Gianno, was born in Tropani, Italy on February 15, 1903. He came to the United States via Ellis Island when he was 18 years old, taking a train to California to stay […]