2525 Church Street
Ryan put the full date on this mark, whereas my other example from this year featured only the month. His practices, as well as his stamps, varied over the years between 1925 and 1940.
Archive for the ‘1927’ Category
1927 – T. A. Ryan
3 September 2020Sidewalk makers: Andersen & Montgomery
28 July 2017The Andersen & Montgomery partnership did a small number of surviving sidewalks in the Piedmont Avenue neighborhood and in Piedmont. This mark, from 1927, is at 945 Wildwood in Piedmont.
I’ve found two other marks dated 1929, but usually there are no dates.
The address on the stamp, 3796 Howe Street, was wiped out by the construction of the MacArthur-Broadway shopping center and then by the new Kaiser hospital building. John Andersen lived there with his wife Hulda (Lobel), according to the 1930 directory and the census. He was born in Denmark in 1859 and immigrated to the U.S. in 1883. Hulda was German, born in 1864, and immigrated in 1888. So they were pretty old by this time. She died in 1954, but I don’t know about him.
John Andersen was surely the “J. Andersen,” of 3774 Howe Street, responsible for this mark:
These date from 1912 to 1928 and are found mainly in North Oakland.
Robert B. Montgomery was a much younger man, born in Colorado in 1904 or 1905. He married the former Alice Sueell in 1929 and raised a family at 2626 Ivy Drive, where her folks lived. He dealt with bungalows, mainly. He is also responsible for this 1931 stamp on E. 24th Street.
It’s the only dated example I’ve found. Montgomery got in the paper in 1951 when he bought the Olympic Hotel building, at 2nd Avenue and E. 12th Street, and moved it across the street.
1927 – The Oakland Paving Co.
6 November 2015
10506 Byron Avenue
The concrete guy did a great job on the south end of Byron, until the very last step.
This next set of stamps is from the last part of Oakland. As of today, I have surveyed the sidewalks on every block of the city. As usual, I’ll present the marks in chronological order. This set will run for the next month, and then this blog will enter a new phase.
1927 – S. Giuntoli
16 September 2015
Elmhurst Avenue at C Street
Silvio Giuntoli lived at 1159 Elmhurst Avenue and was responsible for the pavement on Elmhurst and the adjoining streets, largely in 1927. There are many excellent marks in this neighborhood, and the work has held up well for nearly 90 years. I chose this mark to feature because it includes the day and month as well as the year.
The 1927 Alameda County phone book lists three Giuntolis, all in Oakland: Norma, a stenographer at the Oakland Fish Company; Pasquino, a plasterer; and Silvio.
1927 – S. Giuntoli
4 September 2015
1201 95th Avenue
By now I think the story of S. Giuntoli’s stamp is clear: he started in the 1920s, using a stamp with “192_” dates. Some time before 1932 he switched to using tiny numerals for the last two digits of the date, adding the month and day using the same tiny numerals.
1927 – F. E. Flaherty
26 April 2015
1732 82nd Avenue
1927 – J. Abreu & Son
16 April 2015
7883 Arthur Street
J. Abreu & Son did this whole block, and it looks like all the houses were built in the same year too.
