Louis Lorenz Stein

Stein died of natural causes on November 11, 1996, at Walnut Creek, California, at age 94. A memorial service was held at the Arlington Community Church in Kensington and interment at the Sunset View Cemetery in El Cerrito, California. His wife, Mildred Slater-Stein, died on 20 May 1989 at Berkeley at the age of 86.

In the early 1980s, Stein donated 80 boxes of his historical collections, dating from 1858-1920, relating to Contra Costa County, California to the Contra Costa County Historical Society, which he helped found. The manuscripts, documents, maps, photographs, newspapers, and ephemera, about 50,000 items, are now in the History Center.

In July 1978, Stein purchased in a county auction, a historic 500-pound bell that hung in the tower at the Contra Costa County courthouse in Martinez, California, which was built in 1852. Stein donated the bell that was placed in the Borland Home in Martinez, which was restored by the Martinez Historical Society to serve as a city museum.

On November 5, 1977, Louis and Mildred celebrated their Golden Anniversary at a reception in Piedmont, California. Over 150 relatives and friends attended the reception.

In July 1971, at a luncheon attended by over 200 historians, the California Historical Society presented Director Louis Stein their top honor for an individual, the Award of Merit. The award was presented by former United States Senator from California, William F. Knowland.

In 1956, he established the Pharmacy Museum at the Columbia State Historic Park in Columbia, California. The Pharmacy Museum depicts a California pharmacy of the late 19th-century with authentic furnishings and pharmaceutical ground glass bottles. According to an article from The Times, Stein advised Walt Disney on details for an authentic Main Street drug store at Disneyland.

Stein was past president of the California Pharmaceutical Association in San Francisco from 1955-56.

Stein had a passion for history and collected letters, diaries, manuscripts, photographs, maps, newspapers and historical artifacts. On February 9, 1955, he and his wife Midred bought the Vicente Martinez Adobe, built in 1849, for $25,000 to save it from being razed and subdivided. It is now part of the John Muir National Historic Site.

Photographs from the Louis L. Stein, Jr. Collection are part of the Railroad Museum's photograph collection. An example railroad photograph is the 1940s City of San Francisco passenger train.

In 1928, Stein established the Arlington Pharmacy at 299 Arlington Avenue, Kensington, California (now a coffee and cheese market). The pharmacy was on the corner of Amherst and Arlington Avenue. He operated the pharmacy for 36 years until he retired in 1964. The pharmacy included a soda fountain, a U.S. Post Office and a lending library.

Louis Lorenz Stein Jr. (August 21, 1902 – November 11 1996) was an American pharmacist, California East Bay historian and archivist. He was best known for founding the Arlington Pharmacy in Kensington, California, the Pharmacy Museum at Columbia State Historic Park and donating his collection of historical materials to the Contra Costa County Historical Society.

Stein was born on August 21, 1902, in Berkeley, California, one of six children of German immigrant parents, Lorenz Louis Stein (1865-1953) and Dorthea Reismann (1873-1968). His father came to Berkeley in 1885 and opened up the first meat market at 1448 Shattuck Avenue, north of the old firehouse. His parents also had the Stein Ranch in Reliez Valley, California. As a child, Stein lived at 1423 Walnut Street in Berkeley and attended public schools and at Berkeley High School where he developed interests in sports and history. He attended the University of California, Berkeley in 1920, and then received a Pharmacy degree in 1924 from the School of Pharmacy. He married Mildred Slater on November 5, 1927 in Oakland, California and had two children.

Stein started collecting railroadiana and soon had a vast railroad collection, which later went to the California State Railroad Museum in Old Sacramento State Historic Park. He supervised the repair and reconstruction of one of the East Bay's oldest horsecars (horse-drawn streetcar) in his backyard, which was in service between Temescal, Oakland and the University of California in Berkeley. The horsecar is now at the Western Railway Museum near Rio Vista, California. The Louis Lorenz Stein, Jr. collection at the California State Railroad Museum represents railroad related papers and documents from 1873 to 1879.