Alice Barnham was interviewed by Brenda Hepler on May 30th, 2007. Alice came to Lafayette in 1974 after living for a brief period in Berkeley. She grew up in South Orange, NJ and was a very active library patron from an early age. Alice became active in Lafayette community affairs first through volunteering with the […]
Oral History: Ruth Dyer — August 1st, 2009
Ruth Dyer was interviewed by Mary McCosker. She grew up in Porterville, where her family grew almonds, and trained to be a teacher at UC Berkeley. She taught in Salinas and Antioch before becoming a history teacher at Acalanes High School in 1951. She taught at Acalanes for 30 years. Ruth was familiar with the […]
Oral History: Chris and Dean Coons — February 19th, 2008
The Coons were interviewed by Brenda Heppler on February 19th, 2008. They each grew up in Iowa, then moved to Lafayette in 1968 when Dean took a job with Clorox in Oakland. Both became very active in community affairs–he was a member of the Lafayette Community Foundation and she worked professionally in the field of […]
Oral History: Ann Appert — May 15th, 2009
Ann grew up in San Rafael. She attended Cornell and worked on Wall Street for a couple of years before she and her husband returned to the west coast and settled in Lafayette. Ann became involved as a volunteer in the schools, and then, through the Lafayette Community Foundation, became part of a small group […]
Oral History: Larry Blodgett — July 18th, 2008
Larry was interviewed on July 18th, 2008. He had begun a career in the architectural field when, in 1991, he chose instead to become involved in running the family business. He has stayed there ever since, and has also served on the City’s Design Review Commission and with the Chamber of Commerce, Historical Society, and […]
Oral History: Mary Ann Hoisington — June 19th 2008
Mary Ann Hoisington was interviewed by Mary McCosker on June 19th, 2008 as part of the Lafayette Library and Learning Center project. She grew up in southern California and moved to Lafayette in 1957 when her husband Bill began attending law school in San Francisco. She has been active in community affairs since that time, […]
Speaker Series: “Place Names of Contra Costa”
You’ve Seen the Book – Now You Can Meet the Author Why are place names important? From the Native Americans to the various European settlers, each wave of migration left their mark upon the land. Many names have long since disappeared but are still found on old maps and documents. Some names have interesting or […]
Oral History: Susan Mott — August 17th, 2015
Summary: Susan was born in Lafayette in 1945 and has lived here, or within 5 miles of Lafayette all of her life. In the 1930s, Ina Schmidt, her grandmother, bought property in Lafayette and developed the Lafayette Garden Estates next to what is now El Charro Restaurant. Susan remembers an area of farms, and walnut […]
Oral History: Mary Machado Ginochio — October 23rd, 2018
Summary: Laura Torkelsen interviewed Mary in October 2018, when Mary was 96. Her daughter Sophie was present. The Machado family has long been associated with the Alta Crest Dairy, which once existed on the former Hamlin property in the Silver Springs area in Lafayette. The dairy was actually started by Mary’s older sister, Cecilia. When […]
Oral History: Fred Ravazza — April 14th, 2014
Fred’s father came to San Francisco from Liguria, Italy, “around the time of the Great Earthquake.” He eventually settled in Lafayette where he and his wife raised two sons. Lafayette had the perfect soil and climate for the same kind of dry farming the family had been doing for 250 years in Italy–dry farming, which […]
