Alameda: An Architectural Treasure Chest explores the history of Alameda from its settlement by the Ohlone Indians to its early 20th century development.
Alameda grew from a small settlement on its eastern end to a city rich in Victorian-era architectural gems. The book explores the three small towns: Alameda, Encinal, and Woodstock that later shaped today's Island City, and takes the readers on hikes that reveal surprises about early Alameda.
Also included are field trips off the Island City that allow the readers to explore and better understand the Victorian-era styles from the early Gothic Revival through Italianate, Stick-style, Empire, Queen Anne, and Bungalow. The book also includes pages that help even those not versed in architecture understand the styles that made the Victorian era so rich and interesting.
Featured in the book is the 1887 Alameda Semi-Weekly Argus bird's eye view map. Close-ups of this map show seldom-seen details of late 19th century Alameda.
A city bustling with modern-day shopping and businesses has tucked in its neighborhoods surprises and treasures that even those who have lived there all their lives will appreciate.
Alameda Museum curator George Gunn says, "Dennis has created a book that will appeal to all ages. It is easily read and understood. Filled with historical information and beautifully illustrated. It should be read by those who desire an introduction and appreciation of Alameda history and our architectural heritage."
Click here to see a sample chapter.
Price $30 ($25 for the book and $5 for shipping and handling)
Contact Dennis at (510) 772-5209 or email at Evanosky@gmail.com for more information about book availability
Mountain View Cemetery
Second in the Series:
History is All Around Us
The second book in this series features Oakland, California's Victorian-era jewel Mountain View Cemetery. Renowned landscape architect Fredrick Law Olmsted, who also designed New York's Central Park, designed the cemetery in 1863. The cemetery is home to such renowned 19th and 20th century men and women as Charles Crocker, one of the founders of the Central Pacific Railroad and architect Julia Morgan designer of Hearst Castle. The book includes 22 pages of Civil War history.
Here's what they're saying:
"A remarkably lively combination of guidebook, local history and architectural handbook. Great stories accompany a wealth of historic and contemporary images. Dennis Evanosky's spirited writing presents a breathtaking range of Bay Area characters and reveals the cemetery as a gateway to history, landscape, culture and style. I expect to see visitors wandering about at Mountain View with this book in hand!"
Naomi Schiff, Past President, Oakland Heritage Alliance
"I know Dennis is passionate about the history of this important community asset. From his archival research to his leadership in restoring our Civil War Plot, Dennis has a keen mind for unlocking and sharing the story of Mountain View Cemetery. Our community is going to enjoy this book immensely and we are grateful to Dennis for publishing it."
Jeff Lindeman, CEO, Mountain View Cemetery
"Few sites symbolize more comprehensively this nation's proudest heritage than Mountain View Cemetery. Dennis Evanosky is just the person to tell its story: piercing the mythologies of the powerful elite, while giving due recognition to the legacies of the less fortunate of every economic class, ethnicity and point-of-view who all share a final resting place within a major work of a great American architectural genius."
Steve Lavoie, Librarian, Oakland History Room
Click here to see a sample chapter.
Contact Dennis at (510) 772-5209 or email at Evanosky@gmail.com for more information about book availability
Price $30 ($25 for the book and $5 for shipping and handling)
Oakland's Laurel District
First in the Series:
History is All Around Us
On August 15, 2007, Dennis published the first in a series of books that will feature Bay Area history. This first book focuses on the neighborhood where I've lived for twenty years. In 2018, the book was expanded with 25 additional pages on neighboring areas Dimond and Allendale.
Click here to see a sample chapter.
Here's what Hills Newspapers history writer Erika Mailman had to say:
PEOPLE WHO ARE Oakland history buffs inevitably encounter Dennis Evanosky at some point. An enthusiast who created www.oaklandhistory.com for the pure love, Evanosky firmly believes in getting history out to the people. To that end, he is the author of several local history books. His latest creation is "Oakland's Laurel District," which he released right around the time of the Laurel World Music Festival last month.
"The history is conversational, like Dennis, and full of fun facts," says Luan Stauss, owner of Laurel Bookstore. "He gives you lots of tips on where to go to see what is described, and the text is peppered with all the names of people we now know of because of street names. It brings the past alive in our little community."
For instance, Evanosky writes about two early farmers in Laurel: John M. Redding and James Quigley. Today, their legacies are the streets named for them. In 1862, Redding met with Don Antonio Peralta, son of the man who was granted the entire East Bay as a gift for good soldiering. Peralta sold land to Redding to establish his farm. Next door, James and Bridget Quigley, Irish immigrants, also bought land from Peralta. With two other men, farmer George Adams and builder William Toler, the region that would become Laurel was settled.
The book is peppered with maps and includes recurring sidebars called "See for yourself," which allow you to lace up your shoes and go take a look at some of the things Evanosky writes of, such as the only surviving old growth redwood from the original logging days of the 1800s or Luis Maria Peralta's San Jose adobe.
"Oakland's Laurel District" also touches on more recent history, pointing out current businesses and what they used to be. The Goodwill Store was once the Hopkins Theater, Launderland was a Safeway, and the King Kong Restaurant was once a Piggly-Wiggly! The (former) Hilltop Tavern (next door to King Kong), Evanosky writes, "is the only National Park Service Ethnic Historic Indian Site in Alameda County . . . the American Indian Movement met here and planned the 1969 takeover of Alcatraz."
Such a neighborhood-specific book was seemingly built for the Laurel Bookstore to sell. And indeed, Stauss encouraged Evanosky to write it. She also suggested that he write a history of Mountain View Cemetery since so many patrons ask if something like that exists -- Evanosky obliged, and that book will be coming out later in 2007. The Laurel book, as a badge on the cover attests, is the first in a series of local histories Evanosky will be producing with the Stellar Media Group.
"I love to support writers and how much closer to home can you get than a book about the district where your store is? Love that. But also it gets people talking about how long they've been here, what they remember and what things were like in the past. That's a wonderful bit of unintentional community building," Stauss says.
"I have the book on both the front counter and in the window and every day someone is delighted to see the pictures of old Laurel. The people interested range from young black men to elderly white folks, all who live here and have a ton of pride in our neighborhood. Everyone loves to see what the area used to look like from the photos, the maps and the drawings included."
So is the book selling well? Like hotcakes.
"We've sold nearly one a day on average since it came in. Dennis was kind enough to get me 10 copies a couple of days before the Laurel World Festival and we'd sold all but two by the time he came to the booth that day to talk about the book," Stauss says. One book a day is an amazing statistic for an industry where most books never sell more than 2,500 copies.
I can be contacted at: Evanosky@gmail.com
