Understand
Newark is unique in that it is completely surrounded by the larger city of Fremont. Newark was originally planned to be incoporated into the city of Fremont along with five other townships in the area Mission San Jose, Niles, Centerville, Irvington, and Warm Springs, but decided to pull out when it was slated to be the industrial area of Fremont. Instead, Newark incorporated in 1955, recently celebrating 50 years as a city.
Like the other five townships, Newark has a rich history. Originally founded as a railroad town in the 1850's, Newark, named after Newark Castle in Scotland, was a small village complete with a hotel, church, and school. Newark was also the home to the Carter Brothers company, which manufactured hundreds of train cars for the ever growing train industry, as well as cable cars for San Francisco. The Rose of Sharon church, built in 1880, still stands on Sycamore Street, and the old Carter Hotel still stands on the corner of Thornton avenue and Ash street there are plans to make it a museum. Newark also boasted a major steel foundry during this time, which manufactured stoves. Today, Newark's major industries are electronics and salt, and has been home to such tech giants as Sun Microsystems and Hewlett Packard. Newark is also home to the Cargill salt company formerly Leslie Salt.
