ALAMEDA COUNTY Transcribed by: Linda Jackson 5/21/2008
The Ideal Place for Your California Home
by Henry Anderson Lafler
THE
GREEK THEATRE, UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA. THIS CONCRETE
STRUCTURE, REPRODUCTION OF THE THEATRE OF EPIDAURUS,
GREECE, COMFORTABLY SEATS EIGHT THOUSAND PEOPLE AND HAS
BEEN THE SCENE OF MANY NOTABLE EVENTS.
A
GLIMPSE OF THE INTERIOR OF OAKLAND'S MILLION DOLLARAUDITORIUM ON ITS
OPENING NIGHT -- "THEDANCE OF A THOUSAND COLORS".
OAKLAND'S
STEEL AND CONCRETE AUDITORIUM--ONE OF THE
LARGEST AND FINEST IN THE UNITED STATES.
A
MAY-DAY FESTIVAL IN ONE OF OAKLAND'S BEAUTIFUL PARKS
Festivals are a feature of life in Alameda County. From the glamorous days of the Spanish regime has been handed down throughout California a love of outdoor gayeties of every description. San Francisco has her Portola Festival; Pasadena has her Rose Festival; Santa Clara County has her Blossom Festival. The most notable festival in Alameda County is the Cherry Festival at San Leandro, which is the first town east of Oakland on the fruitful coastal plain that borders San Francisco Bay. Be it known that in the vicinity of San Leandro and its sister city, Hayward, there are miles and miles of orchards. Of the quarter of a million apricot trees in Alameda County, a large proportion are in the vicinity of Hayward and San Leandro. Acres of trays, covered with the orange-yellow apricots, drying in the sun, make a never-to-be-forgotten sight.
THE
LIBRARY, UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, DESIGNED BY JOHN GALEN HOWARD, IN
ACCORDANCE WITH A COMPREHENSIVE PLAN THAT WILL MAKE THIS UNIVERSITY
ARCHITECTURALLY ONE OF THE MOST BEAUTIFUL IN THE WORLD.
Ever-to-be-remembered are the San Leandro cherry orchards. At the time of the Cherry Festival, when the trees are loaded with luscious Royal Anns and Tartarins, big as plums, all the world is invited to San Leandro to the Cherry Fete. It is carnival time and you can have all the cherries you can eat or that you can carry away. There is dancing on the asphalt streets of the trim little city and everybody has a good time.
Women's clubs are particularly strong in Alameda County. Ebell Club of Oakland, whose beautiful club-house on Harrison Street, is one of the distinctive structures of the city, was the first woman's club in California and the second in the United States. Throughout the county are scores of social and civic clubs, for here the
IN
CALIFORNIA, WHERE WOMEN VOTE, WOMEN'S CLUBS ARE
PARTICULARLY POWERFUL. THE PICTURE SHOWS
EBELL CLUB OF OAKLAND.
INTERIOR
OF THE LIBRARY, UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, THE
SECOND LARGEST UNIVERSITY IN THE UNITED STATES
women vote and take a keen interest in all affairs. Possibly it is for this reason that the schools in Alameda County reach a high level of excellence. In the whole county more than 1300 school teachers are employed, and even the smaller schools of the rural districts offer courses in domestic science, agriculture and manual training. In the schools of Oakland, the largest city of the county, there are 33 school bands and 30 orchestras. Oakland and Berkeley schools offer courses in dressmaking, millinery, salesmanship, homemaking for girls, and in printing and various branches of machinery and building for boys, in addition to the usual branches usually taught in modern schools. One Oakland school has an assembly hall seating 1400 people.