I grew up in the Montclair District of Oakland, CA. I attended Thornhill Elementary School, Montera Junior High, and Skyline High School and spent some time at Merritt College.
I lived in Montclair until I was a young adult, and since then, I have lived by Lake Merritt, in the Fruitvale District, on Piedmont Ave, the King Estates Area, and now the Laurel District.
I have been an Oakland history buff since attending an Oakland Heritage Alliance Tour of the Fernwood Neighborhood in the Montclair District of Oakland in 1984. On that tour, I learned a train (Sacramento Northern) ran through Montclair in the early 1900s, and people lived in the area as early as the 1860s and have been hooked ever since. Since then, I have spent a lot of time looking into Montclair’s history, and I have learned a lot. This will be the best way to get it out of my head and onto paper.
2018. I started this blog because I had collected so much information on Oakland’s history that I couldn’t wait to share it. Posting in Facebook groups isn’t the best outlet for me. I love sharing what I know and reading what others share, but things get lost on Facebook.
I got started with the help of my dear friend Phil, and I was off and running. It should be easy, I say to myself, because I had already laid out actual pages and everything I wanted to say.
But it wasn’t.
I tend to get bogged down in the details, worry about getting my facts correct, and find it hard to find a happy medium between too much and too little. So, this is a work in progress, so bear with me.
I hope you will enjoy history as much as I do!
Down The Hole, I Go
But I have strayed from the topic of this post. When researching one thing, you often find something else that has nothing to do with what you are looking for, but it piques your interest. That happens to me a lot.
You might know this as the “Internet rabbit hole” you see when you research one thing and then accidentally go to Wikipedia, and then you are trying to find out what happened to Jimmy Hoffa. That is it in a nutshell.
One rabbit hole I get sucked into often is I will see a picture like this one and want to know more about it.
- Location
- Is it still there?
Those two things can be challenging as the location is sometimes vague and wrong. Sometimes, the area is correct. When looking up the house, I wonder who it was built for. Were they famous or rich, maybe both?
I have compiled many of these pictures of newly built houses. I decided to create a map using Google Maps. The map I have made is “What was there or still is… Oakland, California.“
I have already added many homes I found while down the rabbit hole.
Some are from long ago and long gone, but some are still there.
This information is based on clippings, newspapers, and photos. It may not be accurate, as address numbers have changed, and locations are often vague.
Maroon – Still there
Black – Gone
Yellow – Landmark
Green – Berkeley
Purple – Piedmont
Red – Questions – researching
I still have many pages in the works; I must get myself out of this hole.
This might help explain Rabbit Hole.
What a wonderful site. You have so much history and are sharing. I have been in Oakland since two years old. I will be visiting your site as I am writing about Oakland. I have written a collection of childhood stories of growing up in Oakland. I have publishing a preview of 13 of those stories. I am seeking a publisher but might self-publish by end of this year. Thank you so much. And thanks for the list of other Oakland blogs.
Thank you! I would be very interested in reading your stories. One of my friends published a story about growing up in Oakland – https://www.prweb.com/releases/author_dave_perrys_new_book_maxwell_park_is_a_page_turning_depiction_of_what_life_for_several_boys_is_like_in_the_maxwell_park_area_of_oakland_california/prweb17973290.htm
We should get you in print and digital publishing!!
Your story is SO similar to my own (although different generation and slightly different schools)! I grew up in the 90s/early 2000s, lived in Montclair since birth, went to Montclair Elementary, Montera, and then Holy Names High School. We left Montclair in 2014 because my parents divorced, but I was still in Oakland (in a rental off Edwards, not far from Oakland zoo) till about 2017. I also went to Merritt College! Your map though made me wonder something. My childhood home at 6025 La Salle Ave, my mom had been trying to look into the history since we had a lot of strange occurrences there while we lived there. She was never able to really find much of anything though. I looked at your map to see if you had found out anything about it, but I didn’t see it on there. IF you get the chance and want to of course, I would be most grateful if you were able to find out ANYTHING about it’s history or even the land surrounding it.