In addition to house museums like Camron-Stanford House and the Pardee Home Museum, and commercial buildings in Old Oakland, there are a surprising number of things left from Oakland’s early days. This walk will also explore Preservation Park, and view numerous Victorian residences that still stand. And maybe we’ll hear a Victorian ghost story or two.

We’ll talk about some of the people who lived and worked in the buildings and a bit about life in 1800s Oakland, and finish up in Old Oakland. The walk is about 2.2 miles with no stairs (sorry, stair lovers). Our end point is about 0.8 miles from the start. The start and finish are served by nearby AC Transit bus routes, and 12th Street BART is near the finish.

There are numerous restaurants a short walk from where we’ll finish, so consider staying for lunch after the walk and supporting local businesses.

Purchase tickets on Humanitix.

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This walk was inspired in part by the need of the above house museums and others like the Dunsmuir-Hellman House and the Cohen-Bray House. They have long had a tenuous existence, but Camron-Stanford House was closed by the city and then suffered a fire, and the Dunsmuir-Hellman House (also owned by the city) has been suffering from lack of maintenance for many years.

Learn more about the need by listening to the East Bay Yesterday podcast episode, How to save a house, or read Liam’s SFGate article, Rare Bay Area Victorian mansion might need to ‘get rid of everything’.

Even if you can’t go on the walk, consider donating to support Camron-Stanford House reopening, or find out what you can do to support one of the house museums near you.