2900 Lincoln Avenue, Alameda
Apodaca Bros. started using this oval text stamp in 1976. Early examples are rare; I have dates going back to 1967 and up to 2005.
After 12 years of intensive searching, this is the first sidewalk stamp I’ve ever found stamped with a 1978 date.
743 Lincoln Avenue, Alameda
2222 Lincoln Avenue, Alameda
Marks by this maker are very scarce in Oakland; I’ve found only a handful. This one takes the firm’s history back another year.
1715 Lincoln Avenue, Alameda
I have only a single dated example of Testa’s work from Oakland.
743 Lincoln Avenue, Alameda
I’m going to put up a bunch of stamps I collected in Alameda last month. As always, I only use non-Oakland stamps to document dates that I haven’t found in Oakland. Alameda has stamps from a lot of sidewalk makers who don’t appear in Oakland. One reason, especially in the old days, is that the city required a $200 bond in order to do business, which kept a lot of artisans away and reserved street work for the already successful and/or well connected.
LaPlant marks are scarce in Oakland. I expect to find quite a few more dates in Alameda.
1721 Tenth Street, Berkeley
I’ve documented this year before, but those marks had hand-drawn dates.
