Before the Tunnel<\/p>\n
Before the completion of the Broadway tunnel, later renamed Caldecott after the east
\nbay legislator who worked for its approval in the state legislature, access to Contra
\nCosta County from the bay cities was difficult and slow. Orinda and Moraga remained rural,
\nas they had been for a century, areas of large ranches and a few scattered residences. The
\nRheem brothers owned large ranches in both Orinda and Moraga. The Moraga Company owned
\nmost of the property south of what became known as the `Cross Roads.’ Edward de la Veaga
\nwas the principal property owner in the Orinda area. The EBMUD owned most of the land from
\nthe crest of the hills to the San Pablo reservoir.<\/p>\n
Along El Toyonal, residents of Oakland and Berkeley beginning in the 1920’s built a
\nnumber of small summer vacation cottages. About this time de la Veaga began subdividing
\nhis ranch, the early Orinda village began to take shape and the Park Pool off El Toyonal
\nwas built by him as an attraction to prospective buyers, but development was slow.<\/p>\n
The completion of the Broadway tunnel begun in the 1930’s, but delayed by World War II,
\nbegan the surge of new residents into Contra Costa County. By 1950, the transition of the
\nOrinda \/ Moraga areas from rural to suburban was well under way, as the population of the
\nBay Area and all of California boomed.<\/p>\n
At this time many Orinda houses were surrounded by open space. There was plenty of land
\nfor grazing and many families owned horses. It was common for local teenagers to get
\ntogether and ride along Miner Road to the village, tie their horses and have a coke at the
\nOrinda store (now Phairs). It was a great place to grow up. But times were changing
\nrapidly. The Rheem property became Sleepy Hollow. Houses were being built around the
\nOrinda Country Club and the surrounding hills. By the 1960’s, free pasturage had largely
\ndisappeared. The last remaining undeveloped area of any size within 3 miles of the village
\nwas the `Kite Hill’ area, or Altarinda, now developed as Orinda Woods, of about 250 acres.
\nThe owner, Mr. J. P. Marchant, generously had permitted local teenagers, mostly girls, to
\nrun their horses on the property, free of charge, to keep down the grass and prevent
\nfires, until such time as development was to commence. About 20 horses were being grazed
\nthere. The girls loved the informality of Altarinda and insisted on no club or organized
\nactivity, only a low cost place to keep their horses. An informal group of parents
\nmonitored the situation and tried to keep the ancient fences around the pasture in
\ntolerable repair.<\/p>\n
I recall being at the saddling area one Saturday afternoon. About a dozen girls were
\ngrooming their horses or were saddling up for a ride, perhaps downhill to the village, a
\nfavorite destination. A group of perhaps 10 boys was there also, not with horses, but with
\nmotor scooters, two at a time, charging up the hillside in a cloud of dust, testing their
\nmounts, oblivious of the girls and their horses.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Before the Tunnel Before the completion of the Broadway tunnel, later renamed Caldecott after the east bay legislator who worked for its approval in the state legislature, access to Contra Costa County from the bay cities was difficult and slow. Orinda and Moraga remained rural, as they had been for a century, areas of large… Read More »Before the Tunnel<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":147,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"neve_meta_sidebar":"","neve_meta_container":"","neve_meta_enable_content_width":"","neve_meta_content_width":0,"neve_meta_title_alignment":"","neve_meta_author_avatar":"","neve_post_elements_order":"","neve_meta_disable_header":"","neve_meta_disable_footer":"","neve_meta_disable_title":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/orindahorsemen.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/210"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/orindahorsemen.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/orindahorsemen.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/orindahorsemen.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/orindahorsemen.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=210"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/orindahorsemen.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/210\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":813,"href":"http:\/\/orindahorsemen.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/210\/revisions\/813"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/orindahorsemen.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/147"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/orindahorsemen.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=210"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/orindahorsemen.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=210"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/orindahorsemen.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=210"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}