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CONTENTS ~j MAIN STREET AND two stories. '~ classic small-town appearance of the street was so evocative ITS HISTORIC of rural ,~erican ~ifa that it was used as In[reduction 2 a backdrop in several feature movies (most 1. Main Street and lts Historic ARCHITECTURE 1%tl~l.y Rebaeea of su~y Brook ~a~ in Architecture 2 2. The Downtown Revitalization The first record of planned improvements District 3 Pleasanton's Main Street began as a on Main Street is found in the activities portion of the main stage road that headed of the Pleasanton Women's Improvement 3. Design Guidelines 4 north from Niles, through Sunol to Dublin, Club, established in 1908- The club began Materials, Finishes and Colors 4 and beyond. The alignment of the road planting trees along bIain Street in 1909, through central Pleasanton was perhaps the and raised $1100 to purchase the site of BuffdinS Projections and Side- earliest definer of the form that the town the old City Hall. It was this club that bud the Pleaseaton sign installed over walk Coverings 5 ultimately would take. Main Street in 1932. Signing and Illurninc~ion 6 The landholdings of John Kottinger and ,Major public improvements included the (DlltdOOF SDCICes 7 Joshua Neal abutted the stage road. construction of the handsome and well K~ttinger subdivided a small segment of sited City Hall in 1914 (on the lot New Consfrucfion 8 his land in 1863, creating three lots on Firsf Sfreet and Pe~ersAvenLle the west side of .~[ain Street, occupied by donated by the Women's Improvement Club), blacksmith shop, carpenter's shop and a and the paving of the street in 1923- It Corridors 9 Soctor's residence. Neal began subdivid- is not certain whether ornamental street- lights were ever installed on Main Street Conversion of Residential ins his property in 1868. When both men (with the exception of a pair of fluted Properties to Office Use 10 undertook extensive subdividing in 1869 post-top standards which originally (with the arrival of the railroad), the flanked the walkway to the old City Hall). parcelization and block divisions of Main The existing streetlights were installed Street were established- The awkward jogs in 1968. INTRODUCTION in several streets as they cross Main Street is explained by the differing plats Main Street largely retained a coherence In October, 1983, the Pleasanton Chamber laid out by the two men. of scale and feeling through World War II- of Conmerce contracted with Page, Anderson Buildings in new styles replaced older & Turnbull, Inc., to provide design Main Street in the 19th and early 20th structures, old buildings were remodeled, services and implementation measures for centuries was an unpaved road lined and new buildings were built on vacant revitalization of Downtown Pleasanton- loosely with conmercial structures from parcels- Since the 1950's, insensitive The principal products to result from Abbie Street on the south to the Arroyo remodellugs have diminished the visual these services consist of: 1) a Valle on the north- Residences were continuity of ,~Iain Street, and new windshield survey to identify Downtown' s interspersed with the commercial construction has replaced major historical historic and architectural resources; 2) a buildings. The first school and post landmarks- Generally, however, Downtown Overlay District to implement office were on Main Street, and in 1914 Pleasantoa's Main Street retains the specific site development and design the City Hall was built at the northwest scale, texture and feeling of its measures; and 3) Design Guidelines to corner of .~in Street and Division Street. traditional form. provide direct assistance to property For the most part, however, Main Street owners, merchants, designers and others always has been a cormnercial corridor- when making private sector improvements. n~ businesses housed on Main Street Main Sfreef's The Design Guidelines draw heavily upon naturally reflected the needs of the day. findings of the windshield su~ey, General mercantile stores, hotels, ban~, HiSfOriC Archifecfure including the identification of De~ntown livery stables, blacksmith shops, and Pleasanton's distinctive architectural warehouses comprised the bulk of the 19th The historic architecture of ,~t~in Street, styles and building types. The Design century businesses. Livery stables were and of the downtown cross streets within Guidelines also address the major replaced with garages by World War I, and the project area, falls into several opportunities inherent to Downtown chain stores began to replace general distinct categories: Victorian, Mission Pleasanton, such as new construction, use merchandise stores ~n the 1930's. Revival, Parapeted Comnercial, and of outdoor spaces, and the domiru~nt Cq~urches and fraternal halls were situated Mediterranean. ~lnch of these categories character and special quality of brain on cross streets, most notably on the can be further divided into subcategories ' major cross c~xis of Neal Street/Rose by virt~e of composition, use of materials Street- Tbe importance of drawing upon and building type- The most important and enhancing existing pedestrian Avenue, connecting with the Southern amenities, as well as offering retail Pacific train depot (when the Western concentration of historic buildings in downtown Pleasaotoa dates from the late goods and services strongly oriented to Pacific added its line west of Main Street around 1910, the depot was built on Rose 1890's to about 1915, and includes good the pedestrian environment, cannot be Avenue). examples of Victorian and Mission Revival overstated · structores. By World War I, ,%~in Street in Pleasa~ton 1. Victorian (c- 1875 - 1905) had achieved a form and appearance that · was to change little until the 1960's, ]]~e Victorian structures of ,~hain Street Sc, ne blocks were densely developed, with fall into two major subcategories: these buildings abutting one another. Other constructed of wood and those constructed blocks were looser, with detached of brick. Most of the surviving wooden structures. Some were btdlt up to the structures are two stories in height, with sidewalk, others were recesse. d- ]]~e scale storefronts on the ground floor and of the buildings was consistently one and offices or residential units above. Kolln