Saturday, June 13, 2009

history: Williams Dairy

Williams Dairy bottle

I was preparing for fire season by weed-whacking the yard today, and came across a buried bottle. It's from the Williams Dairy in Oakland, but I can't find much out about it. The format of the phone number, OL2-2816, suggests a date somewhere between the 40s and 60s. Googling suggests the exchange name was OLympic, and was probably north Oakland somewhere. Beyond that, I'm drawing a blank. Anyone know anything about it?
Posted by Unknown at 6:34 PM
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8 comments:

HighPrairie said...

Hey Gene,
I'm old enough (57) to remember our milk being delivered by Williams Dairy when I lived in the Fruitvale District. (I'm also old enough to remember the alpha-numeric phone numbers!) think the dairy was in the vicinity of Aileen & Grove (now MLK). My father-in-law used to do a lot of their printing.
As an Oakland ex-pat. for the last 36 years, I enjoy your site, especially the sign series. It takes me back.

June 24, 2009 at 11:59 AM
Unknown said...

At 43, I remember alpha-numeric phone numbers, too. At my grandparents' house in Michigan, their phone list was written that way, and I still remember the number to a family cabin starting with "JUneau 6". Thanks for the info on Williams Dairy. I got some more from the Oakland Library that I'll post about soon. What was your father-in-law's printing company? Is it still around?

June 24, 2009 at 12:33 PM
janet mack said...

My dad was a milkman for Williams from the early 1950s until they closed in 1974. The location was on Telegraph Avenue (I think 1600, but I'll have to check) on the east side of the street. A few blocks south is the freeway overpass and then the Nordic House on the west side. In the 1970s we also had milk delivered in the metal box with ice but my dad (who passed away a few years ago) said that earlier on the drivers had keys to everyone's houses. Imagine that today! The trucks had ice because they were not refrigerated, meaning that the guys who worked "inside" had to load all of that ice into the trucks in the morning.

October 6, 2009 at 6:17 PM
Kitty said...

My Dad worked at Williams Dairy, I remember him bringing home milk, we was the talk of the town lol All the neighbor kids loved coming to our house and drinking the chocolate milk.. I was able to get a Williams Dairy milk bottle off ebay when I was on vacation my husband accidentally broke it :(.... My dads best friend worked there also his name was Cliff Mayes, he's since passed away, my dad is still alive if anyone needs any info, that's if he can remember lol...

May 7, 2012 at 2:33 PM
Unknown said...

We lived in Walnut Creek and had the same milk man from Williams Dairy for years (until the early 70's IIRC).
He always called my brothers and I "pal". I miss the glass bottles with the cardboard tops.

December 9, 2012 at 8:18 PM
Unknown said...

Williams Dairy was located at 3600 Telegraph Avenue.

December 20, 2014 at 4:29 AM
Unknown said...

My father was a forman at Wlliams Dairy. Harold and William the owners wanted to retire so they closed the dairy down. My father would say that the milk that they pasteurized was fresher and had less chemicals Than the milk we have today. The milk sure did taste good in the glass bottles.

December 24, 2014 at 5:39 PM
Dera Williams said...

I just found this blog when I Googled Williams Dairy. Someone on the Facebook Oakland History page mentioned it. I remember having milk delivered to our kitchen door in the 60s.

May 27, 2017 at 9:05 AM

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