San Mateo County Places - Weeks Poultry Colony

Before there was an East Palo Alto, there was Charles Weeks Poultry Colony or Runnymede.

Oviatt Digital Library Collections
CSU Northridge

Born in Indiana in 1873, Charles Weeks grew up on a farm.  After moving to California he started a poultry farm on ten acres in Los Altos in 1904. An inadequate water source doomed that venture. In 1909 he moved to a five acre farm on the outskirts of Palo Alto where he established new methods of raising poultry.  He used coops to hold his chickens rather than the large chicken runs that were common on poultry farms at that time. The "Weeks Poultry Method" was very successful and he had visitors from all over the country come to study his methods.

San Jose Mercury News
20 Jul 1916  pg 4

William E. Smythe, a socialist Utopian from New England, was one such visitor.  He had slowly moved west, settling in Nebraska and Idaho for a time before reaching California where he found that land with water rights was at a premium, which made it difficult for small farms to thrive.  By 1909 he had started a colony near San Diego on 120 acres where families settled on patches of land that they could work without hired help.  This colony of "Little Landers" thrived an in 1916 Charles Weeks joined the movement.

San Francisco Chronicle - 28 May 1916 pg 65

Weeks purchased hundreds of acres in Ravenswood, a port city that had been meant to rival San Francisco but remained mainly undeveloped when the railroad did not pass through.  He mapped out small farms, using the motto "one acre and independence." Weeks promised participants a "place of higher independence for man in his own garden home." His monthly publication, Intensive Little Farm, served as an advertisement, drawing new community members on a regular basis. Runnymead grew quickly, as those unable to afford farms through conventional methods were drawn in. By 1922 over 400 families were resident not only raising poultry, but also duroc hogs and maintaining truck gardens. (San Jose Mercury News 22 Feb 1920 pg 25) 

"The Model Acre" from One Acre and Independence  (Jul 1922)

By 1923, Weeks had left Palo Alto to establish a new colony in Ownsmouth in the San Fernando Valley. Although successful, both colonies were affected by the Great Depression and many of the farms faced bankruptcy.  In the 1930s some of the farms were turned into flower nurseries by Chinese, Italian and Japanese immigrants who were looking for inexpensive Bay Area land.

Weeks, himself,  lost nearly everything when the colonies failed.  He relocated to Florida where he died in 1964.

Today little remains of this agricultural use of the land.  Alan Michaelson and Katherine Solomonson explore the establishment and disestablishment of Week's Poultry Colony in Remnants of a Failed Utopia: Reconstructing Runnymede's Agricultural Landscape (Perspectives in Vernacular Architecture v.6 Shaping Communities - p3-20)  which includes pictures both historic and current.

East Palo Alto Historical Map
City of East Palo Alto

In recent years,  the method of raising poultry developed by Weeks has become very controversial as the cage-free egg movement mounts in the country.


Charles Weeks Collection - Oviatt Library - CSU Northridge
One Acre & Independence - Happy Quail Farms  good history here
California Utopian Communities by Robert V. Hine

San Mateo County Places

Pescadero

Cath Madden Trindle

Pescadero is located on the Rancho Pescadero, a Mexican land grant given to Juan José Gonzalez in 1833. Among the early American settlers in the valley were Alexander Moore and Bartlett, Braddock and Robinson Weeks.  Moore built the first frame home in the area in the early 1850s. 

  
Another early family was the Steeles. They established a dairy farm in the Cloverdale Valley near Pescadero. The rich, fertile soil of the valley attracted other settlers, and by the 1860s Pescadero was a prosperous town surrounded by farms and lumber mills. 

Trout fishing and Pebble Beach drew visitors and by the 1890s Pescadero was a thriving seaside resort. Visitors could take the train to Redwood City or San Mateo and then then travel by mountain stage to Pescadero.  There they found Sarah Swanton's hotel. 

Another well known establishment is Duarte's Tavern first established in 1894 by Frank Duarte. The original building, along with the Swanton House was destroyed by fire in the 1920s, although the original bar remains.You can read the history of the tavern on their own website, or better yet visit for a cup of artichoke or green chile soup and a slice of pie and see the history on the walls. 

The demise of the Ocean Shore Railway and the fact that Highway 1 bypassed Pescadero eventually meant a shrinking population.  Today  Pescadero is smaller than it was.  It is a quaint little town with some cute little art shops that you should visit on your trip to Duartes and the nearby beaches.

Among the landmarks still standing are St. Anthony's Catholic Church  and the Pescadero Community Church  both were completed in 1867.  The community church with its classical revival style beat out the catholic church and today is the oldest surviving Protestant church on the Peninsula.  It was declared a state historical landmark in 1984.


For much more on the history of Pescadero read though  Pescadero Memories  by June Morrell.  She brings the days of old alive.
  
Check the Online Archive of California - Pescadero for records, maps and pictures of Pescadero that are sitting in repositories in California including the Steele Ranch Records.  The Library of Congress has some records for the area including LOC-Built in America - Steele Bros. Dairies  and LOC-Built in America - San Gregorio Street in Pescadero.  

Other helpful links include
Wikipedia-Rancho Pescadero
Wikipedia - Pescadero
Pescadero, California 
Coastside History
Pescadero State Beach 
Pescadero Creek Park

Watch for further information on Mt. Hope and St. Anthony's Cemetery, Pillar Point Lighthouse and on specific families that might be posted to the SMCGS First Families Blog.