Peralta Adobe plans fundraiser to keep operating

If the East Bay ever had a royal family, it was the Peraltas. They owned everything from El Cerrito to San Leandro, from the Oakland hills to the shores of Alameda.

Today, all that remains of their ranching empire is an Italianate farmhouse on a 6-acre park in East Oakland. And due to the recession, even that's in danger of vanishing.

The Peralta Hacienda, a museum, park and popular education site for schoolkids, has seen 95 percent of its funding vaporize since last year. The city has slashed its contribution from about $180,000 to $50,000, and grants dwindled from $400,000 a year to $10,000.

"Part of me wants to say we will never close," said Holly Alonso, director of Peralta Hacienda. "Personally, I've given my best efforts here for 10 years. But we can't do this without a budget."

The nonprofit group that runs the site has only enough money to keep it open through February. Meanwhile, the few remaining staff members are scrambling for grants and donations, and have organized a Zorro-themed fundraiser for Thursday, a last-ditch effort to keep the national historic landmark open.

Original land grant

The Peralta Hacienda dates from 1820, when Luis Peralta, a Spaniard who had come to California with some of the original missionary expeditions, was granted 43,000 acres in the East Bay as thanks for a long military career.

Luis Peralta settled in the San Jose area, while his four sons took over the land grant and transformed it into a successful cattle and horse enterprise. Their original adobe homes were near Coolidge and Davis streets in what's now the Fruitvale district.

The homes were the first in the East Bay built by non-American Indians, and among the oldest settlements in the Bay Area.

The adobes eventually crumbled, and in 1870, 20 years after Luis Peralta died and California became part of the United States, the sons built the elegant, two-story farmhouse that's remains today.

The fate of the Peraltas didn't live up to the grandeur of their home, however. Disputes among family members and with the government over ownership rights greatly diminished the size of the original ranch.

In addition, as the Bay Area filled with settlers after the Gold Rush, squatters and others moved onto the Peralta land, creating the present-day cities of Oakland, Berkeley, San Leandro, Alameda, Albany, Emeryville and Piedmont.

In 1906, the Peraltas sold the house and few remaining acres to a developer, who turned the home into a fourplex and built bungalows, and later apartment buildings, clear up to the farmhouse back door.

In the 1970s, neighbors succeeded in working with the city to transform the area into a 6-acre park. Using eminent domain, the city razed homes around the property and began restoring the farmhouse.

Claudia Albano grew up in one of the homes that was razed to make way for the park.

As a kid playing outside, she and her friends often found bits of pottery, forks, glass and other artifacts from the rancho days.

For more than 30 years, Albano has worked to promote Peralta Hacienda, especially to kids growing up in the surrounding largely Latino Fruitvale area.

"The problems the (original settlers) faced - racism, issues with land and commerce - are problems that immigrants still face," she said. "To have history illuminated that way is invaluable."

East Oakland kids are perhaps the ones most affected by cuts at Peralta Hacienda.

Popular destination

A year ago, kids paid about $2 each for field trips there to learn about California's rancho days. They ground their own corn to make tortillas, learned to rope cows, made candles and dressed in period costumes.

Hundreds of elementary school classes throughout the Bay Area visited Peralta Hacienda each year.

But this year, with fewer grants to underwrite the field trips, staff is forced to charge $15 per student. Even then, the money barely covers the pay for the field trip director, who formerly was on staff but now works on an hourly basis.

Last year, two-thirds of the visiting schools were from Oakland. This year, the number is well below one-fourth, and all those schools are from the hills or are private, said field trip director Wells Twombly.

"Kids like this field trip because we let them play while they're learning," he said. "Can't Oakland go without two more police officers? The answer is, 'No, we can't.' "

Teachers like the Peralta Hacienda program because it brings to life California history, a mandatory subject for third- and fourth-graders.

"It makes the subject tangible for them," said Lorrie Andrade, a fourth-grade teacher at Independence School in Castro Valley, who brought her class to Peralta Hacienda last week.

Henry Ng, one of Andrade's students, liked it because he learned to lasso.

"It's hard to believe people lived here a long time ago," he said. "Now it's a cool playground."

E-mail Carolyn Jones at carolynjones@sfchronicle.com.

This article appeared on page D - 1 of the San Francisco Chronicle