479 McAuley Street
This collaboration between Joseph Stone and Nick Ferri is one of two on this block.
Archive for the ‘1941’ Category
1941 – Stone / Ferri
19 March 20221941 – Dan Doyle Concrete
31 December 2020
2556 Frances Street
This is a much more definitive version than my previous example. Dan Doyle Company stamps with dates are uncommon, and only three years (1940-1942) appear in Oakland.
Standout Streets: Lawlor Avenue
11 December 2015
Welcome to phase 2 of this blog. I’ll be posting every Friday morning from now on, so add this to your feed, or subscribe, or whatever you do to keep up with the cool new stuff.
Oakland has lots of streets that are special for one reason or another. As I threaded its labyrinth I wished I could show them to you, but didn’t want to interrupt the parade. Now I’m getting around to them.
The Work Projects Administration or WPA gave millions of skilled and unskilled people jobs during the Great Depression. Their work added a great deal to Oakland’s cityscape, not least in its sidewalks. Lawlor Avenue seems to have been entirely paved by WPA workers in 1941 — curbs, sidewalks and driveways. It has an unusual unity of appearance for that reason, and the work is almost unmarred even 75 years after the last trowel was washed dry. In that respect, it’s a heritage street.
1941 – (J.) Kemble
1 October 2015
1220 102nd Avenue
When he hand-drew his mark, J. Kemble sometimes used his initial, sometimes not. With this example, I now have both types from 1941.
1941 – General Con. Co.
30 September 2015
1320 103rd Avenue
This is a better strike than the previous one I documented several years ago.
103rd and 104th Avenues are interesting. The curbs were laid out without driveways, and each lot had a stamp with its number in the sidewalk. the sidewalk makers also put arrows in the pavement, but I’m not sure what the mark signifies, perhaps the location of the water lines. Each homeowner had to pay a concrete worker to cut out a driveway, and almost all of them are crude and unsigned.
1941 – C. Valenzuela
27 July 2015
1323 91st Avenue
Valenzuela marks from the 1940s are quite rare.
1941 – J. S. Mattos
13 May 2015
438 Harrison Street
This gives me a date for the otherwise-undated J. S. Mattos Concrete Co. mark.
Oakland Underfoot 