Note: Many of the links below are links to OaklandWiki.org, where you can find more information about the subjects. At the end of the article there are some additional links to other sites I mentioned, plus a link to a map of our route.

Saturday we had about 50 people (and two dogs) turn out for a walk exploring Montclair and the Sacramento Northern (SN) Railway with Oakland Urban Paths. The Sacramento Northern was an all-electric railroad running from Oakland to Sacramento to Chico.

We started in Montclair Park near the duck pond. From there you can see some traces of railroad, including the bridge abutments on Mountain Blvd. We headed up Moraga Avenue to the nearby Montclair Firehouse. The lovely storybook structure hasn’t been used since the 1989 earthquake, because it’s seismically unsafe, and the Hayward fault is basically out its front door. There are some people who’d like to turn it into a firefighting museum, but without a lot of money that’s not going to happen soon. From there we headed to the corner of Moraga and Thornhill Road, and I showed people a picture of an SN train crossing the bridge that used to be there.

Then we walked over to Fernwood Drive, which is named for the historic estate that once filled the valley. It first belonged to Jack Coffee Hays, who gained fame as a Texas Ranger hunting down the Comanche people. After a stint as San Francisco sheriff, he moved to Oakland. He improved the county road that is now Moraga Road to access his estate; for many years the area was known as “Hays Canyon” or “Jack Hays Canyon”. After Hays’ death, his widow sold the beautiful Fernwood estate to William Dingee of the Oakland Water Company.

A bit of backtracking took us to the Montclair library, another local storybook gem, and the Montclair Women’s Club. We talked a bit about the controversy surrounding it. After decades as a women’s club, it’s been sold, and a group wants to put in a Montessori school. Nearby neighbors are concerned about the increased traffic, because there are two elementary schools within a half mile of the already busy intersection.

Then it was up our first flight of stairs to Cabot Drive. If you approached from the top, you might think you were trespassing, but the stairs are a public right of way. They’re just unmarked, so you have to know that they’re there. We walked down the hill to Mountain past one of the elementary schools, then climbed another flight of stairs up to Magellan Drive.

Finally, we dropped down to the Montclair Railroad Trail. This follows the actual right of way that the trains followed, and so has a very gentle grade and wide curves. We viewed one of the information signs about the SN, and another about Highway 77, the highway that fortunately was never built up Shepherd Canyon. We walked a bit further up, and I talked about the tunnel that the trains went through to get over to the Moraga side of the hills.

We backtracked, then went through Montclair Village and checked out some of the new murals. Including some in the first-ever-OUP parking garage traversal, as several of the latest murals are inside. We crossed Highway 13, climbed up to Bruns Court, then returned to our starting point via a pedestrian bridge back over Highway 13 (and Hayward fault!).

Thanks to everyone who came out for the walk and for your donations, and special thanks to those who carried the loudspeaker and clipboard for me at different points. Hope to see you on the paths again soon!

Additional Links

• East Bay Hills Project – Stuart Swiedler’s amazing web site with lots of photos of the Sacramento Northern
• Sacramento Northern on the OB&E – Daniel Levy’s great web site with photos and more, including info about the Key System and other local transit. Daniel was the Eagle Scout behind the project that placed the informative signs along the SN right of way
• Western Railway Museum – a museum near Rio Vista on the way to Sacramento. They’ve preserved some of the engines and cars of the Sacramento Northern (as well as the Key System)

Our Route

A Google map of our route.

More Photos

Some more photos, both from the day of the walk and other

This past weekend was the monthly Oakland Urban Paths walk. Saturday a group of about 60 people (and 6 dogs) joined us for a strenuous, somewhat less urban hike from Laurel up into the redwoods of Leona Heights Park. The walk was led by local historian Dennis Evanosky.

As we wound our way along streets and pathways, Dennis told us about some of the local history including the granting of Rancho San Antonio to Luis Maria Peralta by the Spanish government. Peralta never lived on the nearly 45,000 acre land grant, but his four sons did. Peralta was given everything from the water’s edge to the crest of the hill, except for the port and the redwoods which the government kept for themselves.

Our route took us through George E. McCrea Memorial Park, which is home to some fly-casting pools. The park was originally nearby next to the McCrea family home on what is now part of Holy Names University. A pedestrian bridge took us across Highway 13, and it was into Leona Heights Park. The trail follows the stream, and starts off fairly wide and easy to walk on. At one point, the WPA crews didn’t go any further, and the trail becomes narrower, steeper and unsurprisingly, less well maintained. But most people (and dogs) stuck with us. We stopped at one point to look at an albino redwood tree, and Dennis told us about the cutting of the redwoods and how they were transported to the sawmills.

More climbing took us up to a fire road, and from there we could see out across the bay. We also saw the Old Survivor Redwood Tree, one of the few trees in the area to not be cut 150 years ago. A core sample was taken years ago by city naturalist Paul Covel, and it’s estimated the tree is about 450 years old. We followed the fire trail down the hill, past the old sulfur mine, and got views of the previous location of the Chabot Observatory. The newer Chabot Space and Science Center near Redwood Regional Park opened in 2000, but the first location of the observatory was downtown, in what is now Jefferson Square Park.

The return to our starting point took us past the Home of Peace, which was started by the Montgomery family in 1893 as a waystation for missionaries. Special thanks to Dennis for leading the hike, and thanks to everyone who came out for it! Be sure to look for Dennis’ various local history books next time you’re at Laurel Bookstore downtown at 14th and Broadway.

Lots more pictures from the hike:

An approximate map of our route on Google Maps.

Saturday 40 people joined Oakland Urban Paths for a walk exploring the staircases of Highland Terrace and several parks near Reservoir Hill. We had unusually humid and warm weather, so it was fortunate the sun was partially blocked by clouds.

We started our walk in front of Highland Hospital, which back in the days of the Key System, had its own stop built in the style of the hospital. From there we went up and down several stairways from 14th Avenue to the streets above. A few of the residences can only be accessed via the stairs. Our route took us past numerous beautiful Victorians and a few that are in need of some attention. There were also countless barking dogs, which is why we had the unusual ‘no dogs’ request for this walk.

Along the walk was the John C. McMullen House. McMullen was a well-to-do lawyer and banker who had the home built in the late 1800s. When we got there, we heard from the current owner, who has lived there since he was two years old and is slowly restoring the home to its former beauty.

From there we wound our away through several Oakland parks, the Central Reservoir Recreation Area and William D. Wood Park. As you might guess, the first is near the Central Reservoir just below I-580. Less well-known is that Wood Park was formed because of leakage from the reservoir. In the 1950s it destabilized the hillside and took out a dozen homes and part of McKillop Street. The area wasn’t turned into a park until 1976. And oddly enough, in the 2000s, more seepage took out some more homes.

We looped around the reservoir, crossed I-580 twice, then wound our way back to our starting point, with different views of Highland Hospital, the palm trees of Borax Smith’s Arbor Villa estate where we walked in February, and other unexpected sights. The walk for April is yet to be determined, but hope you can join us Saturday, April 11th at 10am wherever in Oakland it is!

View some pictures from Robert Perricone.

Special thanks to Eric Nomburg for the use of some of his photos. More pictures of the walk:

This past Sunday we had a great turnout for a Women’s History Tour around downtown Oakland, led by historian Annalee Allen of the city’s Oakland Walking Tours and co-sponsored by Oakland Urban Paths. 60 people (and two dogs) met up in front of city hall for a walk through Oakland to learn about some of the amazing women who have called it home.

Our first stop was near the Rotunda Building, originally known as Kahn’s Department Store. There a plaque remembers the women of the 1946 Oakland General Strike, which shut down the city completely. Near the Jack London Oak tree we heard about about Jack London and the woman who raised him, Jennie Prentiss, a woman who had been born into slavery.

Then it was on to the first of several beautiful murals we were to see. Mitzvah: The Jewish Cultural Experience is 7 stories tall, and features people and scenes from Jewish history from Oakland and beyond. Two of the people included in the mural are Gertrude Stein and her life-long partner, Alice B. Toklas. Kitty Hughes from the Oakland Heritage Alliance told us more about Stein, her growing up in Oakland, and the infamous “there is no there there” line from her book, Everybody’s Autobiography published in 1937. The line refers to Stein’s childhood experience being completely gone. The magnificent Tubbs Hotel where the Steins first lived had burned down; the bucolic neighborhood where the Stein’s lived was now built up with numerous homes and apartments, and the population of Oakland had grown from 35,000 in 1880, to nearly 300,000 by 1935 when she returned.

A walk down Mural Lane took us to the former YWCA Building, designed by talented and prolific Oakland architect Julia Morgan, then to the site of the former Ebell Society clubhouse, and finally to what is now the Malonga Casquelourd Center for the Arts. It was originally built as the Oakland Women’s City Club, then became the Alice Arts Center, so named because it’s on Alice Street. Alice Street is one of the few streets downtown not named for a dead white guy; instead it’s named for Alice Carpentier, sister of Oakland founding scoundrel Horace Carpentier. There we met up with Jerri Lange, pioneering Bay Area journalist. She’s one of the many people featured on the amazing mural across Alice Street, including center namesake Malonga Casquelourd.

Jerri later met up with us at our final stop, Camron-Stanford House next to Lake Merritt. It was home to various families over the years, including the Camrons, the Hewes, and the Stanfords (Josiah, brother of Leland). But more recent Oaklanders know it as the Oakland Public Museum, one of the predecessors of the Oakland Museum of California. There we heard from Reenie (one of the docents who was on the walk with us), Ann Swift (executive director) and several of the docents about the truly amazing women of the Ebell Society. I highly recommend checking out the great exhibit about the Ebell Society that Camron-Stanford House has put together.

Another great walk, and thanks to Annalee for leading it!

More photos from the walk:

Saturday we had amazing weather for an Oakland Urban Paths walk exploring Cleveland Heights and the nearby former estate of F. M. “Borax” Smith. This was a good follow on to last month’s walk in the former town of Brooklyn just south of Saturday’s walk.

During the walk I mentioned a Oakland map website that has a series of maps of Oakland, from 1877, 1912, 1936, 1950s, 1967 and present day. It’s a great way to see how Oakland has changed over the years. If you look at the 1912 map, you’ll see the outline of “Borax” Smith’s estate, Arbor Villa. The portion of the map shown here is even older, from about 1869, before Oakland annexed Brooklyn in 1872.

I also promised to provide a map in lieu of the one I didn’t have ready for Saturday. Here’s a link to a Google map with our route shown, but also some of the points of interest along the way, and as an added bonus, it also shows the approximate bounds of the Smith’s Arbor Villa estate and of the Mary R. Smith Home for Friendless Girls.

We started the walk at the Cleveland Cascade, designed by landscape architect Howard Gilkey and built in 1923. It was likely shut down during WWII, but was reactivated after the war. At some point it was turned off, fell into disrepair, and became overgrown and full of trash. In 2004, a group of neighborhood volunteers including Barbara Newcombe uncovered and cleaned up the cascade. Since then they’ve put in new railings and lighting, and are raising money to restore the water portion of the cascade. If you want to help, the Friends of the Cleveland Cascade has garden work parties on the first Saturday of each month.

From there we meandered across Cleveland Heights, keeping an eye out for gnomes, sidewalk stamps, murals and other things. We eventually crossed over Park Blvd. into the Ivy Hill neighborhood, and what was once the estate of “Borax” Smith, Arbor Villa. While the 42-room Oak Hall, gardens, out buildings and observation tower are all gone now, a row of palm trees marks one edge of what was once the estate. Seeing an old palm tree in Oakland is often a good sign that someone notable lived nearby, but the Arbor Villa palm trees are the best example.

Then it was back across Park Blvd. and along some buildings that are left from the Mary R. Smith Home for Friendless Girls. Frank’s first wife, “Mollie”, was inspired by Benjamin Farjeon’s Blade O’ Grass about orphans in London, and started an orphanage for girls. One of the “cottages” is an impressive structure at 3001 Park Blvd., which was designed by noted architect Julia Morgan. Our route back to the Cleveland Cascade took us past a home once owned by industrialist Henry J. Kaiser, some stairs at the end of Haddon Rd. that are no longer accessible, and down some beautiful stairs to Beacon St.

Another great walk! Thanks to everyone who came out for the walk, and to Tim for carrying the speaker. In March, we’ll have two walks, our regular second Saturday walk (location to be determined) and a special Women’s History Walk led by local historian and writer Annalee Allen. Hope to see you there!

Lots more pictures from the route (some taken during the test walk):

This post is a week late because I’ve been busy working on the Legendary Locals of Oakland book. Also note that I included some pictures in the slideshow at the end that are from when I did the test walk. It’s all things we saw on Saturday (except the cat and the squirrel), but that I didn’t have time to take during the walk.

“Oakland is nobody’s Brooklyn, but part of Oakland was once Brooklyn.”

We had an amazing turnout for last Saturday’s Oakland Urban Paths walk exploring the former town of Brooklyn. About 100 people and 8 dogs joined us as local historian Robert Perricone showed us around what was once a separate town east of Lake Merritt. Brooklyn was named for a ship that brought Mormon settlers to the area, not (directly) for the city in New York.

We started the walk in Clinton Square Park, which is another name from history. Moses Chase was the first American citizen to settle in what is now Oakland. He left his fiancee Mary Ellen Clinton to seek his fortune in California. After falling ill in the gold fields, Chase settled east of Lake Merritt and founded the town of Clinton, named for his fiancee. Sadly, she died before he returned to marry her. The town of Brooklyn was formed in 1856 by joining the settlements of Clinton and San Antonio.

We wound our way around various sites, some dating back to the town of Brooklyn or early Oakland, and some modern ones. Our final stop was one major building that’s no longer there, the Tubbs Hotel. It was a large, luxurious hotel, which covered the entire city block. Gertrude Stein’s family lived there for almost a year when they first moved to Oakland. As happens with many large, wooden structures, the Tubbs Hotel burned. There wasn’t enough water to fight the fire, so the fire became a spectacle with people coming to watch.

Stein left Oakland in 1891 after her parents died, and didn’t return until 1935. During that time, the Tubbs Hotel burned down, the family house torn down, Oakland’s population increased from 35,000 to nearly 300,000, and the bucolic neighborhood where the family had lived was now full of apartment buildings and nearby Highland Hospital. That’s what she meant by “there’s no there there”.

Thanks to everyone who came out for the walk, and many thanks to Robert for leading the walk. Below is a slideshow of photos, and below that are more links to the Oakland Wiki about some of the things we saw and talked about.

Pictures from our walk:

• Brooklyn
• Clinton
• Moses Chase
• East Oakland Brewing Company
• Brooklyn Brewery
• Brooklyn Firehouse
• Fowler Block
• Random Parts mural
• Vantage Point Park
• Olander’s Saloon
• William’s Block
• Brooklyn Presbyterian Church
• William Bamford House
• Mother’s Cookies
• Clinton Shrine
• Quan Am Tu Shrine
• Ellen Kenna House
• James Presho House
• Tower House
• Champa Garden (restaurant)
• Our Savior Danish Lutheran Church
• Asa White House
• Vue du Lac Apartments
• First Swedish Baptist Church
• Tubbs Hotel
• Tubbs-Henshaw House

Saturday was our monthly Oakland Urban Paths walk, this time going from Lakeshore to Piedmont Avenue and back again. It’s a walk we’ve done before, but there were a few changes. About 35 people and 5 dogs joined us some perfect weather to explore Oakland.

From our start in Mandana Plaza, we climbed over the hill behind the Grand Lake Theatre, and around past the former Lakeview Elementary School. From the unusual pedestrian bridge over I-580, it’s easy to see what an impact the freeway (completed in 1966) had on the school (built in 1913). The school is now closed, and OUSD uses the space for offices. Over the bridge took us into Adams Point, named for Edson Adams, one of the ‘founding scoundrels’ of Oakland. For those that were wondering, Jayne Avenue is named for his wife, Hannah Jayne, who was Oakland’s first school teacher.

Several sets of stairs took us through the Harrison-Oakland / Harri-Oak neighborhood, down to Glen Echo Creek. The creek is also known as Cemetery Creek where it begins up in Mountain View Cemetery. It winds its way (sometimes in a culvert) all the way down to Lake Merritt, where it feeds in near the Veterans’ Memorial Building.

We walked over to Piedmont Avenue, and planned to meet up in Key Route Plaza after a short break. There we were disappointed to find that the wonderful Key Route Plaza mural by Rocky Rische-Baird had been destroyed. A new tennant, KronnerBurger, is moving into the space that used to be J’s Mexican American Diner. They said later on Twitter that the wall wasn’t properly supported (true, but fixable) and covered with black mold (possibly true, but also fixable). However, they made no effort to preserve the mural, and the artist and neighborhood residents are understandably upset.

We walked back towards our start along a different route, visiting some different sections of Glen Echo Creek. We eventually came to the Morcom Rose Garden, named for former mayor Fred Morcom. Up the hill on Jean Street took us to the top of some nice stairs, which led us down to Grand Avenue. From there, the Davidson Way steps took us back up the hill, then it was a short walk back to our starting point on Lakeshore.

Another great walk. Thanks to everyone who came out. The January walk is still being planned, but may be a walk around the former town of Brooklyn just east of Lake Merritt. Hope to see you then!

Lots more pictures from the walk:

Saturday we had perfect weather as about 40 people and 3 dogs joined Oakland Urban Paths for a walk exploring the pathways and stairways between Lakeshore and Park Blvd. It’s a walk we’ve done before, but there’s always more to see. And Paul changed things up a little from the last time, in part because a stairway was closed because the city is doing some repairs and upgrades on it.

Part of the area originally belonged to Peder Sather, who Sather Tower (the Campanile) and Sather Gate at UC Berkeley are named for. Jane Sather allowed some of it to be used as a park, and that was the main destination of people riding trains over the railroad trestle that gave Trestle Glen its name.

We heard from Gerry Montemorency, former head of the Lakeshore Homes Association, the second oldest homeowners association west of the Mississippi. Among other things, the LHA created and maintains Oak Grove park, a privately-owned public space. We also talked about landslides in the area, including the 1926 Lerida slide which led to the destructuion of several homes, and Lerida Avenue being renamed Balfour.

We wandered up stairways and pathways to Park Blvd. where we stopped for a coffee break near the former Glenview Library. We went back via a different route along different stairways. One of the houses we passed was designed by Julia Morgan, but everyone agreed it was not her best work. There’s also a house in the area (1041 Ashmount) designed by her mentor, Bernard Maybeck.

Another great walk, and the first half of a larger walk. We’ll do the second part in December, when we go from Lakeshore to Piedmont Avenue.

Lots more pictures from the walk:

We had a good turnout and perfect weather for Saturday’s walk in Butters Canyon with local historian Dennis Evanosky. We started our walk in front of fire station 25 on Butters Drive shortly after the morning fog burned off.

As we wound around the hills, Dennis told us some about the history and geology of the area. Of particular interest is the California state rock, serpentine, which is common in this area of the hills. Soil formed from serpentine tends to be poor in calcium and rich in things toxic to plants, so plants and trees grow sparsely. When poet Joaquin Miller first came to the area, the hillsides of what are now Joaquin Miller Park were largely bare. Miller planted thousands of trees, including oaks, redwoods, and the less popular eucalyptus and acacia. A number of streets in the area are named for Oaklanders who died in WWI, including Butters, Brunell, and Burdeck.

We stopped by the Naturfreunde, an Oakland German-American group. It started back in the 1920s as a strictly German speaking club, but now is open to all who support nature and Austrian-German-Swiss culture. Nearby we got our first glorious view, looking over Oakland from above Holy Dames University.

Further up Butters, we heard from Dolores, who is both a frequent OUP walk participant and a member of the Butters Canyon Conservancy that has been working since 2001 to preserve Butters Canyon and the local Peralta Creek watershed. With the exception of a couple of “pumpkin teeth” still sticking out, most of the canyon has now been preserved either through acquisition or conservation easements. The group is now working to remove invasive plants and help mitigate fire danger.

Then it was up the hill and across Joaquin Miller Rd. into Joaquin Miller Park. After Joaquin Miller died, part of the land became a city park, The Heights (Miller had called his 75-acre estate ‘The Hights’), and part became Sequoia Park, which was home to the Oakland Zoo for a few years. We saw some of the monuments that Miller erected, got another spectacular view, and finished the walk at The Abbey, Miller’s former home across from the end of Butters Drive.

Our walk took us briefly near the Woodminster Cascade. Usually the water isn’t running in it but it was Saturday, so after the walk I went back and took some pictures. I found out from some OPR workers that there was a wedding scheduled for later that afternoon.

Lots more pictures from the walk and of the Woodminster Cascade:

Saturday was a different kind of Oakland Urban Paths walk. Instead of focusing on a single area, we focused on a single person, noted architect Julia Morgan. She’s best known for designing Hearst Castle, but she designed over 700 buildings in California, including some noted examples here in Oakland. OUP co-founder Dan Schulman had his work cut out for him in planning the walk, as Morgan’s works are spread all over Oakland. About 50 people and quite a few dogs joined us for a longer than normal walk.

We started at the corner of Harrison and Bay Place in Adams Point. Although the building that now houses Whole Foods wasn’t designed by Julia Morgan, it has an interesting history, too. It was built as a powerhouse and car barn for the short-lived Consolidated Piedmont Cable Co.’s cable car line (yep, Oakland had cable cars for a time.) Next door the Piedmont Baths used the excess heat from the boilers to heat water for their pools. The building was later redesigned into a car dealership. Dan told us about Julia Morgan’s education at Oakland High School, UC Berkeley, and the prestigious École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris, where Morgan became the first woman to receive a certificate in architecture.

Our route took us past a number of Julia Morgan-designed houses, including several with ties to Oakland history. The McElroy House belonged to city attorney John McElroy, who is remembered with a fountain in Lakeside Park. The Joe & Rose Shoong House belonged to National Dollar Store founder Joe Shoong. Shoong and his son were generous with their fortune, and donated to a variety of causes including support for several attractions at Children’s Fairyland.

Some people elected to take a shorter route back to our start, while the rest of us headed towards Piedmont Avenue. There we saw a rare example of Julia Morgan’s commercial building designs, the Fred C. Turner Shopping Center. From there it was a short walk to the King’s Daughters Home. It was designed as a home for incurables, which in those days included people with the infirmities of old age or strokes, as well as those with diseases like tuberculosis that they had no cure for. Julia Morgan donated her work for the design, and after her brother Sam died, Morgan’s mother Eliza Morgan donated money for the special front gateway on Broadway.

The official end of our walk was in front of Chapel of the Chimes which Morgan did some design work on, and Mountain View Cemetery, where Julia Morgan and the rest of her family are buried beneath a modest marker. But a few diehards wanted to see the Morgan grave, so we continued on into the cemetery. We passed by the Ayer and Hockenbeamer graves, which Morgan is said to have designed the markers for, and I pointed out some other notable graves along the way, as well as told people about the Mountain View Cemetery tours given by docents.

Thanks to Dan for leading the walk and doing the needed research, and thanks everyone and everywoof who came on the walk, whether you turned back early or went all the way to the Morgan grave. Next month’s walk will be in Butters Canyon, led by local historian and author Dennis Evanosky. More details as they become available.

Some notable Julia Morgan designed buildings in Oakland that we didn’t visit (or we’d probably still be walking) include:

• College Avenue Presbyterian Church
• First Baptist Church
• First Swedish Baptist Church
• El Campanil
• Margaret Carnegie Library
• a cottage at Mary Smith Home for Friendless Girls (her mentor Bernard Maybeck also designed one of the cottages)
• Oakland YWCA

Lots more pictures from the walk:

Google map of our route.