Vallejo's Holiday Fashions - 1880

The Vallejo Evening Chronicle reported on Vallejo's holiday fashion trends on December 3, 1880:

Now look out for holiday gifts.

Amaranth red is the favorite shade.

Yellow blonde hair is no longer stylish.

The Sara Bernhardt gloves are very stylish.

Muffs to match bonnets or coats are fashionable.

Fashion may be studied in the church or theatre.

Little girl’s coats are to have hoods at the back.

Sashes are worn with nearly all the new costumes.

Large hats are most becoming to children, and continue in vogue.

Chinese and Hindoo designs are seen upon many of the new dress materials.

Bayadere stripes will be again worn for underskirts. They come in new silk and wool materials.

A novelty is the floral pocket, which is likely to be worn very much this season on evening and full dress toilets.

Jersey webbing in the new shades of red, purple, wine-red, and variations of olive are among the new dress goods.

Thanksgiving at the Orphanage, 1910

From 1869 to 1922 the Good Templar's Home for Orphans in Vallejo provided care for needy children from throughout California. After it closed, the grounds of the former Home served as the Vallejo Municipal Golf Course. In the 1930s the Vista de Vallejo subdivision was built on the hilltop location.

In November 1910 the Vallejo Evening Chronicle reported on the sumptuous Thanksgiving dinner prepared for the Home's residents that year. The dinner, according to the paper, "was well worth looking upon. The heavily laden tables were covered with snow white table cloths and spread upon them was a wealth of roast turkey, cranberry sauce, fruit, candy, cakes, pies, and other good things. There was an abundance of everything; two huge turkeys being set aside to be used later. The Home contains 112 children at the present time and every one of them was made happy... through the generosity of our people. Those having charge of the arrangements for the dinner desire to thank the employees of the Mare Island Navy Yard and the people of Vallejo for their liberality."

Happy Thanksgiving!

The Winged V's

Although they only played from 1905 to 1911, the Winged V's amateur football team rolled up an astounding winning record and became the undisputed football champions of northern California. Over a span of six years the team had 65 wins, with only one loss and three ties. Many team members went on to prominent careers including Columbus Castagnetto (Solano County auditor), Oscar Hilton (elected to the California State Assembly), Jack Thornton (Solano County Sheriff) and Harry Gee (Vallejo City Attorney).

Celebrate Vallejo - Hawaiian Style!

It's once again time to "Celebrate Vallejo" at the Museum! "Celebrate Vallejo" is our annual gala event to celebrate our Museum and our diverse community. This year we will “Celebrate Vallejo” Hawaiian Style! Join us for an evening of Hawaiian and Asian/Pacific cuisine, tropical drinks, and South Seas entertainment! The event will be held on Friday, November 5th at the Museum. Festivities commence at 6:30 p.m. and will include elegant hors d' oeuvres, complimentary cocktails, raffle, silent auction items and a live auction.

You can help make this event a great success:

• Donate items for our live and silent auctions. Ideas for auction items include: time-share vacations, weekends or overnights at vacation homes, services you or your company can provide, an outing on your boat, gift certificates, antiques, gift baskets, etc. The sky's the limit . . . use your imagination!

• Purchase tickets for the event. Tickets are $30 in advance and $35 at the door.

• Encourage your business or organization to become an Official Sponsor. Your $400 sponsorship gives you:
- A table for 8
- Table signage for your business or organization
- Listing in the Celebrate Vallejo program.
- Special recognition during the event

The goal of Celebrate Vallejo – Hawaiian Style is to raise much needed operational funds so we can continue to develop programs at the Museum and to reach out to build awareness of our unique community. Vallejo and Mare Island, by the way, have many interesting historical ties to Hawaii. In December 1874, Hawaiian King Kalakalua visited Mare Island while on his way to Washington D.C. for a meeting with President Ulysses S. Grant. Later, in 1965, Mare Island launched the USS Kamehameha, one of seventeen nuclear submarines built at the Shipyard. Please join us on Friday, November 5th to share the fun, Hawaiian style!

Vallejo Mourns McKinley

On this day      in 1901, Vallejoans gathered in mourning after the assassin- ation of President William McKinley. McKinley had been shot by anarchist Leon Czolgosz after delivering a speech at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York on September 5^th. He died nine days later.  Following the announcement of McKinley’s death, hundreds of Vallejoans formed a public procession that wound through the streets of downtown. The procession was led by members of the Vallejo Police Department, and also included a cavalry detail from the Benicia Barracks, a U. S. Marine Corps unit from Mare Island, a group of Vallejo Civil War veterans and representatives from various local fraternal organizations.

35 Years of Collecting: 1975 - 2010

In 1975 the Vallejo Naval and Historical Museum accepted its first official donation: a painting of the original 1927 Carquinez Bridge by artist Julie Polousky. In the succeeding 35 years, our fine art collection has expanded to include paintings, prints, drawings, sculpture and textiles reflecting a broad cross section of works by both local artists and well known regional and national artists. More than 30 of those works are featured in a new exhibit in the Hall of History that continues through October 16th. Most of the works were chosen for their historic themes ranging from submarines to historic architecture to commemorative prints and posters.

Among the works featured in the exhibit are Chinese-American, a bronze sculpture by Beryl McCarthy Wynnyck, created in 1937 as part of the WPA’s Federal Artists’ project; Pipeline Welder, 1928 by Maynard Dixon; Cliff Shadow, Sierra Buttes by Douglass Fraser; USS Wahoo (above), an oil painting of one of Mare Island’s legendary WWII submarines, by Vladimir Shkurkin; Sketch of Mare Island on Aug. 11, ’42 by noted Bay Area watercolorist Dong Kingman; Vallejo-Mare Island Map Series by Roberto Rovira; Carqunez Bridge 50th Anniversary, a limited edition print by Roy DeForest, and many more.

Burning of the State Capitol

August marks the anniver- sary of a significant event in Vallejo's early history. Vallejo served as California's state capital in 1852 and 1853. The capitol building was located near the corner of York and Sacramento Streets - today the location of the new downtown transportation facility. Following the departure of the state legislature to Benicia in 1853, the former capitol building served as a library, meeting hall, and warehouse. In August 1859, the old capitol building was destroyed by fire.

A later newspaper account described the fire:

"At the time of the conflagration, J. B. Frisbie and Burcham had a considerable quantity of hay stowed in the basement. The day before an incendiary attempt on Georgia Street had aroused apprehensions among the citizens, and Mr. Topley and some others who had examined the State House with the possibility of a fire there in view, found evidence of the occupation at night of the place where the hay was stored. They nailed up everything securely so that no access was offered to the hay, and left. It was on the next day after - the morning of August 20, 1859 - that the building burned."

"The flames first broke out on the water side and were seen first by a man in a sloop on the bay. The alarm was given and the people rushed to the spot. But there was no fire apparatus in that day and the building burned to the ground before their eyes."

Following this disaster it became apparent that the community needed better fire protection. Volunteer hose companies were formed in the following years and these companies protected the city until the establishment of a municipal fire department in 1906.