History of Lafayette

www.LafayetteHistory.org

The History of Lafayette

Before the colonization of the area, Lafayette and its vicinity were inhabited by the Saclan tribe of the indigenous Bay Miwok and the Ohlone, who populated some of the area along Lafayette�s Creek. These indigenous inhabitants� first contact with Europeans came in the late 1700�s with the founding of a Catholic mission in the area. These first contacts soon developed into a conflict, with many years of armed struggle. In 1797, the Saclans fought a battle with the Spaniards on what was later to become Lafayette soil and resulted in the conquering of the native population. Most of the land was given as a land grant, Ranch Acalanes, to Candelario Valencia in 1834, by the Mexican government, which then controlled the region.

American settlement started with the arrival of Elam Brown in 1847. Brown, one of the first Yankee settlers in Contra Costa County, led a fourteen family wagon train through the Donner Pass, two weeks before the ill-fated Donner party. When he arrived, he purchased a 3,329 acre Mexican land grant called Ranch Acalanes, which is now almost all of present day Lafayette. In February 1848 he built his first home along with two other families, thereby creating the first community in central Contra Costa County. He then went on to help write the State of California�s Constitution, served two terms in the assembly and installed a horse drawn grist mill in Happy Valley. But Demand soon grew too much for the mills capacity so in 1853 he built a steam powered mill on Lafayette Creek behind the present day Park Theater. Once the mill was built, the commercial center of the town began to grow at the present day intersection of Mt. Diablo Blvd. and Moraga Rd. The first businesses to pop up were a blacksmiths shop, a bar, a general store and rooming houses.

In 1857, Benjamin Shreve, a settler who was applying for the position of postmaster, decided that the town needed a name. It was previously called Acalanus, but the town wanted an identity of its own. Shreve requested Centerville, but it was rejected because there was another Centerville already in the state. He then reapplied using the name Lafayette, which was accepted by the community. The most historic event that occurred in Lafayette was in the early 1860�s when the Pony Express rode through town stopping to get a fresh horse at what is now the intersection of Moraga Road and Mt. Diablo Blvd. The town remained a quite farming village until the post-World War II building boom turned the farming community into a housing development.
Today Lafayette is known for its high quality life with top rated schools, low crime rate, small downtown, mild climate, clean air and beautiful oak tree filled hills. It is currently located between Berkeley and Walnut Creek; it has its own Bay Area Rapid Transit station (BART) and is a short 25 minutes from San Francisco.

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History of Lafayette