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ALAMEDA
It has been thought that this name
may have been derived from the
resemblance between Alameda creek, at
one time thickly shaded along its banks
by willows and silver-barked sycamores,
and an alameda (an avenue shaded
by trees), but since the primary meaning
of the word is "a place where poplar
trees grow," from alamo (poplar
or cottonwood), it requires less
stretching of the imagination to believe
that some such grove of cottonwoods near
the creek gave it the name. Fray Danti,
in his diary of the exploration of "the
Alameda" in 1795, says: "We came to the
river of the Alameda, which has many
large boulders, brought down by floods,
and is well populated with willows,
alders, and here and there a laurel. At
a little distance from where the river
runs, the tides of the Estuary come."
Bancroft says, in his History of
California, Vol. I: "In 1795
Sergeant Pedro Amador explored the
eastern shore of San Francisco Bay, and
in his report used the name of Alameda.
It is probable that he applied the name,
as it had been applied before, to a
grove on the stream, since it is so used
a little later."
From the
name of an insignificant little stream,
Alameda has come to be the
designation of one of the most important
counties in the state, and of the
flourishing city on the east side of San
Francisco Bay, nine miles east-southeast
of San Francisco. The name as applied to
the city did not originate with the
Spanish discoverers, but was given by
its first American founders. After a
warm contest over the selection of the
name, during which Leandro City,
Peralta, and Elizabethtown were all
considered, the name of Alameda was
finally chosen and formally adopted on
June 11, 1853. The inference is obvious
that the name was suggested to the
founders from their familiarity with it
as applied to the creek, and certainly
all persons of taste will agree that
their choice was a wise one, for there
is no more charming place name in the
state.
This city was once known as Encinal
(place of oaks), on account of the
groves of beautiful live-oaks there,
nearly all of which have, most
unfortunately, been sacrificed to
so-called "improvements." Yet, some fine
specimens still remain in the county,
perhaps the best being those on the
campus of the University of California,
at Berkeley, Alameda County. The
encino (live- oak) is thus described
by Professor Jepsen: "It is a low,
broad-headed tree, commonly twenty to
forty feet, but sometimes seventy feet
high. The trunk is from one to four feet
in diameter, usually short, and parting
into wide-spread limbs, which often
touch or trail along the ground." This
tree has little commercial value, but is
highly regarded for its hardy nature,
which permits it to flourish in exposed
localities along the coast, where no
other tree thrives, and for the
perennial green with which it adorns an
otherwise often bleak landscape.—(Notes
taken from The Trees of California,
by Professor Willis Linn Jepsen, of
the University of California.)
From The Book of:
Spanish and
Indian Place Names of California: Their
Meaning and Their Romance
By Nellie Van de Grift Sanchez, 1922
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