Horse Racing in Emeryville

Horse Racing in Emeryville

The Emeryville horse race track, originally known as the Oakland Trotting Park and later as the California Jockey Club, was built by Edward Wiard. Wiard was born in New Haven, Connecticut in 1815, and as a young man worked as a steam engineer in Georgia. He later joined the Gold Rush, and arrived in San Francisco in 1850. After working for several years in the gold mines of the Mother Lode, Wiard settled in the East Bay. In 1859 he purchased a 115-acre tract of land in what later became part of the town of Emeryville.

Located north of Oakland and next to San Francisco Bay, the Wiard tract was soon bisected by the Northern Railway tracks, which connected Oakland with Martinez. The area west of the tracks became Shell Mound Park, a resort and picnic area-that featured a shooting gallery, merry-go-round. foot race track, and dance pavilions. Shell Mound Park was leased to Captain L. Siebe, and it remained in operation until 1924. Wiard built Oakland Trotting Park on the land east of the railroad tracks on the property bounded by San Pablo, Park, and Stanford Avenues.

Oakland Trotting Park

Construction began in the late 1860s, and the one-mile race track (2,000 feet long and 900 feet wide) was completed in 1871. Temescal Creek flowed west through the center of the track, and bridges had to be built where the track crossed the creek. A seven foot high fence surrounded the track, with an entrance on Hollis Street, one block north of Park Avenue.

Wiard, who resided at the track, also built and managed a hotel to accommodate race fans. The two-story hotel, which had a veranda on each floor, was later moved to the foot of Park Avenue near the railroad tracks. The race track complex also included stables and a grandstand.

Wiard hired H. A. Randlett to manage the Oakland Trotting Park. Randlett worked in this capacity for only a year.’ and then he too built a hotel, known as the Randlett House, located on the southwest corner of Park Avenue 160 and Hollis Street. After Randlett’s departure. Wiard appointed his son-in-law, George M. Palmer, as track manager.

When the track opened in July, 1871 the Oakland News noted:

“This new race course was regularly opened for a short trotting season on the Fourth (July). Some five or six hundred people were in attendance, a large number of whom were ladies.

The three year old colt trotting race between the ‘Casserly’ colts ‘Honest John’ and ‘Grey Eddy’ for $4,500, for which the match was made at the time of their foaling, had been looked forward to with some eagerness. It proved a great disappointment, however. to the expectants. the former balking terribly at the start in each heat. The race was won by ‘Grey Eddy’ in two heats.”

For the first 25 years of its existence, Oakland Trotting Park featured harness racing in which a horse at a trotting gait pulls a two-wheeled sulky containing a seated driver. The sulky was made of wood and had large diameter spoked wheels. Three one-mile heats were held between two horses, and the best two out of three races won.

The California Derby

The First California Derby, a regular horse race with jockeys riding in the saddle, was held at the Oakland Trotting Park in May 1873. Inclement weather and poor attendance detracted from the event, according to an Oakland Transcript article:

“A dreary day was that for the inauguration of the Derby races yesterday over the Oakland Trotting Park. The weather was wintry, a piercing gale blowing up the Golden Gate, and a drizzling rain falling at intervals though the afternoon.

The attendance at the hour appointed for the races to begin, was scarcely greater than on the preceding day. Everybody felt cross, chilly and generally disgusted. A dozen or more ladies, wrapped in furs and shawls, shivered on the balcony. The race was a sweepstakes for colts and fillies three years old…”

The mile-and-a-half race was won by Camilla Urso. Despite the bad weather, the First California Derby is considered an important race in terms of California race track history.

Interest in the trotting races intensified when horses from out of state challenged California thoroughbreds. In 1873’ a trotting race between Elmo, an East coast horse, and Jerome, a California horse from Siskiyou County, attracted the attention of the race track fraternity. The Oakland Transcript covered this race:

“California racing stock suffered another humiliating defeat at the Oakland Trotting Course yesterday. The whole ‘horse community’ was in attendance to witness the match between Elmo and Jerome. The day was one of the most delightful of the season. Pool selling (betting) had been lively all over San Francisco on the previous evening, although very greatly in javor oj the Atlantic stallion. Excitement, therefore, ran high, particularly among the sporting fraternity who confidently anticipated last time and a well-contested race. The noon and next trains were densely crowded with passengers.

No wind, two stands filled, balconies crowded, and track all around as level as a sheet of note paper. In the second heat the Eastern stallion led from the first quarter, but allowed the California horse to look at him from the hind wheel. They came down the home stretch at a fair pace, Elmo trotting easily under the string in 3:32 1/2.”

St. Julien Breaks the Record

On October 25, 1879 the famous horse St. Julien broke the one mile trotting record at the Oakland Trotting Park. General Ulysses S. Grant, having served two terms as, President, happened to be visiting the Bay Area at the time. Grant dined at Wiard’s hotel, and he was present in the timer’s stand when St. Julien crossed the finish line in 2:123/4, breaking the previous record by one second. The Oakland Tribune reported:

“…the 3,000 people assembled at the Oakland Trotting Park were wild with excitement over the performance of St. Julian, who had just trotted a mile in the hitherto unsurpassed time of 2:12 3/4. There the time hung out in plain sight could not but be convincing. No carping could change it. The track is known to be three feet over a mile. A hundred watches timed the heat, none of which marked over 2:13, and from that to 2:12 1/2. A feeling of wonder was observed to mingle with the enthusiasm that shone on everyone’s face.”

In order to preserve the memory of this famous event, an inscription was placed in the judge’s stand reading: “St. Julien, 2:12 3/4, October 25, 1879.” It remained there until the day the race track burned down in 1915. A Currier and Ives lithograph also commemorated St. Julien breaking the record at Oakland Trotting Park.

During this early period, the race track was also used to house the annual Alameda County Fair. Wiard constructed sheds and buildings at the track so that prized livestock, including cattle, sheep, and hogs, could be properly displayed (the fair moved to Pleasanton in 1912).

A Disastrous Decade

The 1880s proved disastrous for Wiard. Early in the decade he lost the race track due to financial difficulties. His wife, Mary Jane, died in 1884. Distraught over the loss of his wife and property, Wiard died a broken man in 1885. Judge James Mee of San Francisco bought the property in July 1886, assuming the $81,000 mortgage. The Oakland Trotting Park remained in business after the transfer of property, and George M. Palmer continued as track manager.

Edward Wiard left one son, George Edward Wiard. George, who was born in 1871, moved from Emeryville after his father’s death, but retained vivid memories of the early days of the Oakland Trotting Park and Shell Mound Park. In 1960, George Edward, almost 90 years old, was interviewed by an Oakland Tribune reporter and related the fascinating story of the old race track. The interview appeared in the Knave section of the Oakland Tribune on November 27, 1960.

James Mee

James Mee, the new owner of the track, loved horses and was determined to keep the race track open. Born in Ireland in 1828, Mee arrived in San Francisco in 1850. He made a fortune in the mining industry and moved to San Mateo County in 1857, where he raised cattle and held the position of Justice of the Peace. He later moved to San Francisco and practiced law. According to a biographical account, Mee became interested in raising horses and improving the breed long before he purchased the Oakland Trotting Park.

“Mr. Mee is a great lover of horses, and is largely interested in the development and improvement of the breeds. For twenty years he owned an extensive stable, and spent much time on the turf. He is acknowledged one of the best horsemen on the Pacific coast. and has one oj the largest collection of books relating to the horse that can be found in the State of California.”

Thomas Willams

Mee operated Oakland Trotting Park until his death in about 1894. after which the the Emeryville track experienced many changes, In May. 1894 Thomas H. Williams. President of the California Jockey Club, leased the Oakland Trotting Park from the Mee Estate. Williams came from a prominent Bay Area family. His father,·Thomas Hansford Williams Sr., a lawyer and large land holder. became attorney general of the state. Born on December 9, 1859, Thomas H. Williams Jr. attended Oakland High School and public schools in San Jose. He attended U.C. Berkeley and Santa Clara College, and graduated in 1880 with a B.A. and B.S. degree. Later in the decade he raised thoroughbred horses. In 1890, he gained control of the California Jockey Club as a principal stockholder and held the position of President for over 20 years.

“The Track is as Fast as a Bullet”

Harness racing continued to be popular at the Oakland Trotting Park after Williams leased the track. In 1895 the San Francisco Chronicle commented:

“Over at the pretty Oakland (Emeryville) track the scene is different. Every morning you will find these same quiet. well-dressed men hard at work with their charges. There is no time here for gossip, for the trotting horse 162 trainer has a different lot from his brother trainer in the running game.

The runner is brought out on the track and slowly galloped over the course a Jew miles and then breezed through the stretch a last quarter as a warmer-up. Then he is sent a fast mile more or less, as the trainer may elect, and in fifteen minutes he has cooled out. The trotting horse is taken up differently. He is handled with great care. His first fast work will probably be one heat. Then a day or two later he may be given two heats. At last comes the time for final. preparation, and then he gets five or six heats, the same as if he was in an actual race. After this it takes from two to three hours to cool him out.

This is the season of the year when the trotting men begin to ask their charges for the final question, There are many oj the long tails about the city who will soon board the cars bound for the Eastern circuit, and the entire trotting horse world is anxious to know how its favorite pets have weathered the winter….

Most of the other cracks (horses) are quartered at Oakland where fast work can be seen every morning. The track is as fast as a bullet just now, and some rattling time has been made. A well-known trainer timed a heat so fast one day this week that he thought something must be the matter with his watch or his eyesight. He waited until the work was over and then called all the boys to the bar and after treating, showed his watch, and whispered the name Fitzsimmons.

The watch showed 2:05. The timer had split all right, but unfortunately for the trainer it had run down for the want of winding just before the mile was completed…”

New California Jockey Club

Williams soon became dissatisfied with the trotting park; in 1895 the track was almost 25 years old and in need of repair and improvement. He proceeded to make plans to transform the old race track into a modern facility. Williams wanted not only a fast track but also new facilities for the fans and horses. All the buildings, including the original grandstand and stables, were tom down; the sole exception was the judge’s stand, with its inscription honoring St. Julien’s record. A magnificent grandstand. resembling a Japanese pagoda. replaced the original. A covered walkway was built from the train depot to the grandstand so that race fans arriving by train would be protected from the rain. Renamed the New California Jockey Club. Williams’ renovated race track continued to flourish into the twentieth century. The day before its grand opening on October 24. 1896. the Oakland Enquirer noted:

“The first racing season at the Oakland track of the California Jockey Club will begin tomorrow; This will be the formal. opening oj the new racing park. which has been erected on the site of the old Oakland race course. The work which has been going on there for some six months past has been mentioned from time to time in these columns… For two months more one thousand men. including carpenters. masons. grocers, teamsters. painters. engineers and landscape gardeners have been at work, under the supervision of A. M Allen. who has had charge of the construction oj the buildings and the laying out of the course.

During this space of time a magical transformation has been accomplished. Nearly every vestige of the old buildings has disappeared, the course has been resurveyed and remade. The grade of the entire track has been changed. New ground elevated for the site of the buildings; the stables reconstructed; paddocks and section barns built. The chiefest of the new structures is the magnificent pagoda pavilion or grand stand, which will comfortably seat about 3,000 spectators, and surpasses in its arrangement and appointments any similar structure in the United States. It is the boast of the California Jockey Club and will be to the credit and fame of Oakland that the speed park at Emery’s will be the most modern and complete in the world. Racing men who are familiar with Eastern and European tracks say that this is not an extravagant statement.

The new main entrance from Oakland. with carriage way, is from Park avenue by an extension of Holden or Louise street. A handsome ornamental gate way of oriental design, in harmony with the pavilion. will span the entrance. The roadway is being macadamized and plank sidewalks laid from Park avenue to the grandstand. There will be ticket offices at either side of the entrance and turnstile registers on the footways. For the convenience of those who come by train from San Francisco and elsewhere a new station has been established between Emery’s and Shellmound, from which a covered way 600 feet in length, rising by steps to the grand stand. with two landings under a roofed pavilion, with a magnificent outlook upon the bay of San Francisco. The new waiting space or shelter along the Berkeley local track is roofed and tracked for a distance of some 500 feet, and converges to the entrance through self registering turnstiles. flanked by ticket offices on both sides.

Spur tracks have been laid from the railroad to the reservation for section barns to facilitate the handling of horses. that come in by rail, and also for convenience in bringing in hay and feed.

The most conspicuous structure is, of course, the grand stand, which is placed upon a rise of ground, some six feet above the level of the track. which was made by the displacement and heaping up of some 335,000 cubic yards oj earth. In the accomplishment oj this an army of graders were employed day and night for weeks and a special track laid on which dump cars were run. The foundations had to be securely laid in concrete and upon this the paVilion. which is in a modernized Japanese pagoda style of architecture. was raised to a height of 100 feet from foundation to top of the central cupola. The ground dimensions are 110 by 280 feet. The first floor on the ground grade is paved with bitumen and contains the betting ring, with bar. lavatory and pool selling paraphernalia. It is estimated that 4000 persons can conveniently stand within the floor space of this portion of the pavilion. Here are the twenty book makers’ stands with the desks for clerks. black boards for combinations and other arrangements with an out-look upon the entire course. At one side of the betting ring is a bar fifty feet in length…

To the north of the main pavilion is a saddling paddock with colonial portico 70×180 feet. Besides the twenty paddocks for racers and space for weights, the officers of the course have their headquarters in this building.

To the east. north and south oj the track on the opposite side from the pavilion and paddock are 344 single stalls. with a frontage oj more than three fifths of a mile. These are substantially built. completely drained and ventilated.

Toward the railroad track and back oj the pavilion are twelve detached section barns, for the accommodation of private strings of horses. These contain from twenty-two to sixty stalls with space for grain and hay, and accommodations for jockeys or grooms…

The only vestige of the old buildings is the old pagoda of the judge’s stand, which bears the inscription, “St. Julien. 2:12 3/4, October 25, 1879.” This time, made when General Grant visited this city, lowered the trotting record.

The track, which is the regulation mile course, is as near perfect as engineering skill can make it. The old course was changed somewhat resurveyed and the grades readjusted. The roadbed is sixty-five feet wide in the main, with a width of eighty feet on the stretch. At the quarter turns the raise is one inch to the foot toward the outer line. Underlying the track is nine inches of rock, which acts as a sub-drain. Above this is a dressing of twelve inches of soil: In making the base of the course some twenty .thousand yards of broken rock were required… ”

The New California Jockey Club proved a success and continued to operate for another 15 years.

A Landslide Win

Williams and his business partners had substantial investments in the track and sought to protect them. They feared that the track, which was then situated on unincorporated land. would be annexed by a municipality that did not share their enthusiasm for race track gambling. In order to forestall this possibility, Williams and his associates, with the support of capitalists from nearby Butchertown, promoted the incorporation of Emeryville into a town. The proposal was approved by the Alameda County Board of Supervisors, and an election was held in December, 1896. Incorporation carried by a landslide. thanks in part to the voting of race track employees. and Emeryville became a town. In 1903 a town 164 hall was built on Park Avenue, only one block from the race track entrance. 12

Oakland Trotting Park and the New California Jockey Club had a tremendous impact on the development of Emeryville. Park Avenue, because of its proximity to the track. became the town’s new population center. Several hotels, restaurants, and bars were built there to accommodate race track fans arriving from all over the Bay Area by carriage. train. and streetcar. The Commercial Union Hotel, the Randlett House, the Park Hotel, and Dugan’s Hotel and Cafe on Park Avenue. along with the Race Track Hotel on Stanford Avenue, were among the more prominent hotels that catered to race fans. The California Jockey Club and Shell Mound Park also helped Emeryville acquire its reputation as the entertainment center of the East Bay.

A Good-Hearted Man

Williams continued to operate the club into the twentieth century. Over the years. he developed a humanitarian and charitable side to his character. which he kept “hidden under the cloak of modesty and aversion to publicity.” Following the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, Williams opened the track to thousands of refugees. According to one source. “He threw open the Jockey Club grounds at Emeryville to over 4,000 homeless suffering people who stood in the famous ‘bread lines’ to save themselves from starvation.’ Bill Siebe, the son of Captain William Siebe. who operated Shell Mound Park, remembered Williams as a “good-hearted man.” According to Siebe. “In those days when we had roads and very few sidewalks, it was Tom Williams who kept the street watered and the dust down. He also kept the same streets in repair, and helped our scattered but scanty population build sidewalks.”

Walker-Young Bill

Despite the generosity of Williams. a Progressive Era reform movement developed that opposed race track gambling in California. The anti-race track faction gained support due to the perception that the California Jockey Club, which also owned the Ingleside and Tanforan tracks, had a monopoly on horse racing in California. The proliferation of race tracks and the expansion of the race track season also provoked the opposition. The state, responding to the anti-betting forces, passed the Walker-Young anti-gambling law in 1910. making race track betting illegal. The bill took effect in February, 1911. The New California Jockey Club race track was forced to close. since there was little enthusiasm for horse racing without the opportunity to bet on a winner. As a result of this law, all of the horse race tracks in California which permitted betting went out of business.

Massa Wins Last Race

The last race at the Emeryville track was held on February 15. 1911. A record crowd came from all over the state to say good-bye to the sport of horse racing. There were over 200 fans present who had witnessed the opening of the California Jockey Club in 1896. 15 years earlier. Williams, still President and principal stockholder, was “conspicuous by his absence.” The horse Massa with jockey Roy Selden on board won the final race. The followmg day the San Francisco Chronicle lamented: “The cosmopolitan and picturesque crowd which has followed the fortunes and vicissitudes of the turf bowed to the force of the law yesterday and the Emeryville race meeting came to a close. As the band struck up the strains of “Auld Lang Syne” after the seventh and last race had been run the crowded grand stand ofracegoers took up the tune and joined in with the band, but beneath it all there were many heavy hearts. Other seasons have come to a close at bay track and the followers of the thoroughbred have parted before with a good word and here and there, but yesterday was different. The seventh race, in which old Massa carried off the honors, may be the last one California will ever see, and old-timers of the sport could not but feel the effect. The Walker-Young anti-gambling law sounded the death knell of a sport that has flourished in California for years. Men who have grown gray in the interest of the sport were at the track yesterday by the scores, and it must have been 165 an ordealfor them to watch the game pass away. These men gathered in groups, and through the noise and excitement of the dose there was a husky voice and dim eye here and there that spoke volumes for their feelings. Eddie Jones. the once great little jockey, presented a pitiable scene as he stood supporting himself against the grand stand stairsjust after the seventh race. The crippled little fellow was wiping a tear from his eye. Here was a man paralyzed from receiving a fall in a race. and his entire life has been given to the game which yesterday came to an end in California. Jones was the jockey who rode four winners the day the Emeryville track opened, and it is little wonder that he grieved to see the familiar course closed . W. P. Maxwell, one of the oldest turfmen. in America, was another who was deeply affected. “Well, I guess I will go to the mountains for three or four months.” spoke the veteran, and he explained that he wanted to try and forget that the sport which he had followed for half a century had passed out of existence in California.”

Charred Ruins

In 1915, four years after the track’s closing. the Mee estate announced that the property would be subdivided into factory sites. In the fall of 1915, a wrecking crew began dismantling the grandstand and other track buildings. On December 15, 1915, before demolition could be completed. the remaining buildings caught fire and burned to the ground. The Emeryville fire department had difficulty containing the blaze. and at one point the flames threatened to engulf the adjacent residential neighborhood. By morning only charred ruins remained of the famous grandstand. The race track had been in existence for 44 years when it burned.

The next day the San Francisco Chronicle recounted:

“The old Emeryville race track, where fortunes were won and lost and gay throngs thrilled with the sport of kings. went up in smoke at 8 o’clock tonight…For miles around a great pillar off ire was visible, awakening memories of the days of many a sensational equine contest.

With the old stables, once filled with some of the world’s finest horseflesh, and the dilapidated outbuildings doomed, the fire departments oj Emeryville and Oakland devoted their efforts to save surrounding homes, which were threatened with destruction when the flames, fanned by a lively breeze, leaped across the open spaces from the southwest corner of the course.

Lack of water gave the blaze. which originated from an unknown cause in the southwest corner oj the rambling stables, a good start and by the time apparatus arrived on the scene and a stream was brought from San Pablo avenue two blocks away it was apparent the place was doomed.

The time-worn frame work of the tottering buildings. which formed the last vestige oj the once proud course. burned like tinder. The fire. working in a circle etched its way around the track. enveloping the various buildings and the long trail of fence.

In the clear, crisp night the conflagration flared skyward and was visible from all the bay shores. Thousands were drawn to the scene by the spectacular play of the flames and the sentimental knowledge that the final vestige of the place which was the center oj thoroughbred activities in the old days were passing to return no more.

Thomas Williams did not live to see the destruction of his race track. He died in November, 1915, one month before the track burned. An Oakland Enquirer obituary implied that Williams had a negative influence on the sport of horse racing, and that he was responsible for its downfall.

“For years he was known as the ‘czar of the turf,’ and he was one of the most forcefull characters the game has every known. By many it was felt that the influence of Mr. Williams on turfdom was a very direful one, and it was said by many that it was the Williams’ management that closed the racing game in the state oj California. When racing was the leading sport in the state Williams was a complete czar. He ruled the sport with an iron fist.”

Subdivision of Property

The race track property had commercial value because of its proximity to the railroad tracks and its central location in the East Bay business community. It was 166 subdivided as planned, and the land became an industrial park. Water mains were installed, streets extended, and spur tracks built. Several industries were built in the 1920s on the site of the old track. PG&E constructed two large plants on the west side of Hollis Street; the Watkins company erected a brick factory at the south end of the track on Hollis Street; and Western Electric built a large factory at the north end, which is now part of the Chiron complex. Nothing remains of the original race track, and there is no plaque to mark its location.

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This story originally published in 1996 for the Emeryville Centennial Celebration and compiled into the ‘Early Emeryville Remembered’ historical essays book.