Lafayette, California

Lafayette (formerly La Fayette)

Before the colonization of the region by Spain, Lafayette and its vicinity were inhabited by the Saclan tribe of the indigenous Bay Miwok. Ohlone also populated some of the areas along Lafayette Creek.^[8] The indigenous inhabitants' first contact with Europeans was in the late 18th century with the founding of Catholic missions in the region. These initial contacts developed into conflict, with years of armed struggle, including a battle on what is currently Lafayette soil in 1797 between the Saclan and the Spanish, and eventually resulting in the subjugation of the native population.

Most of what is currently Lafayette was given as a Mexican land grant, Rancho Acalanes to Candelario Valencia in 1834. The name Acalanes seems to have come from the name of a native village in the area, Ahala-n.^[9]

American settlement started with the arrival of

One of the original settlers in Brown's party was Milo J. Hough. He built a hotel in 1853 near Plaza Park and in 1854 was named postmaster of the Acelanus post office, an alternate spelling of the original land grant, Acalanes. The post office was short-lived, closing the following year.[12]^[13][14]

A school began in 1852^[15] in a one-room schoolhouse, taught by a 25-year-old Kentucky migrant, Benjamin Shreve. By 1865 the school had expanded to 43 students in five classes, and so in 1868 a tax levy of $1,000 was used to build a new schoolhouse; school expanded from a five-month year to a nine-month year. In 1893, a new schoolhouse was built to accommodate the increasing number of students; this building still stands today.

On March 2, 1857, the LaFayette post office was established by the U.S. Postal Service. (The official document giving this exact date was supplied to the Lafayette Historical Society in 1993 by the Historical Division of the U.S. Postal Service.) Prior to 1857 the community that is now known as "Lafayette" actually had no official name but was sometimes called Dog Town, Brown's Corner, Brown's Mill, and (when Milo Hough was postmaster in 1854–1855) Alcalanus.^[16]

The name "LaFayette" came together with the community's first post office. In 1857 Benjamin Shreve, owner and manager of a roadside hotel-general store (which faced today's Lafayette Plaza), applied for a post office for the community, first requesting the name Centerville. When informed that a post office with that name already existed in California, Shreve suggested La Fayette, after the French general who became a hero of the American Revolution (probably not because his wife was a native of Lafayette, Indiana). The first LaFayette post office was established at 3535 Plaza Way and Shreve became the town's first permanent postmaster, holding the job for 30 years.

Spelling: On the original document from the U.S. Postal Service, dated March 2, 1857, the name “LaFayette” is unmistakably written as one word with a capital “F” in the middle. In 1864 the place name "Lafayette" first appeared on a map of the area, titled "Bancroft's Map of California, Nevada, Utah and Arizona (copyrighted 1863. Scale: 24 miles to 1 inch). Yet research^{[citation needed]} by Ruth Dyer, Lafayette historian, shows that the name of the post office and of the new town itself soon began to be written as two words, “La Fayette.” By 1890 it had changed to one word, "Lafayette," and so appeared in an official communication from the U.S. "Post Office Department" in Feb. 1899. Then by 1905 it was back to two words. Finally on March 31, 1932, the name of the post office was officially changed to Lafayette, which has remained unchanged to this day. Lafayette was the tenth post office established in Contra Costa County. (See Salley, History of California Post Offices).^[17]

In the early 1860s, Lafayette was briefly the site of a station for the Pony Express.^[18]

In the mid-1900s, Lafayette was transformed from an agricultural village into a commuter town, and was incorporated in 1968.

Geography

Lafayette is located at 37°53′09″N 122°07′05″W / 37.88583°N 122.11806°W / 37.88583; -122.11806.^[19] According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 15.4 square miles (40 km²). 15.2 square miles (39 km²) of it is land and 0.2 square miles (0.52 km²) of it (1.08%) is water.

The city is part of the greater

In 2016, the median household income in Lafayette was over $140,000.[24]

Arts and culture

Library

The Lafayette Library and Learning Center of the Contra Costa County Library is located in Lafayette.^[25] Oakmont Memorial Park is a cemetery in Lafayette. Oakwood serves as a country club/fitness center for Lamorindans.

Cross of Lafayette Memorial

In November 2006, area residents began placing crosses on a hill overlooking the

Another historical site found in Lafayette is the Park Theater, which first opened in 1941, and then ceased operations in 2005. The Park Theater was originally a movie theater located on an intersection where the La Fayette statue was built. It then showed its last movie before ceasing operations in 2005.^[28] Recently, however, efforts have been made to reopen the Park theater for viewing.^[29]

Government

As of February 10, 2021, Lafayette has 19,151 registered voters with 10,177 (53%) registered as Democrats, 3,813 (20%) registered as Republicans, and 4,298 (22%) decline to state voters.^[30]

Education

Most of Lafayette is in the

• Public
  • Lafayette Elementary School
  • Burton Valley Elementary
  • Happy Valley Elementary School
  • Springhill Elementary School
  • Stanley Middle School
  • Acalanes High School
• Private
  • The Springstone School (middle and high school)
  • Contra Costa Jewish Day School
  • Chabad Hebrew School of Lamorinda
  • St. Perpetua School
  • The Meher Schools (preschool and elementary school)

Notable people

The following is a list of notable residents of Lafayette, past and present.

Past

• Don Agrati, actor and musician, as Don Grady known for his roles in My Three Sons and The Mickey Mouse Club. Deceased.^[32]
• Jon-Erik Beckjord, paranormal researcher and investigator, specialty was Bigfoot and related cryptids, such as the Yeti. Deceased.
• Mona Beaumont, French-born American painter and printmaker.^[33]
• T. Brian Callister, Lafayette native, physician, and nationally renowned health care quality and policy expert
• Frank DeVol, composer, arranger, conductor, singer ("Teddy Bear's Picnic"), on TV's Fernwood 2 Night
  as Happy Kyne. Died in Lafayette.
• Richard Ewell
  , former Confederate general who was a founder of Lafayette.
• Andre Iguodala - Golden State Warriors basketball player, small forward.
• Henry J. Kaiser, industrialist, owner of Kaiser Industries (based in Oakland comprising more than 100 companies), builder of Hoover Dam, Liberty Ships, creator of Kaiser Permanente health organization. Built and lived in elaborate estate in west Lafayette in the early 1950s.
• Daniel E. Koshland Jr., biochemist and former chief editor of Science, lived and died in Lafayette.
• Joe Montana, Hall of Fame football quarterback for San Francisco 49ers and Kansas City Chiefs.
• Brent Mydland, musician, lived in Lafayette for a time before his death in 1990. buried at Oakmont Memorial Park in Lafayette.
• Buster Posey, Major League Baseball catcher for the San Francisco Giants^[34]
• Josh Reddick, Major League Baseball outfielder for the Oakland Athletics
• Hideo Sasaki, American landscape architect.
• transuranic elements. Element 106, Seaborgium, is named in his honor. Worked on Manhattan Project
  developing first atomic bombs. Died in 1999.
• Emilio Segrè, an Italian physicist and Nobel laureate who discovered the elements technetium and astatine, and the antiproton, a sub-atomic antiparticle, for which he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1959
• Alexander Shulgin, chemist best known for discovery and use of hundreds of psychoactive compounds. Died June 2, 2014.
• Charles Tickner
  , Olympic bronze medalist figure skater in the 1980 Winter Olympics

Present

• Brandon Belt, professional baseball player for the Toronto Blue Jays, formerly of the San Francisco Giants.
• Frankie Beverly, singer and songwriter, known primarily for his recordings with the band Maze.
• Cam, singer and songwriter, known for the song "Burning House."
• 2012 Olympics
  in London.
• Pete Docter, animator, film director, screenwriter. Chief Creative Officer of Pixar.
• Wayne Ferreira, South African tennis player.
• Hans Florine, world record-holding speed climber.
• Will Forte, actor, writer, and comedian best known for Saturday Night Live.
• Justin Fox (born 1964), financial journalist, commentator, and writer
• Brad Gillis, musician, guitarist for band Night Ranger.
• Daniel Horowitz, prominent attorney who was frequent TV commentator during the trial of Scott Peterson for the murder of Laci Peterson
• Brad Lackey, former professional motorcycle racer and 1982 Motocross World Champion
• Mike Mesaros, bassist for band The Smithereens
• Alanis Morissette A Canadian singer, songwriter, musician, and actress.
• Jordan Poole - Professional basketball player for the Washington Wizards.
• soyfoods
• Kurtwood Smith, actor, known for his roles in RoboCop, That '70s Show, and 24.
• James Van Hoften
  , two-time space shuttle astronaut.
• Mark Yudof - 21st President of University of California

See also

• Lafayette hillside memorial

References

City of Lafayette

• McCosker, Mary; Solon, Mary (2007). Lafayette. Images of America. Charleston, South Carolina: Arcadia Publishing.
  ISBN 978-0-7385-4755-8
  .
• U.S. Geological Survey Geographic Names Information System: Lafayette, California

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Lafayette, California.

Wikivoyage has a travel guide for Lafayette (California).

• Official website
• Lafayette Chamber of Commerce