More Mansions

More on the mansions that once graced the streets of Oakland

Koa Hall – Bailey Mansion

W. H. Bailey, who owned plantations in Hawaii, hired W.J. Mathews to design his home, costing $70,000 to build circa 1889.

Bailey Mansion on Jackson Street – 1898 Oliver Family Photograph Collections Bancroft Library http://ark.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/kt0n39q1p1

The main hall’s woodwork was made of beautiful koa from the Hawaiian Islands. Koa carvings were also found by the main staircase. The reception room’s woodwork on one side of the hall was bird’ s-eye maple. Antique oak was used in the library and the dining room.

Oakland Tribune May 31, 1891

It was converted into a rooming or boarding house.’

Oakland Tribune March 11, 1916

The old mansion was razed in the late 1920s, and the Hotel Lakehurst was built.

Oakland Tribune Feb 02, 1930

It is now called Lakehurst Hall.

Location: 1369 Jackson St, now 1569 Jackson Street, at the corner of 17th Street.

More Info:

The Old Brown Home.

“The house that watched Oakland grow.”

Oakland Tribune Jan 25, 1956

The three-story, five-bedroom home was built in 1872 by Dr. Samuel Merritt.

In 1874, Roland Geir Brown, a capitalist, purchased the home. Brown was one of the early members of the San Francisco Stock Exchange.

Mr. Brown sold sewing machines for Grover and Baker. The Oakland Tribune reports that Brown was one of the wealthiest men in 19th-century Oakland.

Roland G Brown with two adults – in the carriage. – Courtesy of UC Berkeley, Bancroft Library – http://www.oac.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/kt409nc89b/?order=1

The Brown home was less than a block from Lake Merritt, before the lake shore was filled in.

Old Brown Home – undated (maybe 1956)

When President William McKinley was in the Bay Area for a week in May 1901, he visited the Brown home.

Oakland Tribune July 25, 1956

Lilian Brown, Roland’s daughter, lived in the mansion until her death in 1955.

The old Brown home at 1889 Jackson Street was demolished in 1956 to accommodate a parking lot.

Location: 1889 Jackson – between 17th and 19th Streets

More Info:

The Other Brown Mansion

Albert Brown came to Oakland in 1887 from New Jersey. He was an undertaker and a prominent lodgeman.

Albert Brown Home on Alice Street

Boarding Home

The mansion was converted into a boarding house shortly after Brown’s death. The Alice-Lake Apartments are now located there.

Location: 1387 Alice Street

More Info:

Alexander Mansion

“Aloha, nui,” or “Love be unto you.”  It is carved above one of the entrances

Samuel T. Alexander came to Oakland from Hawaii in the early 1880s. He was one of the founders of Alexander & Baldwin, an American company that cultivated sugar cane. 

Oakland Tribune

In 1882, Alexander purchased a lot on the northwest corner of Sixteenth and Filbert for $6,000.

Artistic Homes of California
Artistic Homes of California

The three-story Queen Anne-style home was designed by Clinton Day and was completed in 1883 at the cost of $20.000

Move to Piedmont 

The family lived there until 1912 when Mrs. Alexander moved to Piedmont to be closer to her son, Wallace Alexander. 

Rooming House

Sometime after 1912, the mansion was converted to a rooming house, and rooms were rented out until the mid-1960s.

Oakland Tribune 1919
Sanborn Fire Insurance Map from Oakland, Alameda County, CaliforniaVol 1 1903

New Life for Old Mansion

In 1967, the once venerable mansion stood deserted, and in despair, its boarded or broken windows were scheduled to be demolished.

The Oak Center Neighborhood Association members decided that the old mansion could be given a facelift and become a community “Neighborhood House.” Thus, demolition was halted.

Oakland Tribune 1967

They visualized a rehabilitated building with office space for the Oak Center Association, a children’s library and study hall, an adult library and reading room, a large all-purpose room for meetings and socials, and a room for individual and group counseling.

Vandals Strike

The group succeeded in saving the old mansion from the wreckers, only to have it nearly demolished anyway –by vandals. The house was broken into, ruined beyond repair, and finally demolished in 1968.

More Info:

Quinn Home

William H. Quinn House, 1425 Castro Street, Oakland, Alameda County, CA – Library of Congress – https://www.loc.gov/item/ca0017/

The William H. Quinn Home at 1425 Castro Street was moved to 1004-06 16th Street to make room for Highway 980.

Location: 1006 – 16th Street

William H. Quinn House – Oakland Local Wiki

Hush Mansion – Etnemere

It was built in 1865, the 14-room house of rococo architecture. The barn had room for ten horses and room for 20 tons of hay.

Oakland Tribune

The house had 14 rooms made of redwood. The barn had room for 10 horses

Oakland Tribune

The mansion had a wood and coal furnace, and the radiators are believed to have been the earliest models of that kind in the country. The rooms were paneled with massive doors 9 feet high. Beautiful mirrors adorned the wall.

Oakland Tribune

It was reported that Susan B. Anthony once slept there.

Sanborn Fire Insurance Map from Oakland, Alameda County, CaliforniaVol 2 1903

The house and barn property were purchased by Marston Campbell, Jr, as an investment. It was torn down in 1948.

The Hush Mansion Today – Google Maps

Location: 1401 28th Avenue on East 14th.

More Info:

Once owned by Merritt

In 1877, Dr. Samuel Merritt built a three-story home on Jackson Street. The house had bay windows, a front porch, and cone-shaped peaked.

The lot is part of the 45-acre parcel, which Merritt paid $4,000 in 1852.

Oakland Tribune 1963

John A Stanley purchased the house from Dr. Merritt in 1880 for $12,050. as a wedding gift for his daughter and her husband, Thomas Coghill.

The Coghill family lived there until 1920 when they sold it to John C. Money. After Mr. Money died in 1944, it served as a rooming house.

By 1963, it was the last old mansion on the block and was demolished to make way for a 32-unit apartment building.

Oakland Tribune Jan 05, 1964

Location: 1514 Jackson Street

More Info:

Orange Street Mansion

Edward P. Flint, a land developer and San Francisco businessman, moved to Oakland in 1860. He lived at 13th and Clay before moving to this house.

Oakland Tribune 1964

The site where he built the house at 447 Orange Street was part of a larger parcel he subdivided in Adams Point.

After Flint died, Admiral Thomas S. Phelps, a veteran of the Spanish-American War, purchased the property. In 1939, M.A. Marquard purchased the property and lived in the house until 1964.

The house was demolished in 1964 and replaced with a “modern 28-unit apartment building.

The new structure has 15 two-bedroom and 12 one-bedroom apartments, plus a penthouse. Al Colossi designed the building. It is located at 447 Orange Street.

 Mr. and Mrs. Marquard lived in the penthouse of the new apartment.

More Info:

The End

The Black Y’s of Oakland

The Linden Branch Y.W.C.A. and the Filbert Street Y.M.C.A. developed programs during the 1930s that helped the Black community survive the Depression years. They emerged at a time when the national Y’s both encouraged separate branches for Black members.

Oakland’s Black Y.W.C.A.

In 1920 a small group of local black women, Mrs. Willie HenryMelba Stafford, and Hettie B. Tilghman, organized the Linden Center Y.W.C.A. with the central organization’s support and approval.

Black Y's
Linden branch of the Y.W.C.A. in Oakland, California. Circa 1940 West Oakland Public Library, Oakland History Room.

Linden Center got its name from its location at 828 Linden Street in West Oakland. It achieved “branch” status in 1924 due to increase membership. It was then known as the Linden Branch Y.W.C.A or the Linden Y.

Young Women’s Christian Association Collection – African American Museum & Library at Oakland (Oakland, Calif.)

The Linden Y functioned as a job placement center and welfare agency during the Depression.

Linden Street Y.W.C.A.West Oakland Library

The branch operated as a community center, offering members religious training, recreational activities, counseling, vocational training, and music and art programs.

Black Y's
Linden Street Y.W.C.A.African American Museum & Library at Oakland
 Y.W.C.A. yearbook
Young Women’s Christian Association of the U.S.A.–History.
African American Museum & Library at Oakland (Oakland, Calif.)

By 1938 the Linden St. Y had a membership of over 750.

For almost 25 years, the Linden Branch existed as a segregated facility. Following a national policy change in 1944, the board of the Oakland Y.W.C.A. integrated the Linden Street Y.

“to make its program available to all women and girls irrespective of race, creed or color”

The name was changed to West Oakland Center Y.W.C.A.

Group of men and women sitting on a wall in front of Linden Branch Y.W.C.A – circa the 1930s. African American Museum & Library at Oakland (Oakland, Calif.
Black y's
Group Photo 1940
African American Museum and Library at Oakland

Linden Street was described as ” a two-story framed building with four club rooms, a reception hall, office for the business and industrial sections, and two rooms rented to accommodate working girls.”

The facility and surrounding neighborhood were razed in the early 1960s to make room for the Acorn Projects.

Linden Street Y.W.C.A. 828 Linden Street circa 1940
 Young Women’s Christian Association of Oakland.
African American Museum & Library at Oakland (Oakland, Calif.)

Oakland’s Black Y.M.C.A. 

Organized by Rev. L.A. Brown of the  First A.M.E. Church, it opened on June 6, 1926. It was initially located at 3431 Market Street in West Oakland, and William E. Watkins, an attorney, was the first director. In 1927 the organization had a membership of 160, 134 seniors and 26 boys.

3431 Market St -Today, Google Maps

In 1929 they moved to 804 Filbert Street and became known as the Filbert Street Branch, Y.M.C.A. In 1935 they moved to 805 Linden Street and became the Eight and Linden Branch, Y.M.C.A.

The Filbert Street Y promoted a competitive sports program. Its annual track meets athletic contest attracted competitors from over the Bay Area.

Oakland Tribune March 19, 1934

They sponsored a variety of classes and activities. Members could attend courses in Bible and woodworking. A boys’ orchestra, organized by C. E. Brown, performed for the public. Some of the boys were invited to summer camp.

In 1936 Mr. Watkins resigned as the director and was replaced by R.T. Smith. The directory lists the BLACK YMCA at 836-36th Street. After the move to 36th Street, it became known as the North Oakland Branch. It probably integrated at about the same time as the Linden Branch.

Exterior of Y.M.C.A. building African Americans–California–Oakland–History–Pictorial works. source: Joseph (E. F.) Photograph Collection circa the 1930s
836 -36th Street today – Google Maps

More Info:

Oakland Heritage Alliance Newsletter – The Black Y’s of Oakland – Winter 1987-88

Oakland Heritage Alliance News Winter 2013 – Remembering the Linden Street Y

Linden Street Y.W.C.A. – Oakland Local WIki 

The End