Alvarado Walking Tour [Museum of Local History]

Description

Alvarado Walking Tour (Timothy Swenson)

Introduction This walking tour is designed to allow the reader to walk down 4 streets in Alvarado, leading the reader along with descriptions and pictures of the different historical buildings. The tour starts at one end of Alvarado, goes down Smith Street, diverts to Vallejo Street, then down Union City Blvd, and finally ending up on Horner Street. The tour covers the core of old Alvarado as it existed for many years, before housing was built around it, starting in the late 1970's. 

This walking tour came from my wanting to know more about the buildings in Alvarado. After reading local history books, I wanted to understand exactly what buildings were being referenced, and for those buildings that were gone, exactly where they were located. A number of sources were used to research the material in the tour, including books, newspapers, and oral histories.

Timothy Swenson Museum of Local History 

Acknowledgment
Thanks to Elvin "Al" Rose and Arturo Briz for their knowledge of Alvarado. Thanks to Anthony Gualco for his research into old newspaper articles on Alvarado. Photographs are from the Museum of Local History, Lupe St. Denis, the Brune family and newspapers such as the Outlook, Argus, and Chronicle. Historic Preservation The first edition of this walking tour was started in 2003 and released in 2005. Since that time, three different buildings have been demolished. These buildings have been kept on the Walking Tour as a reminder of the importance of historical preservation and in preserving the heritage and buildings in Union City.

SAT June 20th – Alvarado Walking Tour – the tour starts at 10 a.m. Participants should meet in the parking lot of Alvarado Elementary School, 31100 Fredi Street in Union City – Led by Tim Swenson