Lodi History
When a group of local families decided to establish a school in 1859, they settled on a site near present-day Cherokee Lane and Turner Road. In 1869, the Central Pacific Railroad was in the process of creating a new route, and pioneer settlers Ezekiel Lawrence, Reuben Wardrobe, A.C. Ayers and John Magley offered a townsite of 160 acres to the railroad as an incentive to build a station there. The railroad received a "railroad reserve" of 12 acres in the middle of town, and surveyors began laying out streets in the area between Washington to Church and Locust to Walnut. Settlers flocked from nearby Woodbridge, Liberty City, and Galt, including town founders John M. Burt and Dan Crist.
Initially called Mokelumne and Mokelumne Station after the nearby river, confusion with other nearby towns prompted a name change, which was officially endorsed in Sacramento by an assembly bill. Several stories have been offered about the origins of the town's name change. One refers to a locally stabled trotting horse that had set a four-mile record, but as the horse reached the peak of its fame in 1869, it is unlikely that its notoriety would still have been evident in 1873. Alternatively, Lodi, is a city in northern Italy where Napoleon defeated the Austrians in 1796 and won his first military victory. More than likely, some of the earliest settler families were from Lodi, Illinois, and they chose to use the same name as their hometown.
In 1906, the city was officially incorporated by voters, passing by a margin of 2 to 1. The fire department was established in 1911, and the city purchased the Bay City Gas and Water Works in 1919. Additional public buildings constructed during this period include the Lodi Opera House in 1905, a Carnegie library in 1909, and a hospital in 1915.
Activities
Today, Lodi is a thriving community with lots of activities for it’s residents including, San Joaquin County Historical Museum; Mickie Grove Park & Zoo; World of Wonders (WOW) Science Museum; a weekly downtown farmers market; concerts in the park at Hutchins Street Square; a downtown public library; shopping in Lodi’s charming historic downtown; many art galleries; performances at the Hutchins Street Square performing arts theater; hiking, biking or fishing at Lodi Lake (the jewel of Lodi); paddling or kayaking on the Mokelumne River; golfing at our many beautiful golf courses or viewing nature at one of our several surrounding nature preserves.
These are just a few of the many attractions that await you as a resident of Golden Oaks Village.
Churches
Lodi is also blessed to have three Seventh-day Adventists churches including Fairmont SDA Church, Lodi Spanish SDA Church and English Oaks SDA Church, which houses the campus of Golden Oaks Village, just a short walk to church each Sabbath. But, if you are unable to attend, the services can be heard live over the built in sound system in each unit.
Lodi Memorial Hospital
The story of Lodi Memorial is one of vision, growth and community. In the waning days of World War II, Lodi Farmers, teachers, bankers and housewives in Lodi wanted to honor those who were lost in the war. With great enthusiasm, they formed the Lodi Memorial Hospital Association with the goal of building a hospital in honor of those who lost their lives at war.
Association members began knocking on their neighbors’ doors to raise money. From 1945 to 1950, they collected $800,000. Construction on the worksite began in 1948, and the doors of the brand-new Lodi Memorial Hospital opened on March 30, 1952. At least 8,000 visitors attended the ribbon cutting that year.
This early determination of community members illustrates the can-do spirit of this hospital that still exists today. But as Lodi grew, so did the need for more hospital beds and technology. By the late ’60s, the hospital was so consistently overcrowded that people were being cared for on hospital gurneys in hallways. Construction on a west tower was inevitable and began in the late 1960s. And then several decades later, in 2010, a south tower was erected.
In 2015, Lodi Memorial – which became Lodi Health in 2013 to better reflect its system that included a hospital and several medical practices – affiliated with Adventist Health, a partnership that strengthened the future of the hospital and quality of healthcare in the community.
Now, Adventist Health/Lodi Memorial treats about 19,000 each year, whether they are mothers delivering babies, surgery patients, those getting imaging procedures, urgent care patients, those visiting the lab or seeking physical therapy treatments.
In addition to our local hospital, Dignity Health and Kaiser Permanente joined forces to meet the health care needs of the Lodi ~ Stockton community. On May 1, 2016, St. Joseph’s Medical Center became the Stockton plan hospital for Kaiser Permanente members who will have access to St. Joseph’s Medical Center emergency services, and other hospital services recommended by their doctor.
