A walking Tour of Woodbridge, California

Long before we dreamed of Lodi, Woodbridge was a thriving town on the Mokelumne River. Take a pleasant stroll to enjoy Lodi's roots in Woodbridge. Many of the sites described here are discussed more fully in the Lodi Historical Society newsletter from Fall 1996, Early Woodbridge. Most of the people mentioned on this self-guided Walking Tour are buried in the Woodbridge Masonic Cemetery – see map.
                                                     by Byron Bostwick and Alane K. Dashner

1. Site of the first St. Anne’s Catholic Church, whose bricks were later moved to Lodi’s N Sacramento Street by Giacomo Peirano to build his first store. See Spring 2003 issue.

2. Site of Burt & Ivory’s first store, in a building leased from Horace Bentley.

3. Site of Burt & Ivory’s second store. In 1869 John Burt and Charles Oscar Ivory moved their store to the northwest corner of Sacramento and Pine Streets in Lodi. See Winter 2004 issue.

4. Built in 1868, the house of George and Lenora Rutledge – see #13. (They are buried in plot 2.48.)

5. Built in 1898, the house of Amos and Emma McClelland (plot 2.30). Amos was a longtime conductor on the San Joaquin-Sierra Nevada Railroad. See Fall 1994 issue.

6. Site of the original cabin built by Jeremiah and Phebe Woods (plot 2.55) – approximately on the front lawn of the McClelland home. Jeremiah was the founder of this town, “Woods’s Bridge.” See Fall 1996 issue.

7. The 1861 Oddfellows’ Building, built by John Levinsky of “fireproof” brick as a one-story general merchandise store. The second story was added as an Oddfellows meeting hall in 1874. In the northside brickwork, note the bricked-up doors and stairwell. The large addition on the left side of the current front door was built in the early 1980s.

8. Site of Jeremiah and Phebe Woods’s family house.

9. Roscoe’s/Woodbridge Trading Post, built in the early 1900s. Now Woodbridge Florist.

10. Site where William Wilkinson shot the Woods’s dog. When Jeremiah confronted him in an unnamed saloon, a brawl took up and Woods was killed at age 43.

11. Built in 1865, the general merchandise store of Horace and Susan Bentley (plot 3.71). The family lived upstairs. Horace gave up his practice as a physician to focus on merchandising and served as Woodbridge’s Wells Fargo express agent. An ad for Woodbridge’s Globe Flour (see #26) can still be seen on the north side. Two boxcars were added on the south side in the 1970s. Now Woodbridge Crossing.

12. Today used as Edward Jones Insurance (right side, built 1899) and Hair Mill (left side, built 1883), this double building has been variously used as the Woodbridge Market, the Thompson & Folger Butcher Shop, and for other purposes. The cold storage is still visible inside.

13. The 1867 Rutledge store, used through the years to distribute illegal liquor during Prohibition (allegedy!), as a church, as Jack’s Pool Hall, and as the California Horse Review publishers. Today it is Woodbridge Uncorked. The nails visible on the southern exterior are from a former wooden addition.

14. Site of the McIntosh Blacksmith and Wagon Maker in 1880s. (E.J. “Mac” and Malancy McIntosh are buried in plot 2.20.)

15. Site of the McMurtry Hotel in 1880s. (Louis and Margaret McMurtry are buried in plot 1.16.)

16. Site of James (a butcher) and Mary Ann Folger’s house (plot 1.12).

17. The Woodbridge Freemasons’ second building was constructed in 1882 like a Gothic Revival fortress with header bricks every 6th row and heavy-duty east-west iron tie-rods. This building replaced an earlier Masons’ building near the river.

18. Woodbridge’s first fire station and self-standing post office, built 1947. The recent renovation still shows the brick entryways used by firewagons.

19. Site of the Plummer Hotel in the 1880s. (E.H. and Mary Plummer are buried in plots 3.29 and 3.52.) Now the Woodbridge Inn, built in 1920. It was raided many times during Prohibition.

20. Site of Edson’s livery stable, where horses and buggies could be rented. (Frank and Jessie Edson are buried in plot 1.32.)

21. Site of the house of butcher John (plot 2.47) and Caroline (Stockton Rural Cemetery) Thompson.

22. Site of Nevada State Asylum for the Insane, active from 1871 to 1877 when Nevada didn’t have its own mental health centers. After the asylum closed, the building became a boarding house and was then used by the San Joaquin Valley College as a dormitory.

23. Site of a Chinese laundry in the 1880s.

24. Site of Chinese dwellings in 1880s.

25. Woodbridge Irrigation headquarters, built in the 2000s. The original 1930 headquarters building, a small one-story with clay-tile roof, is directly across Lower Sacramento St. See Summer 2001 issue.

26. Site of Woodbridge Flour Mill, which produced Globe Flour.
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27. The headgates of the Woodbridge Irrigation Canal, built in 1882 by Chinese labor. See Summer 2001 issue. It was here in 1891 during a great ceremony that Byron Beckwith opened the gates to irrigate the Delta. (Although Byron isn’t listed in the Woodbridge Masonic Cemetery’s official record, his May 4, 1904, funeral there was covered by several newspapers including the Stockton Evening Mail, right. Other Beckwiths are buried in plot 4.106.)

28. The pump station that sends Mokelumne River water to Lodi.

29. Railroad bridge for the San Joaquin and Sierra Nevada narrow-gauge railroad. See Fall 1994 issue.

30. Site of the Woodbridge Seminary 1879-1882 and San Joaquin Valley College 1882-1897. See Winter 2004 issue. Now Woodbridge Elementary School.

31. The Woodbridge Grange building, built in 1918 as the Brown School in Galt, moved to Woodbridge in 1939.

32. The Woodbridge Masonic Cemetery was often called simply “the Woodbridge Cemetery.” Once fenced to keep out cattle and now fenced to keep out vandals, the gate is open on Saturdays from 10am until 3pm.