Union City’s First Newspapers Come to Life Again in Digital Form

The pages of the Alvarado Pioneer look like ancient scrolls, dilapidated and deteriorating. Librarian Mira Geroy gently turns its 70-year-old pages, unlocking history that has been tucked away in the ’s storage for decades.  

“It’s easy to find fascinating things,” Geroy said. “It’s a slice of life from a different era.”

Headlines from a World War II-period 1943 issue read: “Red Cross Needs Your Money to Fight Everywhere” and “Air Raid Wardens Meet at Alvarado School.” Its articles reference long-forgotten landmarks such as Holly Sugar Mill and the Hayward Army Air Base.

Now Union City’s first newspapers – the Alvarado Pioneer and the Union City Leader – will soon be available for the first time in digital format. Together, they account for the area’s history, stretching from 1938 to 1967.

The Union City 50th Celebration Committee, a nonprofit that aims to preserve and honor the city’s history, helped raise funds to digitize the newspapers.

“We decided to use some of the remaining funds to provide a grant to the [Union City] Library so that these resources could be professionally scanned and digitized,” said Helen Kennedy, chair of the Union City 50 Committee.

Tim Swenson, local historian and author of Union City (Images of America: California), headed the Union City 50 Committee’s history projects. He heard about the newspapers’ existence when reading a newspaper article. After a conversation with a former librarian, the fragile remnants of the early local publications were unearthed in the city’s library.

Swenson said that finding the newspapers was an “ah hah” moment for him.

“The Alvarado Pioneer newspaper collection is a treasure trove of historical information that is probably not available in any other source,” he said.

The Alvarado Pioneer was in circulation from 1938 to 1954, before Union City was incorporated as a city. A six-column broadsheet, the publication covered news in the communities of Alvarado and Decoto, along with surrounding areas such as Hayward. The library will convert 780 issues of the Pioneer into digital form.

The Union City Leader existed from 1961 to 1967. Almost 2,000 pages of the newspaper will be viewable. It, too, contains valuable history, with stories that document local news and events such as the Queen of Union City beauty contests held in the 1960s.

“They’re totally local so they’re the only source for [Union City history],” Geroy said. “Now they’re preserved forever.”

Once the newspapers are completely digitized, the archives will be available on the Union City Library’s online catalog. The Fremont Main Library will have the newspapers available for microfilm viewing. The physical copies will be stored at the Museum of Local History in Fremont.

Zoneil Maharaj contributed to this report.