Main Street Vacaville looks considerably different today than it did at about 1900. (Vacaville Museum photo)

City residents greet century with optimism

By Cynthia Roberts/Special to The Reporter

Vacaville was a little town with big dreams when a new century dawned in 1901.

Just a few years before, Vacaville had struggled with disaster. Fire had razed the wooden buildings on Main Street in 1888 and an earthquake shook building facades and tumbled chimneys in 1892.

At the turn of the century, however, owners' reconstruction efforts were buoyed by optimism in Vacaville's thriving orchards. The bounty of the town's fruit orchards connected Vacaville to the nation. An annual harvest of more than 10 million tons of fresh cherries, plums and apricots routinely was shipped East.

Main Street was the heart of the town. The network of streets _ Davis, Bernard, Elizabeth, Merchant, Dobbins and Parker _ structured the city's basic blueprint for more than 100 years.

Just stand on the corner of Main and Dobbins streets and look east, past the Triangle Building to the 500 block. The buildings you see on the south side have been there from the start. Nearly all were built in 1888 after the big fire that wiped out that side of the street. When they rebuilt, merchants chose brick and mortar instead of wood as the best defense against fire.

Their walls and some of their facades have not changed, despite the passage of more than a century.

While on the southwest corner of Main and Dobbins, take a look behind at the city's oldest brick structure, the Crystal Building, finished in 1883. Amphlett's Interiors occupies the corner section of the building. The remodeled exterior, carried out in 1902, still graces the part of the building now occupied by Main Street Salon and Tux 'n' Tailor formal wear.

The town trustees in 1901 were assessing how to convince the electorate to pay for a complete sewer system.

Imagine an election for a sewer bond measure in which 190 votes were cast, but three-fourths failed to support it.

After the defeat, The Reporter encouraged supporters not to be discouraged, noting that it took two elections in 1884 to win approval for a badly needed grammar school and three elections between 1889 and 1892 for incorporation of the township of Vacaville.

Damage caused by the 1892 earthquake to the city's year-old water system was a prime motivator for incorporation, which had been blocked by the town's leading landowners, including W.J. Dobbins, Senator Parker and William Hill.

A completely connected, underground sewer system was still five years away from public approval. Until then, Ulatis Creek would continue to periodically reek as it collected the city's sewage.

The two necessities, water and electricity, were initially managed in the 1890s by the Vacaville Water and Light Co.. But by 1900, demand was high, as was the cost of service. Creation of an electrical network came in 1901, stringing together Yuba, Sutter, Yolo, Solano, Contra Costa, Napa and Alameda counties with power from Yuba River turbines.

Bay Counties Power Co. and Yuba Electric Power Co., predecessors of Pacific Gas & Electric, brought Vacaville much improved service and an overnight drop in rates.

The city's small reservoir and main water line would feel the strain of growth in 1903. The town suffered until PG&E bought out the water company and drilled new wells, some of which are still a source of water for today's residents.

Turn-of-the-century Main Street was also a muddy mess in winter and dusty misery in the summer. Roads and the highways around the region were rough. A gravel mixture called macadam was used to smooth streets. Asphalt finally paved Main Street in 1914.

The town of Vacaville in 1900 desired the same thing as today's business owners: To be a destination for travelers and shoppers.

A first-class hotel was widely discussed. By 1900, Hotel Raleigh was the only one in town. It was undergoing repairs in 1902 when a fruit company executive and his wife came to Vaca-ville on business. The Reporter lamented that the executive's wife had no decent hotel in which to stay.

'It seems to be the need of community pride to have a first-class hotel where tourists would be attracted,' noted the editor.

Good highways were necessary to attract tourists, continued the Sept. 13, 1902, article. Vacaville might have to become a 'dry town' because 'eastern tourists are reported to be prejudiced against the sale of liquor.

'There are essentials like a sewer system and trifles like golf links to be secured and the proposition may be assured.'

The newspaper, however, acknowledged that no one wants to invest in such an enterprise because of the simple fact that it couldn't make money.

When Hotel Raleigh was destroyed by fire in 1909 and the town would remain without a hotel for 11 years.

The Interstate 80 connection has since created a sizable motel industry in Vacaville. But a major hotel? As The Reporter noted in 1901, 'it will not (happen) naturally until the town's increase in population permits an assurance of success and substantial returns.'

The trustees did consider the social and cultural well-being of the town. In June 1901, for example, the township approved $6 a month for band concerts during the summer months. 'It has given pleasure to those who visit town during the concerts and has been a source of attracting people to Vacaville, to the benefit of merchants,' noted The Reporter.

The demise of Hotel Raleigh, the town's 25-year-old landmark, revealed again the weaknesses of the town's firefighting abilities. Outdated equipment and poor water pressure worked against the smoke eaters who managed to save many buildings around the Raleigh, but not the hotel from going up in smoke.

Vacaville trustees would finally have a modern department in 1916 when the 30-main volunteer unit received the town's first self-propelled fire engine.

The township of Vacaville was just a handful of streets in the 1890s where commerce took up shop on Main Street and hoped for good fortune against the forces of nature _ fire, drought, flood and frost.

The town is now a mix of retail, professional and business services. Merchants promote the downtown with special events year-round to distinguish itself from the shopping center onslaught.

Vacaville's pride in 1915, the Carnegie Library, is now into a fourth or fifth life as headquarters of the Vaca-ville Chamber of Commerce.

At the other end of downtown, Old Town Hall, two stories tall and still topped by its Moorish bell tower, is structurally sound and home to the city's Heritage Council and local genealogical society.

The little fruit town's heart still has a good foundation going into the 21st century.