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There was a German club called The Hermitage that featured “French dancing girls” that may have been inspired by the Moulin Rouge in Paris. This Beer Garden was located in Fruit Vale, a haven for German immigrants. My kindred had a fruit orchard there.

Above is the Marriage Certificate of Alice Lillie Stuttmeister of Oakland, who married William Frederick Broderick of Fruit Vale, in 1897. Their daughter, Melba Broderick, married Victor Hugo Presco. whose father came from Bohemia Germany. Did William go to see the French dancing girls, and lewd sex acts performed in the gazebos?  This may constitute the first Bohemian scene for adults looking for a alternative lifestyle. Here is a Garden of Earthly Delights in the New World, that was closed down by the clergy and Temperance Movement. Here is the model for the Ghost Ship and other places I have blogged on. It is my intent to present this history to elected officials of Oakland, and bid the, to support  Oakland’s Bohemian roots, and make sure everyone who participates, is safe. You can see Tepper’s house in back of the stores on MacArthur Blvd. Joaquin Miller escorted Melba on the electrical rail seen below.

Jon Presco

Charlie Tepper, opened a creekside hotel and beer garden on the land he bought from Hugh Dimond, at MacArthur between Dimond and Canon Avenues. (The hotel building still stands behind the shops at 2030 MacArthur Boulevard.) Many residents enjoyed picnics and leisurely afternoons beneath the trees of Tepper’s Gardens, next to the creek. On the corner opposite Tepper’s stood the infamous Hermitage House, which featured “French dancing girls.” At the rear of the hotel was a garden with two cottages and five gazebos, in which some questionable acts allegedly took place. Neighbors and church groups eventually pressured officials into closing the “pleasure palace,” and it was quickly replaced by shops. Nearby, other beer gardens, like the Neckhaus, nestled on Sausal Creek’s banks, and Bauerhofer’s (where a post office sits today), featured German bands and songs and an occasional brawl among patrons.

http://www.documents.sausalcreek.org/Sausal_History.pdf

http://www.wikiwand.com/en/History_of_Oakland,_California

http://kalw.org/term/fruitvale#stream/0

“It might be well to state right here that the Board of Supervisors is determined to clean out everything of a disorderly character in Alameda County.” The Clerk was directed to notify the proper authorities that the licenses were revoked and that no liquors can be sold at the resorts.

The men who were prime movers in this successful crusade were the Rev. Franklin Rhoda, William C. Ralston, F. C. Hinckley, W. S. Dunlevy and William Lowenburg, with the backing of all the citizens and residents in Upper Fruitvale.

Named for the orchards planted by 19th-century German settlers, Fruitvale was once considered Oakland’s second downtown. Prior to World War II, it had a very strong economy, as evidenced by banks, shops, a Montgomery Ward department store, mansions, and a rich inventory of Victorian-style homes. The war led to an economic boom that further benefited the district with many factories locating there. These factories created jobs and attracted large numbers of Hispanic and African American workers to the neighborhood. After the war, many of the factories closed and both Fruitvale and all of Oakland entered an era of economic decline. The growing suburbanization and

http://excelsiorcenter.org/altenheim-historical-highlights/

http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/environment/environmental_justice/case_studies/case6.cfm

2016 Oaktoberfest in the Dimond
Saturday, October 1, 2016 | 11 am to 6 pm
MacArthur Blvd. and Fruitvale Ave., Oakland
FREE entry, but drink tickets are available for advance purchase.

Oaktoberfest will bring world-class beer to the tented beer hall, serving steins of traditional German flavors and regional brew pub favorites.

Highlights include a traditional Biergarten, Eco Fair, Kid’s Area with Root Biergarten, German style homebrew competition featured in the homebrewers’ alley, and vendors from around the Bay. Celebrate Oktoberfest, Oakland style, in the Dimond at Fruitvale and MacArthur.

2016 Entertainment Lineup

http://www.documents.sausalcreek.org/Sausal_History.pdf

Between 1850 and 1859, Antonio Peralta sold off much of his remaining land, and the rancho soon became farmland. The soils that had been deposited over time as Sausal Creek meandered back and forth in its floodplain proved to be quite productive. In 1856 Henderson Luelling, a Quaker nurseryman, brought 700 cherry trees from Oregon and planted them in 400 acres he had purchased along Sausal Creek, christening the area “Fruit Vale.” Later he added apple and pear trees, and Fruit Vale’s orchards became well known. (One of these apple trees is still alive and can be seen today at 2125 Woodbine Avenue in Oakland.) Then, in 1859, Frederick Rhoda arrived, one of the first of many Germans to settle in what is now the Dimond District. On the 217 acres he purchased next to Sausal Creek, Rhoda grew Royal Ann cherries and, in 1869 when the Transcontinental Railroad came to Oakland, shipped them to the East Coast– the first California-grown fruit sold in the East. The resident told of hiking along a narrow road that wound up the hill, following the path of Sausal Creek. Near today’s Leimert Avenue bridge, hikers had to stop and pay a five-cent toll to continue up the hills!

Estate owners were not the only people who enjoyed Sausal Creek’s charms. Horsedrawn streetcars, common in the Fruitvale area by 1875, brought people up to Dimond Canyon and other areas in the hills for Sunday outings and picnics alongside the creek, where picnickers relished the delicious berries growing next to the creek. On one occasion, a streetcar on the old Highland Park and Fruit Vale Railroad tipped over the ravine in Dimond Canyon and rolled down the hill into the creek. Officials attributed the accident to a very

In the 1890s, upper Fruitvale, (from just south of MacArthur Boulevard north through the hills and stretching a few blocks to the east and west of Dimond Canyon), looked like a small German town. However, the population of the area was becoming more diverse: in addition to the Chinese who were brought into the area as workers, a number of Scandinavians established themselves in the Sausal Creek watershed. Many started dairies and feed businesses: the area was so rural that, while sitting in classes, school children looked out upon dairy cattle grazing in surrounding pastures.

In the late 1890s, one of the original German settlers of Fruitvale, Jacob Bold, built a three-bedroom wood-frame home on Minnesota Street. His brother, John Bold, was the proprietor of The Villa, a hotel and saloon at Fruitvale Avenue and East 10th Street. The Bolds played an important role in establishing St. Elizabeth’s, one of the first German Catholic churches in Fruitvale. Another German immigrant, Charlie Tepper, opened a creekside hotel and beer garden on the land he bought from Hugh Dimond, at MacArthur between Dimond and Canon Avenues. (The hotel building still stands behind the shops at 2030

MacArthur Boulevard.) Many residents enjoyed picnics and leisurely afternoons beneath the trees of Tepper’s Gardens, next to the creek. On the corner opposite Tepper’s stood the infamous Hermitage House, which featured “French dancing girls.” At the rear of the hotel was a garden with two cottages and five gazebos, in which some questionable acts allegedly took place. Neighbors and church groups eventually pressured officials into closing the “pleasure palace,” and it was quickly replaced by shops. Nearby, other beer gardens, like the Neckhaus, nestled on Sausal Creek’s banks, and Bauerhofer’s (where a post office sits today), featured German bands and songs and an occasional brawl among patrons. A home for elderly German people, the Altenheim, was built nearby in 1893. The home standing on the site today, however, was built after the original building burned down in 1908. The home’s residents today are of many ethnicities.

In 1934, a massive landslide on McKillop Road was blamed on Sausal Creek. The Army Corps of Engineers attempted to subdue the creek with concrete, and throughout the ’30s and ’40s, many more attempts were made to “control” the creek. The Works Progress Administration tried to contain the creek with cement “walls” and poured concrete in its bed in an attempt to slow its flow. The dates of these projects (1939-1940) were stamped into the cement and can be seen today at various spots along the creek in Dimond Canyon. Railroad tracks were used to create blockades in the creek, as people were attempting to drive up the newly-paved creekbed.

https://localwiki.org/oakland/The_Hermitage

JOAQUIN MILLER FAVORS BACCHUS

Poet of Sierras Signs Liquor Application of Roadhouse.

Oakland Office San Francisco Call, 1118 Broadway, June 29.

Joaquin Miller, the “Poet of the Sierras,” would let no thirsty man go dry. He has come to the rescue of Bacchus and to-day the name of the hermit muse was read before the Board of Supervisors as one of those in favor of having . a liquor license granted to the famous old roadhouse in Upper Frultvale, “The Hermitage.” . “

Fred C. Schnarr made application to be permitted to again dispense Intoxicants over the bar of “The Hermitage” -and the “Poet of the Sierras,” whose home is on “The Heights” back of the once lively resort, was among the 85 residents in the precinct who are not opposed to eeelng the doors / of “The Hermitage” once more thrown open to those [ who would be pleased to drop in and quaff a goblet of sparkling wine or- a stein of popular beer. There was a petition against granting Schnarr a license ” filed •with the Board of Supervisors. It contained 83 signatures. ~ .

In the matter of the applications for liquor licenses in the precincts of Fruitvale and Brooklyn townships taken up by the Supervisors to-day under the new local option law the saloon ; element appeared to have the advantage, their petitions overruling the petitions of the protestants in the number of- signers.

STII/L FIGHT LICENSE OF THE OLD HEBMITAGE

Matter of Granting Petition of Fred Schnarr Postponed for Another Week.

OAKLAND, Aug. 17.— The Inspecting of the names of signers on the petition of Fred C. Schnarr for a liquor license for the old Hermitage at Frultvale before the Board of Supervisors progresses with utmost deliberation.

.When the matter was brought up before the board thia morning it was asserted that among the signers was a woman and that Schnarr did not have the necessary six out of the nearest ten residents.

A strenuous fight is being made against allowing the- notorious place to open again, and every means is being taken to block the passage of vne resolution. The question of whether a woman could be considered a legal signer was referred to the District Attorney, while a survey has to be made to settle which are the nearest ten residents. In, order that this may be done, the question went over for another week. ‘Yi-,’v

MIKE PROTESTS AGAINST DIVES

Fruitvale Residents Describe Scenes of Revelry.

Homes Desecrated by Loud, Unseemly Brawling in Beer Gardens.

Oakland Office San Francisco Call, 1118 Broadway, July 15.

Residents of Upper Fruitvale crowded the Supervisors* room to-day to protest against the granting of licenses to the saloons and beer gardens, against whose disorderly conduct they have long been agitating. * :-…’ Citizens of the wealthy suburb appeared: before the board and described scenes of revelry and brawling participated in by both male and female patrons of tha re* sorts In auestion. V J.* . Complaints were filed against the places kept by Charles Tepper, R. E. Taylor ana Mrs. B. Walliser, and protests were before the board against the renewal of licenses to Peter C. Nielsen and I_ Faure. the latter the proprietor of the notorious Hermitage.

Rev. F. B. Rhoda conducted the prose-* cutlon against Nielsen and Faure, who were defended by M. C. Chapman. In thd fight against the other three places Snook & Church appeared for the- protestants and A. I* Frlck for the accused. Frlck later withdrew because the board would not order the cases continued on account of non-compliance with the legal allow* ance of time within which to plead. Lawyers Not Wanted. Supervisor Mitchell said that lawyers were not needed there anyhow, as there was already wrangling enough, and aa for the time limit the board was competent to go ahead with an Investigation one time as well as another. Frlck retorted that he was not there to wranglebut for the protection of his clients’ in* terests. The board proceeded with the Faure and Nielsen cases first. Chapman asked that the charges be dismissed, as they were not regularly filed and contained no specific complaints. From the worfflngf of the protests, he said, it might b« seen that the residents wers objecting to all the saloons In Frultvale, whereas the Investigation was directed solely against his clients. The board refused to dismiss the case and asked for testimony In support of the protest. Rhoda said he would put no witnesses on the stand. Chapman accused the minister of wanting a chance to heap . abuse on his clients. He again asked for a dismissal, but the board dl« rected Mr. Rhoda to proceed. Rhoda said the protest was based on two technical points— first, that Faura and Nielsen signed each other’s petitions; second, that neither presented an affidavit of good character/ •¦:.’ : – ;r>vSupervisor Rowe said that If tho pro* testants had any testimony to support their claims they must offer It at once. Ira L. Aymer was then sworn, and testified that he had heard of: the ill-repute of the Hermitage as far away as Los Angeles before coming to Oakland. He sala that hoodlums stood out3lde the place ana insulted passersby, both ladies and gentleDaniel Wilmore testified that -he ha* seen women coming from the Hermitase* In an intoxicated condition. He said that the worst feature of the place was tha crowd of tough young men and women who came there from Oakland and San Francisco. _ . ‘,’. *;’ : _ ‘ ¦”. Charles Reynolds, an officer In the Salvation Army, testified that Faure, hla wife and his sons were in the habit ot applying abusive epithets to the army people during their meetings. . He said that carriages brought women there at night. _

His Home Desecrated. v Superintendent William Rutherforfl oC the California Cotton Mills said that h# home in Fruitvale was desecrated by tha riotous drunkenness of the frequenters or the resorts under investigation. “It la a farce,” he said, “to come hers time after time and protest against this outrage. The Supervisors should long: ago have compelled the District Attorney to institute proceedings against -thesej places.” Mr. Rutherford said that recently ha had seen fighting going on outside the Hermitage and told of seeing a man and woman come from the place too drunk to For the defense .Chapman offered the testimony of Constables Jerry Quinlan •and Cramer, Policeman Gardiner, W. S. Dunleavy” and John Ferren of the Oakland Transit Company to the effect that the Hermitage was a quiet and orderly, place. The board next took up the complaints against Mrs. Walllser. Charles Tapper and R. E. Taylor. After Judge- Frick*3 ¦withdrawal Tepper’a daughter represented him. The testimony against these>-re-sorts was similar to that in the other cases. One man said he had seen girl3 standing on-chaira at Tepptr’s and kicking at hats held for them by their male companions, the latter shouting “Higher!” He had seen both, boys and girls Intoxicated there, x , The Supervisors took tha protests under advisement until 10 o’clock to-morrow.

Notorious Hermitage Among the Places That Lose Their Licenses.

Oakland Office San Francisco Call, 1118 Broadway, July 16.

The Board of Supervisors to-day closed five Upper Fruitvale drinking resorts, including the Hermitage,which for nearly twenty years has been conducted at Dimond with a notoriety which is State wide. The licenses of Charles Tepper, Mrs. B. Walliser and Robert E. Taylor were also revoked by a unanimous vote of the board.

Leon Faure, proprietor of the Hermitage, had one supporter, Supervisor Church, who also opposed the closing of Peter C. Nielsen’s barroom. But the other members of the board declared they would not make fish of one and flesh of another.

The Hermitage was not singled out in the fight of the Fruitvalers against the saloons, but the place was, unfortunately for its owner, among the group of resorts which the anti-saloonists had determined to drive out of business. The decision of the board covers all but one of the Upper Fruitvale places where liquors are sold. The Neckhaus Gardens were allowed to retain their license because no evidence of disorder was introduced against the resort.

The action by the board was a complete victory for the men and women of Upper Fruitvale, who have been battling against the hoodlumlsm, depravity and disorder which have marked the conduct of some of the resorts that have been denied licenses.

When the Supervisors convened this morning to render their decision the lobby was packed with an interested audience from Fruitvale. Chairman Mitchell called up the resolutions on revocation of the Walliser, Tepper and Taylor licenses. The charges made against each resort were sustained by the board, and promptly the five members voted to close the places.

Supervisor Church said he would not have voted to close Tepper’s place, except that the proprietor had himself said that he was going out of business, so Church was ready to close the place at once.

When the applications of Faure and Nielsen were read Church was in favor of granting the renewal of the licenses. He said no evidence had been introduced to prove disorderly actions. But the other four members of the board did not agree with their confrere, and they sent the Hermitage into oblivion. Nielsen runs a saloon in connection with his grocery. There was no special complaint against him, except on the ground that the citizens of that suburb had determined, if possible, to close all saloons.

As soon as the voting had decided the fate of the resorts Chairman John Mitchell made the following announcement:

“It might be well to state right here that the Board of Supervisors is determined to clean out everything of a disorderly character in Alameda County.” The Clerk was directed to notify the proper authorities that the licenses were revoked and that no liquors can be sold at the resorts.

The men who were prime movers in this successful crusade were the Rev. Franklin Rhoda, William C. Ralston, F. C. Hinckley, W. S. Dunlevy and William Lowenburg, with the backing of all the citizens and residents in Upper Fruitvale.