Historic Homes
— by Jeffrey Wisniewski — 7 December 2009 — 5 comments below »
A 1981 television news report on the Historic Homes neighborhood…
Hercules was a company town…
UPDATE: The post originally stated erroneously that the news report was from 1989. It was corrected based on comments.
Further notes -The historic homes were completed and moved into by 1987. In 1990 Hercules Inc was considering reopening the old dynamite factory as a nitrogen fertilizer plant. Members of the community formed a group, “Friends of the Red Tail Hawks, led by Loyd Wagstaff who later served on the council. The group met with representatives of the company in the administration building which still stands today (the large brick building). The group was successful and the Dynamite plant was not reopened as a fertilizer plant. The Promenade website has historic articles on how what became Promenade came into being. The site also has some good footage of the historic steam engine train that came through last spring.
@Susan Keeffe – So this report may have been from before 1989? I used the information provided on the YouTube page, which may be incorrect.
Cool now historic video about historic homes, a great find.
Here’s the correct date from the Hercules Historical Society’s site:
“Originally strung out along several streets, 13 homes were moved in 1981 to form a cluster with others on Bay Avenue, Pinole Street and Talley Way.”
Considering how nice these homes now look, it’s interesting how bad they looked before they were moved.
@Mike Bowermaster – Thanks for the link, Mike. I updated the post.
Info on the project see link: http://www.drakepropertygroup.com/projects/docs/Hercules_Fact_Sheet.pdf