Historical Articles of Solano County

Friday, February 13, 1981

Familiar Names of Yesteryear Buried in History

John Rico

LIKE FALLING LEAVES - Most of today’s residents of Vacaville, being newcomers, would express an opinion that many of the store owners throughout the business community have been here for a long time. But, it is surprising, and a fact, that the mortality rate up and down those streets, has been exceptionally high.

It could also be reiterated that a “Who cares” attitude may exist, because when the demise of one firm is registered, invariably there is a replacement.

In referring to the word “mortality,” I use the word in conjunction to the names under which these business firms operated throughout the years.

The latest example would be in the Strauman name, which has graced a Vacaville business firm for 54 years. Only recently it was announced Strauman’s, a Vacaville business landmark since 1927, has closed its doors. Soon to replace that name will be Levy Bros., a San Mateo-based chain. The late Joe Strauman came to Vacaville from Lodi in 1927, and opened a small clothing store on Main Street, occupying a portion of a building in which the late H. C. Bolter was conducting a men’s apparel business.

Nowhere is there a “Who’s Who” or a “Who Was” in Vacaville’s business community. Memory will recall hundreds of business firms, having established here, later closed shop, sold out or became victims of death of the owner or owners.

Diamond National came to Vacaville in 1919 as the Diamond Match Co., locating on the premises of the Chandler Lumber Company which was founded back in 1870.

The Bank of Vacaville, established here in 1883, had its name erased in a sale to the Bank of Italy in 1923, and in 1932, the First National Bank, established here in 1910 also became a part of the A. P. Giannini financial empire, which today is the worldwide Bank of America.

There was no PG&E in Vacaville prior to 1927. The initial utility firm, established in 1902, was locally owned. In the 1927 sale of the Vacaville Water and Power Company, that prominent name became a part of our past history.

The Vacaville Theatre did not start with that name. It was the Grand, then the Clark, and in 1932, became the Vacaville Theatre.

Longevity honors for use of a name goes to the Vacaville Reporter, dating back to 1883; then there’s the Vacaville Drug, 1891, and the Nut Tree back to 1921. The G. C. Linn Insurance Agency goes back to 1925. Safeway has a local date of 1928. There was a J. C. Penney store here in 1929, but the depression years to follow, forced its closing.

Picking some of the more prominent business firms in our yesteryear which today are only memories could include Akerly’s Hardware, Collier Hardware, Winfield Hardware, Schaefer’s Department Stores (two of them, owned by brothers Walter and Ralph), the Vaca Valley Creamery, many food stores including Akerly’s, L and C Cash Grocery, Escano and Sons, Escano’s Market, Vaca Valley Shopping Center, R.C. Gray, California Market, S.P. Dobbins and Sons, Waggoner Grocery, Livingston’s, Golden West Market, Martha Washington Grocery, Purity. Stores, Walt’s Grocery. The Vaca Valley Creamery today is the Vacaville Physical Therapy Center.

You could buy clothing from Goldman’s, Arnold’s, Cole and Chandler, Crystal Bros., Bolter-Dobbins. Gone are drug stores, Reid’s, Tom Price Drugs, Donovan’s Eating places by the dozens have vanished, principally Vacaville Hotel, Bridge Coffee Shop, Casa Maria, Valley Cafe, Sam Lorn’s Chinese, Rossi’s, Jo Jo’s, Triangle Snack Bar, Ray’s Dug-out.

Erased from the local business scene have been dozens of service station names; and those of car dealerships. The depression days, starting in late 1929 and lasting for more than a decade, proved disastrous to Vacaville’s business community because of the sudden decline of the area’s “one basket” fruit industry economy.

For nearly 13 years there was a sign posted on a house at the corner of Elizabeth and Catherine Streets, reading “Vacaville General Hospital.” Ann Tillman, a Napa nurse, took over the property in late 1931 and converted the building into Vacaville’s first hospital. In 1945, due to stipulated improvements ordered by state agencies, Mrs. Tillman decided to lock up shop. Vacaville’s retired electrician, Art Dietz, lays claim to being the first patient at the hospital. While installing the electrical system, he fell and received hand wounds necessitating the services of the hospital and its staff to take care of the wounds.

The names of more than a half dozen fruit shipping firms which operated here for threequarters of a century, have all disappeared. Gone is the sign a short distant out Browns Valley Road which read: “Vacaville Golf Club.” It was fascinating to watch the bottles being filled with soda at the plant of Solano Ice and Soda Works, which has also been erased from the scene.

Although there have been hundreds of name changes along Vacaville’s business streets in the past half century, the recent growth in the residential areas of the community has opened up many avenues for new business ventures.

Salestax revenues coming into the treasury of the city of Vacaville are not representative of a city of nearly 42,000, blamed chiefly on the lack of outlets here in many lines of merchandise, such as heavy machinery and other equipment.

The increasing price of gasoline could be a boon to local businessmen, as residents become aware of the cost of traveling out of town to do their shopping.

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