In Part 1 of this story, we looked into a very old building on Lincoln Avenue, one that most passersby might not even notice, but that has a long and colorful history. As I like to say, every old house has a story to tell, and this one is no exception.
A saloon at Alameda Station
2320 Lincoln Avenue actually began its life on Park Street, just half a block east of where it stands today. Research done by the Alameda Architectural Preservation Society (AAPS) suggests that this building was built circa 1864-1868, making it the oldest commercial/residential building in town.
In 1864, Alfred A. Cohen, with his partners Charles Minturn and Edwin Mastick, built the San Francisco and Alameda Railroad (SF&A), which included a station on Park Street at Railroad Avenue (today’s Lincoln Avenue). This new train service shifted the center of Alameda’s business activity from the original settlement of Alameda, at High Street and Encinal Avenue, north to Park Street.
German immigrant Frank Glas (1835-1918) took advantage of this opportunity, and ran a successful saloon in the building he put up at the corner of Park Street and Railroad Avenue. His business was called the “Encinal Saloon.” By 1875, though, a newspaper report in the Alameda Daily Evening Encinal announced that Frank Glas was planning a “grand improvement” on Park Street, stating that “The old story-and-a-half building is to be removed to the rear of the lot, and new modern style two-story house will at once be erected on the corner.” That was when today’s 2320 Lincoln Avenue was moved from Park Street to the back of Glas’s property on Railroad Avenue, where it has stood for decades more, all the while enduring multiple threats to existence.
Railroad Exchange Saloon
Frank Glas put his portion of the block up for sale at auction in 1880, subdividing it into multiple parcels. Frank C. Vogt (1834-1905) then purchased the plot containing the old saloon building on Railroad Avenue and operated it as the Railroad Exchange Saloon until the year 1900, when he retired. Along the way, he also had a building put up right next door to his saloon, with the second building located at 2322 Lincoln Avenue. That one was built in 1890 by well-known Alameda builder A. R. Denke, and later became the home of Gim’s Chinese takeout.
Will leads to family feud
After Frank Vogt died and his last will and testament were read, a dispute broke out among his family members. As was common at the time, Frank had died at home, on April 5, 1905, reportedly of “paralysis.” A notice in the Alameda Daily Argus on May 1, 1905 stated, “Notice is given that a petition for the probate of the will of Frank C. Vogt, deceased, and for the issuance to Theresa Vogt and Charles John Vogt of letters of testimony thereon, has been filed in this court.” With those simple words, the stage was set for a contentious fight over Frank Vogt’s estate. Even though he had prepared a will that he felt was clear, that turned out not to be the case.
On August 27, 1906, a headline in the Argus stated, “Future Litigation Likely in Estate of Frank C. Vogt.” The story went on to report that “Two sons and a daughter, Fred A. and Henry F. Vogt, and Mrs. Amelia Schmitt, are not satisfied with the conduct of the affairs of the estate by Mrs. Vogt (their stepmother) and the third son Charles, and have taken their contention into court.”
The first objection stemmed from the “voluminous” sum of money being spent by Mrs. Vogt since the death of her husband, and the three children’s claim that those expenditures should be charged against her portion rather than against the entire estate. Further, Fred, Henry and Amelia alleged that the estate should have been distributed four months prior, and that the executors should be removed and settlement of the estate wound up.
Finally, the most contentious part of the estate involved determining exactly what Frank Vogt intended to do with his property after his death. The total value of the Vogt estate was some $12,000. The will bequeathed to Mrs. Vogt the home at 2320 Lincoln Avenue, valued at about $3,000, and one-fifth of the balance of the estate, which was to be split between her and the four adult children. But Mrs. Vogt was demanding the home and one-fifth of the value of the entire estate, not just of the balance. In the absence of a will, state law dictated that a spouse is entitled to one-half of all property acquired during the marriage (community property, in this case valued at $8,000) and the regular pro rata of the individual property. In this case, however, there was a will, and Mrs. Vogt seemed to be claiming rights “both under the will and against it”, as stated by a judge. The ambiguity of the case hinged on whether Mr. Vogt meant one-fifth of his entire estate, or one-fifth of the balance, not including the house, which had already been bequeathed to Mrs. Vogt. When the court ruled against Mrs. Vogt, she appealed the case to a higher court.
On November 16, 1908, more than three years after the death of Frank Vogt, an article appeared in the Argus with the headline, “Sustains Contention of the Vogt Heirs,” with the subheading, “The Supreme Court Upholds Ruling of Judge Harris in an Alameda Estate.” In this article, it was reported that the State Supreme Court affirmed the ruling of the Superior Court judge when it found that Mrs. Theresa Vogt could not claim both her state community property rights and at the same time benefit from the specific devise (gift of real estate made by a will) and division of property written up by her late husband in his will. It took three years, but the three children of Frank Vogt who brought this suit were ultimately vindicated.
The lesson of this story is that a will must be made as specific and clear as possible, lest any disputes or fights over its terms result later. Although the dispute was eventually resolved in court, its damaging effects on the family probably took much longer, if ever, to heal.
Paving over history
By 2004, plans were underway to build a new Main Library on Oak Street, at the corner of Lincoln Avenue, site of the old Linoaks Motel. As reported in the March 2004 AAPS newsletter, “The City is considering enlarging the site for the new Main Library to include two buildings at 2320 and 2322 Lincoln Ave. Both buildings would be demolished to allow construction of a 96-space surface parking lot for the structure.”
At this time, the AAPS and others began to express concern about the potential loss of these two historic buildings, one of which (2320) dated back as far as the 1860s, and other (2322) to 1890. Both had connections to Alameda’s long-lost Chinatown, as well as to the Park Street Station railroad depot that jump-started the original development of this neighborhood. AAPS volunteers Kevin Frederick and Elizabeth Krase (now Green) did research that shed more light on the interesting history of these buildings, which was explored in Part 1 of this series. The planned destruction of these historic buildings to build a parking lot was particularly surprising, considering the City’s previously stated visioning process that emphasized compact, pedestrian-oriented development, and the discouragement of land-intensive “dead” spaces such as parking lots.
Saving the Encinal Saloon
By the end of 2004, with an outpouring of support from preservationists that was backed by the Chinese and Japanese communities, the City Council voted to save the two structures. The significance of 2320 Lincoln Avenue, in particular, is summed up by Woody Minor is his book, Taking Care of Business: Historic Commercial Buildings of the Island City. Minor writes, “By 1876, Park Street had assumed the character of a typical American ‘Main Street’ of the era. At least five of these early buildings survive, all altered to varying degrees. The oldest and most intact is the Encinal Saloon, erected in the late 1860s at the southwest corner of Park Street and Lincoln Avenue, next to the depot, and later moved down the block to 2320 Lincoln Avenue. This simple gabled structure is the city’s oldest documented commercial building.”
Historian Elizabeth Krase Green sheds further light on the significance of this structure: “Alameda has a wealth of buildings in Queen Anne, Colonial Revival, and other eye-catching architectural styles, but most of our ancestors lived in more modest buildings like 2320 Lincoln. It’s just this type of modest building that tends to be overlooked in favor of the more stylish buildings, but these provide a context for the range of architectural styles.”
The library altered its plans, working the surface parking lot around the two buildings on Lincoln Avenue, thus reaching the compromise of providing a good-sized parking lot while still preserving two historic buildings.
A new owner
The two buildings then continued on as the home of Gim’s Chinese takeout restaurant, with 2322 Lincoln Avenue housing the restaurant itself, and 2320 Lincoln Avenue being used as storage. By late 2023 though, the property went up for sale. Real estate websites described it as, “2320 Lincoln Avenue includes 2 buildings on 1 lot located in the heart of Alameda’s shopping, dining, and entertainment hub. The property sits on a 4,281 sq. ft. lot with one commercial unit consisting of just over 1,200 square feet and a single-family home with over 1,600 square feet. The commercial space includes a commercial kitchen, private bathroom, back yard, and ample storage space. The single-family home boasts 4 bedrooms and one and one-half bathrooms with a backyard.”
First listed at $899,000 on September 28, 2023, the property eventually sold on May 7, 2024 for $710,000. What the future holds for Alameda’s oldest commercial building is unknown, but the Alameda Post will cover any changes or emerging threats to this ordinary-looking building that nevertheless has a long and colorful history, and counts among our Alameda Treasures.
Fire
Having endured so much over its long life, the old Encinal Saloon survived another brush with death recently. Early on the morning of June 14, 2024, a large fire was reported in the backyard of 2320 Lincoln Avenue. Witness video shows the entire yard on fire, with burning trees sending flames higher than the house itself. Alameda Fire Department Public Information Officer Kevin Tidwell shared with the Alameda Post that a call was received at 5:04 a.m. reporting an outside fire at 2320 Lincoln Avenue. Crews arriving on the scene noticed the building itself being threatened by fire and immediately upgraded the call to a working structure response, which brought 20 firefighters onsite. The fire was brought under control in 25 minutes, and a search of the building found nobody inside, and no damage to the interior. Fire investigators were brought to the scene, but the cause of the fire remains undetermined.
It is very fortunate that the dry wood of this approximately 158-year-old house didn’t completely go up in flames and end up in a total loss. Shortly thereafter, temporary replacement fencing was put up around the backyard, and a board was nailed over one of the side windows to discourage illegal entry.
A witness to history
The old house at 2320 Lincoln Avenue has seen so much history and still stands tall to this day, though admittedly looking a little worse for wear. From the earliest days of the railroads coming to Park Street, to being picked up and moved half a block to Lincoln Avenue, to being owned by two different Franks in the 1800s (Frank Glas and Frank Vogt), then being a part of Alameda’s historic Chinatown, getting embroiled in an inheritance dispute that went all the way to the State Supreme Court, serving as the home to one of Alameda’s oldest Chinese restaurants (Gim’s), surviving a threat to existence by a parking lot, getting sold to new owners, and finally enduring a large conflagration in its backyard that burned the back of the house itself, this building has some stories to tell. In fact, it’s something of a miracle that it’s still around to tell its story at all. In this two-part series, we have learned some perhaps lesser known details about this plain-looking building with a not-so-plain history, and hopefully have come to appreciate its unique place among our Alameda Treasures.
Contributing writer Steve Gorman has been a resident of Alameda since 2000, when he fell in love with the history and architecture of this unique town. Contact him via [email protected]. His writing is collected at AlamedaPost.com/Steve-Gorman.
