Home - History of the Site
Union City's Time Line - Historical Influences/Events near the project site
1797 Costanoan Villages lived along the banks of Dry Creek.
1797-1838 Mission Era, Rancho Arroyo de Alameda was Mexican land granted to Jose Jesus Vellejo.
1842 Decoto Section (approximately 17,700 acres) largely became part of Rancho Arroyo De Alameda.
1846 John Horner, an American Pioneer, became the regions first large scale vegetable farmer.
1850 Decoto Land Company purchased 243 acres from the Decoto Family, Ezra, John and Adolphus, French Canadian farmers. The Decoto family retained 50 acres of fruit orchard land along the Hayward Fault foothills.
1867 Cosmopolitan School District was formed.
1868 Cosmopolitan School was constructed (moved to the end of May Road used as a residence).
1870 A new town, Decoto, was established by the Central Pacific Railroad.
1880 Vallejo and Clark leased Dry Creek as a picnic resort (where Dry Creek leaves the hills, near the current Dry Creek Park entrance).
1882 Jonas Clark foreclosed on Ranchero Jose de Jesus Vellejo and sold 1700 acres at public auction.
1883 August May, Sr. (Meyers sisters' grandfather) purchased the 1700 acres from Jonas Clark, named Dry Creek Pioneer Ranch.
1893 Last Picnic at Dry Creek Picnic Grounds.
1896 The Masonic Homes purchased 267+ acres in the Union City hills.
1897 The Masonic Homes completed a 4-story red brick building for widows and orphans.
1900 The Meyers Sisters' grandmother, Sophia May, commissioned a four-room cottage at Dry Creek.
1920 Decoto became a haven for fieldworkers from Spain, Mexico, Puerto Rico, and Portugal.
1930 The Dry Creek Cottage completed the garden and entrance gate.
1943 Henry H. Meyers died, father of Meyers sisters (Mildred, Edith and Jeanette).
1950 Southern Alameda County began urban growth and the Nimitz freeway (Highway 880) was being built, a catalyst for development.
1951 Meyers sisters hosted fundraising parties at Dry Creek.
1961 California State Highway Commission announced a new freeway was to be routed through the Meyers sisters ranch.
1971 Dr. Edith Meyers had an untimely death from a travel related illness and shortly therafter ended the fundraising events at Dry Creek.
1978 Largest gift to the East Bay Regional Park's history, the Meyers sisters willed 1200 acres creating Dry Creek Pioneer Regional Park which prevented freeway development through their ranch.
1982 Mildred Meyers died.
1993 Jeanette Meyers died.
1994 At the bequest of Jeanette Meyers, the East Bay Community Foundation received 29.5 acre (Site A) fronting Dry Creek to provide income for maintaining their country estate at Dry Creek Cottage and Gardens. At the bequest of Jeanette Meyers, the East Bay Park District received the 61.5 acres including the Dry Creek Cottage and Gardens and receives 30,000 per year from the East Bay Community Foundation.
1995 Glad-A-Way gardens stopped production of Gladiolas in Union City, once the largest in the country.
1999 The East Bay Community Foundation sold the Meyers sisters property (now known as Site A) to the Masonic Homes of California, one of the last sites of agricultural land in Union City and Bay Area.
2002 East Bay Regional Park performs an Historic Resource Evaluation and finds the Cottage and Gardens at Dry Creek may qualify as a National Historic Site.
2009 The Masonic Homes of California proposes to develop homes on the remaining prime agricultural land fronting Mission Boulevard.