History of Port Costa

Port Costa has seen days of glory. Square riggers and other ships from Europe, Asia, and Africa crowded the wharves, loading grain from the Central Valley. As you walk the quiet streets now, it is hard to believe that the town once hosted eighteen saloons, a dance hall, and seven hotels swarming with workers from Spain, Portugal, China, and Ireland. During the boom, which lasted from 1883 until after World War I, as many as 3,000 stevedores worked the docks, loading 6 to 8 tall-masted ships a day, while 96 Central Pacific trains made daily runs from Benicia to Port Costa. Giant railroad ferries carried the trains across the Carquinez Strait from Benicia to the roundhouse at Port Costa where they were reassembled and sent to Oakland.

The town was even featured as a setting in Jack London’s John Barleycorn. The photo below could have been a page right out of the book, as one of the group holds a 5-cent bucket full of beer.In 1932, the Sacramento and Stockton channels were opened. Ships bypassed Port Costa to load much closer to the source of cargo. Fruit and walnuts replaced the grain of the valley. Much of these commodities were shipped from Port Costa, but a fire in 1941 brought an end to this trade. Five major fires from 1883 to 1941 closed the business district. All piers, docks, and buildings along the waterfront were destroyed.

In 1910, 40,000 tons of grain went up in smoke. In 1928 the fire loss was $850,000. In 1941 the last fire burned for a week. The commercial buildings left standing were the McNear’s grain warehouse, the Burlington Hotel, G.W. McNear’s sandstone-faced headquarters, a bar and boarding house across the street and the Port Costa Mercantile building. The grain warehouse now houses the Warehouse Cafe and bar. The old “Commercial Hotel” bar and boardinghouse now host Wendy Addison’s Theater of Dreams shop. The Port Costa Mercantile has been transformed into a gift shop and haberdashery. And the 1883 Burlington Hotel still stands next door to the sandstone-faced building, now home to the Bull Valley Roadhouse. In 1982, Time Oil Company donated 83 acres of land to the Port Costa Conservation Society. Since that time, the Society has played a key role in working with the State Coastal Conservancy and East Bay Regional Park District to preserve a large portion of the remaining undeveloped shoreline between Crockett and Martinez. The land, now known as Carquinez Shoreline Park, affords miles of hiking trails and breathtaking views of the Strait.