Agroup of 30 people and two dogs joined
Oakland Urban Paths for a special Sunday urban paths walk around
Lake Merritt. The walk was on Sunday instead of our normal Saturday so people could also participate in the Love Our Lake /
Oaklavía celebrations going on around the lake. The streets around Lake Merritt were closed to cars and opened to pedestrians, bikes, scooters, skaters and more so people could check out all the improvements around Lake Merritt that have been done as part of Measure DD.
We started the walk in Snow Park, where food trucks and others were already getting set up for the day's events. Snow Park is named for the
Snow Museum of Natural History; adventurer and hunter
Henry Snow shot and otherwise collected thousands of specimens and gave them to Oakland to start a museum. Later parts of the collection would be folded into the
Oakland Museum of California.
Next door to Snow Park are the remains of the
Schilling Gardens and estate, the home of Schilling Spice Co. founder
August Schilling. Parts of the gardens still exist, including iron gates with a large 'A' and 'S' in their design, as well as part of a greenhouse. The gardens and grounds were beautiful, immortalized in postcards and open to the public until about 1911. Now they're closed to the public, and were recently threatened by the development of a 42-story building.
After a quick stop in front of the Lake Merritt Hotel and
The Terrace Room, we rounded the corner on Lakeside Drive to come to the
Municipal Boathouse. It started as the a pumping station for the Oakland Fire Department in 1909. The 1906 earthquake was devastating not only because of the ground shaking but because of the massive fires that followed. The pumping station was added as water supply in case of a similar event in Oakland. The wings with the boathouses were added in 1913, and after getting rundown over the years, the building was retrofitted to house the Lake Chalet restaurant, a gondola service and the
Lake Merritt Rowing Club.
A short walk brought us to
Camron-Stanford House. This historic home is the last of the grand Victorians that once ringed Lake Merritt. It was home to various families, including the Camrons, the Stanfords, and the Hewes. For many years it housed the Oakland Public Museum. After that was merged into the new Oakland Museum of California, the building became rundown and was threatened with demolition. A group worked to save the house, and now it houses a small museum as well as offices that are rented out. The house and grounds (which include a new Victorian period garden) are available for rental for events like weddings or parties. While we were there, Mayor Jean Quan stopped by to take our picture. That seems only fair since we've walked past her house on a previous walking tour.
Then we walked along the south end of the lake, past the
Kaiser Convention Center (formerly known as the Oakland Auditorium) to the channel to the estuary. There we looked at the remaining traces of
Peralta Playland, which include part of the tunnel from the miniature steam train, the
Oakland Acorn. There we ran into Robert Raburn who is on the BART board and founded the
East Bay Bicycle Coalition, and Naomi Schiff, who is on the board of the
Oakland Heritage Alliance and has been active with it since its inception.
A longer walk took us up to the
Cleveland Cascade. The beautiful cascade was built in 1923, and was operational until some time before 1950. Over the years it got more and more overgrown, and eventually became a neighborhood nuisance. Then in 2004 some neighbors decided to clean it up, and rediscovered the cascade. Now the
Friends of the Cleveland Cascade have raised money (including some Measure DD funds) and installed new railings and lighting on the stairways, and are hoping to raise more money to make the fountains operational once again. Now the stairs are some of the most heavily used in Oakland, both for people getting access between Lake Merritt and Cleveland Heights, but also just for exercise.
We walked around the north end of the lake, through the
Oakland Pergola and Colonnade. While it didn't get as rundown as the Cleveland Cascade, it needed some renovation via Measure DD, too. When we went past there were people dancing in the plaza and valet bike parking along sidewalk. The adjacent street is called El Embarcadero because in the days of the Spanish, it was used as a landing for shipping and receiving cargo by boat.
Heading south, we saw the islands that serve as a refuge for birds. In fact, Lake Merritt is the oldest wildlife refuge in the United States. It became one when
Governor Henry H. Haight signed a bill in 1870. The lake is still a wildlife refuge, although the
Canada geese are some of the more controversial avian residents.
From there we headed to the
Gardens at Lake Merritt. Volunteers were doing special tours as part of the Love of Lake celebration, and to encourage people to volunteer to help with the maintenance. The 11 gardens include a bonsai garden, a sensory garden, a palmetum, and more.
On the other side of the gardens, we passed by the
Lake Merritt Bandstand, the back of
Children's Fairyland, and around the arm of the lake. From there we could see the outflow of
Glen Echo Creek, the
Cathedral of Christ the Light, the
Kaiser Center, the
Kaiser Roof Garden, and our starting point, Snow Park.
Another great walk. Thanks to everyone who came out and joined us!
More photos from the walk:
Click for
a map of our route.
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