Summary:
Lou Borghesani spoke about his history as construction foreman on the Lafayette Reservoir dam, and later as operator of an inn, at a Lafayette Historical Society potluck dinner in April, 1977. Lou was born in Martinez in 1902. He had been employed on a construction job in Florida in 1927 when work on that job ended because of a hurricane. Lou headed home, working first on the dam, up to the night it collapsed in 1928. Lou says the job was 10 days from being completed. Later, for many years, he operated the downtown Lafayette bar and restaurant that was named Lou’s Place. Customers were welcome to bring their horses in, where Lou would offer them a carrot. The bar is still in operation 95 years later, known to one and all as “The Roundup.”
Oral History:
“I was born in 1902 in Martinez so I was familiar with Lafayette. At a young age I wandered around the United States on construction work. I knew about Lafayette by going to Berkeley through the old tunnel, which you were scared to go through but you went anyway.
In 1926 I was in Florida during the hurricane and had to come back to California because everything stopped. I went on the bridge job where they were testing for the railroad bridge. When that was through I came to Lafayette because the dam had been started, 1927, and I became foreman.
I was the foreman the night the dam caved in at 1:30 a.m. in 1928. One of my men on a truck hauling dirt came running out and said, “Hey, Lou, the dam is caving in. It’s cracking!” I thought the guy must have been drinking, so I rushed in. I had a Hudson Brougham then. Sure enough it was cracking and sinking.
It had sunk 10 feet in some places at the outer edge in a big 100- foot circle. We had the job stopped. We had 10 more days to finish but we stopped, and that was the end of that job. I think the water company finished the job about two years later.
I went back to Martinez and went on the dirt job for the railroad bridge. I eventually got in on a beer truck through my parents, and it was promised that if I did well on the route, I could buy it. I had Lafayette, Concord and Orinda. After I’d worked the route up and the day came for the agreement, it didn’t materialize. So I quit on June 5, 1934. I was practically broke, and I told the people who were going to back me in the business – one in Pittsburg and one in Port Chicago – what happened. I said there was a little business in Lafayette I’d like to buy. It was Ma Hunt’s place, the Lafayette Inn.
Ma Hunt was a well-known person, famous for her pies, and people would come in for years asking about her. I never knew her personally. On June 6, 1934, I walked in and asked the people who were leasing the place if I could buy the business. They wanted $1,150 and all I could get was $950. I told them, supposing I give you $950 and pay the rest in three months, and they went for it. But the deal had to be that night, and the next morning I took over, because I didn’t want to lose any of the stock. The next morning at seven I was in there doing business.
I attended several meetings of the Improvement Club with Mrs. Heatherington, Mr. Snedeker and others. Things were pretty cheap in 1934: 10¢ for a hamburger, 10¢ for a glass of beer. People were working for a dollar a day for 8-9 hours work.
We talked about the Fiesta we were going to have, and I decided to move my business down to the Town Hall for one night. I closed down my place of business and moved everything down there and carried on with all the proceeds going to the Improvement Club for the Fiesta. I think we even had some slot machines there that night. We talked about having a horse show in connection with the Fiesta, and it was greeted well by Mrs. Snedeker and the Floods, Mrs. Heatherington and Stanley. Paul Alberts had a riding stable, and he put it all together, and the show started in 1935 on the school grounds. That was the first horse show, September, 1935, and the second Fiesta.
From 1936 on all the horse shows were on Dr. Hamlin’s property. The first money raised helped put the tennis court at the grammar school, around $2700. The Sheriff’s Posse was there, the Castro outfit of 100 horses, Pleasant Hill had side saddle exhibitions. Anyone could enter and everyone got a ribbon or honorable mention of some sort. Someone could come in with a swayback horse with a rope around its nose, and they got a prize.
The Lafayette Horse Show also gave birth to the Contra Costa Sheriff’s Posse about the second year. Johnny Miller started it with a beautiful array of horses, and that same posse went to the Islands and performed and also went to Eisenhower’s inauguration. The Western Horseman’s Magazine was created here, too, by Paul Alberts.
The East Bay Utility District was organized on May 22, 1923, and the Mokelumne water reached local distribution on June 23, 1929.
Sidewalks were put in about 1937 or 38, starting at Hough Street down to where the old post office was. There was quite a step-off to go to Bill’s, and it remained that way for quite a few years until they improved it. Then it went up to Colonel Garrett’s building.
Horses used to come into my place during the day. I had a hitching post and water trough, and a man to take care of the water in it with blue rock to make sure the horses never got sick. We rented that space from Sullinari. The horses would come in, and I had a white coat and a big scoop shovel and about seven or eight people working in my place.
I remember one time Peggy Donaldson, who had a stable in Orinda, rode her horse in, and I said, “Hey, Peggy, get that horse out of here. He’s getting nervous.” He didn’t make it, so I got my white coat and shovel, opened the double doors and shoveled it out.
I used to buy one-inch boards to keep the horses from going through the floors. I kept a supply of carrots, and every horse got a carrot and every rider got a beer if he stayed on his horse.”
Excerpted from “Voices of Lafayette” by Julie Sullivan. This book is available for purchase in the History Room.
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