“Possible Demolition of a Potential Alameda Landmark” read the headline of an article in the March 2004 edition of the Alameda Architectural Preservation Society newsletter. The modest building located at 2320 Lincoln Avenue, between Park and Oak Streets, probably went unnoticed by most passersby. But it had a long and storied history, and was once part of Alameda’s long-lost Chinatown. Would this historic building be saved, unlike the home at 2413 Buena Vista Avenue, which was featured in a recent Alameda Post article?
It all begins with a railroad
As with so much of Alameda’s history and development, it was the railroads that played the pivotal role in this story. Alfred A. Cohen’s San Francisco and Alameda Railroad (SF&A) began service in 1864, with Alameda Station situated on Railroad Avenue (today’s Lincoln Avenue) at Park Street. Passengers could travel from Hayward, through Alameda, and on to Alameda Point where ferry service would take them over to San Francisco. The coming of the railroad to Park Street helped shift the center of commerce and activity there from the original town of Alameda, located at the corner of High Street and Encinal Avenue.
By 1868, the Alameda Station Homestead Tract had been established in the area surrounding the new station, spurring more development. According to a 2004 Historic Evaluation report done by architectural historian Elizabeth Krase, and based on research done by amateur researcher Kevin Frederick, an 1868 plat of this homestead tract shows three buildings facing east on Park Street, including a saloon at the corner closest to the railroad station. That saloon building on Park St. is thought to be the very same building we know today as 2320 Lincoln Ave., although it would only later be moved to its current location.
Newspaper ads from 1870 show Frank Glas as the proprietor of the Encinal Saloon, located on “Park Street, to the right of the Railroad Depot,” and supervised by William T. Valentine. Frank Glas (1835-1918) was a native of Prussia, Germany, who emigrated to the United States in 1859. He was married to Elizabeth Kollman, also a native of Germany, and together they had six children. Glas also operated a coal yard on this block, which sold “every description of coal, wood and charcoal,” according to newspaper ads of the time.
Improvements and a move
According to Krase’s report, two newspaper articles from late 1875 describe the “grand improvements” that Glas was making to his corner, including moving the old building to the back of his lot and building a “new modern style” two-story building at the corner. The improvements included removing a large oak tree at the corner that “heretofore obstructed the view,” and the removal of a “passageway between the depot building and Glas’s corner, much to the delight of teamsters and people who wish to take passengers from the trains.” It is thought that today’s building at 2320 Lincoln Avenue is actually Frank Glas’s old saloon that once faced Park Street and was moved to the back of his large property in 1875.
George Gunn’s book, Documentation of Victorian and Post Victorian Residential Buildings City of Alameda 1854 to 1904 (available at the Alameda Museum), lists 2320 Lincoln Avenue’s year of construction simply as, “known standing 1885” rather than giving a specific date. This is something Gunn did when a building’s precise construction date could not be determined from available records. His book was first published in 1985, so the later research done by Kevin Frederick and Elizabeth Krase in 2004 has expanded our earlier understanding of this building.
Greek Revival / Pioneer Style
This later research states, “The building at 2320 Lincoln Avenue most likely dates to the c. 1864-1868 period, based on historical research conducted by AAPS volunteers and an evaluation of its architectural style and construction details by architectural historians. 2320 Lincoln Avenue is a late, vernacular version of the Greek Revival style popular in the rest of the country from c. 1825-1860. Greek Revival is sometimes referred to as the ‘Pioneer’ style to denote its significance as the architectural style used for the first generation of buildings erected by Americans as they settled the west.”
By the mid-1870s, though, the more ornate Italianate style was coming into vogue, and it is likely that Glas found his old saloon building a bit old-fashioned and plain-looking. By moving it to the back of his lot, he was able to use it for other purposes, while erecting a more “modern” looking building at the corner of Park Street and Railroad Avenue, where businesspeople, shoppers, and travelers alighting from trains were now crowding Alameda’s new downtown.
Old saloon changes hands
Glas sold most of his portion of the block at auction in 1880, subdividing it into parcels. Frank C. Vogt (1834-1905), who already resided in the area and operated a saloon on Park Street, purchased 2320 Lincoln Avenue at this time. He operated it as a saloon while living upstairs with his family, which included his wife Theresa and four children he had with his former wife Maggie Hanloser.
Vogt operated his business as the “Railroad Exchange Saloon” as of at least 1888, and possibly earlier. Krase’s report indicates that Vogt operated his saloon at this location until at least 1900, and since he died on April 5, 1905, we can at least be sure his days as a proprietor of the saloon ended just five years into the 20th century. When he died, Vogt left behind his wife Theresa and their four children. The youngest child, Henry F. Vogt, was 25 years old at the time, while the oldest, Fred J. Vogt, was 35. Two of the children were still living at home with their stepmother, and the other two were living on their own.
In the months after Frank Vogt’s will was read, a dispute broke out between family members over its terms, leading to a court case that ultimately made its way up to the State Supreme Court, causing “considerable feeling and harsh words in the family,” according to a local newspaper report. We will look more into that contentious dispute and how it was resolved in Part 2 of this story. It is a lesson in the importance of clarity and exactness of terms when drawing up a will.
Alameda’s Chinatown
It is not exactly known what happened with the property between 1905 and the 1950s, but the area was a thriving district of saloons and laundries at the time, so the property likely continued with residential use upstairs and commercial uses downstairs for decades. In fact, this district comprised an early Chinatown neighborhood in Alameda, a distinction that makes this building a rare survivor from this historic period. An image from the Alameda Museum shows Gim’s Chinese takeout restaurant operating next door as early as 1955. Gim’s owned both its own building at 2322 Lincoln Avenue and its neighboring building, the old Encinal Saloon at 2320 Lincoln Avenue, which was used for many years as storage.
The Gim’s building at 2322 Lincoln is also historic, though renovations have rendered its Victorian-era facade all but invisible. It was built in 1890 by well-known local builder A. R. Denke, and sold to original owner Frank Vogt for $1,500. George Gunn’s book suggests that this building also was used as a saloon, so perhaps it was an expansion of Vogt’s neighboring saloon or a way of moving the saloon next door to create more room for his family in the original building. According to the March 2004 AAPS newsletter, “Both buildings are significant because they are among the last surviving remnants of Alameda’s Chinatown District, centered along Lincoln Avenue between Oak and Park streets. ‘China Town’ is shown on an 1897 Sanborn map and its history is also being researched by AAPS volunteers.”
Paved paradise, put up a parking lot
By 2004, plans were underway to build a new main library at the corner of Lincoln Avenue and Oak Street, site of the old Linoaks Motel. The City was considering enlarging the site for the library by demolishing the two historic buildings at 2320 and 2322 Lincoln Avenue, in order to allow construction of a 96-space surface parking lot for library patrons and staff. Negotiations had been underway with the owners of Gim’s restaurant, who owned both of the buildings and preferred to stay at that location, and the City was considering using eminent domain to acquire the buildings.
A happy ending this time?
Would the historic buildings on Lincoln Avenue survive, or be demolished to build a parking lot, thus erasing yet another chapter of Alameda’s history? Find out next time, as we continue to explore the history of this Alameda Treasure, 2320 Lincoln Avenue.
Reference materials for this article include Elizabeth Krase’s Evaluation of the Building at 2320 Lincoln Avenue, dated May 13, 2004, and the March 2004 and January 2019 editions of the AAPS Newsletters. Special thanks to Alameda research librarian Beth Sibley for her assistance with materials for this article.
Contributing writer Steve Gorman has been a resident of Alameda since 2000, when he fell in love with the history and architecture of this unique town. Contact him via [email protected]. His writing is collected at AlamedaPost.com/Steve-Gorman.
