A Walking Tour of Downtown Oakland, March 3, 2007
by Susan Schwartz
Oakland’s city center boasts architectural gems of three successive city centers, each with its own style, set
among exciting pedestrian-centered office development and so much condominium construction that the
protective black veils make the city look mourning. But the center was shattered by the 1989 Loma Prieta
earthquake, which exposed a hollowed economy and leadership. It remains to be seen whether the shards can
be melded into a revitalized downtown.
Oakland grew from Gold Rush landing to town under the leadership of Horace Carpentier, a scoundrel
lawyer who fleeced both the legal owners, the Peralta land grantees, and citizens, as he collected tolls and
sold the waterfront for his own profit. But it was laid out thoughtfully in 1852 by prominent Swiss engineer
Julius Kellersberger (he also worked on Central Park), with a planned downtown on Broadway between 4th
and fifth and symmetrically placed neighborhood squares. Though legally a city, Oakland had only a few
hundred residents until 1869, when the first transcontinental railroad was completed, with its western
terminus on Seventh Street. The Mission-style Central Pacific station remains, flanked by bail-bondsmen.
Rails boosted the population from 500 to 5000 in ten years. By 1880, the area north of the station was a brick
city center of rental rooms above high-ceilinged stores, slim 3- and 4-storey buildings joined in blocks, with
tall doorways and ornate Victorian trim. Gargoyles or other decorations covered the ends of of iron
reinforcing bars that made it possible to build up several stories. (You can see the undecorated rod ends on
backsides.) The brick, also used in sidewalks, came from the Remillard Brick Company, founded in the
1860s by three Canadian brothers who mined clay first from the south shore of Lake Merritt and later
throughout the Bay Area. Pierre Remillard’s blue Eastlake frame home is in Preservation Park, at 13th and
Castro. Nearby is the 1868 Pardee mansion, home to two Oakland mayors, one a governor during the San
Francisco Earthquake. (Five of the 16 Victorian houses in the “park,” now used as offices, are original to the
site. Others were moved starting in 1970 to escape freeway construction or urban renewal.) Downtown
businesses served these elegant homes – examples include Ratto’s, started by a Genoese immigrant in 1897;
the now-vanished Housewive’s Market, and Swann’s Market, now restored.
With the turn of the Century, Oakland had outgrown this first downtown. The ornate, classically inspired
Beaux Arts style favored by the City Beautiful movement was in fashion, terra cotta provided inexpensive
decoration, and steel reinforcement let buildings reach for the stars. The center moved north of 10th Street.
Oakland’s first “skyscraper” was the 15-story Union Savings Bank, built at 13th and Broadway in 1903, even
before the San Francisco Earthquake. After the quake, this center and Oakland boomed, as people and
businesses fled San Francisco to what they thought was stable ground.
The lacy white city hall was built as a skyscraper from 1911-13; the triangular Flatiron and Cathedral
Buildings in 1910 and 1914 respectively, and Julia Morgan’s Italian-Renaissance-style, light-filled YWCA in
1915. Perhaps most stunning is the 115-foot dome of the Rotunda, built as a department store in 1911. This
was a center of streetcars and wagons -- the Latham Memorial Fountain at Telegraph and Broadway, at the
top of the narrow Cathedral Building, honored the donors’ parents, but also provided water for tired horses.
In the late 1920s and the 1930s, the center shifted north again, with a focus on shopping and recreation and a
new style, Art Deco. Between 1924 and 1926 came Sweets Ballroom with big band music, the Leamington
Hotel with its elegant ballroom, and Spanish-Moroccan fantasies like the White Building and Howland
Building. The more futuristic side of Art Deco was favored on Broadway. Capwell’s opened in 1927,
followed by striking green I. Magnin and the seven-story Breuner’s headquarters in the 1930s. Smaller gems
include the black-and-gold floral market (later Newberry’s) and the Dufwin Theater, opened for live
performances in 1928 but soon used for movies. Also in 1928, the huge Oakland Theater, later the Fox,
opened, followed in 1931 by the last of the Art Deco movie palaces, the Paramount.
By the 1950s, the original downtown had become a skid road. Attempts to reinvigorate the beautiful
Victorians and save other prominent buildings have been underway since the 1970s, with mixed success.
Significant numbers of historic buildings have been rescued by conversion to senior or low-income housing
or nonprofit uses (the Alice Arts Theater, Preservation Park, YMCA, and the magnificent Hotel Oakland are
examples.) Both the Beaux Arts and the Art Deco “uptown” centers remained vital, at least in appearance,
until the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake emptied many buildings. Despite extensive redevelopment based on
government offices, and payouts to developers, many buildings remain empty or have not been repaired. In
recent years, Asian capital and growth outward from Chinatown, as well as city efforts to attract
condominiums, have brought hope along with controversy. Boutiques and restaurants in Old Oakland are
doing better. Perhaps Oakland’s center will realize its wonderful potential.
This walk is a quick overview. I strongly recommend the walking tours sponsored by the city and the
Oakland Heritage Alliance. I’m especially indebted to the city-sponsored walks for much of my information
and ideas on how to summarize. The responsibility for mistakes is of course my own.
LANDMARKED IN CENTRAL OAKLAND (excluding Chinatown, beyond freeway, & near Lake Merritt)
From list of Oakland landmarks compiled by David Nicolai, Director, Pardee Home Museum
Victorian Row Historic District: 7th –10th, Clay
– Broadway
Portland Hotel-Henry House, 470-82 9th, 1877-78
Dunn Block, 721-725 Washington, 1878-9
Oriental Block (Peniel Mission), 716-24
Washington, 1885-6
LaSalle Hotel, 491-97 9th, 1877-8
Central Pacific Railway Depot, 464-468 7th
Bowman Brown Bldg & Annex, 727-35
Washington, 509-13 8th, 1878-9
Wilcox Bk. & Annex, 821-33 B’way, 459-475 9th.
Delger Block, 901 Broadway, 1880-85
Lloyd Hotel, 477-87 9th, 1878-80
Arlington Hotel, 484-494 9th,
Gooch Block (Ratto’s), 817-29 Washington, 1876
Preservation Park Historic District: 11th-14th.,
MLK - Castro:
Preservation Park extension historic district, 1011th, Jefferson – Castro
Gov. George Pardee House, 672 11th, 1868
James White House (now Preservation Park)
Charles S. Greene Library (now African-American
Museum & Library), 659 14th St., 1900
Greek Orthodox Church of Assumption. 950
Castro (originally 920 Brush)
1st Unitarian Church, 685 14th St., 1889
Frederick Ginn House, 660 13th St.
Jefferson Square, 6th – 7th, MLK & Jefferson
Lincoln (Oakland) Square, 10-11th, Harrison-Alice
Lafayette Square, 10th – 11th, MLK – Jefferson
Key System Adm. Bldg., 1100 Broadway
Oakland City Hall, 1 Frank Ogawa Plaza, 1911
Cathedral Bldg., 1615 Broadway, 1914
Latham Square Fountain, 14th and Telegraph, 1913
Tribune Tower, 409-15 13th St., 1923
Hotel Oakland, 260 13th St.
YWCA, 1515 Webster, 1915
Maclise Drug Store Bldg., 1633 San Pablo
Alameda Co. Title Ins Co (Holland/Everis Bldg.),
380-98 14th, 1400-04 Franklin
Oakland Title Ins. Bldg., 1449-59 Franklin, 401407 15th, 1921
Roos Bros., 1500-20 Broadway, 448 15th, 1922
Financial Center Bldg., 405 14th St., 1930
Civic Center Post Office, 201 13th St., 1932
White Bldg, 327-49 15th, 1464-66 Webster, 1924
Howden Bldg., 325-43 17th, 1925
Leamington Hotel & Annex, 19th & Franklin
Fox Oakland Theatre, 1807-29 Telegraph, 1928
Paramount Theatre, 2025 Broadway, 1931
Also notable, apparently not landmarked (my list):
Rotunda (Kahns/Libery House), 1911 & later
Dufwin Theater, 1928
Floral Market (Newberrys)
Breuners, 1930s
I Magnin, 1930s
Other Art Deco/Art Nouveau above 16th
17th St., Franklin - Webster
Sweet’s Ballroom
Union Savings (1st Skyscraper), B’way & 13th
Flatiron (Lionel Wilson) Bldg., 1910