Pinole Tutors Come To You

Ever have an ice cream cone twice as tall as the cone? You know, the kind of ice cream cone you have to ask for a cup too, so it’ll have a place to roll over into, when it topples from the sheer weight of that delicious ice cream. Foster Freeze ice cream cones are like that. And Pinole, California is the home of Foster Freeze restaurants. George Foster opened his first store, in 1946, starting one of the earliest fast-food restaurant chains. Pinole still has one today, with its traditional 1950’s style décor.

New ideas roll into shore with the sea breezes in this seaport town, of about 20,000 residents. In the 1850’s Bernardo Fernandez, another enterprising fellow, started a trading facility on the shores of today’s Pinole, situated on San Pablo Bay. It grew to become a busy seaside port town, with an active waterfront. A post office opened in 1878. And the city of Pinole was incorporated in 1903. The booming years of the railroad and later post World War II increased growth, industry, and innovation throughout the entire area.

Map of Pinole City, in San Francisco Bay Area
Oakland and San Francisco began to move on to a much faster beat. People commuted from Pinole to the larger industrial centers for jobs and higher education. Pinole grew more residential, prone to enjoy the semi rural atmosphere, and revel in its rich historical heritage. Old Town Pinole houses many a vintage home, and Bernardo Fernandez’s Mansion still exists today.

Downtown Pinole retains much of its historic and architectural character. The Bank of Pinole building graces its old town atmosphere. Math, along with reading skills were most highly emphasized in the old days, and are still paramount today. Pinole tutors address basic skills, along with the myriad subject base of our high tech society. Career variation abounds. And much existed in the bustling waterfront activity of Pinole’s wharf. The town boasted a post office, newspaper, school, stores, and churches. By 1915, it had an opera house and theater.

The walking tour about Old Town Pinole includes viewing a host of sites and structures, the old Santa Fe Depot, Greenfield’s department store, Downer Mansion and Captain’s Cottage are amongst them. Greenfield Department Store, built in 1905 by Abraham Greenfield, was Pinole’s first department store. It grew rapidly in business and size, ranging three stories high. Not unlike our modern Walmarts, it sought to meet most needs: furniture, clothing, candy, groceries, tools, bob wire fencing and paint.

Pinole homes reflect Queen Anne and Neoclassic architectural styles. Quinan Street homes, named after Captain William Russel Quinan, a West Point Graduate, are toured today. Education was important to captain’s life and success, and continues to be. Large numbers of Pinole students go on to higher education in nearby colleges. Contra Costa College is just 6 miles away, San Francisco State College 30 miles, and John F. Kennedy University 17 to name a few. Pinole tutors cover everything from “the A,B,Cs to PHDs!” Pinole City is a great place to grow up and learn, a seaside land of gently rolling hills, flanked by urban centers and steeped in a rich historical heritage.