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History of Richmond, CA Part 2
PUBLIC UTILITIES
One of the things of which Richmond is proud, and deservedly so, is its street car system. Starting with a single
track between the Standard Oil plant and the Southern Pacific depot, the first car was operated in July, 1904.
The car was an old one of an obsolete type, purchased by the infant company from the United Railroads of San Francisco,
and has long since passed into oblivion, being succeeded by cars of modern design.
The men responsible for the promoting and building of the line first known as the East Shore & Suburban Railroad
were W. S. Rheem, Clinton E. Worden, and W. S. Tevis, the late E. A. Gowe, and others. But to Colonel Rheem more
than to any other belongs the credit f or the successful promotion and operation of what has since become one of
the best patronized and best paying semi interurban lines in the State.
In January, 1905, the company began the extension of its line from the Southern Pacific depot in Richmond to the
county line, the work being completed and the first car operated over it in May of the same year. The same year
also saw the completion of the Ohio Street line, which made connections with the main line at Ohio Street and the
Santa Fe right of way, but which has since been merged with the A and Eighth Street line, which line was completed
in 1907.
The original line between the Southern Pacific depot and the county line ran by way of Macdonald and San Pablo
avenues, and the company in 1905 built a branch line to the town of Stege, connecting with the main line at a point
which has since been known as Stege Junction. In 1908 the company built a line from Macdonald Avenue, starting
at Twenty third Street and paralleling the Southern Pacific to Potrero Avenue, where it made connection with the
Stege branch, opening up a new territory which has been a strong factor, as the Pullman Company has erected a mammoth
plant, employing hundreds of men, most of whom ride back and forth on the cars of this line, which pass directly
in front of the gates.
Since the completion of this extension the cars operating between Richmond and Oakland are routed that way, that
portion of the original line from Twenty third Street to San Pablo Avenue being now a part of the San Pablo East
Richmond line, which runs from the town of San Pablo to East Richmond, or Grand Canon Park. The line from Macdonald
Avenue to the town of San Pablo was built in 1905, and furnished means of transportation to an enterprising people
who had been wont to hitch up and make the long drive into Oakland.
The extension from the junction of Macdonald Avenue to East Richmond, completed in 1910, serves a scattered community
which is rapidly filling up with small homes, creating a consequent increase in traffic, and carries during the
summer season thousands of persons to Grand Canon Park, a beautiful natural pleasure ground located right at the
end of the car line.
In February, 1911, the East Shore & Suburban Railroad was purchased by the United Properties Company, which
also absorbed the Oakland Traction Company, the California Railways, and the Key Route lines, this system becoming
known as the San Francisco-Oakland Terminal Railways.
In the spring of 1912, the United Properties Company, in pursuance of its progressive policy, began a series of
improvements, chief of which was the double tracking of San Pablo and Potrero avenues from the county line to Pullman,
completed that year, the laying of track on Ashland Avenue and the improvement of that thoroughfare, the completion
of which necessitated the removal of the original line; which was laid on the Santa Fe right of way. In 1914 the
double tracking and macadamizing of Macdonald Avenue in Richmond was completed.
Where a few years ago there was a twenty minute service to Oakland, with a change of cars at the county line, requiring
an hour and ten minutes to make the trip, there is now a ten minute through service, which is accomplished in forty
five minutes.
T. S. Walker was the first superintendent, holding that position until March, 1906, being succeeded by C. H. Robinson,
formerly of the United Railroads of San Francisco, who resigned January 1, 1912. His successor, C. F. Donnelly,
also formerly connected with the United Railroads, is still in charge of the Richmond division, and his capable
management and genial manner have been strong factors in cementing the friendly relations between the company and
the people it serves.
From a small beginning the business of the Western States Gas & Electric Company in Richmond has increased
wonderfully. At the present time it operates in the territory comprising Richmond, Stege, Pullman, San Pablo, and
Rust, and has approximately one hundred miles of distributing lines, a modern plant, and all the latest improved
machinery for supplying an up to date service to the city and its annexed and surrounding territory.
The Pacific Gas & Electric Company is another large corporation of the city of Richmond, supplying the community
with gas for cooking and heating. The lines of this company also bring electric power to Richmond, where it is
wholesaled to others.
The People's Water Company has been supplying Richmond and vicinity with an ample supply of water for domestic
and municipal use for some years. At this writing the company is expending $2,000,000 in the construction of a
concrete dam on San Pablo Creek back of Richmond, with a capacity of 20,000,000,000 gallons.
RICHMOND SCHOOLS
As soon as Richmond's little dot began to appear on the map of California an effort was made to provide ample
school facilities. And as the city grew by leaps and bounds, the same effort to keep the school system apace with
its growth continued. From the little ungraded school of but a few years ago, with one teacher, there is now a
city school system with a corps of nearly half a hundred instructors, and a high school with a corps of nearly
a score.
To provide buildings and equipment for such an institution within a period of fifteen years was in itself a stupendous
task. However, the issue was met, and Richmond now has a high school building costing $95,000, besides five grammar
and elementary school buildings totaling in value over a quarter of a million dollars, with arrangements and appointments
most modern in school construction and architecture. No city of its size in the West excels Richmond in the excellency
of modern schools.
It has been the aim of those in charge of the school department of Richmond to make it one of the strongest feaures
of the city - to make those who have selected Richmond for their future home feel that in doing so they have not
deprived their children of educational advantages. They have endeavored to be progressive and to adopt such of
the modern advances in education as experience has justified, and to avoid such fads and fancies as are always
springing up in all lines of endeavor.
RICHMOND CHURCHES
Having broken all records of cities of its age and size in the way of building up a splendid public school system,
sparing neither time nor money in the accomplishment of great results, Richmond turned its attention to no small
extent in building up and helping out its churches, its ministry, and its church workers, and the results show
that the city heeds its spiritual welfare as well as the education of its children and the commercial success of
its enterprises.
The city now has within its limits fourteen church organizations, as follows: Two Methodist, three Roman Catholic,
two Baptist, one Christian, one Presbyterian, one Christian Science, one Episcopal, one German Lutheran, one Unitarian,
and one Congregational.
All of the churches of Richmond are increasing in membership and influence, and all have flourishing Sunday schools,
young peoples' societies, men's Bible classes, and other auxiliary organizations, in which are enrolled a large
number of the leading influential business men of the city. All have strong boards of trustees, and all have splendid
working societies among the women of the church world.
The missionary organizations of the various churches are also good workers in the Lord's vineyard. The salaries
and current expenses paid by the church organizations of Richmond amount to over two thousand dollars monthly.
Richmond is justly proud of her churches and her clergy. Where strangers are looking for homes where churches and
schools are among the leading factors in the life of a city, Richmond bids them enter her open door.
In the past few years wonderful strides have been taken in the up building of the churches and the church work,
and the future is bright with promise of a continuation of this work so necessary to the life and the welfare of
all mankind.
SOCIAL AND FRATERNAL ORGANIZATIONS
Of secret society organizations and civic and social clubs, Richmond has its full quota, there being no less
than thirty of such institutions, all enjoying a good membership and financial prosperity. All the main secret
societies are represented, and two of them - the Elks and Knights of Pythias - own their buildings. Both of these
are imposing structures and modern in every way. The Elks building cost over eighty thousand dollars.
There are two leading women's club organizations - the Richmond Club and the West Side Women's Improvement Club.
The former owns its own club building, a magnificent two story structure, and the latter plans to build this year
(1917). In addition to these are numerous civic improvement clubs and women's auxiliaries of the same, the Grand
Army of the Republic, and the Women's Circle of the G. A. R.
This would not be complete without mention of the Native Sons and Daughters, both of which have strong organizations
here.
EVOLUTION OF JOURNALISM IN RICHMOND
The editor is under obligations to Juan L. Kennon, an old time printer and newspaper man of Richmond, for much
of the data contained in this article. Kennon was connected with the early day Record, and followed its career
for many years, later establishing a job printing plant of his own, which was purchased in 1916 by the writer and
merged into the Daily News plant. Later Kennon was foreman of the News, but toward the end of 1916, owing to failing
health, he was forced to retire from all active work and business.
The history of Richmond's newspapers is as interesting as the history of the city. Richmond's present greatness
is, in a measure, due to the indefatigable efforts of those who came here in early days and started the first newspaper,
together with those who have entered the field in later years.
It was on the 7th of July, 1900, that the Record, a weekly publication at that time, made its initial bow to the
then sparse population of this municipality. Lyman Naugle, the pioneer newspaper man of Richmond, came to what
was then only a small community of some 250 inhabitants and cast his lot with what his prophetic vision told him
would some day become one of the principal industrial communities of the Pacific Coast. He had a small printing
outfit, which consisted of a few cases of type and an Army press; the press could have been conveniently carried
under one's arm without much difficulty. He rented a small room near Wanske's saloon, on what is now Barrett Avenue.
In those days the Record office faced on the county road.
The first issue of the paper was six columns in width and was set by hand, as were many other subsequent issues
of the Record. Richmond had no postoffice in those days and the first issue of the paper was mailed at Stege postoffice.
In the first issue Editor Naugle had this to say relative to the lack of postoffice facilities: "We are looking
every day for the establishment of our postoffice. The demand for mail facilities is very pressing. It is to be
hoped the department will not keep us waiting very long. This issue of the Record will have to be mailed at Stege,
as well as all future issues until we get a postoffice."
It may not be amiss to retrogress a little in order to explain that the original town site in this vicinity was
called Point Richmond, and took in that district now bounded by the property of the Santa Fe Railway Company, Barrett
Avenue east as far as Sixth Street, and the lands lying north between First and Sixth streets. This was the original
town of Point Richmond. Subsequently the John Nicholl Company laid out what was then known as the First, Second,
and Third additions to the town of Richmond. William Mintzer afterward subdivided what is now known as the Fourth
addition to the city of Richmond. The John Nicholl and the Mintzer holdings were included in what is now known
as the Point, or west side.
Naugle issued the Record regularly every week for several months in his location on Barrett Avenue, and the paper
was mailed regularly at Stege. The department finally gave Richmond a postoffice and Lyman Naugle was appointed
as the first postmaster. He combined the duties of attending to the mail for the Government with the editing of
his newspaper. As the Point began to show signs of growth, Naugle conceived the idea of moving over to the west
side. He packed the postoffice up in a soap box and with his small plant opened an office on Richmond Avenue, near
the present location of the Bank of Richmond.
The next day after moving a United States postoffice inspector arrived in town, and he gave Editor Naugle just
thirty minutes to move the postoffice back to its original location. It is needless to add that Naugle lost no
time in complying with the demand of Uncle Sam's representative, and he had time to spare at the end of the job.
Although the postoffice was moved, Naugle remained with the plant in his new location. Steps were immediately taken
to induce the Government to establish a new postoffice. After several months the Point people secured a postoffice
and it was named "Eastyard, California," in order that there would be no conflict in names.
We herewith reproduce the editor of the Record's salutatory from the first issue of this paper: "The Record
is glad to look the people of Richmond and Contra Costa County in the face. It makes no pretense of greatness.
It is very humble. Point Richmond is yet but a budding village, but its future is bright and the Record will keep
pace with its progress. The mission of the Record will be to record the local news, to write a history in weekly
installments of the growth and grandeur of this community. The Record is not in politics. More important and more
material affairs claim its attention at the present time. It will throw its weight toward building up a little
city here that will honor its neighbors on either side. It solicits the patronage of every resident of the valley
and of everyone interested in building up Point Richmond. Every one who lives here will take it, and it will be
indispensable to those who own property here and live elsewhere. It will faithfully report the progress of the
town and strive to be enterprising and truthful. The Record would love to visit the homes of San Pablo, Stege,
and Schmidtvile, our neighbors on either side, and to this end will have representatives at these places to furnish
the local news. It is the only newspaper between Berkeley and Pinole. It lays claim to all that territory and will
endeavor to merit support therein."
The daily edition of the Richmond Record was launched on February 8, 1902. Lyman Naugle continued as editor. Frank
Hull, the present managing editor of The Record-Herald, was its first city editor. The writer laid out the first
forms and made the first issue of the paper Up for the press.
The Record was several years afterward moved to the east side. In 1910 J. L. Kennon established the Weekly Herald.
Subsequently the Herald was merged with the Record, hence the hyphenated title, Record-Herald.
The Richmond Daily Leader was established by G. A. Manes in Richmond in March, 1902. That paper's first editor
and business manager was B. J. Baker, now a prominent official of Imperial County. In the fall of 1911 F. J. Hulaniski,
the editor of this history, moved to Richmond from San Francisco, and took editorial and business management of
the Daily Leader for Manes, the owner, and, finding that the business did not warant the publication of three daily
newspapers in Richmond at that time, it was upon his advice that a consolidation was affected between the Daily
Leader and the Daily Record-Herald in March, 1912, and he became editor of the consolidated publication, and so
remained for three years, during which time he established the Contra Costan, a weekly publication which is still
being issued from the office of the Record-Herald.
In August, 1914, the writer established the Thinkograph Magazine, a publication intended for national scope, the
same being to a certain extent along similar lines of Elbert Hubbard's famous Philistine. The Thinkograph was published
in San Francisco for two years, and in 1916 was moved to Richmond, at the same time this writer became editor and
manager of the Richmond News, and is still being published at the News office. The Thinkograph has achieved a semi
national reputation, being handled by the news companies pretty generally throughout the United States.
About the time that the first issue of the Daily Record was issued from the press, a portly gentleman entered the
Record office one evening and stated that he wanted a job. He was not particular about the work, he said, but was
willing to do anything to make an honest living. He had been a schoolteacher and had also practiced medicine. That
man was Warren B. Brown. He was given a job soliciting subscribers for the new daily.
Later Brown established the Santa Fe Times in what is now the Santa Fe district. Subsequently Editor Brown moved
his plant to the vicinity of Macdonald Avenue and published the Terminal, which paper is still doing business in
Richmond. The Terminal, under Warren Brown's management, accomplished much good for the then growing town of Richmond.
The present editor and manager of the Terminal, George Ryan, assumed charge of the paper in 1914, Doctor Brown
retiring from the field after a successful and honorable career as editor of one of Richmond's newspapers. He died
and passed to his reward in 1916.
The Richmond Daily Independent was established in Richmond in 1910 by I. N. Foss and M. J. Beaumont. The latter
had managed the Leader for several years, having succeeded to that position after the retirement of W. H. Marsh.
I. N. Foss, who was at that time editor of the Leader, joined with Beaumont, a stock company was formed, and the
Independent became a reality in the newspaper field of this city. It is still one of the flourishing daily papers
of Richmond, under the direction of John F. Galvin, a newspaper man well known in this section of California.
The newspaper graveyard in Richmond is still quite small. Of the papers suspended may be mentioned the Daily. Leader,
a small semiweekly called the Tribune, established in 1903 by a San Francisco journalist, and a weekly called the
Messenger. The latter was printed in San Francisco and circulated in Richmond. Neither the Tribune nor the Messenger
lasted more than a few months before they finally rested in the journalistic cemetery.
The Daily News was established in January, 1914, by the Daily News Company, incorporated, which company was organized
by the various labor organizations of Richmond, numbering twenty local bodies, with a membership of approximately
two thousand. The News was a phenomenal success for the first year of its career, being backed by the labor element
of the city, which is very large and strong, Richmond being pre-eminently a wage earning and payroll community,
with the bulk of its male population affiliated in the ranks of organized labor. The News, however, in time began
to strike upon the rocks and shoals always inevitable when a newspaper is controlled by any element or class of
society lacking that experience in the business which is absolutely necessary for its success The board of directors
of the new publishing company were skilled artisans in their various trades and callings, but knew next to nothing
about the newspaper business and the many ins and outs mastered only after long experience and by the best abilities
of men skilled in journalism, politics, and public policies, as well as in the mechanical intricacies of the printing
trade. Political controversies brought about libel suits, damage suits, and bad blood, with the result that financial
difficulties naturally followed. The venture as a daily newspaper lost a large sum of money for the stockholders,
and in March, 1916, the paper was reduced to a weekly publication. Financial reverses contineud to follow, and
in April, 1916, this writer took over the whole combination and assumed the editorial and business management of
the paper. In August of the same year he bought it outright from the company, organized the Richmond Printing &
Publishing Company, and in January, 1917, resumed daily publication of the paper. That same month it was made the
official paper by the authorities of the city of Richmond, and the Daily News at this writing is again upon a sound
financial and business basis.
It might not be amiss to tell of some of the early experiences of those who came to Richmond and entered into the
newspaper game At the time the Record was launched as a daily it became necessary to discard the hand press and
install a cylinder press. The editor secured an old plant at Nevada City and had it shipped to Richmond. The cylinder
press, which had done duty at the former place for many years, was unpacked from the barley sacks and assembled.
At that time H. B. Kinney had installed a small electric light plant in the city, but the concern did not operate
in the daytime. It became necessary to rig up levers on the big press, and in this manner the paper was issued
regularly until the town grew large enough to justify a day electric service.
At one time a pugilist came over from San Francisco to fight a local pug, and he was induced to do his three weeks'
training in the Record office. He was a godsend for the Record force during the three weeks that he sweat and grunted
grinding out the daily edition of the paper. It may be needless to add that the pugilist who so kindly served the
Record force was knocked out in the third round by his antagonist.
The tribulations of the Record force in the early days of the town were many. The failure of the "ghost to
walk" was a trivial matter compared to the work of getting out the paper with two feet of water in the shop
during rainy weather. The Record had moved into its own building, now the Bank of Richmond, and the paper was published
in the basement. The water was in the habit of coming in in torrents whenever it rained, and in those years it
used to rain every day throughout the winter. The mechanical force was divided into shifts and the office was bailed
out with buckets. The editor provided rubber boots for the printers, and the paper never missed an issue. The main
trouble was in keeping the water down below the level of the bed of the press. Two lady compositors, who set the
type by hand, were carried by the men on the force to their stools, where they perched above the water and waves
beneath them. After a while the Record became more prosperous, and a gasoline engine was purchased. This proved
to be less reliable than the pugilist who so faithfully ground out the few hundreds of copies of the paper. The
engine used to have a habit of going on a strike occasionally, when the hand process of issuing the paper was again
resorted to.
At the time Doctor Brown published the initial issue of his paper he had no press and secured the loan of the Record
machinery. He had his forms made up in Santa Fe and hauled over to the Record shop at the Point. The man who undertook
the contract of delivering the forms did not know what a delicate job he had on his hands, and proceeded to handle
the type pages as he would sacks of coal. The result was that the Times did not issue that week. The forms were
"pied" in the street on Washington Avenue, and Doctor Brown secured some sieves and recovered his type
from the fourteen inches of dust.
The journalistic history of Richmond is interesting and contains much of the strenuosity and characteristics of
the upbuilding of the city in all other lines of endeavor. There are now three daily newspapers representing fairly
well a little city of the size and capabilities of Richmond - the Record Herald 'and the Independent in the evening
field, and the Daily News in the morning field, with the Terminal, a weekly publication, also in a state of more
or less active journalistic eruption and it is to the credit of the city of Richmond that this number of publications
can obtain support sufficient to maintain them in a creditable amount of excellency.
MANUFACTURING AND PAYROLL
The following is a partial list of industries now in operation in Richmond and their monthly payroll. From this
list many small industries are omitted.
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Manufactory
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Investment
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payroll
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Standard Oil Company
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$15,000,000
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$200000
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Pullman Car Shops
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2,000,000
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75,000
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California Wine Association
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$3,500,000
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15,000
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S. F.-Oakland Terminal Railway
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2,500,000
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20,000
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Healy-Tibbitts Co.
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150,000
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4,000
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S. F. Quarries Co.
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200,000
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4,500
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Santa Fe Railway
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4,000,000
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75,000
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Southern Pacific Co
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1,500,000
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10,000
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Metropolitan Match Co
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1,000,000
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2,500
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Pacific Gas & Elec. Co.
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500,000
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3,000
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Western States Gas & Elec. Co
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750,000
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4,000
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East Bay Water Company
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1,000,000
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3,000
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Other water companies
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100,000
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1,000
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Great Western Power Co.
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50,000
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500
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California Cap Co.
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200,000
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7,500
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Richmond Pressed Brick Works
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200,000
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2,500
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Western Pipe & Steel Co
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1,000,000
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5,000
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Tilden Lumber Co.
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100,000
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2,000
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Stege Lumber & Hardware Co
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25,000
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1,500
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Pacific Porcelain Ware Co. (three plants)
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500,000
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6,000
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Richmond Belt Line Rail
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100,000
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1,000
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Santa Fe Foundry Co.
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50,000
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1,500
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Richmond Navigation Co.
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25,000
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1,000
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Ludewig Markets
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100,000
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1,500
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General Roofing Company
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500,000
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40,0000
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Richmond Knitting'Factory
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100,000
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Capital Art Metal Works
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100,000
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Sundry factories
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200,000
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30,000
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MYSTERY OF THE SHELL MOUNDS
The many and extensive shell deposits, or "Indian mounds," existing all along the Gulf and Pacific
Coast have greatly excited the curiosity of people newly arrived in the country, and especially those of an educational
turn of mind. The reason for the existence of such mounds 1,000een sought for without much satisfaction. The theory
most generally accepted is that the Indian tribr spent their winters on the seashore, subsisting chiefly on Knitting
Factory, and the shell banks remain as monuments of age long appetite for crustaceans.
Probably the greatest shell mound on the Pacific Coast is at Richmond, and it has attracted much attention and
curiosity for many years. Now it is to be entirely removed to make room for modern improvements along the bay shore,
where great activity in the way of shipping interests is confidently expected before long.
Researches were made in this gigantic mound from 1906 to 1908 by direction of the University of California, and
146 skeletons were found and taken out. Professor Nelson of the university gave an opinion at the time that the
big Richmond mound was the official burying place of prehistoric men. He estimated that there were over 630 specimens
of implements, weapons, and ornaments found in the mound by excavation, consisting of spear points, pottery, charm
stones, shell jewelry, mortars and pestles, bowls, needles, and similar articles made of stone, bone, shell, and
baked clay; also curious whistles were found, made of bird bones.
STANDARD OIL COMPANY'S REFINERY
A new town was virtually put on the map when the Standard Oil Company established its Richmond Refinery. When
the company broke ground for its plant in 1901 Richmond was a little community of scarcely two hundred people.
Today it is a thriving city of twenty three thousand inhabitants.
The steady, normal development of a great manufacturing plant to the point where this refinery is today employing
twenty seven hundred people, with a monthly payroll of two hundred and sixty thousand dollars, could not but act
as a great stimulus to any community. But the benefits and the influence of the Richmond Refinery are not to be
measured by the development of any one town. Rather, might the plant and the industry it represents be designated
as one of the important factors in the recent development of the entire Pacific Coast.
The establishment of the Richmond Refinery was one of the biggest single boosts to manufacturing and home industry
in the history of California - possibly the biggest. And this because it provided what was so badly needed - a
means whereby a larger percentage of the output of the California petroleum fields could be placed on the market
at its full worth, as refined products instead of as crude oil. To the advantage of both consumer and producer,
its benefits extend the length of the western coasts of two continents, from Nome to Cape Horn; also into Oriental
countries. Wherever petroleum products are now marketed on the Pacific Coast, they are not Eastern products, but
the output of our own California fields.
"But just what is an oil refinery?" some of our readers have asked us. "How do you refine oil, and
what do you manufacture at Richmond?"
Briefly, crude oil is a complex mineral compound, and it is the work of a refinery to break up this crude material
into its constituent parts - clarify and treat them, and manufacture them into finished products ready for the
public's use. The plant at Richmond is one of the largest refineries in the world, and manufactures practically
all the main products obtainable from crude oil. The detailed, technical processes by which they are obtained can
only be hinted at here.
If you are familiar with Civil War history, you will perhaps recall the story of the resourceful "Johnny Reb,"
prisoner of war. To vary the monotony of confinement and to cater to his appetite for spirituous liquor, he built
a miniature still out of a coffee pot. Having filled this with corn bread and water, he put it over a hot fire,
and as the vapors came off caught them in an improvised condenser - an old can soldered to the top of the pot.
Primitive and miniature as was this improvised still, it is illustrative of one of the main processes of oil refining
- the process of distillation - which in essentials is the same whether carried on in a coffee pot or in a great
battery of thousand barrel stills. Beyond this the refining process is complex and technical - suitable only for
scientific discussion.
Despite this fact, an oil refinery is by no means an uninteresting place to the layman. From point of size alone,
Richmond is somewhat impressive, covering as it does a territory of 788 acres, or 1.225 square miles.
The raw material, or crude oil, for this Refinery City is supplied from the "Tank Farm" at San Pablo,
five miles distant. San Pablo is the terminus of the 330 mile pipe line from the California oil fields, and the
oil which is stored here in great tanks - holding an aggregate of four and a half million barrels is run down to
Richmond by gravity as needed.
The selection of the correct crude oil for the particular product to be manufactured is an important consideration,
for all Standard illuminating and lubricating oils and other products are made from selected crudes. If asphaltum
for roofing or paving materials is to be made, a crude oil shown by test to be best suited for this purpose is
selected. In the same way, by rigid tests, crude oils are chosen for the manufacture of Pearl oil, Red Crown gasoline,
Zerolene, and other products. A stock especially suited for one product may almost entirely lack the essentials
that go to make others, and the laboratory experts who determine these things, and who later, after exhaustive
tests, give a refined product its clearance papers, conduct their work with the greatest possible care.
And this Refinery City, to which the crude oil comes, is not merely big - it is busy; busy night and day, week
in and week out, Sundays and holidays, from January 1st to December 31st, distilling, treating, filtering, testing
- with frequent shifts of men so that none of the work is slighted, no one overworked.
Directed by executives of long experience; manned by expert chemists, superintendents, and other men of scientific
as well as practical training; provided with a physical equipment thoroughly modern and second to none in the world,
Richmond Refinery is in a position to maintain with efficiency this intensive pace of manufacture. One hundred
and forty one big stills, with a total charging capacity of 6o,000 barrels; adequate condensers and receiving houses;
fifty five agitators (which "look like giant truffles," as one visitor put it)!; four hundred and seventy
six storage tanks; an engine house capable of developing twenty four thousand horse power; an acid plant manufacturing
two hundred and sixty five thousand pounds of sulphuric acid daily; a grease plant; an asphaltum plant; a can factory,
with a capacity of 25,000 five gallon cans a day; a cooperage or barrel works; a machine shop; a tank car repair
shop, and several pump houses, are some of the main divisions of the refinery's equipment. And interconnecting
the entire plant, making it a manufacturing plant, runs a maze of pipe lines 360 miles in all - through which are
handled the crude and many of the refined oils, as well as the steam, air, fresh and salt water used in their manufacture
and in the hospital.
In addition to its manufacturing facilities, Richmond is admirably equipped for the prompt and economical loading
of its products for distribution to the consumer. Pipe lines leading directly to the railroad yards are run along
the "loading racks" beside the tracks, and from these refined oils, gasoline, and other products are
run into the big railroad tank cars with which every one is familiar. The extensive loading racks permit fifty
cars to be filled at one time. All barrel and case goods are loaded into box cars direct from the warehouse platforms.
Of greater interest, perhaps, are the refinery's facilities for discharging its products by sea. A short distance
from the refinery, extending almost a mile out into the bay, is the Richmond pier where Standard Oil Company tankers
take on fluid cargoes for bulk distribution to its main distributing stations on the Pacific Coast, and to inland
points reached by light draft steamers that ply on the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers. At Point Orient, about
five miles distant from the refinery, an ideal shipping point because of the deep water and protected location,
the company has another pier, storage tanks, and docks. Products are pumped from the refinery to the storage tanks
and then run by gravity down to the dock and into the tankers and other vessels for shipment to the Orient and
Central and South American ports. During the present year shipments bound for New York have also cleared from this
dock, for the superiority of California asphaltum has brought about a fast increasing demand for this product in
the East.
Such is the Richmond Refinery, the company's largest manufacturing plant. Its development from small beginnings
to its present size has been healthy, logical, and in entire accord with the demands of the market for refined
products, and with the development of the company's crude product and that of the producers from whom it purchases
oils. The first stills were completed and fired at Richmond on July 2, 1902. At that time but eighty men were employed
at the refinery, and during the first months they refined only 780 barrels of crude oil a day. Since its beginning
construction work at Richmond has never ceased, and today twenty seven hundred men are required to operate the
plant which is refining on an average 6o,000 barrels of crude oil daily.
The refinery is still growing and will continue to grow, healthily and logically, as it has in the past. As the
demand for its product increases, so will the capacity of the refinery be increased to meet that demand just as
El Segundo, and the company's newest refinery at Bakersfield, were built to supply the increasing southern trade
of California and adjoining States. And always will every care he taken, every known means be employed, to make
Standard products everything that their name implies uniform products of the highest quality and reliability.
STEGE
Stege is situated near the southern boundary of Contra Costa County, not far from the Alameda County boundary
line, in direct communication with both Oakland and Richmond. This community is rapidly forging ahead. Located
here are'the California Cap Works, the United States Briquette Company, the Stauffer Chemical Works, and the Stege
Lumber Manufacturing Company.
Return to part 1.
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