The story
Founded by William Martin Mendenhall in 1869.1
History
Indigenous peoples
The valley and upland areas where contemporary Livermore is located were home to Chochenyo-speaking peoples. As a group, these people are considered Ohlone Costanoan, with distinct cultural affiliations from the neighboring Bay Miwok to the north and Valley Yokuts to the east. Four tribelets—the Yulien, Ssaoam, Ssouyn, and Pelnen—occupied the valley floor, with territory extending into the surrounding hills. Semi-permanent villages stood near water drainages on the valley floor within the current urban limits of Livermore, with seasonal camps in the surrounding uplands.
After the founding of Mission San José in 1797, the four Livermore Valley tribelets were heavily affected by Spanish recruitment: during the first seven years of the 1800s, 502 individuals from these groups were baptized at the mission. Measles outbreaks in 1806 contributed to further population decline and pushed recruiting beyond the valley into the Altamont range.
Native groups left Mission San José after secularization in the 1830s and reestablished communities in the East Bay, including in the Livermore Valley. They worked as laborers rather than rely on now-depleted traditional food sources. But as the population grew thanks to the 1848 Gold Rush and influxes of railroad workers, work became difficult to find. By 1906, only 28 Indigenous residents remained in the Livermore Valley, and most were gone by 1914.
1700s
A Spanish expedition led by Pedro Fages skirted the western edge of Livermore Valley in 1772. Mission San José was founded in 1797 in what is now Fremont. The friars at Mission San José treated the people and land to the east as under mission control, and the area became known to them as the Valley of San José. Neighboring tribes also used the valley as a staging area for raids on the mission in this period.
1800s
From 1800 to about 1837, the Livermore-Amador Valley was used as grazing land for Mission San José cattle, sheep, and horses. After the secularization of the mission system in the 1830s, two Mexican land grants encompassed the valley: Rancho Las Positas and Rancho Valle de San José.
Rancho Las Positas
Robert Livermore (1799–1858), the city's namesake, was a British merchant sailor who came ashore at Monterey and later settled in California. In 1839, the 48,000-acre (19,000 ha) Rancho Las Positas grant, which included much of present-day Livermore, was made to Livermore and Jose Noriega. In the early 1840s, Livermore moved his family from the Sunol Valley to Rancho Las Positas, becoming the second non-Indigenous family to settle in the Livermore Valley.
After the United States took control of California and the California Gold Rush began in 1848, Livermore sold cattle to miners traveling between the Bay Area and the gold fields. His ranch became a stopping point for travelers heading toward Sacramento and the Mother Lode by way of Altamont Pass; the area consequently became known as Livermore's Valley.
Founding
Robert Livermore died in 1858. The first settlement in the valley was Laddsville, which developed around a hotel established by Alponso Ladd in the 1860s.
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The city's founder, William Mendenhall, owned land in the Livermore Valley and in 1869 set aside 100 acres (40 ha) for a townsite. He named the town Livermore after his friend Robert Livermore. Livermore was platted and registered on November 4, 1869, as a railroad town. The Western Pacific Railroad built tracks on land previously signed over by Robert Livermore, and placed a station on land donated by Mendenhall.
The new railroad connection significantly accelerated Livermore's growth. Impetus was also added when Laddsville merged into Livermore after a fire in 1871. The city was incorporated on April 1, 1876.
Early Livermore
In its early decades, Livermore's economy was based on wheat, cattle, coal, oil, roses, and wine. Wineries founded in the 1880s, including Wente Vineyards, Concannon Vineyards, and Cresta Blanca Winery, shaped the valley's wine industry. Coal was mined in the nearby Corral Hollow area, which between 1895 and 1905 was among California's larger coal-producing districts. Smaller contributions to the town's economy include extensive chromite deposits found nearby, and magnesite deposits on Red Mountain.
By the 1870s, Livermore had a fire company, churches, a bank, a library, and schools. Electric lights were introduced by 1888, and by 1890 the town had more than 20 miles (32 km) of streets. Petroleum and natural-gas seeps have been documented in the Livermore Valley, and oil and gas exploration occurred in and around the city during the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
1900s
In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the Livermore Valley attracted sanitariums on account of its climate and air. The Livermore Sanitarium operated from 1894 to 1960 for the treatment of alcoholism and mental disorders, and the Arroyo del Valle Sanitarium operated from 1918 to about 1960 for the treatment of tuberculosis. In 1909, the Livermore Carnegie Library and Park opened with support from a Carnegie library grant.
The city remained agricultural until the mid-20th century. In 1942, the U.S. government acquired 692 acres (280 ha) of ranch land and built Livermore Naval Air Station to train Navy pilots during World War II. The facility closed after the war and was later transferred for use by the University of California's Radiation Laboratory, which became Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL). The growth of Livermore after World War II was shaped by the establishment of LLNL in 1952 and the Sandia National Laboratories California site in 1956, along with suburban expansion from the wider Bay Area. LLNL caused the city to grow into a technological center, while suburban expansion increased the population. Specifically, the city's population approximately tripled between 1970 and 2000 as Bay Area residents moved eastward.
2000s
In the early 2000s, much work was done by the city and a highway was redirected to make the downtown walkable, which previously was a place to pass through more than visit even for residents of the town.
2020 census
At the 2020 United States census, Livermore had a population of 87,955 and a population density of approximately 3,326 people per square mile. The median age was 39.9 years. About 70.7% of occupied housing units were owner-occupied and 29.3% were renter-occupied.
2010 census
The 2010 United States census reported that Livermore had a population of 80,968. The population density was 3,216.1 people per square mile. The homeowner vacancy rate was 1.5%, and the rental vacancy rate was 4.8%.
Parks and recreation
The Livermore Area Recreation and Park District (LARPD) is an independent special district created by voters in 1947. It is governed by a five-member elected board of directors, each serving a four-year term. LARPD operates neighborhood parks, community parks, open-space parks, special-use parks, recreation programs, aquatics, environmental education, senior services, and special events.
Shadow Cliffs Regional Recreation Area, near Livermore and Pleasanton, was formerly a gravel quarry donated to the East Bay Regional Park District by Kaiser Industries and opened as a park in 1971. The park covers 266 acres (108 ha) and includes an 80-acre (32 ha) lake.
From Wikipedia’s article on Livermore, California, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.4