The California Nursery Company History

The California Nursery Company is one of the best kept historical horticultural secrets of Fremont and of California.

Folks in Fremont probably all know that we have a early California mission, Mission San Jose.   And we have some historic buildings - Ardenwood Farm, the Chadbourne Carriage House, and Shinn Park.  Then there is the Niles Canyon Railway and the Essanay Silent Film Museum.  However, if you are the average Fremontian you probably don't know much or anything about the California Nursery Company.

Yet, at one time, according to the California Nursery Company literature, the nursery was the largest nursery West of the Rockies. (Other nurseries claimed the same!)


To get oriented to who is who and the timeline, start by reading:

• The History of the California Nursery Company that was written by Julie Cain and Karen Anderson.  
• Julie Cain's blog has lots of photos and interesting information that she uncovered.  
• The California Nursery Company presentation by Dr. Joyce Blueford of the Math Science Nucleus. (More currrent copy might be found here.)
• Nov. 27, 1886 article in Pacific Rural Press on 3 year old nursery
• The California Nursery Garden Club facebook page
• The California Nursery Garden Club website

Important/interesting dates to get you oriented (dates and facts need to be clarified by documents):

• 1865 Rock's Nurseries established in the Santa Clara Valley.
• 1884 The California Nursery Company was established in Niles.  The nursery was about a square mile, 463 acres, defined on two borders by Alameda Creek and the Central Pacific railroad, with the Hayward Fault running through it.
• 1903 The book The Smyrna fig at home and abroad is published by George C. Roeding (Fresno).  Fig caprification was a big deal for the California fig industry.  You can read about the trip to discover the mystery of Smyrna fig pollination.  Fascinating!  (However, there is a book from 1891 by Byron Martin Lelong Fig Caprification: Or the Setting of the Fruit that is not available online that might have more information.  Find this!)
• 1904 John Rock died and William J. Landers took over
• 1906 William J. Landers was injured in earthquake and died in 1907.
• 1908 William H. Landers took over for his father.
• 1912 W. V. Eberly, nursery manager, was appointed second president of the new California Nursery Association.
• 1912 Essanay established? 
• Charlie Chaplin films for a few month in 1915 at Essanay Studios in Niles.
• 1915 The palms at the  Panama Pacific International Exposition were obtained and moved from the California Nursery Company.
• 1917 George C. Roeding bought the California Nursery Company.
• 1930's to 1960's the nursery had an annual bulb show.  Dutch girls rubbed elbows with Mariachi bands to celebrate the spring flowers.
• 1972 The nursery became a city park.