History is as close as your feet if you know how to look for it. Sidewalk contractors often stamp their logo into the wet cement when they finish a job and it is there for all to see until that stretch of walk is repaired or replaced.
Watching where you walk can tell you a lot about the history of a neighborhood.
Let’s take a short walk around Piedmont Avenue and see what we find.
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The tour begins at the corner of Linda and Kingston, very near to the No.12 bus stop, where we find our first marker. "1910, F. E. Nelson," it reads.
Knowing that stretch of sidewalk was installed (poured?) by a contractor whose name was F. E. Nelson in 1910 gives a starting point to discovering the urbanization of that part of the neighborhood.
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Walking down Kingston toward Monte Vista for more information, we find what may be the only stretch of brick sidewalk in Oakland just past Monte Cresta. If you know of others, please let me know.
Now continue, crossing Monte Vista and turning right. At Fairmont, the first street, turn left and cross. Look for Numbers 685 and 687. You’ll find the name of another company – Douglas & Wolff and 1938. So this part of the neighborhood developed later than Linda/Kingston.
Follow Fairmont to the downhill paved path at Rio Vista and hang onto the rail as you walk the steep downslope. Between No. 38 and 20, find the date 1911
stamped in the pavement and again closer to No. 20.
These marks were put there by the Esterby Con. Co.
Cross Piedmont Avenue at 40th Street. Not far from that corner, beside Ferrari’s deli, you’ll see heavy glass circles in the pavement. That dates the construction to
before 1920.
Space prohibits an in-depth explanation of this, (at one time the glass was clear), but we’ll cover it in a future issue.
Cross Piedmont Avenue again and in front of 4014, find a well preserved mosaic in the doorway, inviting you into Pearson’s Hardware, which is no longer there – a remnant of time past.
Follow Piedmont Avenue and almost at the entrance to Piedmont Market, find a difficult to read marker M. Medis — 27 Scenic Ave. 19. We can only guess why there are no numbers after the 19, but the space before the 27 seems to be worn way.
Clearly, this spot has had a lot of foot traffic. The next stop in this block is between the last two display windows for Piedmont Market, where we find 1950.
The last impression on our tour is outside the tobacco store near the corner of Linda and Piedmont Ave. No date, only the name of the contractor. And it will be for you to discover what that date is as you take your own sidewalk tour.
