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Skaters are enjoying the ice at Park Street and Tilden Way this holiiday season. The moniker "Ice Rink at Alameda Station" recalls the train station that stood just across Park Street for more than 100 years.

When A.A. Cohen built the San Francisco and Alameda Railroad in 1864, he chose to build a station at the line that divided James J. Foley's property from that of James Hibbard. A road that led into Alameda at the time already existed nearby. At today's Buena Vista Avenue it turned west to Leviathan (Grand) Street and the town of Encinal and east to today's High Street, and then south to the town of Alameda on today's East End.

The presence of Cohen's station breathed life into the property boundary. Thomas Smith was living in the town of Alameda. When the station opened he moved and opened a store near the depot.

Arthur Barber followed Smith's lead and, as postmaster, brought the town of Alameda's post office with him.

In the spring of 1865, Cohen opened the Alameda Park Hotel, which was bounded on the east and west by Everett and Park streets and on the north and south by Webb and Central avenues.

Just one year later Cohen's hotel failed and he sold the property to Drs. Joseph C. Tucker and Eustace C. Trenor. The doctors built a tall fence around the property and opened an insane asylum.

In 1868, Charles Bowen arrived and opened a grocery store with an upstairs meeting hall at Webb Avenue and Park Street.

In 1871, Smith opened a hall just across the street from where today's Little Ice Rink at Alameda Station stands. The past echoes yet again; Smith opened an ice-skating rink on the property.