1892-95 | Alameda Track | Schuetzen Park
Page last updated April 22, 2026.
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The two 1892 articles below are the first references to the bicycle racing track at Schuetzen Park in Alameda. It will be the home track for the Alameda Bicycle and Athletic Club. The opening day races are scheduled for May 30, 1892.
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Leap forward to 1897. The Los Angeles Herald, September 12, 1897 article, in the last sentence, refers to the Alameda Track as the first track on the west coast, "...the first having been built at Alameda on San Francisco Bay."
The two articles below provide some pre-race publicity for the upcoming, opening day races to be held at the Alameda Track.
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The first article, San Jose Mercury, May 15, 1892, emphasizes the quality of the track "... finest bicycle track west of the Mississippi River" and "... the first time that wheelmen of this State have had what is called a fast track". That can probably be attributed to earlier tracks not being primarily constructed for bicycle racing.
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The second article, San Francisco Call, May 16, 1896, has more detail about the upcoming Decoration Day event.
As is common in this time frame, there will be races for both ordinary/highwheel bicycles and the new safety bicycles.
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There are varying descriptions of the Alameda Track details but this seems to be the consensus:
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quarter mile track
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30 feet wide (30 ft in turns, 20 ft in straights?)
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6 feet embankment (8 feet?)
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the grandstand has seating for 1500​
This is another article providing pre-race publicity for the upcoming Decoration Day races at the Alameda Track. However, the race publicity is preceded by descriptions about the city of Alameda as a "cyclist's paradise" and a brief history of the Alameda Bicycle and Athletic Club from its origins to their lease-signing for the track.
Finally, the Alameda Track had its opening day on Decoration Day 1892. This article from the San Francisco Call, May 31, 1892 describes the previous day's races in detail.
Here's another very substantial article from the Bicycling World and LAW Bulletin, June 17, 1892 issue about the Decoration Day race, the host club and community of Alameda.
It was a busy summer at the Alameda Track in 1892. On June 11th, Frank Waller of the Acme Bicycle Club of Oakland broke the world record for 24 hours. He rode 363 miles and 1590 yards besting the previous record of 361 miles and 1446 yards. The feat was publicized in a variety of newspapers.
The telegram below shows the manufacturer of Waller's bicycle, Stover Bicycle Manufacturing Company of Freeport Illinois, being notified of the record setting ride. This telegram was sent promptly, the day after Waller's ride. The telegram graphic is from The Bearings, July 8, 1892.
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The Bearings was the prominent cycling trade journal in the late 19th century. It was a weekly publication that focused on bicycle industry news, racing, and trade. It provides very valuable information about the velodromes of the day.
One more article about Frank Waller's World Record 24-hour ride from the San Francisco Call, June 13, 1892.
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The second part of the article addresses the scheduling issue with the upcoming Fourth of July race planned for Sacramento.
Here's a San Jose Mercury, June 12, 1892 article that also addresses the scheduling changes for the upcoming July 4th race originally planned for Sacramento.
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Note, this article also provides context to the amount of track racing happening in northern California. It refers to Agricultural Park Horse Track in Sacramento, the recently opened Alameda Track, the soon to be opened Goodwater Grove Track in Stockton and lastly, the First Street Track in San Jose to debut in early September.
Here is another article from later in the year that reflects on bicycle track construction that occurred throughout the state in 1892.
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In the The Bearings, December 14, 1892 there is a year-end summary of cycling in each state. In the summary about cycling in California, it lays out the timeline of five new tracks built in the state during 1892: Alameda, Goodwater Grove, Riverside, Los Angeles and San Jose. This provides a wider context portraying the popularity of track cycling in California. Other state summaries are similar, indicating how popular track cycling is throughout the country.
The next race to be held at the Alameda Track would be held on July 4th. It wasn't intended to be that way. The State Championship race was supposed to be on July 4th at the Sacramento Track. But there was a scheduling conflict with a circus and the circus' lease agreement won out.
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Then politics between bicycle club factions took over and the resolution ended up being two bicycle races on July 4th: the State Championship was to be held in Stockton and the Alameda Track would host its own race.
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The Sacramento Daily Union, June 17, 1892 article below describes the inter-club dust up in detail.
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The second article, San Francisco Call, July 4, 1892, provides a pre-race summary and publicity of the both events. Note, for the Alameda Track event, the publication of current American Records, an exhibition of trick riding and the parade and reception to be held after the race.
The July 4th race at the Alameda Track appears to have been great success. This article by the San Francisco Call, July 5, 1892, was published the day after the race and addresses the races at the Alameda Track as well as Stockton.
This is another article describing both of the July 4th, 1892 races, from the Sacramento Daily Union, July 5, 1892.
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The results and descriptions of these races were published in a number of Northern California newspapers.
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This Los Angeles Herald, July 7, 1892 article shows how the news of the July 4th races at the Alameda Track reverberated throughout the state.
In December of 1892 The Referee contains a very extensive article summarizing the year of bicycle racing in California, which in 1892 meant mostly northern California. The article touches on the leadership of the racing organization, the race tracks, races and some of the racers.
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It states "The season '92 should go on record as the renaissance period of the past time of cycling on the Pacific Coast."
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As far as the bicycle tracks "In northern California we have had eight race meets and they have been uniformly successful. On the Alameda Track, which was the first built with banked corners and up to date in every particular, three of these meets were held, San Jose held two, Stockton two, and Sacramento one."
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The Alameda Bicycle and Athletic Cub get special attention "The Alameda Bicycle and Athletic Club has done much for the sport during the past year."
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The article is from The Referee, December 23, 1892.
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Note, it's a large two-page article, click on the link or the image to read it in a viewer.
1893
The article below from the San Francisco Call, May 29, 1893 publicizes the Decoration Day races to take place the next day at the Alameda Track.
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Note the last paragraph "Jesse Ives is hard at work inventing a home trainer for cyclists. He proposes to connect the chain gearing with the Alameda Club windmill, so that when the breezes fail to blow would-be racers can pump the tank full of water while exercising."
The San Jose Herald, May 31, 1893 article below summarizes a couple of the previous day's races at the Alameda Track in which the San Jose racers excelled.
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It's interesting to note for the Coast record mile, times are recorded in 1/5th of a second increments. Also interesting to see the staggered start "handicap" distances. Of course, to set a record a racer must be "scratch", as Walter Foster did in the last heat.
The San Francisco Call, May 31, 1893 has an extensive article including some illustrations summarizing the previous day's race, on Decoration Day, at the Alameda Track.
The following articles provide some pre-race publicity for the races to take place at the Alameda Track on August 26th, 1893.
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The San Francisco Call, August 23, 1893 article provides the start list for the races.
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The San Jose Herald, August 23, 1893 article describes a number of events: race results from previous evening's races at the San Francisco Central Park Track, the next evening's races at Central Park and finally the Saturday races to be held at the Alameda Track.
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The San Francisco Call, August 27, 1893 article below summarizes the Thursday evening races at the San Francisco Central Park Track and the Saturday races at the Alameda Track.
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It's good to see a wider context of the races that were being woven together by multiple tracks in the same time frame.
In The Cycling West, September 15, 1893, Clevelands bicycles ran a half-page advertisement to tout the results and number of racers using their bicycles on August 26 at the Alameda Track.
Some final articles from 1893 indicate changes on the horizon for the Alameda Track.
1894
In early 1894 the Reliance Club of Oakland took over the lease of the Alameda Track from the Alameda Bicycle Club.
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The Reliance Athletic Club was a men's amateur athletic and social club founded in Oakland in 1885. See the Oakland Wiki - Reliance Athletic Club for a detailed description. The Reliance Club started as a baseball and football club but expanded to other sports such as boxing, track and field, bicycle races and auto races. The Wiki article specifically indicates "They even sponsored bicycle races at their track in Alameda."
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The first race to be hosted by the Reliance Club at the Alameda Track will be on Decoration Day.
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A couple changes have been made to the track dimensions:
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the embankment of the turns has increased from 6 feet to 10 feet
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the homestretch is about 40 feet wide, up from 30 feet (or 20 feet)
Unfortunately there is a contentious scheduling conflict between the Reliance Club and the Bay City Wheelmen for hosting a Decoration Day race.
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Aside from the conflict, there are some details about changes made to the track by the Reliance Club. It appears the pavilion has been renovated. There is mention of enlarging the track to a three-lap to a mile track but is seems that modification is yet to be made.
The Los Angeles Herald, May 31, 1894 article has the results of the previous day's races at the Alameda Track. It might not have been as successful as the Reliance Club wished based on the comment that "several accidents happened".
The last couple races at the Alameda Track would prove to be significant.
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Note that in 1894 the track has also come to be known as the Reliance Track or the Reliance Oval.
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The Y. M. C. A. hosted a race on Saturday, September 15, 1894. The results were published a couple days after the race in the Alameda Encinal, September 17, 1894.
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The San Jose Herald touted the success of the San Jose racers in a race held on October 1st at Alameda. The results were published the next day in the San Jose Herald, October 2, 1894.
1895
1895 is the beginning of the end for the Alameda Track with it being in run down condition and the city of Alameda wanting to reclaim some infringed upon city property. The two Alameda Encinal articles below spell out the dire situation.
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There was scant racing or even training in 1895 with the only reference being from the San Francisco Call, May 12, 1895.
1897
A very small San Francisco Call, February 28, 1897 article announces that the Alameda Track is being demolished.
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It cites the last "big event" as the Y. M. C. A. race in September of 1894. The last race was likely in October of that year.
Location
The Alameda Post History section has a webpage about Schuetzen Park. The lithograph and brief article below are from that webpage. Schuetzen Park had its grand opening shooting match on March 29,1868.
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The Library of Congress, Sanborn map below is from 1897, almost 30 years after the opening of the park and 2-4 years after the operational period of the Alameda Track. There are some original structures remaining in the 1897 map: the front buildings (S. P. T. C.), the Wind Mill & Tank and the Pavilion. The area to the left shows the shooting range in the lithograph. It appears the Schuetzen Club (shooters club) was forced out of the park in the late 1880's. The range is the likely location of the Alameda Track in later years. The fence along the left and front are probably the areas that infringed on city property.
Below is a current Google Map of the area (37.770331, -122.271902) of Burbank Street, Alameda.
Current Google Map of the area of 8th St and Central Ave, Alameda.
CHECKLIST:
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Check out "Reliance Oval", Reliance club??
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mention that there are NO PICS of this track. two illustrations though??
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make sure to doc the track specs in para, someplace.
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Alameda Track or Alameda Cycle Park?
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make sure to Note where other tracks are mentioned for CONTEXT!
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review each writeup and the archive item to make sure the details of the archive item are touched upon in the writeup
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review to make sure the Links are ALL GOOD!
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review to trim pics if necessary.
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HIDE this section.