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The view south along San Pablo Avenue from about Hill Street. The “Flying A” station is on the right and the well-known “Louie’s Club,” run by Louie Nicoli and Lou Favero, is on the left. El Cerrito Historical Society

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CHAPTER 1 A Million-Dollar Headache

t was an exciting time along San Francisco Bay. The convulsion caused by World War II was over. The shipyards were closing. GIs were back home, including such local heroes as Ernest Navellier, a ball gunner on a B 24 I 1 Liberator, a veteran of 50 combat missions over enemy territory in Europe. No longer was the El Cerrito Journal reporting local boys killed or missing in action —flyer Bill Tom, “one of the beloved older boys” from El Cerrito’s Chung Mei Chinese orphanage, missing in action over Austria, merchant sea- man Robert Weir, a well-liked painting contractor, manacled and tortured on the deck of an enemy sub after his ship was torpedoed in the Pacific.2 The war workers who’d built ships and tanks in Richmond were moving out of temporary war housing, freeing up land for development—including the sprawling tract that had formerly housed Black Jack Jerome’s dog racing track in El Cerrito. Developers had their eyes on San Francisco Bay itself. Henry Kaiser, who hoped to keep running his Kaiser Shipyards in Richmond, proposed giving the shipyards a new neighbor—an international airport built on fill that would replace much of the bay between Berkeley and Richmond. If the Second World War had rocked the Berkeley-West Contra Costa County area, and it had, sending the population soaring and converting marsh- land to shipyards, the post-war boom was expected to do the same, and then some. The area served since 1913 by Stege Sanitary District, directly across the bay from San Francisco and just north of Berkeley, still retained a touch of country. The city of El Cerrito, the heart of the district, had 6,100 people in 1940 and 16,600 in 1944—its greatest growth spurt ever, an increase of 160 percent. (Though some people departed right after the war, as war housing closed). Still, even as the war ended, its hills were largely barren of homes and it still had remnant dairies and farms, many “without proper sanitary precautions.” “Cows,” one neighbor complained, “were tethered in any vacant lot and so near sidewalks that pedestrians must go around them to get by.”3 In other territory served by Stege, the Richmond Annex, which was part of the neighboring city of Richmond, and No Man’s Land, an unincorporated wedge between El Cerrito and the Annex, winter rains brought devastating flooding from creeks, storm drains—and sewers. Although liberally dotted with houses dating to the Teens, No Man’s Land still had marshes, empty lots, and rowdy

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roadhouses that housed gamblers and overhead. Kerr’s El Cerrito hillside home, whom prostitutes. And by the early 1950s, plans were developers feared. In the year after the war, Kensing- underway to create a mini-city in the They thought something else could ton, then and now an upscale enclave oak-dotted hills and valleys of Wild- block plans for the projected devel- of hillside homes along with two cat Canyon just east of El Cerrito and opment of the Bay Area—the lack of small shopping districts, retained hill- Kensington. Portions of a parkway sewage facilities. sides and ridges that were windswept to serve that town were actually con- From its formation, Stege was in and barren. structed—though the land itself be- the business of laying sewer pipes But local leaders didn’t expect, or came a regional park in the 1960s. just a step ahead of development. want, the area to retain its rural, out- In 1946, Stege officials, facing It occasionally fell behind, as in law atmosphere for long. Depression their ever-present challenge of pro- 1923 when, lacking the funds, Stege or no, El Cerrito boomed through the viding sufficient sewers for antici- couldn’t put in sewers fast enough for mid and late 1930s, 166 new homes pated growth, predicted just how big developer C.W. Boden, who was fill- in 1938, an all-time high, followed by that growth would be. By 1975, they ing “Cerrito Park” (today a neighbor- 240 in 1939. Most of the homes were determined, Stege Sanitary would be hood of stucco bungalows south of in small tracts in the more-or-less flat- serving a population of 110,000.6 St. Jerome Catholic Church). Boden, lands, though builders began moving If that had happened, El Cerrito, stymied until the “sewer question is up slope. which had taken to calling itself the settled,” decided to pay for the sewers “… if you don’t believe El Cerrito “City of Homes” at least by 1939, himself.8 has some excellent hill lots too, you would instead have become the “City But the “sewer question” that should stroll up on the hillsides over- of Highrises.” Kensington, ensconced arose after the war was quantitatively looking the bay sometimes,” the El as it is on steep hillsides, would proba- different—perhaps qualitatively too. Cerrito Journal advised.4 Then came bly have remained a bucolic spot. The It was, the Berkeley Daily Gazette the war, and homebuilding increased. Annex and No Man’s Land? They’d wrote, “a million-dollar headache.”9 As the war neared its end, boosters be filled with parking structures and The headache came to the Stege expected growth to accelerate even hotels serving the airport.7 Sanitary District board in the form of more. New tracts were proposed with In fact, the population of Stege in a May 21, 1946 letter from the chief homes not in the dozens but the hun- 2013—as it celebrated its centena- engineer of the California Bureau of dreds. ry—was 33,000, and was remaining Sanitary Engineering “advising that At the start of 1946, the city’s fairly stable. all permits for raw sewage disposal building inspector “stated today that What blocked this growth was the into the San Francisco Bay area would home building in El Cerrito is bound democratic process. People in the be revoked as of January 1, 1947.”10 to reach amazing figures during the Bay Area, tired of top-down control The population boom, plus the coming year.”5 of land use and development by poli- state mandate, meant Stege needed Then there were the really big ticians working closely with develop- to spend $1 million or more, the Ga- plans. ers, revolted, creating such pioneering zette reported, $800,000 for a treat- From the mid-1940s through the groups as Save the Bay and, later, the ment plant, $200,000 for new and early 1960s, several schemes sur- Greenbelt Alliance, Citizens for East improved sewer lines. faced for major waterfront develop- Shore Parks and a host of others to “Last year alone the district spent ments in areas served by Stege or preserve shoreline public access and $400,000 in five sewer projects in the potentially served by Stege. Offices, open space. hills in north-east El Cerrito,” report- shopping centers and housing devel- But during the heady days right er Tom Wheeler wrote.11 opments were proposed to be built after World War II, it wasn’t Kay Without adequate sewers, devel- on bay fill—despite the airplanes that Kerr, Sylvia McLaughlin, and Esther opment would halt. would be buzzing in for a landing just Gulick, who formed Save the Bay in Stege board members weren’t sur-

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prised, of course. They knew what the Richmond and El Cerrito may well. “The waters of the launching Bay looked like—and what it smelled have been boomtowns of a sort in the basin … are undoubtedly polluted like. “The Big Stench,” some called 1930s, the two fastest growing cities to some extent by the outfall, as are it. in the otherwise mostly agricultural the drainage ditches which pass back Stege, which built its first sewers in Contra Costa County. But the war re- into the town during high tide.” The 1914, sent effluent from toilets, sinks moved the qualifying “of a sort.” report described “sludge beds on the and commercial enterprises directly In Richmond, the Kaiser shipyards tidal flats, human excreta in the drain- into the Bay without any treatment. employed 100,000 people at their age ditches which pass less than 100 This was how every city and every peak, turning out 747 ships during the feet from inhabited buildings, floating sanitary district handled sewage at war. Nearby, a former Ford auto plant solids in the shipways and sewage in the time—and the Bay seemed big was churning out tanks. To the other the streets during stormy weather.”13 enough, the population small enough, side of El Cerrito, a thoroughbred By the start of 1945 it was clear, that no one minded. track was being used by the Navy to at least to C.C. Gillespie, chief of Andy Hansen, who was born circa outfit landing craft. Richmond’s war- the Bureau of Sanitary Engineering 1906 and grew up on his family’s pig time population zoomed from 23,000 for the state’s Department of Public farm on what is now Schmidt Lane in to 100,000. Health, that simply building longer El Cerrito, recalled how large a role Suddenly, sewers became not just and longer sewer outfall pipes was the bay played in the lives of boys a local amenity, but a war priority. no longer good enough. The sewage during Stege’s earliest days. “The health and welfare of the war would have to be treated. Andy and his friends would shoot workers employed in this vital indus- Surveying the Albany-to-Rich- ducks from blinds they built them- try is most important,” an attorney for mond waterfront, Gillespie described selves. “Clams were available for the the federal government wrote, regard- the flow from Stege’s Point Isabel picking in the isolated areas,” he told ing a federally funded “war urgency” outfall. reporter Marilee Smeder. sewer project Stege was building in “Sewage is decidedly strong and it “Their favorite sport in summer Richmond. “We consider it our duty is a large stream.” Currents were “ev- was skinny dipping,” Smeder re- to be conservative in providing prop- idently sufficiently strong to sweep counted, “for which they headed to- er sanitary sewage facilities to protect clean the outer point of Point Isabel,” wards the bay. There was a muddy the health and welfare of war work- he wrote. But “sewage solids swing pond on the east side of the railroad ers.” strongly into” the shallow cove be- tracks, and there was San Francisco The goal of Stege’s Meeker Av- tween Point Isabel and what is today Bay itself, where they swam with enue Interceptor was to take sewage Golden Gate Fields racetrack. blissful disregard to the sewer outfall to “the deep water of the Richmond “A thick gravy-like sludge cover- a block and a half away.”12 Inner Harbor at minus 27 foot eleva- ing thousands of square feet is left by Stege Sanitary District did make tion where there is excellent disper- each tide and it is gradually filling the major improvements over the years sion and dilution.” cove. Odors were not especially no- to protect public health, as sewer out- The federal report cited serious ticeable at the time, but it is unlikely falls were lengthened to dump efflu- health hazards caused by “contami- that this will continue indefinitely.” ent further from shore and in deeper nated solids, scums and rubbish” “Looking to the future,” the report water, and outfalls were raised, to floating in the shipways of Kaiser’s continued, “there are strong signs that prevent backflows during high tides. Permanente Metals Corporation Ship- San Francisco Bay is coming on for It wasn’t until the 1940s that se- yard. “The men laying in the aft end a cleanup of sewage disposal condi- rious thought was given to treating of the keel and the scaffoldings work tions and the Stege outfall is bound sewage before pouring it into the bay. in these drifting deposits and contam- to come in for complaints. To meet The war helped bring the matter to inated water when the tide is high.” them in the current location, even in people’s attention. Inland residents were affected as the absence of a change in waterfront

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developments, would require sewage willing to try new things, with man- headed by some of the same people. clarification and digestion with the agers who are “real leadership types, But there was a difference between drying of the sludge, supplemented out in front in terms of looking at the the incorporations. At its founding, by a longer outfall.” broader issues.” 15 Stege encompassed more than 3,000 “If the much discussed transcon- The tale of Stege Sanitary District, acres. At its founding, El Cerrito tinental airport between Berkeley and “the little district that could,” you covered just about 2,300. (Both have Richmond should develop, this would might call it, also tells much of the expanded since.) By rights, backers immediately precipitate serious re- tale of El Cerrito and its hinterlands. of the new city thought, to create an quirements on the Stege Sanitary Dis- Nothing that happened here es- entity that could be efficiently run and trict,” the report went on.14 caped the attention of Stege. Stege provided with services, the Stege bor- In 1947 a State Water Resources people served as mayors and on the ders should have become the borders Control Board ruling, which essen- El Cerrito City Council. They served of the city. tially ordered Stege and sewer opera- on committees overseeing affairs in But they didn’t, and people today tors throughout the Bay Area to build unincorporated Kensington and on still see that as an opportunity lost. treatment plants, presented the big- the Richmond Annex Neighborhood Still, as events will show, it’s likely gest challenge Stege had ever faced. Council. They ran the area’s garag- that if Kensington and the Richmond It was, moreover, a challenge that es, stores, and several of its raucous Annex had become part of the city never seemed to go away as, over nightclubs and bars. Some worked for of El Cerrito, Stege Sanitary District succeeding decades, state and federal the El Cerrito Kennel Club, a grey- would probably have been voted out agencies set increasingly strict man- hound racetrack, and some for the of existence in the 1970s—if not dates on water quality, prodded by University of California, Berkeley. much earlier. public health advocates, fishermen Stege played a particularly large Stege’s history tracks both the de- increasingly anxious about the loss of role in real estate development, of velopment of the area and its social their prey, the handful of thick-skin course, not only because for every life. souls who still swam the bay, Save residential tract opened, for every The people who ran Stege, both the Bay and other assorted environ- street laid, Stege had to be there pipes elected officials and employees, mentalists. in hand. Stege did more than accom- mostly men but some significant How Stege met that challenge, and modate development, however. It women too, represented some of the continues to meet it is, in many ways, promoted it, its formation guided by area’s best and brightest—and some- the story of the modern environmen- real estate investors and developers, times most colorful. tal movement. and many of its members working in Among the earliest people of Remarkably enough, for a minus- real estate or related fields. Stege are the man often regarded as cule district, Stege emerged as a leader Throughout El Cerrito and the sur- El Cerrito’s founder, William Rust, in the fight to control pollution. Start- rounding area’s building boom, which for whom part of the town was origi- ing in the early 1980s Stege created a began shortly after World War I and nally named; the man who probably widely copied method of preventing lasted through the early 1960s, Stege named the city “El Cerrito,” William stormwater from washing raw sew- hustled to annex more land to its dis- Huber, a justice of the peace, judge, age through treatment plants before it trict, lay sewer mains, increase their mayor, and owner of the gathering could get treated. Stege pioneered the capacity, and ensure that homeown- spot Huber Hall; and Ernest Navel- use of computers and geographical ers and businesses connected to their lier, laundryman, worker at a dyna- information systems to manage sewer mains, and did so properly. mite factory, city councilman, school maintenance and replacement. The first local government in the trustee, owner of a picnicking and Today, Stege is known through- area, Stege incorporated four years drinking establishment, and grandfa- out the industry as a sanitary agency before El Cerrito incorporated in ther of a war hero. whose board is quick and nimble, 1917—both incorporations spear-

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CHAPTER 2 Stege Sanitary District is Older than the City

here wasn’t much in El Cerrito when Stege Sanitary District got its start—not even the name “El Cerrito.” The area north of the Alameda- TContra Costa county line developed more slowly than its neighbors to the south, Berkeley and Albany, and its neighbor to the north, Richmond, be- cause it took so long to sort out who owned the land. Before the matter was settled, only a handful of residents and businesses moved to town, most of them leasing land from, or serving as tenants to Victor Castro, whose Rancho San Pablo originally made up the entire area. It was only in 1894, after the case Emeric vs. Alvarado was settled, that it was possible for buyers to secure clear title to land—finally allowing real development to proceed. It proceeded slowly.

County Line Streetcars 1906. At County Line, also known as Rust El Cerrito Historical Society

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Louis Rodini and Ernest Rodini circa 1913 El Cerrito Historical Society, courtesy Arline Rodini

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Fay Breneman, who founded the had arrived at County Line, as it was day Richmond. “At Stege Junction,” area’s first library in 1913, the same also called, a few years earlier and Breneman wrote, “there were stores year Stege was founded, described established what was probably El and a blacksmith shop. Mr. Moro had the area in that year. “When you got Cerrito’s first business, after Castro’s a plumbing shop there.” off the street car at the county line ranch that is—a tavern.17 On the whole, El Cerrito was a in 1913 you found a saloon on each “…after a big forge job,” Rust’s quiet, rural redoubt, marshes, fields side.” son later recalled, “(Rust) would call of grass and wildflowers, hills sparse- “Some other old buildings housed across the street to John Davis at the ly dotted with live oaks, bay trees some lunch rooms on the east side. Seven Mile House and tell him to start alongside the creeks. Murietta Rock, Blind Jim had a peanut and cigar drawing the steam beer for his help- named for the legendary bandit Joa- stand there.” 16 ers.” Rust himself would not imbibe, quin Murietta, was a ridge top land- She was describing the area at being a teetotaler. mark visible for miles. In 1963 Roy the city’s southern border known as Two miles further north along Dahlen, who was a boy in 1913, “re- “Rust,” named for William Rust, Contra Costa Road (today, San Pab- membered when he could stand on resident from the 1880s, a German lo Avenue), El Cerrito had a second San Pablo Avenue and look west to immigrant and wagon-maker, whose commercial district, Stege Junc- the bay and see nothing but rippling hardware shop at county line served tion, where the Oakland Traction hay fields.”18 as the post office from 1909. Co. streetcars swung left to head for Nearby Richmond was a working Rust’s neighbor, John H. Davis, the hamlet of Stege, in what is to- town, terminus for the Santa Fe Rail-

Muriel Talt smiles for the photographer from a donkey cart at the Talt family’s “humble” abode, the old Castro Adobe, built in the 1840s by Victor Castro and later expanded. El Cerrito Historical Society, courtesy of the LaReau family.

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road since 1899, home to the Standard free-riding cars, dashed to the main The closest real government, other Oil refinery since 1905, and the Pull- line of Santa Fe and flagged down an than the local school and justice of the man Company’s railroad car repair approaching train.”19 peace, was the county seat in Marti- shops since 1910, plus canneries and Also roaring along in the early nez, 25 miles away. Rust helped form other industries. Teens was residential development, a volunteer fire department in 1907, The El Cerrito area was also home which before had been restricted to a which lagged development—danger- to two quarries, the Hutchinson, from few small flatlands clusters of homes. ously. 1903, and the Bates & Borland high “In 1912 the sale of lots in Richmond Breneman recalled a fire that broke in the hills, which sent its rock to the Annex was going merrily on,” Fay out at a neighbor’s at 1 a.m. on July 4, flatlands via rail. Breneman wrote. The sales office for 1917—shortly after El Cerrito incor- “It was not uncommon for some the E.J. Henderson Company, which porated. Firefighter Winfred Schmidt of the cars to leave the hill in their was subdividing some 350 acres, was pulled up late with the city’s single downhill trek and the hillside was next to Rust’s shop. fire engine. “He had found it with flat often littered with lost wheels, cables “The streets were well paved, trees tires.” and rollers,” Mervin Belfils, a long- were planted, and the parking strips “Soon the Albany fire engine was time Stege employee and the city’s were planted with petunias,” she on the spot and had the fire out.” unofficial historian, recounted in said.20 In 1913, the largest public institu- 1970. “In fact in August 1914, sev- Development was also proceed- tion in town was the Mission-styled eral gravel cars parked on the Stege ing in the hills of Kensington, with Fairmont School, built circa 1905. spur up Moeser (Lane) broke loose several subdivisions including Berke- The town’s foremost attraction was and roared down the lane, jumped ley Highlands, Berkeley Woods and Sunset View Cemetery, which opened the track and piled up on the main Kensington Park. in 1908 just up the hill from the Seven line of Santa Fe railway. A youngster, As people moved onto the land Mile House in what is today Kensing- Thurston Stark, heard the roar of the they organized their own institutions. ton. A way station greeted visitors at

The first office of the Stege Sanitary District was at Stege Junction at the corner of Portrero and San Pablo AvenuesEl Cerrito Historical Society

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the streetcar stop, conveying them to proposed district, the crowd repaired the graveyard in a horse cart. to Davis Hall, “where they danced Clearly it was time to do something until a late hour” to the music of the with sewage other than pour it into a Zahnizer orchestra. cesspool or let it run in the gutter. Next morning they took to the polls Forward-thinking folks knew that to approve formation of the district without sewers, homes couldn’t be and elect its officers. Eighteen men built and industry couldn’t prosper. sought five seats on the Stege “com- “Great development ahead of the mission,” two sought to become the suburbs of Richmond,” the Richmond district’s sanitary assessor. One man, Independent headlined in March A.H. MacKinnon, sought both a com- 1913, noting that Richmond had just mission seat and the assessor’s job. “sewered” its Pullman district. “The voting was brisk throughout “The Stege and County Line dis- the entire day,” the Independent re- trict people are up and doing,” the ar- ported, “as was shown by the fact that ticle continued. “(They) will have an 226 ballots were cast out of a total election shortly for the creation of a registration of 285 voters.” sanitary district for their rapidly de- Approval for creating Stege was veloping territory.”21 overwhelming, 205 votes to eight. On May 14, hundreds of people The top vote getter for the com- gathered at the Alacosta Club near mission, not surprisingly, was Stege’s County Line for a “big mass meet- chief backer, William Huber, with ing.” After listening to backers of the 170 votes, followed by Henry Best,

Looking south along San Pablo Avenue from Blake. To the right are the streetcar tracks and then the Stege Market. The market is advertising, “Highest Prices paid for Beef Cattle, calves, and hides.” El Cerrito Historical Society

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on the name “Stege Junction” for its streetcar stop.24 First order of business? Raise funds to build sewers. Working with the San Francisco law firm Reed, Black, Nusbaumer and Bingaman, and with the Oakland engineering firm Haviland, Dozier and Tibbits, Stege planned to raise $75,000 through a bond sale, the district’s longtime manager Al Baxter wrote in a short history, “Stege Sani- tary District is Older than the City.” “The purpose of the bond is the construction of a system of sewers and outfalls in and for Stege Sani- tary District, consisting of main and lateral sewers and all rights-of-way, materials, accessories, appurtenanc- es and appliances necessary for the construction and completion of said sewer system and outfalls.” The bond vote, which came before the populace in a special election on “Direct streetcar service to Kensington Park.” June 16, 1912 ad for a subdivision in what would later become the unincorporated community of Kensington, shows how development was getting September 27, 1913, at Davis Hall, underway in the area that a year later would be part of Stege Sanitary District. near Rust’s shop on San Pablo Ave- Contra Costa County Historical Society nue at Fairmount Avenue, would both authorize the bond sale and “provide with 155, Constable H.F. Davis, with The organizers named the district for the formation, government, and 138, Ernest Navellier, with 120, and Stege—after the place, it seems, and operation” of the sanitary district, George Barber, with 95. not after Richard Stege, one of the under an 1891 state law providing MacKinnon came in near the bot- area’s true characters, a German im- for such formation. Approval was re- tom, with seven votes for commis- migrant who’d been a hotelier and quired from two-thirds of the voters. sioner—and 79 for assessor, trumped fur trader, among other occupations, The Oakland Tribune predicted by George Scott, who was also serv- before marrying a wealthy woman, passage, “as nearly everybody is in ing as deputy county assessor.22 coming into possession of her ranch favor of the project and an active The board, meeting for the first alongside San Francisco Bay and campaign has been carried on for sev- time on May 28, 1913 at William turning it into showplace gardens, eral weeks on the subject.” But back- Huber’s “Justice Court, Rust, Cal.,” complete with frog ponds whose den- ers weren’t coasting. Huber, who “has named Huber their chairman, George izens he sold to French restaurants in been at work on the matter all week, Barber secretary. They set a tax rate San Francisco. day and night,” spoke passionately in of 15 cents per $100 of assessed valu- The area, today part of Richmond, favor of the bonds the day before the ation, the maximum allowed by state quickly took on the name “Stege.” vote, his sentiments echoed by Dr. Jo- law. Each board member gallantly put Stege himself died in 1898, broke. seph Breneman, the area’s first doctor up $5 for stationary and stamps.23 The northern part of El Cerrito took and Fay’s father, who spoke “from a

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physician’s point of view.”25 for El Cerrito’s incorporation, which to the Bay. It was a landslide, 202 for the bond in a way can be seen as the dropping Over the next few years, as neigh- sale, only nine opposed, with three bal- of the second shoe. borhoods developed, Stege built a lots “illegally marked.” It’s not clear The borders of the sanitary district web of unglazed terra cotta sewer who opposed the bond sale or why. stretched from the county line on the mains to serve them, hooking up with “When the people of the Stege south to Richmond’s city limits on the the lines that led to the Bay. The goal, Sanitary District, in the southeastern north, and from the Bay on the west Huber recounted some 40 years later, part of Richmond, voted bonds for to the rugged hills of Rancho El So- was to serve every house in the dis- their new sewer system by 22-to- brante to the east. trict—about 150 of them.28 1,” the San Francisco Call observed, Stege accepted bids for sewer con- Older sewer systems in the Bay “they showed that they were rather struction on May 22, 1914, insisting Area generally handled both sewage enthusiastic for improvements. This that workers be paid the minimum and storm water, but from the start is a fast developing factory, railroad wage, “$2.50 per day for each day’s Stege operated, or tried to operate, a and harbor part of the city, and its labor,” and the work was soon under- system that handled sewage only— growth has made a modern sewer sys- way.27 though oftentimes property owners tem imperative.”26 One main served Stege Junction, would illegally channel storm water The creation and funding of Stege running towards the bay along Cy- into the sewers. Sanitary District was a major step for press Avenue. Another served Rust, Soon, homeowners and businesses the area, and it foretold a battle that running along Central Avenue. Both began connecting to Stege’s sewers, would erupt four years later, the drive main lines carried untreated sewage paying for their own lateral connec-

Two years before Stege was incorporated to ease development of the area, Tom Pickle’s farmhouse on Richmond Street was one of the few in what would become El Cerrito El Cerrito Historical Society.

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tions. Stege also hired its first inspec- tenance on the main sewers or outfall The first sewer connection permit tor, W.H. Best, who resigned from lines it would be contracted out.” went to Mr. A. Renwitz on July 22, the Stege board in June 1914 to ac- “And the sanitary inspector 1915. The sixth went to one of the cept the job. This was the first of sev- charged $1 for connecting to the sew- city’s signal businesses, the Seven eral instances of a Stege board mem- er. That was his pay for the job; he’d Mile House, which by this time was ber becoming an employee; when pocket the money.”32 owned by Huber.29 MacKinnon left the job two years To replace Best on the board, In the very early years, Stege later, he would be replaced by board Stege turned to one of the area’s most would build a sewer to serve a single member George Barber. The inspec- eminent businessmen, none other house. In 1915, Davis was named a tor’s job paid $4 a day, notably higher than William Rust. “committee of one” to get bids for a than minimum wage. Later, Stege re- As the only government around, sewer to the home of H. Eckman. In vamped its method of compensation, Stege took on matters that went be- 1917, Stege provided a sewer to serve paying per inspection.31 yond sewage. two nearby homes on Moeser Lane, “We had a sanitary inspector as the “Prior to March 13, 1914, the dis- providing 680 feet of six-inch pipe only employee,” Huber recalled in the trict board devoted much of its time and two manholes.30 mid-1950s. “If we needed any main- to issuance of liquor licenses until

EC Library at Breneman House. Fay Breneman started El Cerrito’s library in 1913 the year of Stege’s founding. El Cerrito Historical Society.

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questioned by the (county) board of aries for the first time, taking in a por- A deal was struck, first with Sun- supervisors as to the District’s right tion of what later came to be called set View Cemetery, which irrigated in doing so. It also passed regulations the Richmond Annex. its lawns using a pump house on San prohibiting dogs from running loose In 1916, after Best resigned, he Pablo Avenue, then with the People’s without muzzles.”33 was replaced by a man who would go Water Company, which owned reser- Almost every meeting saw Stege on to play a leading role in civilizing voirs in the hills, for “7 loads of water issuing a liquor license or two, on Oc- the growing area, A.H. MacKinnon. donated by the cemetery, 9,000 from tober 24, 1913, for instance, award- As El Cerrito marshal he led many People’s Water Co at 30 cents per ing licenses to O. Ortiz at Lincoln a raid on gambling and drinking joints; 1,000 gallons.” and Liberty streets, and J. McClure, when the jail opened in 1923 it was In November 1916, in connection at Richmond and Fairmount. dubbed “Hotel MacKinnon.” “Mac” with the water company deal, Stege A rabies outbreak in 1914 con- later served as city sanitary inspector reported its first, and one of its few, vinced the district to pass “an ordi- and as a judge, ran a realty office and recorded instances of corruption, in- nance to guard against the spread of built houses, and in 1925 opened the volving F. Dunlay, who had joined hydrophobia,” calling for the shoot- Fairmount Service Station, the city’s the Stege board earlier in the year. ing of dogs running at large. largest and most modern.35 “Huber addressed board. Dunlay In 1915 Stege shifted its meeting One of Mac’s major tasks for Stege had received money from L.C. Far- spot from Huber’s office to an office was keeping the lines flowing despite rell of People’s Water Co. Dunlay in Rust’s building over his hardware debris and other blockages. In mid announced his resignation from the store—for a rent of $5 a month. Rust 1915, Best declared the “flushing of board. No action taken against Peo- and Huber provided chairs and a fil- sewers impracticable,” and a year lat- ple’s Water Co.”36 ing cabinet.34 er the board decided that “automatic In 1915, Stege expanded its bound- flushers (were) too expensive.”

William Rust, one of the earliest settlers in the area, from the 1880s, later became a Stege board member. Starting in 1915, Stege ran its operations from an office above Rust’s store.William Rust, Miss Alice McCarthy, and Rust’s wife Lina. El Cerrito Historical Society, courtesy Louis L. Stein.

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CHAPTER 3 If this election does not carry, we will try again and again

ome of the men who created Stege Sanitary District in 1913 worked four years later to create yet another local institution—a city. Back- Sers included George Barber, Stege’s first secretary, and William Huber, Stege’s first president. The goal was to supply the rolling hillsides and plains with not just sew- ers, but with streets, sidewalks, fire and police protection, everything needed for a growing residential community, all overseen by local people, not distant bureaucrats in Martinez. The city would have the same borders as Stege. William Huber helped

Stege flushing and rodding trucks from the 1920s

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come up with a name for the pro- Annex that even then was known for tary conditions.”40 posed city—and it wasn’t “Rust.” gambling and vice. A few months later, Stege was ask- “The people did not like the name,” The city proposed for approval by ing the city to stop demanding large he recounted, “because when it was voters did not even straddle San Pablo deposits from contractors building mentioned it evoked remarks sug- Avenue. Portions of the western side sewers, as that was making it hard to gested by the word ‘rust’.”37 would remain unincorporated until the find contractors. By 1925, Stege was But it didn’t prove as easy to found 1920s—when they would be swal- holding its board meetings in City a city as it was to start a sewer district. lowed up, not by El Cerrito, but by Hall. Instead of rent, Stege simply The owners of Hutchinson quarry Richmond. “Even Dr. Breneman,” a paid for the building’s janitor.41 fought the plan, correctly foreseeing strong backer of incorporation, “found that as a city filled with residents, himself outside the new city limits.”38 complaints would mount about the Adams was on the first city coun- noise from blasting at rock. Dairymen cil (called the Board of Trustees at were concerned that new neighbors the time). George Barber, a founder would object to their cows. of Stege, was named city marshal. Also opposed was an industry Also an original trustee was John that had gotten its start the moment Sandvick, who a year later would be John H. Davis opened his Seven Mile elected to the Stege board, where he House—the saloons. would serve for 28 years. Shortly before the August 1917 It took the new city government and vote, one of the leaders of the incor- Stege, the former de facto government, poration effort, George W. Adams, a bit of time to work out their new re- heard that saloon owners and “brew- lationship. Much of the discussion had ery interests” planned to haul “a score to do with how quickly Stege could of paid workers” to the polls to vote provide sewers for new subdivisions no. “We have not considered the sa- and whether the city or Stege would Archive photo of Richard Stege loon question one way or the other in enforce rules requiring homeowners to this fight,” Adams retorted. “We have connect to the sewers. been anxious to get fire protection and Stege, as the older sister, was al- lights and other necessities and have ways willing to help out the new city. had no quarrel with the saloons. But When the city in mid-1919 asked if they want trouble we will not back voters to back bonds to build storm away from it. If this election does not sewers, they borrowed Stege’s voting carry, we will try again and again.” booths.39 As it turns out, they did not have In early 1922, the El Cerrito Jour- to try again and again. Incorporation nal reported, the “question of juris- passed by a tight vote of 158 to 131. diction which has been troubling both But incorporation only passed be- city trustees and the members of the cause backers of a city had agreed Stege Sanitary Board for the past sev- to drop areas where opposition was eral months seems to be at last settling strong—including what is now in a manner” satisfactory to all. known as Kensington and the Rich- Stege would oversee sewers out- mond Annex, and No Man’s Land, a side private property lines. On private John Sandvick served on the Stege Sanitary District Board of Directors for 28 years. corner of territory west of San Pablo property, the city would exercise its Photo courtesy of his grandson, Richard Avenue and south of the Richmond police powers “over health and sani- Standvick

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CHAPTER 4 The home city of the East Bay section

olks motoring into town along San Pablo Avenue in early 1923 couldn’t help but smile at a charming mural, spotlighted at night, showing “the Fbuilding of their nest by little birds.” Atop the building sat “a large Magnavox” radio that broadcast radio con- certs in the evening for young people. “Going to Build?” a newspaper ad for the building’s owners asked. “If con-

Bill Lotter milking a cow at Hinds Dairy. Ca 1920. El Cerrito Historical Society, photo courtesy Louis L. Stein

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templating building a home or repair- of the prettiest neighborhoods any- “The raid was carefully planned ing your home, see Bigley & Walsh, where, just over a mile south of El by Marshal MacKinnon and at the contractors and builders. Mill and Cerrito, Boden was saying that “the agreed time the two officers entered cabinet work of all kinds.” Sharing great North Berkeley fire will -pro the place from opposite doors barring the building was a plumbing firm and mote development rather than retard all chance of escape with the excep- the electricians MacDonald and Rude, it in this section.” tion of the trap door which was not who supplied the Magnavox.42 “The growth of the East Bay sec- known of by the officers.”49 Yes, by the early 1920s, the hous- tion has got to be northward. There is And there was worse. “Hell Holes ing boom was on. no other direction for growth.”45 Along Avenue Must be Closed,” the “El Cerrito, the home city of the A few blocks away, J.J. Moran Journal urged, citing an undercover East Bay section, invites home-seek- was building 30 “cottages of which investigation recently completed ers’ attention to pertinent facts,” an any city would be proud,” while lob- by Mayor Phil Lee. “It showed that ad from the El Cerrito Land and Im- bying the Key Route system to run young girls of tender years are per- provement Co. trumpeted on Christ- streetcars down what is now Ashbury mitted to disgrace themselves, after mas day 1922. “Lowest tax rate in Avenue.46 being plied with liquor on the dance the State. Lowest assessed valua- Elsewhere in town, Stege’s for- floor of at least one of these places.” tion. Located near industrial centers. mer inspector, now city marshal, The city developed such a bad rep- Streetcar and railroad service. Ex- A.H. MacKinnon was planning 40 utation Lee felt repeatedly called upon cellent schools and churches. Unex- to 50 houses “for a nominal cost,” of to offer a defense. “El Cerrito has been celled climate and scenery.” $2,750 and $2,950. “Easy terms will pictured as the home of vice and the Sewers were in, the developer be the watchword so that every man center of a hideous vice ring,” he said. bragged, water mains forthcoming, of small income will be enabled to “The fact is that El Cerrito is a city “cement walks laid, and beautiful own his own home.”47 of average Americans—responsible, Shade trees planted.” Also, “a beauti- Homes were also being built in the home-loving people, who work in the ful new School House has just been hillside tract called Berkeley Country industries of the East Bay section.” completed by the Trustees of the Club Terrace, around Stockton and It got so bad, the Journal reported, Ocean View School District” in near- Terrace Avenues. that “Conductors on the electric road by Albany. In El Cerrito, the Roaring Twen- between Oakland and Richmond dis- “All of these improvements ab- ties really did roar. Prohibition played considerable brilliancy by des- solutely without cost to the lot buy- banned booze, but the city was awash ignating the first stop (in El Cerrito) ers.”43 with “soft drink places” that won city as ‘Tia Juana’ and the second stop as El Cerrito was a city of high hopes permits to sell “soft drinks” but were ‘Grappo Junction’.”50 and optimistic slogans. “A Bigger and often “not conducted in a manner But El Cerrito and hinterlands Bigger El Cerrito” was the suggestion which would be a credit to the city of offered innocent pleasures as well. of the city’s marshal. “He says that if El Cerrito.”48 Huber Hall hosted weekly dances by everyone in El Cerrito will adopt the Nor were the drinks always so the Pollyanna Girls and the Forest- slogan and preach it to everyone, that soft. ers Lodge, which also fielded its own El Cerrito will double in size within Enforcing the city’s “new soft baseball team. the next five years.”44 drink law” was none other than A.H. In 1922 respectable El Cerritans “The beginning of a new era of MacKinnon, who had his hands full founded the Community Service prosperity in this section,” the Journal with related matters. Club, “an organization which can wrote in 1923, as C.W. Boden began “Chinese Lottery Joint Raided by give the city the proper kind of pub- building 200 stucco cottages in Cer- Marshal MacKinnon,” the Journal re- licity,” which in turn gave birth to the rito Park. A week after the Berkeley ported in 1923. Several lottery lead- town’s Boy Scout troop.51 Fire destroyed 584 buildings and one ers escaped. And in the spring of 1923 the city

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Maria Mayeda, daughter of one of the many Japanese nurserymen in the El Cerrito and Richmond area, stands in a field near her house on Wall Avenue. El Cerrito Historical Society, photo courtesy of the Maida family WHERE THE SEWAGE MEETS THE SEA 23

saw its first regular showings of mo- planes are being made now, having a “Richmond would annex us,” the tion pictures. “Picture machine to wingspread of 39.8 feet,” the Journal headline ran. The proposal from the be installed” at Fairmont school, the reported of one, in 1923, adding that Richmond Chamber of Commerce Journal reported, thanks to the PTA, it was “painted in a Bellessa blue, never went anywhere.57 which raised the funds through whist which is Italian for very beautiful, Richmond tried to annex the “An- parties. Movies were soon being and has gold trimmings.” nex” and No Man’s Land in 1925 but shown every week. A year and a half Crowds ooh-ed and ah-ed over the voters said no. El Cerrito tried a year later, when the school burned down, plane when it was parked in Rich- later. Again no. Richmond succeeded a handful of cineastes cut through a mond. But the real crowds—50,000, in annexing the Annex just a few years wall to save the precious projector.52 according to the Journal—turned out later—but El Cerrito would have no By 1925, El Cerrito was maturing for the annual Oakland Motorcycle such luck with No Man’s Land until as a community, with a new library, Club “hill climbing contest” at the decades later. that was promoted by the El Cerrito end of Blake Street, “over the top of During this period, Stege Sanitary Improvement Association, and by a the steepest hill in the East Bay sec- kept expanding its service area, creat- fire department upgrade and instal- tion.” ing assessment districts to raise funds lation of hydrants, thanks to a bond Not one to let an opportunity slip in Kensington as housing developers issue that squeaked through on a vote by, the city mounted a billboard at the subdivided the land. of 231 to 104—only nine more votes race site. “El Cerrito,” it proclaimed. Throughout the 1920s, Stege hus- than needed for the two-thirds re- “Watch us grow.” tled to build sewers to accommodate quirement. Stege was just one of the organiza- residential growth, sometimes falling There were even clubs and res- tions seeing to that growth. The Fire behind due to lack of funds. J.J. Mo- taurants that did not conceal rou- Department, still volunteer, bought ran, who was building bungalows near lette wheels in back rooms, or oper- the latest in fire engines, an American Cerrito Park, complained that “popu- ate as speakeasies—at least not all La France. Trustees were pressuring lating this tract will be practically im- the time—including Sullivans Café, the Post Office to establish a branch possible unless sewers are installed.”58 known for its “famous chicken and in El Cerrito, the Rust station having Building sewers and other public squab dinners,”53 long since disappeared.55 improvements was a bit of a chicken- The El Cerrito Athletic Club, The city’s building inspector, A.I. or-the-egg-game. A neighborhood owned by Ed Wuelzer, who was Bigley, began cracking down on couldn’t develop until it had sewers elected to the Stege Board in 1924, “shacks,” and Mayor Phil Lee pushed and streets, but sewers and streets featured prize-fighting and dancing for street lighting in the hills. City couldn’t be built before the neighbor- to Armando Girola and his accor- trustees, meanwhile, were worried hood developed because they were dion jazz orchestra— and sometimes that “Kensington Park may annex to funded by assessments on property in activities that warranted a visit from city of Berkeley soon.” This was part the neighborhood. Marshal MacKinnon. Wuelzer would of the Stege district, and an area El At one point, the Stege board go on to run Paradise Gardens, a pop- Cerrito desperately wanted within its ruled, the “extension program” to ular nightclub in the 1930s.54 own borders.56 serve Kensington Park “will have El Cerrito also made its mark in the The question of annexing nearby to be somewhat curtailed for a short Twenties among fans of motorcycles territory to the city of El Cerrito—No time on account of the shortage of and airplanes. Aviation pioneer Pierre Man’s Land, the Richmond Annex, funds.” Allinio built several aircraft that flew the various neighborhoods that would The developer Boden explored from airfields in Oakland and Rich- soon make up Kensington, repeatedly tying his Cerrito Park tract into Al- mond—and from one in El Cerrito arose throughout the Twenties and bany sewers rather than waiting for just south of Harding School. Thirties—with El Cerrito at one point Stege—but Albany wouldn’t have “The plane is about as perfect as threatened by annexation itself. him. “Sewer question is troubling

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Boden,” the Journal observed, forc- was a job for both the city and Stege. There also were neighborhoods ing a construction halt until the “sew- “Sewers must be connected with that didn’t want sewers at all—not er question is settled.” mains at once,” city trustees ordered if they had to pay assessments for Stege finally sewered the tract, in 1922, or property owners would them.61 connecting to a temporary septic tank face arrest. “Many complaints have Sewer lines weren’t the only bit until funds could be obtained to con- been made to the board by residents of infrastructure going in during the nect to the district’s main lines. Later of various sections of the city of the bustling Twenties. Sidewalks and in the year, Stege and the city agreed stench arising from cesspools.” streets were being paved, as the city to jointly fund sewers for Boden’s “The health of the city is in dan- entered what the Journal called its Cerrito Park and for Kensington Park, ger.” “street improvement era.” The city the city raising its funds through as- The Journal chimed in: “There are was also building storm sewers and sessments on property owners.59 property owners in every community, the privately owned East Bay Water And, though they were working and El Cerrito is not without them, Company was laying water mains. towards the same end, the city and who would be willing to sacrifice the El Cerrito begged East Bay Water Stege didn’t always cooperate. Stege health of the entire community rather to lay its mains, and Stege to lay its said it was easier to put in sewers than spend a few dollars.” sewers, in advance of street paving, outside of the city limits than within, It wasn’t always easy to acquire to avoid having to rip up brand new because within they needed to reach right of ways for sewer lines. Stege streets later. Unpaved streets and dan- agreement with the city’s engineer.60 could force property owners to provide gerous walks to school on dirt paths It also wasn’t enough to build sew- right of ways outside the city—but not had neighbors up in arms. But neigh- ers. Homeowners had to tie into them within city limits. Inside city limits, bors could also get “extremely indig- by putting in their own laterals. Many acquiring right of ways required action nant” about high assessments for such did not, using “privies” instead. This by both Stege and the city. improvements.62

John Grondona standing in front of his store, Farmers Produce Market in 1925. El Cerrito Historical Society

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CHAPTER 5 The chicken business is rapidly growing

y the mid 1940s, El Cerrito had adopted what remains its semioffi- cial nickname, the “City of Homes.” This came about through gradual Bevolution. Back in 1922, a certain Mr. Schaefer had proposed another boosterish moniker, “The Gateway to Contra Costa.” “Not a bad title, is it?” the El Cerrito Journal wrote. “But let’s make it a real gateway,” the Journal went on, “one that we will not be ashamed to have company come through. One that we can point to with pride. Clean up your yard leading from the gate to the backyard. How about a few flowers along the way? Other cities have planted California poppies in their vacant lots, why not El Cerrito?” Later that year, as we have seen, city boosters were calling it “the home city of the East Bay section.” By 1939, Chamber of Commerce ads were focusing on its hills and its views, dubbing the town “Panoramic City.” But a year later, the Journal was dropping views for homes, in an editorial that celebrated the lowering of commuter charges to San Francisco from 60

Telephone poles lie uprooted after a rain and wind storm in 1927. The view is on San Pablo near Fairmount Avenue looking towards Albany. El Cerrito Historical Society, photo courtesy Louis L. Stein.

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cents a day to 27 cents. Now it would In 1925, after people reported win- resident … has decided to cast his lot be cheap as well as easy to live in El dows breaking from post-midnight in the chicken business,” with the re- Cerrito while working in the city. blasting, the city intervened, cut- cent purchase of 500 chicks. “The momentum of our PROG- ting back on night hours. Among the A month later the paper reported RESS continues! Watch El Cerrito, complainants was Harry Kalis, the that “Brensel and Navellier have pur- the CITY OF HOMES, continue to city’s “poundman.” Stege too issued chased 3,000 baby chicks with which grow.”63 its complaints, as Hutchinson rock they intend stocking their poultry City of Homes! Nice sound! But it trucks crushed the district’s manhole ranch and Mr. Kayser of Potrero Street might not have turned out that way, covers, leading to “great danger of has also purchased 3,000 for his chick- not if the chicken farmers, dairymen, open manholes.”65 en ranch. There are many residents of and quarrymen had had their way. To make matters worse, a third the Stege section planning on entering From the early days, El Cerrito’s quarry was planned for the northern the chicken business and erelong El handful of straggling homes had con- end of town, one that was just be- Cerrito will be a little Petaluma.”67 tended with neighboring uses that ing settled as the Berkeley Country Within a year, though, chickens weren’t always neighborly, from the Club Tract, an upscale development were proving too much of a good powder works that blew up a portion near the new Berkeley Country Club thing. Both Stege and city officials of Albany Hill at the start of the 20th (today, Mira Vista Golf and Country grew concerned about the impact of century to the Hutchinson and Bates Club). New homeowners presented poultry and other livestock on public & Borland quarries. city trustees with a petition, and the health—as did neighbors. Dairies had long operated in town, city fought back. “The stench arising (from dairies) and flower growers, many of Japa- “Law aimed at quarry passes first is unbearable,” residents complained, nese or Italian descent, filled a swath reading,” the Journal reported in May “and … the unsightly condition of of the northern end of town with 1923. The Trustees ruled the land the lots where the cows are kept pre- greenhouses. should remain residential. MacKin- vented the sale of many home lots in In 1922, city boosters were proud non delivered word to the quarry own- the vicinity.” And in the northern part their town had been chosen by the ers—who refused to stop excavating. of town, goats were “the nightmare of Great Western Power Co. as the site The El Cerrito Quarry Company said residents.” for its “Great Western Sub-station,” the ordinance had no effect since the City trustees proposed an ordi- which was “to be one of the largest city passed it after work had started. nance that would ban diaries and goat in the world.” They promised to improve the area raising in town, and another insisting “El Cerrito is lucky to land this after quarrying, and said the material on sanitary conditions. station,” the Journal wrote. “While they were removing from the hillside, They finally passed a plan restrict- the number of men employed after the “best grade rock to be found in ing families to two cows or two goats. the completion of the station will be this section of the state,” was needed. To have a larger herd required an acre small, the advertisement of having The battle went on for more than for each additional animal. And no one of the largest sub-stations in the a year, with several quarry workers bulls were allowed, unless within a state is worthwhile.”64 being arrested for violating the city’s barn. The power station, which remains stop-work order, before the quarry The city also focused on chickens. a landmark today as the PG&E sub- ceased operations.66 One trustee proposed an ordinance to station on Schmidt Lane, was quiet. The city’s battle against livestock “cover every kind of a chicken, and Not so some of the city’s existing in- took several decades longer to re- every act that a chicken is capable dustries. Hutchinson Quarry, which solve. of.” He urged that owners keep their was much closer to homes than its “Andy Shevlin in Chicken Busi- chickens penned, saying no one could uphill neighbor, Bates & Borland, ness,” the Journal reported in 1922. plant a garden without chickens im- frequently came in for criticism. This “well known Stockton Street mediately pecking it apart.68

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CHAPTER 6 Efficiency and economy candidates are receiving offers of support everywhere

hroughout its history Stege has been a bit of a mystery to most people, overseen and often run by people well known in the community, but the Tdistrict itself rarely attracting much attention. Few of its public meet- ings have attracted the public, and many elections have failed to attract chal- lengers. Not so, however, a pair of elections in the mid 1920s—though exactly what attracted a relative horde of candidates remains hard to fathom today. By this time, Stege wasn’t even awarding “soft drink” permits, which might have generated a bit of cash under the table. The city’s trustees and county su- pervisors were now in charge of such permits.

Eugene Sturgis, for many years Stege’s attorney, also served as elected commissioner for the City of Oakland.

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“Much interest being shown in Stege all day until the last hour when voters Sanitary Board election on March 11,” stood in line waiting their turn to cast the Journal reported in February 1924. their ballot. There was considerable “… much talk is to be heard concern- excitement all day and many workers ing the various candidates.” were out early working hard for their Charles H. Schwake, a local plumb- favorite candidates. er, and W.F. (Tom) Talmadge were “Many automobiles were scouting running for the board on a “platform for voters all during the day and if any of efficiency and economy.” Ernest voter walked to the polls it was his or “Babe” Brensel, long associated with her own fault as there were enough Stege Lumber Co. and “well equipped machines to carry all to the voting with business ability,” was running places.” on the ticket for sanitary assessor, an In “the most spirited election ever elected position at the time. held by the Stege Sanitary District “Contrary to the belief of many, Board,” the victors were Schwake, there are other things to be done by a Brensel, as sanitary assessor, and Sanitary Board aside from the mere Wuelzer, who “nosed Talmadge out installation of sewers and their main- by 11 votes.” tenance,” the Journal explained, “and “In justice to Mrs. George Car- these three men are pledged to look rick, who received a nice complimen- after the interests of the District in all tary vote, it should be mentioned that matters pertaining to the deeds of the she asked her friends throughout the District in reference to clean and sani- district to disregard her name on the tary conditions within the district as ballot, as she was not desirous of be- well as the maintenance of healthy and ing elected.” sanitary conditions of the streets and Compared to the ’24 race the ‘25 thoroughfares.” was a snoozer—though it did attract Also in the race was Edward Wuel- six candidates for five spots, with only zer, president of one of the city’s vol- one incumbent seeking re-election. unteer fire departments, with “a large “Some lively politics has devel- following in northern section where oped over the past week,” the Journal he lives,” H. Van Fleet, and Mrs. reported, with the candidates divided George C. Carrick. Mrs. Carrick’s into two opposing slates. The 1925 Stege election featured a three- man slate. Christensen and Sandvick, who husband, who had served on the Stege The winners were John Sandvick, were elected, went on to serve the district for board for two years, had just resigned who would go on to serve 28 years on decades. to take the job of sanitary inspector. the board, Elmer Christensen, a Rich- But it was Schwake-Talmadge- mond Annex resident who worked for Brensel ticket that garnered most of Standard Oil who would serve on the the paper’s attention. “Efficiency and board till 1948, when he died in of- Economy candidates are receiving fice, and Clifford Hinds. offers of support everywhere,” it re- “The defeated candidates as well ported. as the sucessful ones are satisfied that Election day lived up to expecta- a clean campaign was made and none tions. have any ill feeling over the result,” “. . .the voting continued steady the Journal concluded.69

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CHAPTER 7 Speed! Action! Sparkle! Eleven races every night except Sunday

hortly after its formation, in a burst of activity, Stege directors issued six resolutions pertaining to the bond election and sewer construction. S By 1929, resolutions were appearing almost regularly, most dealing with important but mundane matters, agreements with the bank, the Berkeley A 1934 program for the El Cerrito Kennel Water Front Co., a request from Albany to connect with Stege pipes, and set- Club, which had 11 races daily. ting pay scales. Richard Schwartz EC Historical Society Then, in October 1932, came Resolution 27, one that would turn a raucous town filled with speakeasies and gambling dens into… well, a town that had gone to the dogs. “Resolution to grant permission to Albany to allow Wembly Amusement Corp. to connect their sewer system to Albany and in effect Stege Sanitary” made it possible for John Jerome, “the kind of man who is either liked or detested by those he comes in contact with,” called “Jack” by his friends and “Black Jack” by others, to open his El Cerrito Kennel Club.70 The racetrack, on the site of today’s El Cerrito Plaza, featured “greyhound racing under the option system,” meaning that a bettor—no, don’t call him a “bettor,” as betting on dogs was illegal—bought an option to buy a dog before the race, then sold the option for a profit if the dog won. And win they did, some of them, dogs like Flying Warrior, Rough Mac, Tara Hill, Dangerous Dan, Susie the Warrior, Laddie Footsteps. A good bet was Blue Rabbit, the classiest dog at hurdles, according to Kennel Club Notes, a weekly column in the El Cerrito Journal. “Blue Rabbit takes the jumps so cleanly that fans are amazed at his skill.” “You get two looks at the El Cerrito dogs before each race, under the new system in effect at this popular track,” the Journal reported. “First the greyhounds stand on the indoor platform, close to the option booths. After being given a good inspection by the fans there, the dogs pa- rade on the track and then fall into review again before the starting box. On the track the dogs line up parallel with the grandstand, and facing the crowd, being but a few feet away from the railbirds. By this method a fan has a good

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The grandstand and track at the El Cerrito Kennel Club. This picture is believed to have been taken before the track opened to the public. Harding School can be seen near the center of the photo and the Sunset View Cemetery and the Sunset Mausoleum building are directly above it. El Cerrito Historical Society

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chance to size up the alertness of his the Southern Club, Sexy Sax led “one borhood associations were fighting dog or to make up his mind which is of the best known groups of colored the track, not surprisingly, mostly his choice.” entertainers in the region.” Folks those that abutted it. And the Kennel Club offered more flocked to the Hollywood Inn, “where “I am interested chiefly in El Cer- than dogs. “Gorgeous girls will parade bohemian life blazes in an atmosphere rito as a home city,” Frank Aiman told in Bathing Beauty revue tonight,” one of chivalry.”72 the Cerrito Park Improvement Club. “I ad read. New cars were awarded in Still, when the Kennel Club shut have no desire to have this city known prizes. Neighbors brought their house for the season, as it did several months as the gambling center of Northern pets by for mutt races. And there was every year, El Cerrito quieted down California.” The dog track, he said, more. considerably. “diminishes the desirability of El Cer- “Talk about real fun! The ostrich Besides any moral turpitude the rito is the eyes of homeowners.” race, with Negro boy jockeys, as Kennel Club brought to town—and Aiman, formerly a seller of “op- staged Tuesday night, is one of the District Attorney Francis Healey, tions” at the track, said he was “fa- best bits of entertainment of the sea- who raided the track on occasion, miliar with its operations and man- son,” the Journal reported. repeatedly accused city officials of agement. I find nothing to commend “These boys did their derndest to ignoring “morals laws”—the track in either.” ride like real jockeys, but staying on brought more down-to-earth prob- “Contrary to what you are asked a bouncing ostrich is something of a lems, including a citywide outbreak to believe, only a small portion of the task and the comical tumbles these of fleas.73 salaries and wages at the dog track boys took during the race last night El Cerrito’s defenders included go to local residents. Only a few lo- produced a barrel of fun. And when Mayor Hans Nissen. “Why anyone cal people are employed in any but the policemen fired blank cartridges can feel El Cerrito is a sink of iniquity the lowest paid jobs, option sellers in you should have seen the ostriches is a mystery to me,” he said. “El Cer- particular being paid less than at any fly. They literally flew along the rito is a law abiding community.” track within my knowledge...” track, with the jockeys hanging on “The dog track can be called a nui- “Kennel Club will close this Fri- and whooping.”71 sance,” one neighborhood opponent day,” the Journal announced on City policemen worked at the track argued, “because barking dogs and March 16, 1939—and not just, as during their off hours, as did Mayor the loudspeaker system disturbs the usual, for the season. Jerome made Phil Lee. Many Cerritans took to rais- residents, it breeds rats and fleas, it is the decision after “receipt of formal ing dogs in their homes, and it was es- a fire hazard, and it attracts an unde- notice from Attorney General Earl timated that 700 greyhounds called El sirable element.” Warren that he believes dog racing as Cerrito home. Many toured to other Earl Warren, known today for his practiced in California is illegal and dog tracks in the Bay Area and na- role as Chief Justice of the Supreme that he plans to take action to close tionwide. Court, and before that as California the seven tracks in the state.” For those who didn’t care for dogs, attorney general and governor, gets “I have always believed operation El Cerrito and No Man’s Land offered much of the credit for shutting down to be legal,” Jerome said. “If, how- dozens of other venues for fun. the track, along with many other gam- ever, the attorney general says it is Gambler Big Bill Pechart’s Ran- bling joints in and around El Cerrito. illegal, I am not disposed to disagree cho San Pablo, Castro’s former adobe, But really it’s the neighbors who de- with his opinion.”74 was next to the track, and his Wagon serve much of the credit. Wheel within shouting distance. At By the mid 1930s, several neigh-

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CHAPTER 8 A very grave menace to public health

y the mid- to late-1930s, Depression or no, El Cerrito had again be- come a residential boom town. B “It is generally assumed that the East Bay will experience a build- ing boom with the completion of the Oakland-San Francisco Bay Bridge,” the El Cerrito Journal wrote in 1934, urging Cerritans, “Let’s not get caught napping.”75 Stege was not napping. The district had re-organized in 1923, under that year’s state Sanitary District Act. In 1929, with some of its sewers already 15 years old, it began a program to rebuild and improve its system. The $75,000 in bonds, sold in 1914 to finance the original system, still had $15,000 due, and would mature in 1934. According to a 1929 report from Stege engineer Ross Calfee, population growth in the sanitary district—it doubled in a decade, plus began serving 300 acres in Albany—required that major improvements be made. He warned that the current southerly outfall into the bay had become ob- structed as the bay silted up. When built in 1914, both north and south outfalls were “1.4 feet above ordinary low tide,” Calfee wrote. “The outlets had no obstructions and sewerage had free flow,” he wrote. But now, because of “westerly winds and tide action… silt, sand and debris… has completely covered the existing pipe to a depth of about one foot. In other words, in the last 16 years, the tidelands have filled in over four feet.” In a report a year later, Calfee described what happened at Albany’s north- ern sewage outfall, which entered a slough north of Albany Hill, just south of the county line. “Discharging into a very small and narrow slough, it is impossible for dif- fusion and dilution of the sewage to properly take place under these condi- tions.” “Through the action of the ebb tide, part of the sewage is carried out into the shallow water over the mud flats. There being no current here, again through the action of the flood tide and the prevailing westerly winds it is carried back in again and deposited on the shores and mud flats in the immediate vicinity east of the Southern Pacific Railroad, thus creating a very obnoxious odor and resulting in a very grave menace to public health.”76 By the mid 1930s, it was becoming increasingly apparent that the bay was in danger, as were the people who used it. “Cerrito shore clams barred,” the Journal reported in 1934. The state Board

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of Health ruled that this and other In early 1930, the state Board of also serving a small portion of Al- areas were “grossly polluted and the Health granted Stege a permit to ex- bany, under contract to the city, but consumption of clams taken there tend its outfall line onto a wooded Albany couldn’t become part of the highly dangerous.”77 knoll, Point Isabel, named in the mid- district because, under the 1923 sani- Calfee’s proposed solution, sec- 1800s for Victor Castro’s daughter. tary district law, districts could not onded by the chief of the state De- From this moment on, until the early serve towns in different counties. partment of Public Health, was to 1970s, when sewage treatment was Funding was provided through an abandon both the original north and taken over by a regional agency and assessment, which required voter ap- south Stege outfalls, replacing them shifted to a plant in Oakland, Point proval. with a new line that “carries the sew- Isabel would be central to Stege’s op- Already by the start of the 1930s erage out farther into the Bay and to erations. Stege knew that eventually it would a place where sanitary conditions are The next step for Stege was fi- be required to treat its effluent before more favorable.” nancing the project, made complicat- releasing it. For Albany he proposed aban- ed because the district, which totaled When designed in 1930, the dis- doning the outfall and connecting 3,300 acres, covered three political trict later wrote, “provision was made Albany’s mains with a 36-inch Stege jurisdictions, El Cerrito, 2,320 acres, for future construction of primary interceptor line. Pile and timber foun- Richmond, 320 acres, and unincor- treatment plant when and if required, dations would be built in the swamp porated territory, No Man’s Land and near Point Isabel.”78 to support the new lines. Kensington, 660 acres. Stege was

Looking east from Albany Hill up Brighton Avenue in Albany. Cerrito Creek comes down from the hills to the left of Brighton. The original building at Sunset View Cemetery is at the top of Fairmount Avenue and the buildings of John Balra’s dairy are north of the cemetery. El Cerrito Historical Society

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CHAPTER 9 El Cerrito storm damages are heaviest in history

y the mid 1930s, small housing tracts were sprouting throughout El Cerrito and the Richmond Annex. The San Pablo Land Co. was hard at Bwork in the Annex, and A.H. Hammarberg was planning a subdivision near the brand new El Cerrito High. “Few people realize that, in point of population, El Cerrito is the second city in Contra Costa County, exceeded only by Richmond.” The city’s population was 5,500 in 1938, when it was the fastest growing Al Baxter first won election to the Stege Board city in the county, with 166 homes built that year, an all-time high. And it just in 1938—and remained with the district the rest of his life. got better. By March 1939, the Journal estimated that a house a day was be- ing built. The pace evidently slackened as the year went on; the total for 1939 came to only 240.79 Stege was growing along with the city and its hinterlands. Mason McDuff- ie, the Berkeley realty and development firm run by the Sierra hiker Duncan McDuffie, planned one of its boldest moves yet—a quasi-suburban neighbor- hood in what was then a wilderness, a windy unincorporated ridge in Kensing- ton overlooking Wildcat Canyon. The area had no services at all. McDuffie needed 30,000 linear feet of sewer lines for a cost of about $40,000. Stege expanded its boundaries to accommo- date the subdivision. By mid 1939, Stege was hustling to put in $16,000 worth of new sewers for several other hillside tracts, Mira Vista (the former Berkeley Country Club tract), Arlington Estates and Richmond Junction Heights. Homes in Arlington Estates were still using septic tanks. It proved something of a rush to get the streets, sidewalks, sewers and storm drains in place quickly enough to meet the demand for houses. The City Coun- cil, which was handling the assessments to fund the work, authorized the city engineer “to secure the services of any man for the job to secure the plans at the earliest possible date.” Federal job creation funds were helping, with the WPA (Works Progress Administration) spending $161,190 on Mira Vista streets. Depression-era alphabet soup programs were helping Stege in other ways too, with the federal Civil Works Administration paying for Stege to clean debris from Cerrito Creek to prevent flooding in No Man’s Land.

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The rapid development in the hills Throughout the 1930s, Stege was dump, hoping that would solve the was putting pressure on Stege’s sew- issuing slews of resolutions and an problem. It did not. ers, as grading and paving increased occasional regulation, which suggest It’s rare that Stege and the city ever the flow of storm water, which flood- the range of activities that was keep- came to blows, but they did in mid- ed into Stege’s lines. Manholes began ing the district busy. 1925 when Stege, responding to a pe- popping. Stege urged the city coun- In 1934, a resolution granted ex- tition from the Annex Improvement cil to speed up construction of storm clusive rights to pick up garbage in Club to close the city dump, declared sewers to handle the flow. the area to Oakland Scavenger Co., it a public nuisance. Stege also put in sewers for the and in 1935, a regulation required “The condemning of the garbage Gill Tract, west of San Pablo Avenue homeowners to place their garbage dump in the Annex brings a situa- and south of Cutting, where an auto- in cans, not in alleys or ditches, and tion whereby Annex residents and El mobile trailer camp won approval to “placed so as not to be upset by dogs Cerrito residents now have no place use a septic system until sewers could or unauthorized scavengers.” to dump their garbage, and they will be built.80 The regulation also banned anyone be in violation of the law unless some Stege and city staffers were work- from keeping “upon his premises in remedy is found immediately,” city ing very closely by the late 1930s, in an unsanitary condition or improperly trustees announced. part no doubt because they’d been ventilated, any barn, stable or huts for The stalemate continued for sev- sharing a building since late 1937. dogs.” Floors in barns were required eral months until the city worked out Stege had taken over a desk in city to have gutters and be connected to a deal with a Richmond hauler to take hall, with Lillian Chase serving as Stege’s sewers.83 the trash. Stege assessor and office clerk. Gone Resolution 41 was a “resolution of Garbage, alas, proved to be a prob- were the days of running the district protest” against “keeping of animals lem that lasted for years. The city lat- from the home of the chairman of the in excess of family need in the Rich- er established dumps for household board.81 mond Annex area.” trash at Gladys and Norvell, at today’s A landmark event for Stege oc- The Annex and No Man’s Land Castro Park and, at the Hutchinson curred in 1938, when a young man had long been plagued by unsanitary Quarry, after the quarry shut follow- who sold truck engines at Hall-Scott conditions. Besides a slaughter house, ing World War II.84 Motors in Berkeley was first elected which Stege began serving in 1919, Another perennial problem that to the sanitary board. It was an unusu- empty lots throughout the area were came to the fore in the 1930s was ally large turnout for a Stege election, used as informal dumps. Later, Stege flooding. While floods could occur 1,012 voters, almost double the vote gave the city of El Cerrito permission at several places in town, in the hills, in any previous year. Alfred G. Bax- to create a dump for household waste. along rushing creeks, in commercial ter, known to all as Al, came in sec- By the mid-1920s, residents of the districts, by far the deepest problems ond, with 496 votes.82 low-lying neighborhoods were up in arose in the lowest lying portions Baxter, Denver born but El Cerrito arms about both the illegal dumping of the district, including portions of bred, made his mark quickly, in 1939 and El Cerrito’s official dump—which the Richmond Annex and No Man’s becoming chairman. He held leader- had been placed, conveniently enough Land. ship positions on the board off and on for the city, outside of its borders. Epicenter for the floods that sent until 1957, when he quit to become The Annex Improvement Club stormwater through basements and the district’s manager, serving in that complained that the official dump the first floors of some homes, and role to 1984. Baxter stayed with Stege was so poorly marked, folks just that caused manholes to pop and spew a total of 47 years. No one, not even dumped anywhere. George Carrick, a raw sewage, was the corner of Central the founder William Huber, would former Stege board member who was and Belmont Avenues. play a larger role in Stege’s history now the district’s sanitary inspector, Only seven feet and a few inches than Al Baxter. staked out the border of the official above sea level, the corner, the lowest

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street elevation in the Stege district, heaviest in history,” the Journal re- Creek on Rosalind Avenue, and again was only three feet above the average ported in February 1939. Flooding hit on Pomona, residents flooded City highest tide of the year and less than areas well east of San Pablo Avenue Council meetings. one foot above the 100-year storm as well as the Annex and No Man’s A “city wide mass meeting” was tide. Land. Homes and businesses flooded held at Harding School, attracting 70 As the area developed, small in the heart of the commercial strip, people and a “flood survey commit- houses were built on land that regu- San Pablo and Fairmount avenues, tee” formed. City attorney Homer larly turned into marsh during win- and a garage further uphill on Pomo- Patterson put part of the blame on de- ter storms. Meanwhile, development na Street collapsed. velopers for diverting creeks, building further inland caused increased run- Stormwater got into the sewers, on top of them, and failing to culvert off, making matters worse. Cerrito overwhelming capacity and causing their waters. The council prepared an Creek and its tributaries, increasingly them to overflow, sending sewage ordinance.85 hemmed in, had less room to wander. mixed with rainwater into people’s Flooding and associated sewage When the creek filled, water had no homes. overflows would plague the city for place to go but into the streets and When the flooding repeated itself years to come. into Stege’s sewers. a year later, only worse, with floods “El Cerrito storm damages are on the Arlington, along Poinsett

Red Cross volunteers played an important role during World War II. El Cerrito Historical Society

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