Benicia ca, the Yuba.
Benicia history will always have the Yuba Mfg. Co buildings as just a memory. In 1853 Benicia became California's third state capitol. That same year the first foundry was built in Benicia, that was the foundry of the Pacific Mail Steamship Company (the building at 701 East H. St. we bought and turned into a art gallery) which became Baker & Hamilton's Benicia Agricultural Works in 1879. Baker & Hamilton produced a wide variety of tools and farm equipment that became well known for their excellence by the ranchers and farmers of early west.
Since this was before the machine age, the fine quality of these products was largely due to the skill of the craftsmen that worked there. In the early 1900's the Benicia Agricultural Works was acquired by Yuba Industries which specialized in large metal products, such as dredging and mining equipment. Yuba also manufactured the giant spillway gates for the Hoover Dam and during World War II manufactured 155mm Howitzer cannons.
I was lucky enough to be driving Downtown Benicia one day when I saw some large equiptment driving in and stopped to ask what was going on. The driver of one of the tractors told me they were going to demolish the Yuba in the next couple weeks. I drove home and got my camera and spent the next 11 days taking thousands of pictures. Within 2 weeks allmost every building had been destroyed along with the history of Benicia. One by one the buildings came down and then they were piled up and taken away. It seems like such a shame that history can take hundreds of years to build and in two weeks be wiped off the face of the earth....
Earl Miller Benicia Real Estate 707-280-6366
Coldwell Banker Solano Pacific www.earlsbeniciarealestate.com
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