Belmont Historical Society, Belmont, CA

How many of you have been on the Water Dog Lake Trail? This southward view of the old Barre ranch shows the old road now called Water Dog Lake Trail. Photo courtesy of John Shroyer.

Welcome to our online newsletter! Despite the recent shutdowns, the Belmont Historical Society is continuing to work to preserve and share Belmont History. Please read on to see what we have been up to.

We will keep an eye out for other photos of your dad, Peggy!

In the 1870s, Belmont became a weekend destination for thousands of people. German immigrant Carl Augustus Janke came to California from Hamburg, Germany and settled in Belmont in 1860. He bought land around 6th Street and Ralston Avenue, built a picnic ground similar to biergartens in his hometown and named it Belmont Park. The site featured a dance hall, a bar, an ice cream parlor, a restaurant, a carousel, platforms in trees, extensive trails through woods, bridges over creeks and brass bands.

As part of our Indoor Belmont series, a few interior, and exterior, photos of Ralston Hall. The double photos, shared by John Shroyer, were meant to be viewed through a stereopticon. The postcards are part of the famed Denny Lawhern Belmont Postcard Collection. William Ralston, founder of the Bank of California, enlarged the villa he purchased from Leonetto Cipriani. Ralston adopted the style of the steamboats he'd worked in on the Mississippi to create the interior promenades with archways. After Ralston died in 1875, Ralston Hall served as a sanitarium, a girls' school and as part of the College of Notre Dame, currently Notre Dame de Namur. The last photo here shows a Lions Club meeting in the mid-1960s. What's next for Ralston Hall?