Moraga History – Voices of the Past – Published and Unpublished

The Moraga Historical Society has a collection of audio and video recordings in various physical formats featuring community member interviews and past events. Some of them have been digitized but still need to be converted into a format suitable for publishing on YouTube. Others await the digitization efforts of future volunteers. Voices of the Past is an index of those recordings we have posted to our @MoragaHistory YouTube channel. A “details” link takes you to a page with more details about that recording. This page is intended for MHS volunteer staff to work on preparing each video for full publication.

My Town Moraga – From Ranch to Town – Memories of Moraga’s Past In 2006 Susan Sperry and Fran Strykowski conducted interviews with six Moraga old-timers: Sam Carr, at the time Moraga’s oldest living native, Ed Lucas who joined the Moraga Fire Department in 1959, Vic Pagliero who came to Moraga in 1936, Charlie Toll who came to Moraga in 1955, Frank Trelut, a third generation Moragan, and Gordon Frazell, a Moraga rancher since 1944. They combined the interviews with photographs and film footage to produce this 28:54 minute video published in 2007 which captures aspects of Moraga’s transition from a farming and ranching community into a town that finally incorporated in 1974. The original included music from famous country singers between the various sections but for copyright reasons it has been replaced with music composed by Cameron Kaiser for the online version.
St. Mary’s College: Beginning and Milestones as told by Brother Mel Anderson to Ellen Beans in 2011 In 2011 Ellen Beans sat down with Brother Mel Anderson to record a 35 minute monologue describing the history of St Mary’s College in Moraga of which he served as president for 28 years (1969-1997), a period during which the college switched from all-male to co-educational. Brother Mel, who passed away on May 22, 2021, also served on the Moraga Historical Society board for many years. In June 2025 we extracted the transcript, added chapter headings for segments, assembled some photos from our St. Mary’s College collection, and created a dedicated Voices of the Past Transcript of Brother Mel’s talk.
History of Moraga Fire Department Talk by Chief Ed Lucas in 1989 Ed Lucas (1936-2012), chief of the Moraga Fire Department during 1986-1991, provided an hour long talk about the History of the Moraga Fire Department on November 26, 1989, introduced by Bob Atkins and Gerry Mazaika, and taped by Don Falconer. The original tape existed as a VCR cassette (Tape #17) which was converted into a DVD, which in turn was converted into an MP4 so that it could be posted on the MHS YouTube Channel. The transcript was generated by YouTube. It has been edited to remove word duplication, add punctuation, paragraph breaks and sometimes improve grammar. Many thanks to Mitch Reichenbach for his assistance in making this Voices of the Past episode possible. See the Voices of the Past Transcript.
Video #53 (Tape #17) – Video Clips of Moraga during the 1950s This is a collection of video clips (no sound) of scenes in Moraga during the 1950s. It is not known who shot the footage or who assembled it into a single video. The first segment has footage of cattle ranching activities. The second segment has scenes of roadwork and cars driving, with the scenic backdrop of Moraga of particular interest. The third segment is of a festival parade. The third segment is a dedication of a building, a good show of clothing styles. The fourth segment are scenes of flooding from heavy rain. The fifth segment is the dedication of Moraga’s first Post Office. The sixth segment is a driving sequence of Moraga’s fire truck. The seventh segment is a brief shot of the Rheem Center. The final segment features the Fire Department’s Santa Claus program.
Video #22 (Tape #38) – Maggie Skinner Presentation – History of the Moraga Rancho Unpublished
Dan Engstrom interviews Brother Dennis Goodman about the tragic 1917 collision between train and car Unpublished
Video #5 (Tape #13) – Brother Dennis Road Tour of Old Sites in Moraga – October 2, 1989 Unpublished
Video #25 (Tape #40) – Brother Dennis Historical Tour of Moraga Rancho – November 12, 1990 Unpublished
Video #31 (Tape #49) – Brother Dennis Goodman Retirement Party at Hacienda – July 17, 1992 Unpublished
Video #30 (Tape #47) – Sonya Levitin speaks at Joaquim Moraga Intermediate – March 5, 1991 Unpublished
Video #51 (Tape #17) – Rheem Center Overview Unpublished
Video #34 (Tape #56) – School Days – Charlie Toll – January 12, 1993 Unpublished
Video #53 (Tape #20) – July 4th Celebration & Visual Moraga Tour – July 4, 1988 Unpublished
Video #08 (Tape #16) – MHS Mexican Potluck July1988 Unpublished
Video #20 (Tape #33) – MHS Tour of Moraga Historical Sites & Landmarks Unpublished
Video #38 (Tape #64) – Life In Canyon: Grace Siefker (nee McCosker) – March 28, 1996 Unpublished
Video #08 (Tape #16) – Canyon School Reunion 1988 Unpublished
Video #46 (Tape #77) – Roger Heller Footage of Sacramento-Northern Railway – 1950 Unpublished
Video #03 (Tape #11) – Valle Vista Tour by Don Falconer Unpublished
Video #19 (Tape #30) – Early Orinda Development by Clark Wallace – February 27, 1989 Unpublished
Video #14 (Tape #21) – Geology Presentation by Dr. David Rogers Dec 7, 1987 Unpublished
Video #08 (Tape #16) – Celebration of Moraga’s Olympians Matt Biondi & Doug Robbins – November 6, 1988 Unpublished
Video #46 (Tape #77) – Dioramas created by Les Krames for KRON TV California History Series 1962-63 Unpublished
Video #45 (Tape #76) – History Center Fundraising Kickoff – April 9, 1989 Unpublished
Video #40 (Tape #67) – History Center Groundbreaking – February 17, 1999 Unpublished
Video #41 (Tape #71) – History Center Dedication Ceremony – July 4, 1999 Unpublished
Video #04 (Tape #12) – Gary C. Chase Town Manager Farewell Dinner – February 3, 1989 Unpublished
Video #50 (Tape #09) – Dave Baker Retirement – March 23, 1991 Unpublished
Video #48 (Tape #09) – Hacienda Mortgage Burning September 1986 Unpublished
Video #13 (Tape #20) – Moraga Bandshell July 4, 1987 Unpublished
Video #47 (Tape #80) – Moraga History Play Third Grade – 1994 Unpublished
Video #07 (Tape #15) – Measure A Open Space Campaign 1986 Unpublished
Video #15 (Tape #22) – Moraga Election Campaign 1986 Unpublished
Video #16 (Tape #23) – CCC Measure D 1988 Unpublished
Video #17 (Tape #23) – MHS Activity Summary 1989 Unpublished
Video #24 (Tape #39) – MHS 25th Anniversary Banquet – Oct 12, 1990 Unpublished
Video #27 (Tape #42) – MHS 1993 Review by Don Falconer Unpublished
Video #28 (Tape #43) – MHS Summary of 1989 Activities Unpublished
Video #33 (Tape #51) – MHS Annual Banquet – October 23, 1992 Unpublished
Video #37 (Tape #63) – MHS 29th Annual Banquet – Dr. History – Oct 21, 1994 Unpublished
Video #39 (Tape #65) – MHS Banquet honoring Maggie Skinner – October 17, 1997 Unpublished
Video #43-44 (Tape #74-75) – MHS 34th Annual Banquet October 23, 1999 Unpublished