"Plat of the northern part of the Rancho San Antonio finally confirmed to Vicente & Domingo Peralta"

Attribution:

Unknown artist

Date:

1859

Description:

Rancho San Antonio was the last land grant awarded in California under Spanish rule. Governor Pablo Vicente de Solá granted the land to Luis María Peralta, a sergeant in the Spanish Army for his forty years of service. The grant was quite large—44,800 acres in all—and encompassed the current cities of San Leandro, Oakland, Alameda, Emeryville, Piedmont, Berkeley, and Albany. During the Mexican period land grants were much smaller in size. This map shows an estuary flowing into San Francisco Bay. In 1868, Dr. Samuel Merritt, who owned property on the shore’s edge, proposed and funded a dam to be built between the estuary and the bay which allowed the water level to rise, turning the lagoon into what is now Lake Merritt.

Bib. Reference:

Bancroft call number:

Land Case Map D-224

Digital image courtesy of:

The Bancroft Library