Rose Garden Resident

Letters & Opinions

The Alameda played an important role in early San Jose

By Linda Taaffe

The Alameda is the route I take to work, to Saturday breakfast at Riga European Bakery and Cafe, the farmers market at Downtown College Prep and to my weekly piano lessons. It is the same road my relatives took from their homes in San Jose to Sunday Mass at Mission Santa Clara after settling here in 1777. And it is undoubtedly the route that my great-great-great-grandfather used to pick up his two sons from Santa Clara College one day in 1854 after receiving a stern letter from the head of the school about their bad behavior. (I'm still not quite sure what they did). For later generations, the street served as the family address during the late 1880s, when Victorian homes dominated the streetscape.

It may not be very evident looking at today's four-lane asphalt road, but The Alameda has played an important role in San Jose for 200-plus years.

Built when Spain controlled California, the road connected Pueblo San Jose to Mission Santa Clara. It since has been the path to salvation, the route to a better education and the address for San Jose's wealthy. It has been a private toll road, a city street, a country road and a state highway. It has grown from a 40-foot wide dirt road to a 115-foot, four-lane asphalt commute route.

Like most things old, The Alameda has a colorful history, starting with the days when it was a dirt trail.

The Rev. Magin Catala was the first to beautify the route when he got the idea to plant willow trees along its edges in order to entice residents from Pueblo San Jose to go to Sunday Mass at the mission. He believed the shady trail would attract people, so in 1799, he had 200 Mission Indians plant rows of willows along the trail.

The mature trees ultimately attracted the attention of the city's wealthy residents, who built huge Victorian mansions along the shady boulevard. Some of these still exist.

Drought and rain also played a role in the boulevard's history. In the book Signposts, author Patricia Loomis recounts how San Jose's rainy winters were responsible for turning the onetime stagecoach route into a private toll road. Apparently, the street became so muddy during the winter year after year the stagecoach drivers finally chose an alternative route to San Francisco. According to Loomis, Hiram Shartzer's Turnpike Road Company took control of The Alameda in 1862. After investing $28,686 in improvements, he set up a tollbooth at the intersection of Race Street and The Alameda. It cost single buggies 10 cents to use The Alameda, and stagecoaches were charged $1. Eventually, the company stopped charging tolls because it couldn't keep up the road.

A drought in 1823 had a very different impact on the road. In her book, Loomis says Catala led a procession of Indians with lighted candles down The Alameda as part of a special Mass celebrated to ask God for rain. Despite the wind, not a candle went out as the Indians walked down The Alameda. Seven consecutive days of rain fell in San Jose following that Mass, according to Loomis.

Linda Taaffe is the editor of the Rose Garden Resident.