John Barton owned the Union Pacific Salt Company that produced 20,000 tons of salt a year. He had this 15,000-square-foot home built on Broadway in 1879 and lived here with his wife Isabella and children William and Grace until his death in 1900.

Editor’s note: Under normal circumstances, Alameda Sun publishers Eric J. Kos and Dennis Evanosky would be leading history tours for the city’s “Alameda Walks” program this time of the year. Instead, Eric and Dennis are presenting six weeks of history stories.

Today’s Island City began life as a peninsula where Native Americans, members of the Ohlone tribe, first lived more than 3,000 years ago. These first settlers took advantage of the climate and the readily available staples — acorns, game, fresh water and oysters.

In order to best appreciate the Sather Mound, strap on your walking shoes and walk its perimeter. As you start, try to imagine a landscape full of oak trees. 

The Cohen family estate Fernside burned in a spectacular fire that started in the attic on Tuesday morning, March 23, 1897. A man driving a milk wagon noticed smoke coming from the roof of the mansion just after 6 a.m., and sounded the alarm.

The Great San Francisco Earthquake and Fire of 1906 destroyed the bridge that the South Pacific Coast Railroad used to cross San Leandro Bay east to Encinal Avenue. It also made the tracks that ran along today’s Main Street on the West End unusable. 

Alameda wanted 1942 residents ready for gas attack

In this 1918 photo courtesy of the San Francisco Public Library, a San Francisco police officer confronts a man in public for not wearing a facemask. The Spanish flu pandemic 102 years ago, was an unusually deadly influenza pandemic believed to be caused by the H1N1 influenza A virus.