Albany Waterfront History (Pre-1900)

Albany Waterfront History (Pre-1900). . Before the Ice Age waned about 10,000 years ago, this area was part of a wide valley through which the Sacramento River flowed on its way to the Pacific Ocean near the Farallon Islands. The river spilled over a waterfall at the Golden Gate headlands. Rising sea levels filled the valley, creating San Francisco Bay. Creeks carrying eroded material from the Berkeley Hills helped to build marshy flatlands along the shore near ancient hilltops like Fleming Point, Albany Hill, and Point Isabel.

When Europeans reached the Albany area, a crescent of sandy beach swept south from Fleming Point's sandstone bluffs to Berkeley. Codornices and Marin Creeks flowed to a large tidal marsh east of Fleming Point- the youthful Albany Salt Marsh across Buchanan Street is a remnant, shifted north by Bay fill. The Bay lapped close to the foot of Albany Hill. Middle Creek flowed into Cerrito Creek amid willows on the northeast side of Albany Hill, just above where Cerrito Creek entered another large salt marsh. Although channelized and culverted, these creeks remain.

Domingo Peralta built his home on Codornices Creek, near the north border of his holdings. Vincente Castro, son of the Spanish grantee to the north, built his adobe on Cerrito Creek, at the south edge of the Castro holdings. El Cerrito de San Antonio (Little Hill of Saint Anthony) was named like the rancho for Luis Peralta's patron saint. An older name of Fleming Point was El Cerrito del Sur (Little Hill of the South).

Layers of discarded shells and rocks used for grinding seeds are reminders that Ohlone Indians, called Costanoans (coast people) by the Spaniards, lived on the north side of Albany Hill. In 1820, the Spanish crown granted longtime soldier Luis Peralta the land from San Leandro Creek north to Cerrito Creek. The northern portion passed to his son Domingo Peralta, who like other rancheros lost his land to squatters and lawsuits soon after the 1849 Gold Rush. One newcomer who paid Peralta for land was John Fleming, a San Francisco butcher. To graze cattle, Fleming in 1853 bought the island-like hill cut off by Codornices Creek's tidal slough. The point took on Fleming's name.

Completion of railroad tracks along the shoreline in 1878 attracted industry, but cut residents off from the waterfront. These Southern Pacific Railroad tracks remain, next to the freeway. However, the rival Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railroad acquired most of the shore and tidelands. The Santa Fe Railroad remained the main property owner on Albany's waterfront until the 1990s (although their tracks ran inland, along today's BART route).

The East Bay's population boomed after the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake. When wagons from Berkeley began dumping garbage at the Albany waterfront, housewives turned out to block them. The protest spurred incorporation in 1908, with the name Ocean View - quickly changed to Albany to avoid confusion with other Ocean Views, including West Berkeley. ,