Livermore, California

The valley and upland areas, where contemporary Livermore is located, was home to Chochenyo speaking peoples.[12] As a group, these people are considered Ohlone Costonoan with distinct cultural affiliation in contrast to and closely bordering the Bay Miwok to the north and the Valley Yokuts to the east. Four tribelets, the Yulien, Ssaoam, Ssouyn, and the Pelnen occupied the valley floor with territory extending into the hills.[13] Semi-permanent villages were located near water drainages at the valley floor within the current urban limits of Livermore with seasonal camps in the surrounding uplands.[14]

A Spanish expedition led by Pedro Fages skirted the western edge of Livermore Valley in 1772. Shortly afterwards, the Spanish Mission of San Jose was founded in 1797 on the slopes of what is modern day Fremont. Mission San Jose viewed the people and land stretching to the east as under their control.[12]^: 7 Livermore Valley was called the Valley of San Jose by the Friars and actively recruited native peoples of the valley into the mission system. In contrast, the valley was also used as a staging area for raids on Mission San Jose by neighboring tribes in this early period and beyond.[15]^{: 184–186}

During the first seven years of the 1800s, five hundred and two individuals were baptized at Mission San Jose from the four tribelets in the Livermore Valley.[15] In this time, Spanish military conducted raids throughout the East Bay using the valley as a natural corridor for movement.[15] Deaths from measles outbreaks were recorded in Mission San Jose in 1806 which forced recruiting beyond the Livermore Valley and into the Altamont range.[16] The Livermore-Amador Valley from 1800 to about 1837 was primarily used as grazing land for the Mission San Jose's growing herds of cattle, sheep and horses. The valley helped San Jose Mission emerge as one of the more wealthy Spanish enclaves. As a result of the secularization of the mission system, in 1839, two large ranchos were created that encompassed the Livermore Valley; Rancho Las Positas and Rancho Valle de San Jose. Many Native groups left the San Jose Mission during this period and reestablished themselves in communities in the East Bay, including the Livermore Valley.[17]

In 1822, Robert Livermore (1799-1858)[18] was a British citizen who had jumped from a British merchant sailing ship stopping in Monterey, California. In 1839, the 48,000-acre (19,000 ha) Rancho Las Positas grant, which includes most of Livermore, was made to ranchers Robert Livermore and Jose Noriega.[19][20] Most land grants were given with little or no cost to the recipients.

In the early 1840s Livermore moved his family from the Sunol Valley to the Rancho Las Positas grant, as the second non-native family to settle in the Livermore valley area.[21] In 1847, after the Americans took control of California and gold was discovered in 1848, he started making money by selling California longhorn cattle to the thousands of hungry California Gold Rush miners who soon arrived. The non-Indian population skyrocketed, and cattle were suddenly worth much more than the $1.00-$3.00 their hides could bring. Livermore's ranch became a popular "first day" stopping point for prospectors and businessmen leaving San Francisco or San Jose and headed for Sacramento and the Mother Lode gold country. Most horse traffic went by way of Altamont Pass just east of Livermore. Robert Livermore was a very accommodating host and welcomed nearly all that stopped by with lodging and meals.

From 1851 to 1853, the Livermore Ranch post office, operated in Robert Livermore's home.[7] On Jan. 15, 1869, the official U.S. post office in Livermore opened.[22][7] It was called Nottingham in the mistaken belief that Robert Livermore had been born in Nottingham, England.[23] (He was actually born in Springfield, Essex, England.[24]) On 7 July 1870, the post office's name was changed to Livermore.[22]

In 1858, Robert Livermore died and was buried at Mission San Jose before the establishment of the town that bears his name.

The first significant settlement in the valley was Laddsville, a small settlement of about 75[25] that had grown up around the hotel established by Alponso Ladd in 1864 on what is now Junction Avenue. Livermore’s founder, William Mendenhall, was another rancher who had set up in the Livermore valley. In 1869, he set aside 100 acres of his land for a townsite, creating a new town which he named Livermore, after his friend Robert Livermore.[26] He had first met Livermore while marching through the valley with John C. Fremont's California Battalion in 1846 as they were recruited to occupy the surrendering Californio towns captured by the U.S. Navy's Pacific Squadron.[27] He also donated 20 acres of this land to the Western Pacific Railroad,[26] which in September 1869 built rail nearby, placing a stop and a station on the land William Mendenhall had donated. The railroad greatly accelerated Livermore's growth,[9] and the town was officially incorporated by the state as a city on April 1, 1876.

Today, the tracks passing through town are owned by the Union Pacific Railroad, although they are primarily the tracks of the “second" Western Pacific Railroad that was founded in 1903 and absorbed into the UP in 1983. The original railroad tracks went from Alameda Terminal to Sacramento over the nearby Altamont Pass in the east and Niles Canyon on the west.

Private grade schools were operating in Livermore from the 1860s on. The Livermore Collegiate Institute was founded in 1870, and Union High School (later called Livermore High School) graduated its first class of students in 1896. Petroleum was discovered near Livermore and become a valuable asset. Extensive coal deposits were mined near Corral Hollow by the Livermore Coal Company. In September 1871 Laddsville mostly burned down, and the people rebuilt their homes and businesses nearer the railroad in what is now downtown Livermore. Until 1875 the townspeople enjoyed bull fights in a small bullring on many Sundays, and on other occasions a captured grizzly bear might be pitted against a longhorn bull. Apparently, roping a grizzly was thought then to be a great sport. By 1876 the town had grown and a fire company, churches, a bank, and a library were built. Livermore was officially incorporated by the state as a city on April 1, 1876.[28]

During Livermore's early years, it was well known for large hotels that graced the downtown street corners, before new buildings replaced them. One example is the Washington Hotel in the center of town, has now become a local donut shop called the Donut Wheel. Livermore after the 1880s is also notable for the Wente Vineyards, Concannon Vineyard, Cresta Blanca Winery and many other wineries. Since it has a Mediterranean climate, gravelly soil, warm days and cool nights, it was a good location to grow wine grapes. By 1880 the extensive winter wheat and hay crop lands were being replaced by vineyards. Extensive chromite deposits were found and exploited for a time. In 1885, the Remillard Brick Company was producing an extensive line of bricks and employing over 100 men. A telephone line connected Livermore to Arroyo Valley by 1886, and electric lights were introduced by 1889. By 1890 Livermore had over 20 miles (32 km) of streets.[29] Livermore originally had a Boot Hill called the Old Knoll Cemetery.[30]

During the late 19th century and early 20th century, the Livermore Valley attracted the creation of sanitariums due to the warm climate.[31] From 1894 to 1960, the Livermore Sanitarium was in operation for the treatment of alcoholism and mental disorders; and from 1918 to around 1960, the Arroyo del Valle Sanitarium was in operation in the town for the treatment of tuberculosis.[32]

In 1909, the Livermore Carnegie Library and Park opened after taking advantage of a Carnegie library grant. As the city grew and larger libraries were needed, other libraries were built, and the original site was converted into a historic center[33] and park.

In 1942, the U.S. government bought 692 acres (280 ha) of ranch land, bounded by Vasco and Greenville roads and East Avenue, and built the Livermore Naval Air Station. The primary mission of the base was to train Navy pilots. This facility operated until it was decommissioned in 1946 after the end of World War II. On 5 January 1951, the Bureau of Yards and Docks, U.S. Navy, formally transferred the former NAS Livermore in its entirety to the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) for use by the University of California's Radiation Laboratory. In 1952, the government established Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), named after physicist Ernest O. Lawrence, as the site of a second laboratory for the study of nuclear energy like the research being done at the Los Alamos National Laboratory. The laboratory was run by the University of California. Edward Teller was a co-founder of LLNL and was both its director and associate director for many years.[34] In 1956, the California campus of Sandia National Laboratories opened across East Avenue from LLNL. Both LLNL and Sandia are technically on U.S. government property just outside the city's jurisdiction limits, but with employment at LLNL at about 6,800 and Sandia/California at about 1,150 they are Livermore's largest employers.

Livermore has a Mediterranean climate, although it is close to a semi-arid climate because of its relatively low annual precipitation, due to being in the rain shadow of the western portions of the Diablo Range. Livermore features hot, dry summers and mild to cool winters with occasional rainfall (Köppen climate classification Csa).[35] The valley's passes direct the normal west to east flow of air through the valley. Usually there is a strong evening wind in the summer that brings cool air off the Pacific Ocean into the Livermore valley as it heads towards the much hotter Central Valley. This wind is strong enough with an average summer wind speed of about 9 miles per hour (14 km/h) and predictable enough to encourage the use of the wind turbines in the Altamont Pass between the cities of Livermore and Tracy. The period from June to September is extremely dry and is characterized by clear skies. On rare occasion, subtropical moisture occasionally surges into the Livermore Valley in the late summer. This can bring high humidity, monsoon clouds, and, much less commonly, thunderstorms.

Snow is very rare, but light dustings do occur on the surrounding hills and occasionally in the valley.

The 2010 United States Census[41] reported that Livermore had a population of 80,968. The population density was 3,216.1 inhabitants per square mile (1,241.7/km²). The homeowner vacancy rate was 1.5%; the rental vacancy rate was 4.8%. 56,967 people (70.4% of the population) lived in owner-occupied housing units and 23,491 people (29.0%) lived in rental housing units.

According to the 2010 census information, Livermore is the third wealthiest midsize (between 65,000 and 249,999 people) city in the nation. In 2005, the median household income in Livermore was $96,632, which ranked it the third highest-income midsize city, behind only the California cities of Newport Beach ($97,428) and Livermore's western neighbor, Pleasanton ($101,022).[42]

As of October 2019, there were 53,792 registered voters in Livermore; of these, 21,158 (39.93%) are Democrats, 15,061 (28.00%) are Republicans, and 14,499 (26.95%) are independents/decline to state.[43]

The Livermore area is the home of two US Department of Energy National Laboratories. The laboratories are known worldwide, and attract significant attention both for their scientific research and for their major roles in developing the United States nuclear arsenal.

The Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) is the largest employer in Livermore. LLNL's defining responsibility is to "ensure the safety, security and reliability of the nation’s nuclear deterrent," but it also does a wide variety of other research, including co-discovering livermorium.[44]

Livermore is also the California site of Sandia National Laboratories, the second largest employer in Livermore. It also describes itself as being focused on "national security".[45] It is managed and operated by a subsidiary of Honeywell International.

In 2010,[46] the two National Laboratories, along with other stakeholders, including the University of California, Berkeley, UC Davis, and regional cities, partnered to create the i-GATE (Innovation for Green Advanced Transportation Excellence) National Energy Systems Technology (NEST) Incubator, part of the Central Valley. The 15,000-square-foot (1,400 m²) i-GATE NEST campus was created to stimulate large-scale, high-tech business development drawn by the two labs. Initial focus of the campus was solar energy, fuel cells, biofuels, LED lighting, and other related technologies.[47][48] i-GATE shares its facilities with the hackerspace Robot Garden,[49] which provides public access on weekends.[50]

Southeast Livermore neighborhood surrounded by vineyards

One of California's oldest wine regions, the Livermore Valley American Viticultural Area (AVA) played a pivotal role in shaping California's wine industry. In the 1840s, California pioneers looking for outstanding vineyard sites began planting grapes in the region. Robert Livermore planted the first commercial vines in the 1840s. After California joined the union as the 31st state in 1850, pioneer winemakers C. H. Wente, a first-generation immigrant from Germany[51] (founder of Wente Vineyards), James Concannon, a first generation Irishman[52] (founder of Concannon Vineyard), and Charles Wetmore, a Portland, Maine-born pioneer of California[53] (founder of Cresta Blanca Winery), recognized the area's winegrowing potential and bought land, planted grapes and founded their wineries in the 1880s.[54]

Charles Wetmore went to France in 1878 when he was appointed a delegate for the California Viticultural Association to the Paris Exposition. Wetmore was able in 1882 to obtain Semillon, Sauvignon Blanc, and Muscat de Bordelais cuttings from one of the most prestigious vineyards in France, Chateau Yquem. These superior clones helped revitalize the California wine industry. In 1889 Wetmore won the grand prize for his first pressing (1884) in the 1889 Paris Exposition. Wetmore shared these cuttings with other growers, including C. H. Wente, who used the Chateau Yquem grape cuttings to eventually produce their Chateau Wente wine.

According to the City's 2022 Annual Comprehensive Financial Report, the top employers in Livermore are:[55]

Gillig Corporation, a large manufacturer of buses, moved its factory to Livermore in May 2017 and, at the time of the move, the company estimated its employment at the new facility to be 800 initially and 850 after the filling of then-open positions.[56]

Livermore's largest employers, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and Sandia National Laboratory are United States Department of Energy National Laboratories, located inside the city limits since 2011, and are included in the above table.

Architectural Glass and Aluminum moved its headquarters to Livermore in 2013, with 80 employees.[57] They expanded and changed to 100% employee ownership in 2015.[58]

The city is noted for one world record. A 120+ year old 4-watt light bulb, called the Centennial Light, housed in the Livermore-Pleasanton Fire Department main station, is still burning. Originally installed by Augustus Donner Wilson, the bulb has been maintained through successive generations until his great-great granddaughter Alissa Wilson.[65] It glows dimly, but still functions as a light bulb.[66] The Guinness Book of World Records, Ripley's Believe It or Not!, and General Electric have concluded that the bulb has been burning continuously since 1901 with the exception of power failures and the three times it was disconnected for moves to new stations. The light bulb was manufactured by the Shelby Electric Company and was hand blown with a carbon filament.

In September 2021, the City of Livermore began its General Plan update process.[77] Also known as Imagine Livermore 2045, this is a multi-year update to the General Plan that includes public outreach and a General Plan Advisory Committee appointed by City Council.[78]

There were two charter schools in Livermore, one K-8 and one high school, both operated by the Tri-Valley Learning Corporation, a local 501(c)3 not-for-profit organization formed by the parents and teachers who founded the two charter schools.

• Livermore Valley Charter School (LVCS): a K-8 public school[80]
• Livermore Valley Charter Preparatory (LVCP): a high school, opened in fall of 2010

Both schools were effectively shut down by the beginning of the 2018 school year amidst accusations of embezzlement, exchange student fraud, and the loss of their UC accreditation. The displaced students were absorbed by the new Lawernce Elementary school and Las Positas Community College Middle College.

A sign on the I-580 freeway in Livermore

Interstate 580 is Livermore's primary east–west freeway. I-580 passes the outskirts of Livermore before it heads east through the Altamont Pass to the Central Valley and Interstate 5. I-580 and I-5 are the main route of San Francisco Bay Area to Los Angeles truck shipping traffic. Interstate 680 lies about 10 miles (16 km) west of Livermore. Highway 84 heads southwest from I-580 to Fremont. Vasco Road, an unnumbered highway that is maintained by Alameda and Contra Costa counties, connects Livermore to Brentwood and the Sacramento–San Joaquin River Delta area.

Livermore Municipal Airport (LVK)[82] is located 3 miles (5 km) northwest of Livermore and is a division of the Public Works Department; it is owned and operated by the City of Livermore. It is the main airport in the Tri-Valley area. Approximately 600 aircraft are based on Livermore Airport, which has over 150,000 annual aircraft landings and take-offs each year. The airport serves private, business, and corporate tenants and customers and covers about 650 acres (260 ha). The main lighted runway is 5,250 feet (1,600 m) long.[83] The main terminal building covers 2,400 square feet (220 m²). The airfield is accessible 24 hours a day and is attended by city employees during the hours listed under "Airport Services". The staffed air traffic control tower is operated by Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) employees daily from 7:00 A.M. until 9:00 P.M. There is an open airshow which is held annually on the first Saturday of October from 10:00 AM to 4:00 PM showing vintage World War II aircraft and other displays.

The WHEELS bus system operates in Livermore, Pleasanton, Dublin, and the surrounding unincorporated areas of Alameda County. It has connections to Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) stations in Dublin and Pleasanton.[84]

Livermore has two stations for the Altamont Corridor Express (ACE), a commuter train which runs from Stockton to the San Jose area. One station is at Vasco Road, and the other is in downtown Livermore at its Transit Center. The Transit Center has a free multistory parking garage and connections to the WHEELS bus system.

There was a petition drive to bring the Bay Area Rapid Transit system to Livermore led by a group founded by Linda Jeffery Sailors, the former mayor of Dublin who was successful in extending BART to Dublin/Pleasanton (the closest station to Livermore at that time).[85] In May 2018, the BART board of directors voted against extending BART to Livermore.[86] As a result, the Tri-Valley-San Joaquin Valley Regional Rail Authority was formed to establish a rail connection between the existing BART system and the Altamont Corridor Express. The service, known as Valley Link, intends to build new rail stations at Isabel Avenue and Greenville Road for service.

The Livermore Police Department (LPD)[87] was established in 1876, at that time the only law enforcement agency in the San Francisco Bay Area besides the San Francisco Police Department. The LPD has 135 members including 90 sworn officers and 45 non-sworn full-time personnel who operate on a $25 million budget each year.

The Livermore-Pleasanton Fire Department provides fire and advanced life support services to the cities of Livermore and Pleasanton. It serves an estimated population of 150,000 (78,000 in Livermore, and 71,000 in Pleasanton) over 44 square miles (114 km²) (23 square miles (60 km²) in Livermore, and 21 square miles (54 km²) in Pleasanton) with an operating budget of $28 million. In 2008 the LPFD responded to approximately 11,000 calls for service. The International Association of Fire Fighters (IAFF) Local 1974 represents its 112 members.