(Photo: Paul T. Roberts Collection)

1890s Bay Station and the Railroad - evolution of a neighborhood

The Fitch family purchased about 150 acres from Chipman and Aughinbaugh. The family lived in the area during the Gold Rush, they worked the land and grew strawberries among other crops. But everything changed when the railroad came, when wealthy landowners - like the Fitches and their neighbor Page family - sold large tracts of land along the rail line, which were subdivided resulting in new houses and commercial districts. All this new development turned Alameda into the commuter suburb of San Francisco. By 1890 the city's population exceeded 10,000. and Bay Station, with its namesake train stop, became a busy neighborhood business center lending its name to the area.

The Bay Station neighborhood we're talking about today is one of the most interesting areas in Alameda, architecturally and historically. It is the epicenter of the famous firm of Marcuse & Remmel and of their prolific dproduction in Alameda.