California, Alameda County, Fremont
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The western branch studio of the Essanay Film Manufacturing Company stood on this site from 1913 to 1933. It was the first movie studio built for that purpose in Northern California.
The Essanay company of 52 people led by movie star cowboy Gilbert M. “Broncho Billy” Anderson arrived in Niles in April 1912, attracted to this community by its favorable weather and Niles Canyon scenery.
Over 100 films were made from their headquarters in a barn on Second Street by the time the studio building was ready for occupancy the next year. In the next three years Essanay produced two hundred and fifty films here: Broncho Billy westerns, Snakeville Comedies, contemporary dramas and five by Charlie Chaplin, including The Tramp (1915).
The studio closed in 1916 due to a change in ownership and consolidation of production facilities at the main studio in Chicago. Nevertheless, the Niles studio was the most successful movie company in the San Francisco Bay Area during the silent era.
(Entertainment) Includes location, directions, 2 photos, GPS coordinates, map.
The western branch studio of the Essanay Film Manufacturing Company stood on this site from 1913 to 1933. It was the first movie studio built for that purpose in Northern California.The Essanay company of 52 people led by movie star cowboy Gilbert M. “Broncho Billy” Anderson arrived in Niles in April 1912, attracted to this community by its favorable weather and Niles Canyon scenery.
Over 100 films were made from their headquarters in a barn on Second Street by the time the studio building was ready for occupancy the next year. In the next three years Essanay produced two hundred and fifty films here: Broncho Billy westerns, Snakeville Comedies, contemporary dramas and five by Charlie Chaplin, including The Tramp (1915).
The studio closed in 1916 due to a change in ownership and consolidation of production facilities at the main studio in Chicago. Nevertheless, the Niles studio was the most successful movie company in the San Francisco Bay Area during the silent era.
(Entertainment) Includes location, directions, 2 photos, GPS coordinates, map.
Francis X. Bushman, Charlie Chaplin, Wallace Beery, Marie Dressler, Ben Turpin, Vic “Slippery Sam” Pottel and “Alkalie (sic) Ike” starred here 1910/1912. Earliest films starred Gilbert Anderson (Max Aronson) alias “Bronco Billy,” 1958 Oscar winner. What colorful secrets echo thru Niles Canyon, these streets and bungalows of Niles glorious past.
Members of the Willow Creek Mennonite Church worshiped at this site from 1911 to 1967. The building was moved here from the San Marcos area where it had been built in 1898. It burned on January 26, 1967
In 1906, Coalinga was a boom town and there was a great need for blacksmithing and transporting. So the Cheney family decided to move to Coalinga from Cheney’s Grove, Illinois by way of Petaluma and Maricopa, Calif.
R.C. Baker
Headquarters of the notorious bandit
40 years of selfless dedication
Significant for its ownership by one African-American family dating back to the late 1800s, Mercer Hugh Cosby built the farmhouse in the 1880s on 52-acres. He grew tobacco and had an orchard on the property. The farm passed to his youngest son William in 1952. William Darl Cosby Sr. became a prominent educator in Henrico County, following his service in World War II. He worked as a teacher and principal through the period of school desegregation in 1969. Until his death in 2006, Mr. Cosby was the curator of the Virginia Randolph Museum, a National Register Landmark.
African-American students attended this two-room 1920s structure. It was one of approximately 22 schools under the supervision of the pioneer educator, Virginia E. Randolph. Multiple grades were taught with students ranging in age from seven to eighteen. Students studied a tradtional school curriculum as well as home economic skills such as sewing and cooking. Following the closure of Springfield School around 1950, the structure became a private residence and students were sent to Virginia Randolph, Quioccasin or Union School. The County of Henrico moved the school from Shady Grove Road to this location in 2011.
In 1862, during the Civil War, Confederates established an ordnance laboratory and complex on the western part of nearby Brown’s Island. Workers there, many of them women and children who were forced to find employment because of the economic disruption occasioned by the war, assembled cartridges and other ammunition. Despite Col. Josiah Gorgas’s stringent safety guidelines, on 13 Mar. 1863, worker Mary Ryan accidentally ignited a friction primer, resulting in a massive explosion that destroyed the building. Richmond residents, responding to the “terrific report,” found a scene of horror, with many victims “burnt from head to toe.” Ryan, and at least 40 others, died from the explosion.
The first African American to practice law before the Supreme Court of Virginia, Jackson lived and worked in Jackson Ward. Although local tradition holds that Jackson Ward was named for him, in fact, the ward’s name first appeared during his childhood. In 1903 Jackson secured a charter from the Commonwealth of Virginia for the Negro Development and Exposition Company to facilitate the Negro Exhibit at the Jamestown Ter-Centennial Exposition in 1907. He helped organize the Southern Negro Business League as well as the Richmond Negro Exposition of 1915. Jackson also co-authored The Industrial History of the Negro Race in Virginia.
Thomas S. Bocock, lawyer and politician, was
born in present-day Appomattox Co. (then
part of Buckingham Co.) on 18 May 1815. In
1846, he was elected to the U. S. House of
Representatives and served there until 1861.
In 1859, Bocock was nominated for Speaker
of the House, but withdrew after eight weeks
of debate and multiple ballots failed to elect
a speaker. He served in the unicameral
Provisional Confederate Congress (July 1861 – Feb. 1862) and as the only Speaker of the
Confederate House of Representatives (Feb.
1862 – Mar. 1865). After the Civil War,
Bocock resumed his law practice and remained
active in politics. He died at his nearby
home, Wildway, on 5 Aug. 1891 and was
buried in the family cemetery there.
The South Side Railroad provided service
at Concord in 1854 when the track was
completed from Petersburg to Lynchburg.
During the Civil War, these rail lines were
important for transporting troops and supplies.
On 11 June, seven days before the Battle
of Lynchburg, Union army forces were dispatched from Brig. Gen. William W. Averell’s
Second Cavalry Division to destroy rail and
telegraph lines in the region. On 14 June the
Federals burned the Concord Depot, a train,
a portion of the track, and other railroad
structures, and severed telegraph lines. They
then marched towards Rustburg.
Station A was one of three mines (A. B. & C.) in the Coalinga Hills where coal was mined. The coal was transfered (sic) from mule driven ore wagons. Then by coal cars pulled by old Betsy to the transfer dock at Alcalde in Warthan Canyon, from there the coal cars were hooked to a Southern Pacific engine and pulled to Goshen near Visalia CA. From there the cars were sent to points north and south.
