John B. Frisbie

General John B. Frisbie died one hundred years ago this month – in May, 1909. Although the City of Vallejo is named for General Mariano G. Vallejo, it is Gen. Vallejo’s son-in-law, John Frisbie, who is widely accepted as the city’s true founder. John Frisbie was married to Vallejo’s oldest daughter, Epifania, also known as Fannie. After his father-in-law donated land to the State of California for the construction of a new state capital, it was John Frisbie who set out to make the city successful by promoting business in the fledgling community. He donated land for the construction of Vallejo’s first public school, city park, and cemetery. Frisbie also donated land to many of Vallejo’s early churches for the construction of their houses of worship. Frisbie’s death was reported in the Vallejo Evening Chronicle on May 11, 1909:

"J.R. English received a telegram this morning from J.B. Frisbie Jr. announcing the death of his father, Gen. J.B. Frisbie, which occurred in the City of Mexico at 3 a.m., today. And with his passing one of the founders of this city was numbered with the great army of the dead, for during the years that he made Vallejo his home General Frisbie worked untiringly for its good. He was the builder of the Bernard Block, and developed the White Sulphur Springs, his original investment there exceeding $100,000.

"The deceased was a native of Albany, New York, where he was born May 20, 1823. He studied law and enjoyed a lucrative practice in his home state until 1846 when he was elected captain of the Van Rensselaer Guards, acknowledged then to be the best drilled body in the state. War then existed with Mexico and as many of the young men of Albany were desirous of entering the service in defense of their country, Captain Frisbie recruited a company, which under the name of Company I, joined Col. J.D. Stevenson’s regiment at Governor’s Island and, embarking for San Francisco, reached the little hamlet of Yerba Buena after a six month’s trip.

"The regiment continued in service until July 1848 when it was mustered out, General Frisbie then associating himself with General Vallejo and occupying himself with the management of the latter’s extensive estates. From that time dated Frisbie’s extensive work for the advancement of the interests of Vallejo and Benicia. He was largely instrumental in securing Mare Island as a location for the navy yard and was also the promoter of the California Pacific Railroad, designed to connect Vallejo with the interior of the state, touching at Marysville, Sacramento and other points. The road was speedily built and, with indications of its success, it was further extended, the plan being to run branches into Napa Valley, Sonoma and the Russian River territory.

"The project was too great for that time, however, and it brought financial embarrassment to those who had hoped for so much from it. General Frisbie was not the man to succumb to temporary embarrassments, and the fact that he was at this time dispatched by the President and Secretary of State to the City of Mexico, where his missions resulted in amicable relations being established between the two countries and the government of General Diaz being recognized, led him to determine to make that land his adopted country and it it there that he has since made his home.

"In Mexico, as in California, he was ever a progressive, enterprising citizen, and his loss will be felt by many. He is survived by three sons and four daughters, all married and all residents of Mexico." [note: Fannie Vallejo Frisbie preceded her husband in death, passing away in 1905. Both are buried in Mexico City].

Vallejo's Wartime Housing

America’s entry into WWII brought drastic changes to the City of Vallejo. Temporary defense housing projects sprang up almost overnight as people from nearly every state in the Union came seeking jobs at the Mare Island Navy Yard. The City's population exploded from approximately 30,000 residents in 1939 to nearly 90,000 in 1945. Wartime housing projects were often built of prefabricated sections and used innovative new building materials and techniques. Several well-known architects were involved in Vallejo's wartime housing boom, including William Wurster, who later became dean of the University of California Architecture School at Berkeley.

By far the largest of Vallejo's defense housing projects was Chabot Terrace, located north of present day Highway 37 and east of Broadway. By late 1944, nearly 11,000 people were living in this project. Other wartime housing projects in Vallejo included Federal Terrace, Roosevelt Terrace, Guadalcanal Village, Carquinez Heights, Floyd Terrace, Hillside Dormitories, Northside Dormitories, Amador Apartments, Solano Apartments and Victory Apartments. Nearly all of these were torn down soon after the war ended.

In 1945, a report by the City of Vallejo declared that the city had "undergone one of the most radical changes of any community in America in the past four years. Nowhere else has the impact of the war, with all of its resultant confusion, congestion, and expansion been more direct." Many families who lived in Vallejo's temporary defense housing projects later built or bought their own homes in the community. Others returned to their home states once the war had ended.

A Symphony of Gardens

“A Symphony of Gardens” is the theme for the sixth annual Vallejo Garden Tour, scheduled for Sunday, May 17th from 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. The tour is a benefit for the Vallejo Naval and Historical Museum. Sevens gardens laced with music, gazebos, fountains and shady places, plus a tour of Mare Island’s Alden Park and the historic mansion gardens, hit the high note for the tour this year. From a garden that feels like a walk in the redwoods, to the ultimate outdoor garden dining room, to fabulous garden art, and then some… make this a “don’t miss” event.

At historic Mare Island, costumed docents will serve lemonade, accompanied by period music. A sumptuous buffet luncheon, served between noon and 3:00 at the Museum, is included in the ticket price and Master Gardeners will also be on hand at the Museum to answer questions. In the Museum parking lot, vendors of garden-related products such as garden art, orchids, plants, etc. will offer their products during the hours of the tour. Zoey June Gift and Garden on Tennessee Street will participate in the tour again, offering a variety of interesting home & garden gifts and collectibles, and serving as a pick-up point for tour maps. The 2009 Garden Tour is co-sponsored by the Museum and the City of Vallejo’s Beautification Advisory Commission. Garden Tour chair Joyce Venturini and her committee have been working for a full year to make this event a fabulous showcase for our community.

Tickets for the 2009 Garden Tour are $30 for the general public and $25 for Museum members and are available at the Museum, 734 Marin Street, or at Zoey June, 1426 Tennessee Street. For more information call (707) 643-0077. You can also visit the Museum website at www.vallejomuseum.org or the special Garden Tour site at www.vallejogardentour.com.

Aerial Bicycle Club

The Aerial Bicycle Club was one of several popular bike groups in Vallejo around the turn of the 20^th century. The clubs took bicycle excursions to surrounding communities and held races at the Cyclodrome, which was located near the present day intersection of Georgia Street and Wallace Avenue.

The Aerials eventually built a 14-mile cinder bike path between Napa and Vallejo, complete with wooden bridges over the small streams.

In April, 1896 the Aerials proposed a race between area clubs from Calistoga to Vallejo. The Vallejo Evening Chronicle reported on the planned event:

“The Aerial Bicycle Club are endeavoring to complete arrangements for a fifty mile relay race to take place some time in May. The course proposed is from Calistoga to Vallejo, and the boys are in hopes of having the clubs of Napa and Solano counties represented. Last year an effort was made by the Aerials to have a relay race, but the other riders did not seem anxious to participate in it.

“Sunday Harry Wilson and Ed McGettigan were in Napa getting the views of the Napa cyclists on the matter.

“Should the event come off the road is one that will try the mettle of the riders, who are selected to ride from Napa to Vallejo, but the Aerials are second to none on that particular road and we will expect to see the maroon sweater with the A.B.C. [Aerials Bicycle Club] in the lead.”

The Barrel Club

A local landmark for many years, the Barrel Club was established in 1938 on old Highway 40 (now Interstate 80) near Benicia Road. The popular restaurant and nightspot brought in top name entertainers from across the country. The distinctive barrel design was a familiar feature that welcomed many visitors to Vallejo, particularly during WWII. The Barrel Club was operated by the Curtola family until it was torn down in 1964.

Vallejo's Iron Houses

Some of Vallejo’s earliest structures were made of corrugated iron imported from Liverpool, England. Corrugated metal was a cheap and versatile building material. It was easy to transport by ship and could be adapted to a variety of sites and building needs. In his book "Mountains and Molehills" author Frank Marryat describes how these buildings came to be erected in Vallejo in the early 1850s:

“About this time a store-ship, laden with iron houses... sunk at her moorings during a heavy gale. When raised she was so full of mud, clay, and small crabs, that there was no possibility of rendering her cargo fit for sale at San Francisco. The bright idea occurred to me of landing these muddy materials at Vallejo, and, after allowing the tide to clean them, to convert them to some use in assisting to erect this capital that was to be “made to order.”

“Landing my cargo on Vallejo beach at low water mark... I ordered the tide to complete the very dirty work I had set before it, which it did, and, to finish the story here, in the course of six months I erected a very handsome hotel out of the materials. I felt rather pleased when it was finished, and painted, and handsomely furnished, to think what a butterfly I had turned out of the very dirty grub I had found in the hold of the old hulk."

Lincoln and Vallejo

What do a ship, a shawl, and a school all have in common? They are just three things that connect Vallejo with President Abraham Lincoln. Today marks the bicentennial of Abraham Lincoln’s birth. Although Lincoln never visited the City of Vallejo – or California for that matter – there are still several interesting connections between the community and our 16th president. The ship was the nuclear submarine USS Abraham Lincoln (SSBN 602) that was overhauled and refueled at the Mare Island Naval Shipyard in 1972-73. The shawl is one purportedly once worn by Lincoln and now part of the Vallejo Naval and Historical Museum’s permanent collection. The school is Vallejo’s Lincoln Elementary School. Here are the stories of those, and other, local Lincoln connections:

Lincoln and Mare Island

Although the Mare Island Navy Yard was less than ten years old when Lincoln was elected, the President nevertheless had an influence on the distant California base. During the Civil War Lincoln authorized $50,000 for the construction of Mare Island's first Marine Barracks. Lincoln also authorized the funds to build Mare Island’s Hospital.

When news of Lincoln's assassination reached Mare Island in April 1865, work was suspended for three days. Military salutes were fired every thirty minutes from sunup to sunset. A memorial cortege led by Mare Island sailors wound through the streets of downtown Vallejo.

In Washington D.C., one of the 22 honorary pall-bearers at Lincoln's funeral was Admiral David G. Farragut, Mare Island's first commanding officer.

General Mariano G. Vallejo and President Lincoln

General Mariano G. Vallejo traveled to the East Coast in 1863 and, according to Vallejo family lore, met with President Lincoln on several occasions. One purpose of Vallejo's visit was to lobby the federal government on behalf of his disputed California land grants.

General Vallejo purportedly shared this humorous anecdote with Lincoln, much to the President's amusement. Vallejo praised the spirit of Yankee innovation: "The Yankees are a wonderful people - wonderful! Wherever they go, they make improvements. If they were to emigrate in large numbers to Hell itself, they would irrigate it, plant trees and flower gardens, build reservoirs and fountains and make everything beautiful and pleasant, so that by the time we get there, we can sit down at a marble-topped table and eat ice cream!"

Lincoln School

The oldest public school in Vallejo is named Lincoln School, in honor of the 16th President. Three different school buildings have occupied the site near the corner of Sonoma Blvd. and Carolina Street. The current Lincoln Elementary School was built in the 1930s.

Lincoln's Shawl?

A wool shawl now in the Museum’s collection, was found in Vallejo's Lincoln School. It was donated to the school by an elderly lady who told of a family tradition concerning Abraham Lincoln and the shawl. She said that the shawl had been owned by her great-aunt, a resident of Illinois, who lived on a farm where Lincoln often stopped overnight on his way to Springfield. The shawl, she claimed, was frequently loaned to Lincoln to put over his shoulders on cold Illinois evenings. Could this be Lincoln’s shawl?

The Lincoln Highway in Vallejo

The Lincoln Highway was America's first coast-to-coast highway. In California, the highway originally headed south from Sacramento and traveled through Stockton, where it turned west and then crossed over the Altamont Pass.

With the completion of the Carquinez Bridge in 1927 the Lincoln Highway was re-routed to a more direct route through Solano County and Vallejo. In Vallejo, the highway followed present-day Broadway and Alameda Streets to South Vallejo, where it followed Fifth Street to the Carquinez Bridge. Concrete posts emblazoned with a brass medallion of Abraham Lincoln marked the route across the country.

USS Abraham Lincoln

A final local connection is the nuclear submarine USS Abraham Lincoln (SSBN 602). The sub was one of the "Forty-one for Freedom" - subs names for American leaders and heroes. USS Abraham Lincoln was based at Mare Island during 1972 and 1973 where it received an extensive overhaul and refueling.