Historical walking tour of Union City's Alvarado area July 11, 2009

Walk down Memory Lane (also known as Smith Street in Union City) and learn it had a Chinatown until the late 1920s.

Bronco Billy's Pizza is reported to have a ghost named "Sam."

Alameda County's first courthouse was in Alvarado.

The Odd Fellows Hall housed a theater.

These and other little-known facts and places are included in a free historical walking tour of Union City's old Alvarado district.

Although the city was incorporated 50 years ago when the towns of Alvarado and Decoto united, Alvarado's history goes back another 100 years. It was created by the merging of three even smaller communities known as Union City, New Haven and Alvarado.

Tim Swenson, chairman of Union City's 50th Anniversary Historical Committee, will lead participants down Smith Street, Union City Boulevard and Horner Street. Stopping at historic buildings along the way, he will share the fascinating stories of the 1940s Alvarado fire house, the site where Alvarado Grammar School was built in 1878, the location of Chinatown gambling dens and a bordello, the 1862 site of St. Anne's Church, the marker where Alameda County's first courthouse was located in 1853, and buildings that housed saloons, cobblers and a blacksmith shop.

A tour booklet is also included in this trip through local history, which begins at the Union City Historical Museum.

Free.

Official Website: http://www.unioncity50.com/Events/historical.htm