Showing posts with label progress. Show all posts
Showing posts with label progress. Show all posts

Wednesday, January 18, 2012

The Barn on Line Street


When I was a kid, many years ago, Line Street was the western boundary of downtown Hollister. Between South Street and Nash Road, orchards mostly lined Line Street. Today, this barn and the surrounding empty field, which was once full of trees, are the last remnants of that era.

Monday, January 9, 2012

How Do You Enter the Parking Garage?

The four floor parking garage, as viewed from San Benito Street.
Parking at the Briggs Building parking garage on Fourth and San Benito Streets is free. There are yellow banners on the San Benito Street side of the building that shout Free Parking. You can read them when you're standing in front of the building, but not when you're driving your car and trying to figure how to get into it.

So, I ask again: How do you enter the parking garage?

Fourth Street view.
From Fourth Street?

No.

From San Benito Street?

Nope.

From Monterey Street?

Uh-uh.

From Fifth Street?

Kinda.

Briggs Alley?

Bingo!

You enter the parking garage via Briggs Alley, which you access by driving through the small public parking lot between the Vault and the Granada Theater that is on Fifth Street.

Huh?

Yeah.

So, if anyone says to you during the Farmer's Market season (May through September) that you can conveniently park in the parking garage, know this: Be sure you get there before the farmers and vendors set up their booths and tables.

Update: I forgot to mention that Briggs Alley is one-way. I have been told that on Farmer's Market Day, people are allowed to drive the reverse way on Briggs Alley so that they can enter the parking garage. Seems to me the powers-that-be ought to make that change permanently. 


That gap between the garage and the other building
(Granada Theater) is Briggs Alley.


Tuesday, January 3, 2012

New Fire Station Going Up



Until construction of the downtown fire station at the corner of Sally and Fifth Streets is complete, the Hollister Fire Department is temporarily located in the vacant lot on Fourth Street, behind the west end Briggs Building Garage.

The old station was demolished earlier this year. Being built is a two-story facility with twice the space of the old station, which was a converted tractor garage. According to this local news article, the station should be completed within one year's time.

Wednesday, December 21, 2011

100 Things I Like: The Main Street

Heading north on San Benito Street
Until I moved back to Hollister several years ago, I rarely, if ever, referred to the main drag through town by its actual name. Now, I'm in the habit of saying San Benito Street, and it's weird whenever I say Main Street or even hear it as such.

A few interesting things about the main street of ours:
• San Benito Street (north end) turns into San Felipe Road at Santa Ana Road.
• Until the 1980s, the south end of San Benito Street stopped at Nash Road, by the high school. Today, it runs south for a mile or so more to Union Road
• San Benito Street is originally part of highway 25. Technically, it may still be highway 25. The city of Hollister built the 25 bypass a few years ago so that it can claim the main street as its own. The move is part of the plan to revitalize downtown. So far as I know, Caltrans hasn't completed the transfer.

For more 100 Things I Like About Living in Hollister, click on that link.

P.S. Thank you, Mr. Arrmac for pointing out my grammatical errors, which dear readers, who're reading this P.S. will never know.


Sunday, August 28, 2011

It Is A . . .



You'll find this object throughout downtown Hollister. What do you think it is?

A sun dial?

A peace symbol?

A no parking sign?

Nope. Nah. Not at all.

Hint: You lock a transportation device to it.  I've noticed a lot more people—young and old—are riding these devices lately, particularly the beach cruisers. So cool!

Yep. You got it.

Sunday, August 14, 2011

School Starts Soon!



Before Rancho San Justo Middle School, all sixth to eighth graders in the Hollister School District went to R. O. Hardin. At least that was how it was in my day, the 1960s. I don't know know what it was like before then. Anyone know?

Friday, August 5, 2011

Where the 25 and 156 Meet


One of the benefits of roadways going through once-upon-a-time orchards, grazing lands, and vegetable fields is this: We finally get to see what we couldn't before.

Tuesday, August 2, 2011

Big City Parking



Who has parked in the free parking garage on Fourth Street because they couldn't find parking near let's say the library? Wells Fargo? Paines? the farmers market on Wednesdays?

Did you know you get a good view of downtown from the elevator?

Did it really cost the city several million dollars to build it? 

Have you ever thought of going up and down the garage stairs for exercise? The husband and I did it first time yesterday.


Monday, July 11, 2011

44 Shore Road


The first address I remember is 44 Shore Road. Our house was white with red trim. It was one of four small houses that stood behind Dunneville Store (now called the Dunneville Restaurant, Market, and Deli). The house no longer exists. Where I stood in the Dunneville parking lot to take this photo is about where our house would've been.

Today, the field and the parking lot are the same level. I recall going down a long flight of stairs from the back porch to the back yard, and if I wanted to wander in the field, I had to climb up a short incline to crawl through the barbed wire.

Things look so much bigger and higher when you're five years old.


Tuesday, July 5, 2011

The Bikers Came and They Went


Not being a biker (at least motorcycles), I have no idea how successful the unofficial Independence Motorcycle Rally went over the weekend. On Saturday, I happened to be downtown and saw many bikers parking and rolling in on San Benito Street. Late Sunday morning, main street was practically bare of motorcycles. Monday, not a sign. My 89-year old Mama thought it was an unhappy Fourth of July without the hundreds of visiting motorcyclists. She's not a biker, either.

Tuesday, June 14, 2011

USED


Recognize this spot at the northern end of downtown Hollister? Anyone recall what used to be here? And, what was used? I wonder if this lot will ever be home to anything again.

Tuesday, March 22, 2011

Tying One On



Long ago, cowboys would tie their horses to hitching posts before going into the saloon to get wasted. Just saying.

Wednesday, March 16, 2011

inevitably

Click on the photo for the full size.
The other day I woke up thinking that I gotta take photos of the fields at the end of Hillcrest Road. Before they are no more. One thousand plus homes will be going in and beyond what you see in the photo. Santana Ranch. The development was approved last November. Anyone know when the building will commence?

I will miss the open space.

Take 25 is participating in ABC Wednesday, a weekly meme hosted by Mrs. Nesbitt and her friends. Today is the letter I. To check out other I posts, please click here.

Saturday, March 12, 2011

Shop Locally: A Butcher, A Market


That's right. A butcher shop and a specialty market will be opening in the store front formerly known as Brothers Market, and before that, the Public Drive-In Market, at the corner of South and San Benito Streets.  Yum! Anyone know when the grand opening will be?

Friday, March 11, 2011

Leave Your Checkbook at Home


Did you know you can use a credit card to pay for leaving your garbage at the dump?

Ours cost $10 the last time we were there. They took a ten-dollar bill. No checks though.
For more info about the local dump, excuse me, landfill, click here

Wednesday, March 2, 2011

G is for Garbage Dump

It's not what you think. This is at the top of the John Smith Road Landfill, the local dump for San Benito County. It is possible that one of these days, way, way, waaaaaaay in the future, the landfill may be a solid mountain peak like that in the distance. Think about it.

Take 25 is participating in ABC Wednesday, a weekly meme hosted by Mrs. Nesbitt and her friends. Today is the letter G. To check out other G posts, please click here.

Tuesday, March 1, 2011

The Last Remains


This is what remains of the last apricot orchard on Hillcrest Road. The owners have slowly been pulling out the trees over the last few years. I understand that eventually this land will be paved with homes and apartments.

Friday, February 11, 2011

Two Vaults


You're looking into the bottom floor of the old Pendergrass Building on the corner of Fifth and San Benito Streets. It's being turned into a restaurant. See the bank vault? Once upon time, this location was home to a bank that was across the street from another bank, which is now a nightclub called the Vault.

Monday, February 7, 2011

House For Sale!



According to this web page, it's a contractor special. The one bedroom, 600 square feet, single family unit on Lucy Brown Road is selling for $699,000. Huh?

Saturday, February 5, 2011

Looking East on Sunnyslope


How many of you remember when Sunnyslope Road was a two lane road all the way to Fairview Road? Do you remember how it was mostly orchards that lined the way?

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