upcoming Oakland events

Asomewhat abbreviated events post, as that annoying but necessary work thing has been taking up more time of late. Also check the events calendar in the menu to the right; it's got a few events not described here.

Remember 9/11 - September 11, 5:30pm-8:30pm. Join the Oakland Symphony Chorus as they offer a free, participatory concert commemorating the tenth anniversary of the 9/11 events.

Gatsby Summer Afternoon - September 11. an afternoon with the Art Deco Society of California. Aficionados of the 1920s and 30s step back to a time when elegance was a way of life and the Charleston and Fox Trot were all the rage. This is not a spectator event; every guest is part of the scene in their vintage best.

Park(ing) day - Friday, September 16. PARK(ing) Day is an annual, worldwide event that invites citizens everywhere to transform metered parking spots into temporary parks for the public good. If you're on Twitter, check the hashtag #oakparklet for more info.

Plus the usual events:
Piedmont Avenue Art Walk (3rd Thursday)
Bites off Broadway (Fridays)
Art Murmur (1st Friday)
Downtown walking tours (Wednesdays and Saturdays)
Saturday Art Stroll (Saturdays)

For more, check the Visit Oakland event calendar.

Looking further ahead:
Taste of Temescal - Tuesday, September 20.
Blog Action Day - Saturday, September 24.
Oaktoberfest - Saturday, October 1, in the Dimond.
Parlor and Politics - Saturday, October 1. A celebration of women's suffrage in California.
Suffrage Parade - Sunday, October 2. Continuing the celebration of women's suffrage, a parade starting Lakeside Park at Lake Merritt.
PedalFest - October 22nd. Bikes, beer, food, fun at Jack London Square.

Preservation Park walking tour

Park House

Saturday morning I went on the Preservation Park Oakland walking tour. It was the only one of the eight I hadn't been on yet. As with last week's OHA tour of the Dimond, it was led by Oakland historian and author Dennis Evanosky. Even though it was cut a bit short because of private event at Preservation Park, it was another great tour. We had a large group for our short walk around the park.

While writing this post, I discovered a nice series of short videos about the different structures at Preservation Park by Annalee Allen, columnist, author and director of the walking tours program. I'll link to those where appropriate.

There are 16 historic buildings (15 of them houses) at Preservation Park, but only 5 of them are original to the location. The others were all moved there from other locations around Oakland, some as close as across the street and some as far as from the Dimond. The people who lived in them were a who's who of well-to-do Oaklanders from the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th. The ones in their original locations are all north of 13th Street. (video)

ornate details

The first house we saw was the Remillard House. Pierre Remillard was a French Canadian who came west originally for mining. He eventually settled in Oakland, and through hard work began a brick-making business that became very successful -- the Palace Hotel in San Francisco was built with Remillard bricks. A young Jack London took French lessons at the Remillard House from his daughter, Lillian (later Countess Lillian Remillard Dandini). (video)

Next door is the Ginn House, of Ginn & Co. Publishing fame. The company still exists, though as part of the larger Penguin Group of publishers. Frederick Burrell Ginn and wife Mary Crocker lived there. The house was later used by a men's social club, the Nile Club. The Ginn House is Arts and Crafts style, one of the only non-Victorians in Preservation Park. Next door to it is a social hall, which is still used for events and meetings. (video)

At the heart of Preservation Park is the Latham-Ducel fountain, or as it's more popularly known, the Diana fountain. It was originally on the Latham estate near Lakeside Park, but was salvaged from there. After a number of moves in the 60s and 70s, it was rediscovered and brought to the middle of Preservation Park. (video). The Lathams also erected the fountain at the intersection of Broadway and Telegraph.

Nearby is the Queen Anne-style Thornton House. Thornton is listed as a "capitalist". The home was built when the Sather House and Garden occupied the lot across the street. Jane Sather donated UC Berkeley's Sather Gate and Sather Tower in memory of her late husband, Peder Sather.

Higgins House

In the northwest corner of the park is a beautiful Italianate Victorian. It was built by lumber baron Elisha Higgins, and has amazing details. Apparently he put his employees to work on carving all the fine woodwork. It shows a number of features common to classic Victorians, including brackets under the eaves, posts and other details carved to look like stone, and fine carvings all over the place.

On the other side of the bandstand is the White House, which currently houses the Preservation Park office. It was owned by Ellen Gould White and James White, who founded the Seventh Day Adventist church. The White House was one of the houses moved for the building of the I-980 freeway. (video)


There's lots more history about the houses and the people who lived in them than I have time to write about, so here's a brief summary:

• Remillard House - Pierre Remillard (brick baron)
• Ginn House - Frederick Burrell Ginn (publisher) and wife Mary Crocker
• Nile Club - members-only group of Oakland's male elite
• Thornton House - Thornton ("capitalist")
• Higgins House - Elisha Higgins (lumber baron)
• White House - Ellen Gould White and James White (founded 7th Day Adventists)
• Knox-Buckley House - Henry Knox (dentist), later John and Catherine Buckley.
• Bartling House - William Bartling (bookbinding)
• Park House - Charles O. Park (painted train cars for Central Pacific)
• Robinson House - Gertrude and W.H. Robinson. (fruit wholesaler; house moved from the Dimond, then called Fruit Vale)
• Standeford House - Miss Stella Standeford, later married John F. Conners (Oakland Enquirer)
• Bauske House - Reinhold Bauske (dentist)
• Trowbridge House - Lillie Delger and new husband Henry Trowbridge; father Frederick Wiliam Delger (Oakland's first millionaire)
• Jacobs House - Jacobs (tailor); house was built as two apartments
• Raymond House - William J. Raymond (UC physics professor)
• Hunt House - George C. Hunt (co-owned the City Hall Livery Stables)

more reading:
Wikipedia
all 13 videos
Pardee Home Museum website

lots more pictures:

site maintenance

One feature of Our Oakland is the extensive blog roll of Oakland blogs. At the moment, however, one or more of those blogs appears to have been infected with malware. So for now, I've temporarily removed the list. I'll return it as soon as I figure out how to safely add it back.

walking tour: the Dimond shines!

Last Sunday was the last Oakland Heritage Alliance walking tour of the season, led by local historian and author Dennis Evanosky.

the Boy Scout hut

A large group met in Dimond Park near the Boy Scout Hut. Long-time residents of the Dimond knew where that was, but I had to look it up, and it apparently caused confusion for a number of people. Regardless, the Boy Scout Hut was a great place to meet. It was originally a cottage built by Dennis Dimond, using adobe bricks from the Peralta homestead. Dennis was the son of Hugh Dimond, who purchased the land in 1867.

Hugh made his fortune in the mercantile and liquor trade. In 1873 he retired from business life at age 41. He decided to settle on the 267 acres he had purchased in 1867 in the Oakland foothills along Sausal Creek, an area including the Luelling spread near the cherry orchards and the hay farms. While the old Luelling house was being enlarged and refurbished for his family, he and his wife traveled in Europe. Daughter Nellie was born in Switzerland in 1873, and son Hugh in France in 1875, son Dennis back in Oakland in 1876.

They moved into their new home in 1877. Eyewitness accounts say the home was an imposing two-story white wooden structure surrounded by a spacious one-story veranda. Dimond Avenue began as the carriage entrance to the Dimond place, which was situated just beyond the grove of redwood trees in today's Dimond Park.

A big part of the Dimond's history is Sausal Creek (read more about the creek), from the logging of the redwoods in the upper canyon to the construction of a reservoir*, to the current state of much of the creek being underground in culverts. The presence of the creek as a water supply was no doubt part of why it was a desirable place to settle.

(* Caspar Hopkins, an early settler of the Fruitvale District, formed the Sausal Creek Water Company and built a dam and reservoir at the upper end of Dimond Canyon near where Highway 13 is now. The reservoir later became part of the East Bay Water Company and remained until the early 1920s.)

The Altenheim

We got more bits and pieces of Dimond history as we walked along, including seeing where one of the houses in Preservation Park came from. Our next big stop was the Altenheim senior housing. Various history buffs on the tour were excited because in the past the OHA tours hadn't gotten access, and it's on the National Register of Historic Places. An added bonus is that we had Elke, one of the residents, to show us around.

The Altenheim was founded by San Francisco and Oakland's most prominent German-American families, including the Sutros and others, as an upscale home for older German-Americans to live out their golden years. Adolph Sutro wanted it built in San Francisco, and even donated land in Sutro Heights, but it was ultimately built in Oakland. The original structure was built in 1893 (finished in 1894), and was a towering wooden building which burned in 1908. Undaunted, they rebuilt, constructing the current building in 1909. (It's since undergone a major renovation, and reopened in 2010.)

Tepper's - from the Oakland Tribune

From there, we walked over to the heart of the Dimond, where Fruitvale Ave. and MacArthur Blvd. meet. Along the way we saw where Sausal Creek briefly resurfaces, and the location of a former beer garden. The Dimond was home to not one but 3 beer gardens. The building where Charlie Tepper's beer garden and hotel was still stands, though other structures have been built in front of it. There was also the Neckhaus Garden, and Bauerhofer's, which featured a boxing ring and was where "toughs and their janes" hung out. But most (in)famous was the "Hermitage House". 'Gentlemen' were picked up and discreetly transported there to be entertained by "French dancing girls".

There's lots more to the history of the Dimond that was covered, including the Rhoda family, how the Presbyterians kicked out the Hermitage, real estate development by F.M. "Borax" Smith's Realty Syndicate, and more. Another great OHA tour, worth checking out when it's offered again.

lots more pictures:

Chinatown StreetFest

Looked like people were having fun at the 2011 Chinatown StreetFest last weekend. After 3 walking tours in 2 days, I was pretty tired, but there was even more energy in Chinatown than usual.








More pictures from the StreetFest:


more great photos and coverage by Reginald James.