Encyclopedia
Fremont is a city in
California which was incorporated on January 23, 1956, from the merger of five smaller communities: Centerville, Irvington, Mission San Jose, Niles, and Warm Springs. The area now comprising Fremont and the adjoining cities of
Newark and
Union City was formerly known as
Washington Township. Fremont is located in the southeast area of the
San Francisco Bay Area in
Alameda County. The city is named after John Charles Frémont, "the Great Pathfinder."
Home to 210,158 people as of a 2005 estimate, Fremont is the fourth most populous city in the Bay Area. Due in large measure to immigration by refugees fleeing the Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan, Afghan Civil War, and small amounts during the Taliban government during the late 1980s and 1990s, Fremont had the largest
Afghan population in the
United States in 2001 and still has a large Afghan population today. The diverse city demographics includes many Asian ethnic groups, including Indians, Chinese, Taiwanese, and other Asian groups, concentrated most heavily in the Mission San Jose District.
Fremont is the
sister city to
Elizabeth, South Australia and Fukaya, Saitama in Japan.
Fremont is also the name of the fictional, unrelated California town portrayed by the
cable television drama "
Wildfire."
Geography
Fremont is located at .
According to the
United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 225.6 km² . 198.6 km² of it is land and 27.0 km² of it is water.
Demographics
As of the
census of 2000, there were 203,413 people, 68,237 households, and 52,201 families residing in the city. The
population density was 1,024.1/km² . There were 69,452 housing units at an average density of 349.7/km² . The
racial makeup of the city is 47.67%
White, 36.95% Asian, 3.10%
Black or
African American, 0.52% Native American, 0.40% Pacific Islander, 5.52% from
other races, and 5.84% from two or more races. 13.47% of the population were
Hispanic or Latino of any race. Fremont is the home to the largest concentration of Afghans in the United States.
There were 68,237 households out of which 40.2% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 62.7% were married couples living together, 9.2% had a female householder with no husband present, and 23.5% were non-families. 16.5% of all households were made up of individuals and 4.1% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.96 and the average family size was 3.34.
In the city the population was spread out with 25.8% under the age of 18, 7.7% from 18 to 24, 36.8% from 25 to 44, 21.4% from 45 to 64, and 8.3% who are 65 years of age or older. The
median age is 34 years. For every 100 females there were 101.1 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 99.2 males.
The median income for a household in the city is $76,579, and the median income for a family was $82,199. Males have a median household income of $59,274 versus $40,625 for females. The per capita income for the city was $31,411. About 3.6% of families and 5.4% of the population were below the
poverty line, including 5.9% of those under age 18 and 6.2% of those age 65 or over.
Education
Fremont has a community college, Ohlone College, and five public high schools: Washington,
Mission San Jose, Irvington,
American and Kennedy. These five high schools, along with
James Logan High School in
Union City and Newark Memorial High School in
Newark, make up the Mission Valley Athletic League . The
University of California, Berkeley has an extension campus located in Fremont, and Northwestern Polytechnic University and
DeVry University, two private universities, offer undergraduate, graduate and doctoral programs in technology and management areas. Silicon Valley College provides high-tech associate degree programs, and the city is also home to Northern California's School for the Deaf and School for the Blind.
History
The recorded history of the Fremont area began on June 9, 1797 when
Mission San José was founded by the Spaniard Father Fermin de Lasuen. The Mission was established at the site of the Ohlone native village of Oroysom. On their second day in the area, the Mission party killed a
grizzly bear in Niles Canyon. The first English-speaking visitor to Fremont was the renowned trapper and explorer
Jedediah Smith in 1827. The Mission prospered, eventually reaching a population of 1,886 inhabitants in 1831. The influence of the missionaries declined after 1834, when the Mexican government enacted secularization.
The family of Don José de Jesus Vallejo, brother of Mariano Vallejo, was the most influential in Fremont in the late colonial era. His family owned a large rancho and built a flour mill at the mouth of Niles Canyon. In 1846 they were visited and robbed by the town's namesake
John C. Frémont. Fremont grew rapidly at the time of the
Gold Rush. Agriculture dominated the economy with grapes, nursery plants and olives as leading crops. In 1868 a magnitude 6.8 earthquake on the
Hayward Fault collapsed buildings throughout Fremont, ruining Mission San José and its outbuildings. Until the
1906 San Francisco earthquake caused its destruction, Fremont's Palmdale Winery was the largest in California. The ruins of the Palmdale Winery are still visible near the Five Corners in Irvington.
From 1912-1916 the Niles section of Fremont was the earliest home of California's motion picture industry.
Charlie Chaplin filmed several movies in Fremont, most notably "The Tramp." Fremont was incorporated in 1956, when five towns in the area came together to form a city. Fremont became more industrialized in the
1950s and
1960s when a large
General Motors assembly plant was constructed. A boom in high-tech employment in the
1980s and
1990s, especially in the Warm Springs District, caused rapid development in the city.
Constituent towns
Centerville, Irvington, Mission San Jose, Niles, and Warm Springs make up the five former independent towns which once formed Washington Township. Today, these places are no longer separate communities and are usually considered districts of the city of Fremont. The town of
Newark declined to join Fremont, and is now an
enclave.
Centerville
Centerville was perhaps the main town in
Washington Township. The area is served by two high schools, American High School and Washington High School. It also has two junior high schools, Thornton Junior High School and Centerville Junior High School.
Centerville includes all of North and most of Central Fremont.
Centerville is the focal point of a sizeable
Afghan community, and the area is informally known in some circles as . The best-selling novel The
Kite Runner was based partly in Fremont's Afghan community. A
99 Ranch Market is one of many East Asian businesses in the area.
Irvington
Irvington is centered on the intersection of Fremont Blvd. and Washington Blvd. Irvington has many antique shops and restaurants, many of which were established in the late 1800s. The neighborhood was named after
Irvington, New Jersey, the birthplace of a local railroad executive at the time. The neighborhood is ethnically mixed and is primarily working class. The local high schools are Irvington High School, Robertson High School and John F. Kennedy High School. The Irvington district has two main neighborhoods: Irvington Woods and the Irvington Square.
Mission San Jose
Nestled at the base of Fremont's rolling hills is the
Mission San José, one of the oldest of the historic California Missions. However, the church building is actually a re-construction of the original mission church . One side of the original misison quadrangle remains and houses a museum.
Mission San Jose has the highest concentration of
Asian Americans in Fremont - over 50% of the population as of the 2000 census. The local high school is
Mission San Jose High School. The median family income for the Mission San Jose area exceeded $114,595 in 2005. Owing to an influx of professionals and other affluent families seeking access to the top-performing local public schools, Mission San Jose's median home value reached $760,000 in 2006, earning the community a rank of 309 on
Forbes magazine's list of the 500 most affluent communities in the United States.
In 2001 an attempt by community organizations in the Mission San Jose district to withdraw from the Fremont Unified School District caused state-wide controversy and led to accusations of racism from both sides. The attempt was prompted by a re-drawing of the school enrollment areas, under which some MSJ residents would send their children to Horner Junior High and Irvington High schools. The controversial effort to secede was dropped later that year. Fremont's public schools continue to rank among the best in California.
Fremont's community college, Ohlone College, is situated one block away from the Mission and serves over 12,000 students.
Niles
Unlike most cities in the Bay Area, Niles retains a small town feel anchored by a tight-knit community. Geography partly explains the community's cohesion; in addition to sitting against the base of Fremont's hills, the town is physically divided from other parts of Fremont and neighboring Union City by Mission Boulevard to the east and north, Alameda Creek to the south,
Union Pacific railroads to the west and southeast, and the Quarry Lakes to the southwest. Old Town Niles features its own library, post office, and silent movie theater as well as a large number of antique and craft stores. The town is named after Addison Niles.
Niles was the home of one of the first West Coast motion picture companies,
Essanay Studios.
Charlie Chaplin and
Bronco Billy Anderson filmed some of their most famous silent movies in Niles. Scenic Niles Canyon stretches between Niles and
Sunol. The nonprofit offers both artifacts of Niles' early years, and each Saturday evening, screenings of early-twentieth-century silent films, many of which were filmed locally.
The Niles Canyon Railway runs along Alameda Creek, and carries passengers on weekend excursions, including a holiday 'train of lights' which is extremely popular - tickets for these trains typically sell out by early October. The Niles Canyon Railroad has a small but well-maintained collection of historic rail stock.
Of special note is the annual antique fair and
flea market which takes place on the last Sunday in August. The entire town turns out with things to sell as early as Saturday morning, with bargain hunters from the Bay Area and beyond visiting in search of bargains. Niles is also home to the Fremont
Gurdwara, which serves the large
Indian American Sikh community of Fremont. For more information on Niles, please visit .
Warm Springs
The Warm Springs district is the southernmost portion of Fremont whose hub is the Warm Spring and Mission Boulevard intersection. Due to its proximity to the center of Silicon Valley, Warm Springs has attracted the headquarters of many high-tech companies including Nielsen Norman Group,
Corsair Memory and
Lexar of the US as well as foreign high-tech companies such as
Elitegroup Computer Systems,
Asus and
Abit. The district is also home to blue-collar industry. NUMMI, a joint automobile manufacturing plant for
General Motors and
Toyota is the city's largest employer.
Warm Springs also serves as commercial center for the mainly residential Mission San Jose district. The large Asian population in Mission San Jose comes to Warm Springs for authentic Asian stores such as the Lion Supermarket and the Little Taipei shopping center, as well as more traditional supermarkets such as
Safeway Inc.People
Actress
Julie Pinson was born in Fremont. Olympic skater
Kristi Yamaguchi grew up in Fremont as did
Baseball Hall of Fame pitcher Dennis Eckersley .
Rap star and Christian minister M.C. Hammer lived in Fremont during his prime as a music legend, during which his "
U Can't Touch This" and "
Too Legit to Quit" were very large
pop-music hits. On the other end of hip-hop's political spectrum,
Emcee Lynx grew up in the Irvington district of Fremont.
External links
Orientation
Business
Information pages
Community
- - City of Fremont's teen newspaper
- - City of Fremont information directory
