History Walking Tours

As part of our commitment to educate and inform about local history, we are presenting an ongoing series of walking tours around Alameda. Join our award-winning Historian Dennis Evanosky for leisurely walks that will leave you with a greater appreciation and understanding of Alameda’s history. We will explore a wide range of topics including early residents, architecture, the environment, transportation, cultures, and other topics of historical significance.

Alameda Post - Alameda Post's award-winning Historian, Dennis Evanosky
Dennis Evanosky leads a history walking tour near one of Alameda's lagoons in February, 2023. Photo Adam Gillitt.

Each tour will meet at the time and date stated and will end where it started. Our walks will cover 90–100 minutes over 1–2 miles. We suggest you wear comfortable shoes as well as sunblock, and bring water. Mobility devices, strollers (kids under 4 are FREE!), and well-behaved (or especially cute) dogs are always welcome.

We are using money raised to cover some of the expenses incurred running a nonprofit news and information source to serve Alameda. We hope you will join us and have some fun learning about Alameda’s history!

Upcoming Tours

Alameda Point - Former NAS in Two Parts

Park Avenue and Environs

Saturday, November 4 and Sunday, November 12. Details to come.

Previous Tours

Choose a previous tour to view:

Sept. 23 and Oct. 1, 2023 – Eagle Avenue and Environs

Alameda Post - an early biplane known as a Curtiss Pusher flies over Alameda's Sunset Field.
Spectators follow the path of a Curtiss Pusher at Alameda’s Sunset Field in 1912. This type of plane and the noise that it made change the neighborhood for the worse. Photo Earlyaviators.com.

August 10 & Sept. 12, 2023 – Alameda’s Northern Waterfront

Alameda Post - Shipways and the Red Brick Building.
Two of the ten 23,000-ton troop ships built in Alameda during World War II dominate the shipways that still stand on Alameda’s North Shore. The “Red Brick Building” seen behind the ships became hotly contested projects until voters approved demolishing the landmark. Photo Alameda Museum.

August 6 &12, 2023 – A.A. Cohen and His Fernside Estate

Alameda Post - A.A. Cohen's Fernside Estate, photographed by Eadweard Muybridge
This view, part of an Eadweard Muybridge stereoscopic pair, shows the approach to Fernside’s porte-cochere from Versailles Avenue. The entrance to the estate was near the intersection of today’s Versailles and Buena Vista avenues.
Alameda Post - Fernside Estate, photographed by Eadweard Muybdridge
Sometime in the 1870s, Eadweard Muybridge photographed the Cohen estate. In order to capture the villa in all its glory, the photographer probably stood on the roof of the carriage house, the smaller building in the inset sketch from the 1888 Alameda Argus map.

July 16 & 22, 2023 – Tregloan Court and The East End

June 17 & 25, 2023 –Taylor Avenue and Alameda’s West End

Join the Alameda Post’s Dennis Evanosky and Adam Gillitt at 10 a.m., Saturday, June 17, to learn how to read a neighborhood. We’ll start at the Healing Garden at the corner of Taylor Avenue and Webster Street in Alameda’s West End. Along the way, we’ll have a close look at all the architectural styles and learn how to identify each one we see. Isn’t that one Queen Anne? How do you know that one is a bungalow? What’s the earliest style we can find? And the latest?

We won’t come across a single an Arts and Crafts style home. There’s no such thing. And we won’t see any Victorians. Not a single one exists in Alameda. We’ll see some towers, for sure. Will we see any turrets? We’ll come across some dentils, but will we see any quoins?

By the time we’re finished, you will be able to talk about all the different Victorian-era styles of homes. You’ll know at least three features of each style. We’ll, no doubt, come across a jerkinhead roof or two and too many naked protruding beams to count. What’s the difference between a column and a pillar? Is that column fluted? What kind of order defines the column? Ionic? Or is that Doric?

We’ll have fun answering all these questions and more. If you can’t join us on Saturday, June 17, we’ll repeat the same tour at the same place and time on Sunday, June 25.

May 28 & June 3, 2023 – Determining Architectural Styles

It’s hard for many to believe, but Alameda does not have a single Victorian home. The City, however, is a treasure trove of homes built in Victorian-era styles. Join the Alameda Post’s Dennis Evanosky and Adam Gillitt at 10 a.m., Sunday, May 28, or Saturday June 3, at the corner of Cottage Street and Santa Clara Avenue. Dennis will talk about as many of these styles as we encounter. He’ll discuss each of these and give you three or more elements that will help you identify them. Elements like brackets and spindles, dentils and cornice lines, pendants and finials, arches and columns, towers and turrets.

Learn which orders top a column: Corinthian, Ionic, Doric, or Eclectic. By the end of the tour, you’ll know the difference between a hipped and a jerkinhead roof, be able to identify a mansard roof, and distinguish between a stoop and a porch.

Most importantly, you’ll go home knowing that there are no Victorians in Alameda, after all. Let’s find out how many Victorian-era styles we can find (and see what happened after Victoria died and the twentieth century dawned with new styles.) We’ll have fun along the way and, no, there won’t be a test.

Alameda Post – 19th C. ceramic German seltzer bottle.
This ceramic seltzer bottle was dug up from the grounds where Harmonie Hall once stood. The text on the bottle is in German. Photo Adam Gillitt.

May 6 & 14, 2023 – Bygone Bay Farm: The Developers Arrive

Alameda Post - 1951 map of Bay Farm Island
In this excerpt of a 1951 gas station map of the East Bay, the dikes that would help to define the boundaries of Bay Farm Island are clearly visible. Map courtesy AlamedaInfo.com

April 16 & 22, 2023 – Bygone Bay Farm: Asparagus, Oysters, and Hops

Alameda Post - Jack London at the bar of his favorite haunt, Heinhold’s First and Last Saloon in Oakland. He appears dressed and ready sail down the Oakland Estuary to San Leandro Bay. There he could track some of the pirates that once pillaged the oyster beds in the waters surrounding Bay Farm Island.
Jack London at the bar of his favorite haunt, Heinhold’s First and Last Saloon in Oakland. He appears dressed and ready sail down the Oakland Estuary to San Leandro Bay. There he could track some of the pirates that once pillaged the oyster beds in the waters surrounding Bay Farm Island. Photo courtesy Huntington Library.
Alameda Post - Members of the Ratto family gathered for this photograph in the days when Bay Farm was known far and wide as a cornucopia brimming with produce.
Members of the Ratto family gathered for this photograph in the days when Bay Farm was known far and wide as a cornucopia brimming with produce. Photo courtesy the Ratto Family.
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March 18 & April 2, 2023 – Bay Farm Island B. C.

Alameda Post - 1894 map of Bay Farm Island
In this 1894 map the marsh land dwarfs the Bay Farm uplands that appear as a white leaf. We will see on our tour how that leaf remains today. This helps us define how the Europeans shaped the landscape to suit their needs. Notice the oyster company and the names of the early settlers carved into the marsh and on the uplands. The railroad on the map began as a arrow-gauge train that carried passengers and freight to and from Santa Cruz. From the David Rumsey collection.

February 25 & March 5, 2023 – Gold Coast Architecture: Caroline and Weber streets

Alameda Post - Detail from George Cram's 1908 Atlas, highlighting Caroline and Weber streets.
Detail from George Cram's 1908 Atlas, highlighting Caroline and Weber streets. (Yes, it is misspelled on the map)

February 12, 2023 – Teutonia Park and Homestead

January 29, 2023 – The Architecture of Paru Street

September, 2022 – Alameda’s Parks and their Neighborhoods

August, 2022 – Architecture of the East End​

July, 2022 – Alameda’s Innovative Streetcars

June, 2022 – Alameda’s Changing Shoreline

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