a local Bay Area story
- To: m*@ucdavis.edu
- Subject: a local Bay Area story
- From: S* A* O*
- Date: Sun, 28 Jan 2001 17:29:21 -0800
Couldn't resist - local and a bit long.
Sean O.
Landowner not ready to sell ex-Alvarado Farm property
City estimates value at $48 million to $72 million
January 18, 2001
By Meghan Ward
STAFF WRITER
UNION CITY
JOHN ACCINELLI, 82, sits at his kitchen table, looking out past a fig tree
at what used to be the Southern Pacific Railroad. The old farm house, with
its peeling paint and creaking door, offers little indication that the
property surrounding it comprises 48 of the most valuable acres in Union City.
The former Alvarado Farm is worth between $48 million and $72 million, City
Manager Mark Lewis estimates. But Accinelli is not ready to sell. Instead,
he hopes to find someone who will farm the land, restoring it to its
original glory.
Historic land
In 1922, a partnership was formed when four single men began planting and
harvesting vegetables on the land. When the ranch failed to generate a
profit, nine eager Italians volunteered to take over, buying shares of land
for $10,000 apiece.
The one who could speak and write English the best became the manager. The
letters of his name remain drilled into a metal bar on the screen door. He
was Thomas Accinelli -- John's father.
Thomas built a small, two-bedroom house next to the mess hall in which the
farmers slept and dined. His wife, Theodora, would wake up every morning at
5 a.m. to prepare breakfast for her family and the 18 farm hands.
By that hour, Thomas Accinelli would be at Oakland's farmers' market in
Jack London Square, selling potatoes, cucumbers and cabbage.
Long hours
He arose at 1:30 a.m. and returned home at 11:30 a.m., just in time for
lunch and a nap. One morning on his way home, the overtired farmer drove
his truck onto the levy in front of the farm -- right in front of a train.
"It caught the last three feet of the body (of the truck) and my father
flew right out of the truck," John Accinelli recalls. "From that point on,
my father never felt well."
Near miss
Thomas Accinelli was not the only member of his family to flirt with death
in the face of a steam engine. John Accinelli used to follow the tracks to
the Alvarado elementary school he attended. One morning at 8:20 a.m., with
his lunch in one hand, he carelessly ambled between the rails as the Los
Angeles-San Jose passenger train crept up behind him.
"The train saw me and the people that were working (on the farm) were all
shouting at me and waving," he says. "I just waved back, thinking they were
saying hello to me."
The conductor blew the whistle just in time for John to dive out of harm's
way, then shook his finger in reproof of the cavalier boy.
"That was a close call," says John.
Taking over
In 1956, after 34 years of farming the land, Thomas Accinelli retired and
the Fazio brothers, the two youngest partners in the group, took over. Nick
and John Fazio harvested the land until 1981. By that time, Thomas
Accinelli had died and John Accinelli had moved back in to care for his
mother. John Accinelli leased the land to Gladaway Gardens, Inc., which
grew gladiolus until 1997.
Present day
Today, the tangled skeleton of a shrub enshrouds the former seed house.
Unlike in days past, the water tank is nearly always full, the pump drawing
water from the 300-foot well just enough to provide hot coffee and a shower
for one.
"My dad steered me away from farming," says John Accinelli, who went into
engineering instead of "getting up at 1 a.m. and working all day for
practically nothing."
The converted mess hall now houses relics of a bygone area when the
Alvarado Farm harbored an Italian colony in a landscape of Portuguese
developments. Portraits of his grandparents -- the Accinellis and the
Cerruttis -- hang above the Sony stereo equipment that has replaced the
accordion he played in his youth.
Rebelling against a consumer culture that cries out for him to replace his
shag carpeting with silk and Oriental rugs, Accinelli plans to stay put.
"I get calls all the time," he says. "Calls and letters. There's going to
come a time when I will have to consider selling, but right now, I'm not
interested."
h o r t u l u s a p t u s - 'a garden suited to its purpose'
Sean A. O'Hara fax (707) 667-1173 sean.ohara@groupmail.com
710 Jean Street, Oakland, CA 94610-1459, U.S.A.
