California is the Golden State, but recently, that golden luster has faded. Times are tough and brother, can you spare a dime? Nestled between the cities of Livermore and Oakland, Pleasanton, California is actually enjoying a relative boom. Though most sectors of the economy are in full-fledged recession, the Silicon Valley seems to be resisting the urge to lay off masses of employees.
No, it’s not a spelling mistake on this writer’s part, but on the part of the United States Postal Service. It seems a postal transcriber misspelled Pleasonton as Pleasanton. Regardless, the city has thrived to be the host of the annual Alameda County Fair. Incorporated in 1894, Pleasanton was founded by justice of the peace, John W. Kottinger and named after Kottinger’s Union Army compatriot, Major General Alfred Pleasonton.
The Fair draws a considerable crowd from the entire San Francisco Bay area. This is also an opportunity for the resident powerhouse, Safeway Inc., to connect with its customers as the supermarket powerhouse is an annual contributor. Safeway is headquartered in Pleasanton and to borrow one of their early slogans: “Since We’re Neighbors, Let’s Be Friends.”
When the infamous bandit, Joaquin Murrieta used it as a base of operations in the 1850s, Pleasanton took a turn for the worst. He and his bandits terrorized the area, robbing prospectors in broad daylight. Main Street was home to daily shootouts and murders. Indeed, it was nicknamed “The Most Desperate Town in the West.” It would hold claim to this unfortunate moniker until 1917, when Mary Pickford and the crew at Artcraft Pictures used Pleasanton as the backdrop for the film, REBECCA OF SUNNYBROOK FARM.
When the mother of newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst, Phoebe Hearst, built her 50-room mansion on 2,000 acres of land in Pleasanton, the city’s reputation soared. The fabulous mansion is now the site of Castlewood Country Club. As a result of this mansion preservation, many of the city’s fine examples of Spanish Mission architecture were lobbied for preservation. The city hosts one of the largest preserved collections of early California architecture.