Town: (noun) a compactly settled area usually larger than a village but smaller than a city.
Alvarado. Centerville. Decoto. Irvington.
Today we know them as districts, sections or areas of our larger cities—Fremont, Newark and Union City—but they were once individual towns. Independent of each other in many respects, the towns and the people who inhabited them also came together as one place, known as Washington Township. Now commonly referred to as the Tri-City Area, the southern portion of the East Bay, and the lowest geographic section of Alameda County, these eight towns still have much history left standing.
Stay tuned in September for the second half of this column.
