Oakland Underfoot

These are found scattered all over downtown. None of them are new. Most have the design above, with bigger or smaller letters, but there’s also this one from downtown Broadway that I like a lot.

20th Street near Broadway

MCImetro is a division of Verizon that handles backbone fiber traffic. It was formerly MCI Access Transmission Services before being acquired in 2006, so that’s the nearest thing to a date. The lid shares the same rugged hexagon design used by AT&T, Bell System and Western Union.

1600 Franklin Street

This access cover sits right outside the big AC Transit headquarters building, where it protects the fiber optic connections. I’ve passed over it for years, but today I noticed that the two S’s on the lid are backwards. The manufacturer responsible for the error, Alhambra Foundry Co. Ltd., was founded in Southern California in 1923, but after a century’s existence was swallowed up in 2022 as part of a relentless acquisition drive by the private multinational metalworking firm EJ Group. Alhambra’s shortcomings are also evident in the firm’s former website, preserved on archive.org.

Oak and Embarcadero Streets

From its age and position next to the train tracks, I can only conclude that this is a Southern Pacific access cover. The great rail line was formally named Southern Pacific Company between 1885 and 1969.

Broadway at 21st Street

Apparently this part of town had a steam heating system — a steam district heating system. It’s like central heating, but for a neighborhood.

Oakland’s district heating system was established in 1911 and shut down in 1980, according to a compilation by Dr. Morris Pierce of the University of Rochester. It was put up by the Oakland Gas Light & Heat Company and absorbed into PG&E in 1919. It may have used waste steam from the Great Western Power Company plant just a block away.

I don’t know what was near this intersection in 1911. A streetcar line running on 22nd Street might have had a generator that fed this steam system. On Telegraph Avenue, there was the First Baptist church at 22nd and the YMCA apartment building on 21st that could have used this service. The system might have served the Paramount Theater when it was built in the 1930s.

The American District Steam Company was founded in 1881 in Lockport, New York. It survives as Adsco Manufacturing LLC in Buffalo, near its birthplace.

5659 Snake Road

These are everywhere, of course.