Alviso Adobe Community Park

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The Alviso Adobe Community Park is a 7-acre (2.8 ha) park currently under construction in the city of Pleasanton, California, United States. It is built around an adobe house constructed in 1854 by Francisco Alviso, a rare surviving example of an early American adobe that was continuously in use until 1969. The building is registered as California Historical Landmark #510.^[1]

Construction of the park was initially planned to begin in 2000, but the city could not secure funding until 2007, when the $4.4 million project was finally begun.^[2] Construction work is scheduled to be completed in October 2008.^[3] Besides the adobe, the park will contain a replica of an old dairy and interpretive displays of Ohlone culture.

[edit] Alviso adobe

Built in 1854 by Francisco Alviso for his wife and ten children, the adobe was the center of a 300-acre (1.2 km²) ranch. Alviso sold the property and land in 1872 to J. West Martin, a land speculator and later mayor of Oakland. Martin then resold it to Anthony Chabot, the "Water King". Census records indicate that the Alviso family continued to live there until the 1880s. Afterwards, it was acquired by the Contra Costa Water Company and used by a succession of different families.^[4]

The 1906 San Francisco earthquake damaged the building, leaving large cracks in the walls and chimney. In 1919, it was purchased by Walter M. Briggs, who started the Meadowlark Dairy. He had the building renovated and used it as housing for his workers. The adobe continued to serve this purpose until 1969, when the dairy moved its operations to Tracy.^[4]

The Briggs company sold the ranch and adobe to the Great Southwest Corporation, who wanted to build an amusement park on the site, but this was hotly contested by local residents and the plan was scrapped. The company then sold it to a real-estate development company. Most of the land was then converted to individual housing lots, but the adobe, which had been declared a California Historical Landmark in 1954, was donated to the city of Pleasanton.^[4]

The historical marker originally read:

FRANCISCO SOLANO ALVISO ADOBE - This building, erected in 1844-46 by Francisco Solano Alviso, was the first adobe house to be built in the Pleasanton Valley. It was originally called Alisal—The Sycamores. Following the Battle of Sunol Canyon, General John C. Frémont withdrew to this building, which became his headquarters for several days.^[5]

However, in a 2000 report issued in preparation for the city's renovation plan, historians discovered that there were several errors in the original plaque. Firstly, it was confused with another adobe which had lay 0.5 miles (0.8 km) to the north that had been built by José Dolores Pacheco. Additionally, it was wrongly credited to Alviso's father. Lastly, no evidence exists to indicate that Frémont ever used the building.^[1] The historical marker has since been removed.