Timeline

Hiram Penniman begins building home on Shadelands Ranch.

Old Broadway Tunnel opens, connecting Contra Costa and Alameda counties.
Joseph Silveira opens Valley Mercantile on Main Street, offering first banking services.

San Ramon Valley bank becomes first financial institution.

First electric power lines installed.
Stow Building constructed on Main Street, becoming first building in town to be wired for electricity.
Oakland, Antioch & Eastern Electric Railway Bay Point to Walnut Creek line completed.
Lawrence brothers take over Walnut Creek Meat Market.

Contra Costa Courier Journal, town’s third newspaper, launched.
Womens’s Improvement Club (town’s first service group) organized.
Central School District renamed Walnut Creek School District.
Grape Carnival held.

New Walnut Creek School built on site of Central Grammar School.
The Businessmen’s Association organized, the town’s second service organization.

First National Bank opened.

Population: 500.
Incorporation approved by Walnut Creek voters; village becomes 8th city of Contra Costa County.
Harry Spencer elected first president (mayor) of Board of Trustees.

Carnegie Library opens at Main and East (now Giammona) Streets on land donated by Robert Noble Burgess with a grant from the Carnegie Library Foundation.

First sewer installed on Main Street.
First water meters installed as city moves away from reliance on wells.

Population: 538
First movie theater, the Ramona, opens.
Standard Oil opens town’s first service station.

Walnut Growers Association opens 26,000-square-foot walnut processing plant on Walnut Avenue (Civic Drive) next to railroad tracks.

Town Council authorizes establishment of volunteer fire department.
Main Street is paved.

Illuminated Walnut Creek sign installed across Main Street.
Rogers Hotel is sold and renamed Ala Costa Inn.

Veterans Memorial building dedicated at Locust and Lafayette streets (now Mt. Diablo Boulevard).
Walnut Creek Cannery opens on Main Street (current site of Target store).
City limits expanded.

Population: 800
Chamber of Commerce formed.
County forms Central Fire Protection District and opens first fire station on Bonanza Street.

Stop signs installed at all intersections along Main and Bonanza Streets.

Theodore Berling hired as first police chief.
City buys water plant.
Board of Trustees becomes Town Council.

Town Council becomes City Council.

Population: 1,014
Ramona Theater shows its first “talking” picture.

The Walnut Kernel, town’s fourth newspaper, launched.
Eva Leech, wife of Dr. Claude Leech, becomes first woman to serve on City Council.

Professional & Business Women’s Club formed.

Ramona Theater changes owners and is renamed Walnut Creek Theater.

First Walnut Festival and parade held on Locust Street.

Women’s Club clubhouse built on Lincoln Avenue.
El Rey Theater opens.
Water and sewer systems modernized.

Acalanes High School opens.
Lommel’s Creamery opens at Main Street and Ygnacio Ave. (Civic Dr.)
St. Mary’s Church on Mt. Diablo Blvd. opens.

Population: 1,578
Dial telephone service replaces operator-assisted service.

Newell home at corner of South Main Street and Newell Avenue is converted to Art and Garden Center, town’s first cultural destination.
Passenger service ends on Sacramento Northern electric railway.

St. Paul’s Episcopal Mission becomes a parish church.
Greyhound Bus Lines puts bus stop at Lommel’s Creamery.

Liquor store owner Chet Arthur remodels old Sherburne building.

Central Contra Costa Sanitary District forms to provide modern sewer services.
First city half-cent sales tax implemented.

Population: 2,201
Post Office moves to East Street.
Dean Lesher buys the Courier-Journal.
First parking meters installed downtown.

El Curtola Hotel (Rogers Hotel) changes name to Las Palmas Hotel.
Walnut Creek officially changes from a “town” to a “city.”
House-to-house postal service begins.
First traffic lights installed on Main Street.

29 street names changed in city.

Buena Vista and Parkmead schools open.

City Park (now Civic Park) – the City’s first – opens on the grounds of the old sewer farm.

Population: 2,240
Suburban bus line started by local merchants.
Elks Lodge organized.
St. Paul’s Episcopal church moves to Trinity Avenue.

Broadway Shopping Center opens with 38 stores and 1,500 parking spaces.
Post Office moves to Locust Street.
New City Hall opens.
Soroptimists of Walnut Creek is formed.
Las Lomas High School and Walnut Heights Elementary School open.
Walnut Festival Association opens teen center in Civic Park (now Clay Arts Studio).
American Red Cross is first to occupy building that later becomes Park Place.

Courier-Journal renamed Contra Costa Times.
Former Hiram Penniman house opens as Shadelands School for cerebral palsied children.

Kaiser Foundation Hospital opens at South Main and Newell.

Walnut Creek Intermediate School opens.
Downtown flooded by severe winter storms.
Eichler Company begins first major residential subdivision in Ygnacio Valley on former orchard tract.

City hires Ira Gunn, first city manager.
City annexes Larkey area.
Walnut Acres and Murwood schools open.

Work begins on I-680 freeway.
To ease traffic congestion, Broadway is built with extensions of Cypress and Mt. Diablo Blvd. connecting it to the rest of downtown.
Walnut Creek Grammar School closed and demolished.

Downtown flooded.
Indian Valley School opens.

Las Palmas (Rogers) Hotel razed.
Del Valle High School opens.
New fire station built on Ygnacio Avenue (now Civic Drive) to replace original firehouse.

Population: 9,903
I-680/Highway 24 interchange opens, and Main Street no longer serves as a highway.

Walnut Creek Library opens at 1644 N. Broadway.

Diablo Junior Museum renamed for the late Alexander Lindsay, a Walnut Creek Schools trustee.
Ygnacio Valley Road widened to four lanes.

Civic Arts Department established.

Rossmoor Leisure World sells 111 units on its first day.
Last train travels on Sacramento Northern line.

Alexander Lindsay Jr. Museum moves to EBMUD pump house in Larkey Park.
John Muir Memorial Hospital opens on 10-acre site across from Heather Farm.
City acquires abandoned Walnut Growers Association walnut warehouse and converts it to Civic Arts Theatre and Gallery.

Valley Verde School opens.

Walnut Creek Historical society holds first meeting.
City finances construction of California Boulevard along abandoned railroad right of way.

Bancroft School opens.

Boundary Oak Golf Course opens.
Post Office moves to North Broadway.
Festival Cinema, first multiplex movie house, opens.

Population: 39,844
City opens Heather Farm Park.
Howe Homestead Park established.

Clarke Memorial Swim Center opens in Heather Farm Park.
Walnut Creek Historical Society opens Hiram Penniman’s 1903 family home as the Shadelands Ranch Historical Museum on property deeded to the City.

Southern Pacific railroad station moved 100 feet south on Broadway and converted to restaurant.

BART arrives in Walnut Creek.

Voters approve $6.75 million open space bond.
Northgate High School opens.
Greyhound Bus Lines closes bus stop when Lommel’s Creamery closes.

Ygnacio Valley (Thurman G. Casey Memorial) Library opens.

President Ford visits Walnut Creek and dedicates Liberty Bell Plaza as a war memorial to commemorate nation’s bicentennial.

Population: 54,410
First of several high-rise office buildings to become known as The Golden Triangle constructed across from BART station.

Old Borges Ranch listed on National Register of Historic Places.
New City Hall opens on Main Street, replacing the original 1951 building on Civic Drive.

Macerich Company acquires the 34-year-old Broadway Shopping Center, renames it Broadway Plaza, and gives it a multimillion-dollar makeover.
Hiram Penniman House listed on National Register of Historic Places.
In response to rapid commercial development and traffic congestion, voters approve Measures A and H, two growth-control measures to limit building heights and large commercial development.

Civic Park gazebo built.
City forms Sister City ties with Noceto, Italy.
Demonstration gardens open at Heather Farm Garden Center, built in 1983.

Civic Arts Theatre (Nuthouse) razed to build new performing and visual arts center.

Caltrans begins work to rebuild I-680.

Population: 60,743
Regional (Lesher) Center for the Arts opens.
Siofok, Hungary, becomes Walnut Creek’s second sister city.

Lawrence Way bypass opens to divert freeway-bound traffic off North Main Street.
Arbolado Park opens.

New Lindsay Wildlife Museum opens.

City pays $6 million for 221 acres of open space along Lime Ridge.
South Locust Street garage is built.

The South Broadway extension, a one-mile roadway that eases congestion at South Main Street and Newell Avenue, opens.

Walden Park opens.

Broadway Pointe, a new retail center in the heart of downtown, opens at the old Bank of America site, revitalizing an economically dormant block and the historic retail district north of Mt. Diablo Boulevard.
Liberty Bell Plaza is redesigned to include a new fountain and trees.
The Iron Horse Trail overcrossing of Ygnacio Valley Road opens.
Tice Valley Gym opens.

Construction of updated I-680/24 interchange completed.

Population: 64,296
Tice Valley sports field opens.

New sports fields at Heather Farm Park open.
Civic Arts Education – the largest such program in northern California – moves to Shadelands Arts Campus, the former Contra Costa Realtors offices in the Shadelands Business Park.

City Hall expansion completed.
Plaza Escuela retail center opens on site of original Walnut Creek grammar school.

Alma Park opens.
Two downtown retail centers open: Olympia Place, with Century 14 theaters, and The Corners.

On Memorial Day, the City dedicates Veterans Memorial Plaza next to City Hall, a park-like monument to the sacrifices of local veterans.
Final payment made on original $6.75 million bond, approved by voters in 1974, which funded city’s open space lands.

City opens Skate Park in Heather Farm Park.
Walnut Creek on Ice, seasonal ice rink, debuts in Civic Park.
Central Concrete Supply Company on North Main Street – city’s last industrial enterprise – closes.

In partnership with County Connection, City creates the Free Ride Trolley, which carries riders between the BART station through downtown and to Broadway Plaza.
Old Veterans Memorial building on Locust Street razed to be replaced by new building in Lafayette that serves veterans from both cities.

City opens off-leash Dog Park in Heather Farm Park.
Lar Rieu Four Winds Park dedicated.
Inaugural Chevron Family Theatre Festival held at Lesher Center for the Arts.

After more than 45 years, Walnut Creek Library razed to construct new library.

Voters approve Measure I – with a 72{af0148502216e0c653b80019e0f24e302afb7566027c2e8652900f94d085210f} “yes” – which allows Broadway Plaza to expand to add a Neiman Marcus department store.

Population: 64,173
New Walnut Creek Library opens.
Lesher Center for the Arts celebrates its 20th Birthday.

Open space expanded to include 22-acre Acalanes Ridge, in partnership with City of Lafayette, EB Regional Park District, and Muir Heritage Land Trust.
City sponsors first Community Service Day, drawing more than 1,000 volunteers to help 42 different community projects.
John Muir Medical Center-Walnut Creek celebrates the opening of its new facilities.
New Creek Walk in Civic Park opens.

Walnut Creek Rotary celebrates 75th Anniversary.
BART and developers receive approvals for Walnut Creek Transit Village, a mixed-use community planned at the Walnut Creek BART station.

Robert Stanley Dollar House (Rossmoor) listed on National Register of Historic Places.

Community celebrates the city’s Centennial year with more than 150 community-sponsored events and activities.
City opens all-abilities playground at Heather Farm Park with funding collaboration from Contra Costa County, East Bay Regional Park District, and Walnut Creek Civic Pride Foundation.
Broadway Plaza begins multi-year renovation project.
Centennial Grove dedicated at Heather Farm Park.
To protect the environment, City adopts more stringent smoking regulations and single-use plastic bag and Styrofoam restrictions.

Lesher Center for the Arts celebrates 25th Anniversary.