Oakland Urban Paths: Highland Hospital area steps

Saturday a group of about 30 people gathered for an Oakland Urban Paths walk exploring some of the stairways and pathways near Highland Hospital and the Central Reservoir.

We started at Highland Hospital, where Paul told us a bit about the hospital (built 1927, designed by Henry Meyers; grounds designed by Howard Gilkey) which was built as part of a countywide plan for health care. After a look at the old Key System stop in front of the hospital, we crossed 14th Avenue to our first set of steps.

Our route took us up and down the hills, and past numerous beautiful Victorians, including the Whitaker House, designed by prolific architect Charles Mau, and the John C. McMullen House.

The next stops were the Central Reservoir and then William Wood Park, which are strangely linked. The reservoir was built by the People's Water Company (one of the predecessors of EBMUD) back in 1910. Seepage from the reservoir and undercutting from nearby Sausal Creek led to a major landslide in the 1950s. That destroyed some homes and closed McKillop Road, and eventually the land was turned into Wood Park. More recently, undercutting from Sausal Creek has led to more slides in the area, but it appears to have come through the rainy 2016-2017 winter OK.

A quick trip across 580 to the Altenheim and then back across 580 took us down the other side of the Central Reservoir, then past the Manzanita Recreation Center and back to our start near the hospital.

A long but great walk. Thanks to Paul for leading us and Charlie for being the sweeper. Next up is a special walk in conjunction with the Oakland Walking Tours program. This Saturday, May 20th, we'll be doing an extended version of the Chinatown tour in honor of Asian Heritage month. More info here.

More photos from the walk can be seen here.

Oakland Urban Paths: Highland Terrace

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:

urban paths: Highland Hospital Area Steps

Saturday we had an amazing turnout for the Oakland Urban Paths walk focused on the stairs near Highland Hospital and the area around the EBMUD Central Reservoir. The day promised to be warm, but that didn't stop almost 60 people from showing up to walk.

We started near the original front gate to Highland Hospital, where we admired one of the original 1920s buildings. It's reminiscent of a Mexican cathedral, in the Spanish baroque style of architecture. It was designed by architect Henry Meyers, who also designed the Posey Tube, the Veterans Memorial Building and other well-known structures in Oakland. The grounds were designed by landscape architect Howard Gilkey, who designed the Cleveland Cascade near Lake Merritt, the Woodminster Cascade in Joaquin Miller Park, and other areas. The hospital came about because a citizens advisory commission developed a countywide plan for health care and facilities.

Key System stop in 1947

Then it was across 14th Avenue to explore various stairs that were built to connect residents of the nearby neighborhoods to the streetcars that ran on 14th Avenue. The stairs are unusual, in that some of the residences along them can only be accessed via the stairways. At top of one of the stairways, we admired the view and I told people about Dennis Evanosky's palm tree method. The palm trees we saw across the way were the ones marking the edge of the "Borax" Smith estate near Park Boulevard. I also told people about Andrew Alden's method of using sidewalk stamps for figuring out the age of a neighborhood. Neither Paul nor I knew the exact age of the stairways, but then I saw a stamp on one of them from 1922. Another of the stairways had been repaired fairly recently. Oakland Urban Paths cataloged all the stairways and pathways they could find in Oakland in 2009, and noted the condition and usage of each. The city then used that info for assigning priorities to which stairs got repairs.

McMullen House

Paul then led us past numerous lovely Victorians and other homes, until we eventually came to the former home of John Cornelius McMullen which dates back to 1896. He was an attorney and banker who founded what became the State Savings Bank in Oakland. The brick building that was home to the bank still stands across from the Tribune Tower at 1305 Franklin Street; it’s called, appropriatley enough, the McMullen Building. John had served in the First Wisconsin Infantry during the Civil War and was with Sherman on his March to the Sea. He attained the rank of captain, but for some reason he was known as (and addressed as) "Colonel McMullen." He died at his Queen Anne-style home at 2748 Grande Vista Avenue on December 30, 1912. He rests at Mountain View Cemetery.

at Wood Park

More walking gave us our first glimpse of the EBMUD Central Reservoir. It was built in 1910 by the People's Water Company. It covers 14 acres, and can hold 154 million gallons of water. Unfortunately, it leaked in the 1950s, and the resulting slide moved an entire neighborhood. The sliding was stopped by the Corps of Engineers, but it destroyed dozens of houses, and left the area unsafe to build. It became William D. Wood Park in 1976, and a now a group of dedicated neighbors are working to clean it up and improve it. We heard about the history of the park and the volunteer efforts from Jill Weil who lives nearby. There was a more recent slide west of the original, which destroyed additional homes. It's unclear whether the recent slide was the result of additional leaking, and a lawsuit was filed in 2007.

We walked through Wood Park, then over to I-580, otherwise known as the MacArthur Freeway. A bridge took us over the freeway to the Altenheim senior housing in the Dimond. A short walk along MacArthur Boulevard and another bridge back across the freeway brought us to the other side of the reservoir. We meandered through several streets, back down the first set of stairs we'd climbed, and returned to the front of Highland Hospital.

Another great walk. Thanks to Paul Rosenbloom for leading the tour, Jill Weil for telling us about Wood Park, Dennis Evanosky for information for the tour, and Annalee Allen for information about the tour and the mention in the newspaper. And thanks to everyone who showed up for the walk!

Lots more pictures:


More information:
- to help clean up Wood Park, contact Lisa Lemus at lemuswong@aol.com
- Mountain View Cemetery tours
- read more about the history of the Altenheim

seeing

Today was an absolutely gorgeous day. And another day I wished I'd had a camera attached to my bike helmet or something, to capture some of the scenes as I rode to work via Fruitvale BART and back: younger siblings coming back with mom after dropping off a child at school; a line of people at a bus stop facing away from the street to shade their cellphones; a group of older men on the balcony of a house or apartment just watching the world go by.

For a little variety I meandered my way back from Fruitvale BART, and rode back past the Central Reservoir and various neighborhoods I hadn't seen before. No new signs as they were primarily residential, but I enjoyed seeing them nonetheless.