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Located at the corner of Railroad and Prospect Avenues in Downtown Danville
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A Brief History of the Valley
The Beginnings
The San Ramon Valley area is geologically complex and is still seismically active. Mount Diablo is not a volcano.
Mount Diablo formed by earth movement millions of years ago.
They Came
First
People have lived in the San Ramon Valley for at least 5000 years.
In historic times the Tatcan (Bay Miwok) and the Seunen (Ohlone/Costanoan) lived in the valley.
Indian basket by Louis Choris, 1816. Courtesy, the Bancroft Library.
Spanish Enter Alta California
Conceptual View of Mission San Jose - ca. 1830 by Al Greger, 1997.
The Spanish invaded Alta California in 1769 and first appeared in the valley in 1772. Eventually the San Ramon Valley became part of San Jose's grazing lands.
Los Ranchos San Ramon
After Mexican independence, ranchos were granted to former soldiers. In 1833 Mariano Castro and his uncle Bartolo Pacheco received the Rancho of the San Ramon Valley. In 1834 Jose Maria Amador was granted the Rancho San Ramon.
Mexican ranchos in the San Ramon Valley, granted early 1830s.
On to California, the Golden State
The Valley's American settlers began arriving in California in 1846, before the Gold Rush (1848) and statehood (1850). Within a decade new ranches and farms covered the area.Glass home, San Ramon, c. 1879 from Illustrations of Contra Costa County with Historical Sketches, 1879.
Era of the Iron Horse
Shuey's Warehouses & S. P. Depot, Danville from San Ramon Branch of Southern Pacific Railroad
by Irma M. Dotson.
The Grange worked to bring rail service to the San Ramon Valley for many years. In 1891 the San Ramon Branch Line opened to serve Central Contra Costa from Avon to San Ramon.
Good Times, Hard Times
New technologies shaped the valley in the twentieth century, including electricity, the telephone and the automobile. An electric railway extended from Saranap in Walnut Creek, along Danville Blvd. to the new Mount Diablo Park Club.
Oakland, Antioch and Eastern Railway, 1914 to 1924, by Paul Dunlap, 1997.
City Close,
Country Quiet
After World War II, new houses, an interstate freeway (completed in 1966) and the Bishop Ranch Business Park transformed the San Ramon Valley. The population was 2,126 in 1940 and 85,085 in 1990.
A 1950 flyer for the Cameo Acres development.
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