Oakland Underfoot

Three generations of DeGuardas have built sidewalks in Oakland and elsewhere in the Bay Area. It all began with Salvatore P. Guardalibeni (1884-1977), who immigrated from Italy in 1910. The family name is also commonly spelled Guardalabene, Guardalibena, etc. He married Mamie in 1910 and they had their five children (Marino, Leonard, Theresa, Salvatore and Marie) in New Jersey between 1913 and 1922.

“Salvatore DeGuarda” shows up in directories from 1923 to 1928 living at 1363 88th Avenue. Over the years he was listed as a contractor, a laborer, a builder, and a cement worker. His earliest surviving mark in Oakland is from 1926.

Several undated marks in East Oakland must date from this period. The majority of surviving marks are of this elegant design.

The 1930 and 1933 directories listed Salvatore and Mamie at 1801 34th Avenue. As of 1934 they were living at 2918 E. 16th Street.

The next date found in Oakland is 1938, on a stamp without the address, just the name “S. De Guarda.” Other undated examples must also date from the 1930s. Salvatore and Mamie were living at 2175 38th Avenue that year along with Leonard, Marino and Theresa, although a newspaper story from that year puts Leonard at 1175 38th Avenue.

As of 1940, Salvatore lived with Mamie at 1636 36th Avenue, while in 1941 Leonard and Elva lived at 1725 E. 21st Street (listed as a salesman for Diamond Dairy).

Salvatore Anthony DeGuarda the son (1920-2012) had a storied life, starting as a swimmer (along with Esther Williams) in Billy Rose‘s Aquacade at the 1939 World’s Fair on Treasure Island. He was also the model for the swimmer in white in Diego Rivera’s Pan American Unity mural, made at the World’s Fair. A stint as a movie stuntman followed. He was for a time an associate of Mae West, appearing in one or more of her films under the name John Dexter.

Sal took over the family business in 1955, so it must have been he who drew this mark in 1956. The 1967 directory lists a “Saml De Guarda” at 3321 E. 16th Street.

Sal and his son Rocky carried on the family business together, moving it to San Francisco where it is fondly remembered on Yelp. However, neither of them used a sidewalk stamp, and more’s the pity.

Late in life, Sal Jr. adopted the mission of recreating the iconic Goddess of Pacific Unity statue from the World’s Fair.

Salvatore’s other son Leonard DeGuarda (1915-1960) had a shorter career, ending in 1938. His business address, at 4040 Quigley Street, appears to have been wiped out by construction of the 580 freeway. A small apartment building sits there today.

I thank members of the DeGuarda family for their help and memories.

Walter B[yrd] Pool was born in 1864 in Windsor, Sonoma County, the son of Henry J. Pool, who had emigrated to California from Missouri. Although two of his brothers stayed in Windsor their whole lives, as of 1908 Walter was living in Oakland with his second wife, the former Meta Lehmkuhl (1879-1966), and their son Glenn at 674 E. 23rd Avenue. The following year they moved to a new home at 3221 Lorenzo Street and soon gained a daughter, Roma. He died in 1933 and is buried in Evergreen Cemetery.

The oldest Pool mark I have is a “Pool-Lee” stamp from 1920, probably a collaboration with James B. Lee.

Another Pool-Lee mark dates from 1925, but Walter Pool was also working solo as “Pool” and “W. Pool.” He appears to have made his marks by hand with the edges of his tools. The results were striking and always varied. Here are some of my favorites.

From 1928 to 1930 he used a large stamp that used the name “W. B. Pool.”

Finally, from 1931 I have a single example of a stamp (actually, more of a painted mark) acknowledging his son Glenn and giving the family’s address. Walter also left behind some “Pool” marks from this year.

Glenn W. Pool (1905-1984) carried on in the trade at the same address, where he lived until 1935 with his mother and his wife Edith (1908-1986). Here’s the house at 3221 Lorenzo today.

Curiously, he was listed in the 1934 directory as “W. Glenn Pool,” perhaps so his late father’s customers could find him.

Whereas most of Walter Pool’s work is preserved in middle East Oakland around Allendale and Seminary, Glenn is represented all over Oakland.

Glenn Pool did his job with a subtler flair than his father. His earliest surviving marks are from 1938, at which time he lived, with his wife Edith (1908-1986), in Alameda at 1064 Central Avenue. At that time he displayed a sure hand but little style.

Soon enough, though, he arrived at his mature signature.

This is the mark, always hand-signed, that he employed through the war years and into the 1950s.

My latest example of his mark is from 1952.

The 1940 census listed Glenn, Edith, and Glenn’s mother Meta living at 2610 Grande Vista Avenue, but at the time of their deaths Glenn and Edith were living in Concord.

Carl T. Petersen paved a lot of Oakland over the years, and he had many years, starting in the mid-1920s and lasting into the 1950s. This 1952 mark at 2009 Capp Street is a good example of his later marks.

Born in Denmark in 1888 or 1889, Petersen was working as a concrete contractor in Oakland as of 1923, at 1318 E. 12th Street. At that time he and his wife Hazel had one son, Carl Jr. They were there in 1924 as well.

The earliest surviving marks of his are from 1925. Those included his address at 3041 Champion Street, in the lower Dimond near the St. Jarlath’s church.

The house at that address is from that period, and the redwood tree is one Petersen could have planted himself.

In the driveway is an example of that early mark.

The latest example I have with that configuration is from 1929. During their time on Champion Street, Carl and Hazel had a second son, Eugene. Afterward Petersen’s marks consisted of only the upper line of text, lightly incised and placed right at the edge of the pavement.

As of 1930 the directory had the Petersens at 2324 E. 20th Street. The 1940 census listed them and their two sons. In the 1967 directory he and Hazel were listed at that address as “retired”. A Hazel Petersen, with the dates 1894-1971, is buried at Mountain View.

Frank Paul Salamid was born Francisco Paolo Salamido in the town of Monopoli, way down in the heel of Italy, on 23 October 1881. Family lore has it that he was in town for the 1906 earthquake and was a barber at the time. However, his name first appeared in the 1900 directory, in the classifieds as a cement contractor. Then and thereafter, his address was on Manila Avenue.

I’ve documented the triangular Frank Salamid stamp from 1909 to 1949, one of Oakland’s longest records. From the start, his marks always varied. Here are three different examples from 1909.

Although the stamps read “Frank Salamid & Co.,” in 1911 and 1912 he started wiping out the “& Co.” part. My only clue about this is that in the 1910 directory he used the address 619 47th Street. I surmise that he started a proper company at that address and soon thought better of it, reverting to a one-man practice or a small team based out of his home.

Frank’s brother Angelo (1896-1997) came to America in 1914, working first in Pennsylvania and then in Oakland with Frank. Angelo Salamid first appeared in the 1917 directory at the same address as Frank, 5348 Manila Avenue. They and their respective families seem to have lived together, or at least within a few homes of each other, into the 1940s.

I haven’t found a mark from 1920, but in 1921 Frank appeared to have lost one of his most important numerals.

After that he acquired a new set of smaller numerals that allowed him to customize his marks even more capriciously — sometimes with months and days, sometimes inside the triangle instead of out. I’ve always thought this example from 23 December 1929 was poignant, coming as it did after the October stock-market crash and just two days before Christmas, when every extra dollar must have meant a lot.

The 1930s were good for Frank and Angelo. Their work is integral to the Idora Park development, the remarkable 3700 block of Elston Avenue, and elsewhere. In this period he got lax about wiping away the “& Co.”

The latest really good date I have is 1948.

Soon thereafter (the family source puts it at 1951), Frank sold the business to Angelo, retired to Glenn County and that was it. The family home for most of their time was at 5350 Manila, but the sidewalk there is blank.

Frank died in December 1969. Angelo and his son Anthony (Tony) carried on with the ubiquitous “A Salamid” stamp from 1951 into the 1970s, although none of their marks were dated.

Angelo lived to the age of 100. Tony, now retired, lives in Pleasant Hill, and other descendants live in the East Bay. My thanks to Patrick Salamid for the family stories.

As I surveyed Oakland’s sidewalks, I came to be amused by the marks of M. Cvetich for the variety of stamps he used over his career. At first, in 1928, he had this ordinary, understated mark.

At the time, he was listed as Michael Cvetich in the phone book, living and practicing with his wife Annie at 2515 Adeline Street.

In the mid-1930s, he was listed as Mike Cvetich and he used at least three different stamps. Two included his address and phone number.

The third left off the address, and the phone exchange had changed. This was the stamp he stayed with through the 1940s to 1950, the latest date I have from him.

By 1940, he was giving his name as Milan, which I assume was his real name. But eventually he dropped the phone number.

In addition to these basic stamps, he varied in the way he marked the year, sometimes inside the mark and sometime outside, sometimes with the month and day and sometimes not. He wasn’t very consistent. To me that implies a certain playfulness for someone in this exacting line of work.

So now I have to ask, because I don’t know anyone named Cvetich: How is it pronounced? It looks suspiciously like it might sound like “quidditch.”

Rosas Brothers Construction, our leading current provider of sidewalk repairs, has left marks all over this town in recent years. When contracts come up for bid in the East Bay they compete hard, then get the job done and done well.

Although they don’t have a website, their sidewalk stamps have their phone number, an effective marketing tool used by Oakland concrete contractors since the mid-1920s. When I called that number, I learned that Victor, Umberto and Luis Rosas are the brothers who started this Oakland-based general contracting business in 2002. The offices are still in a little old house on Coliseum Way by the freeway. Their earliest stamp I’ve seen in Oakland is from 2009.

They have used two different marks. The one above came first, then the one below appeared in 2010. It appears that each crew carries its own stamp, because there’s a lot of variety in the marks. Some stamps have a complete set of numbers in the date, while others have the final digit of the date drawn by hand.

One day in early 2014, I happened to walk past one of their work sites in the Laurel district, and there on the ground was one of their silicone rubber stamps.

So this mark prints the data “201—” and the concrete finisher writes the last digit. The stamp goes on after the fresh concrete has begun to set — a worker sprays the job to soften the surface, then pushes the stamp in.

Some of Oakland’s sidewalk makers left 40 years’ worth of dates. Rosas Brothers has a ways to go, but they’ve made a very good start.

Lazzero and Virginia Banchero lived at 2019 86th Avenue, in East Oakland, for many years while he ran his business. Although the 1925 directory lists him as a “cement worker,” the earliest mark I have from L. Banchero & Co. is a bizarre stamp from 1926 in the area, on Plymouth Street.

The Banchero home is still there, complete with a Banchero & Co. mark from 1928 on the sidewalk.

The earliest example of the standard stamp I have is from 1927. For the first few years of his practice, Banchero’s mark read “L. Banchero & Co.”

After 1933, he consistently wiped off the “Co.” (or chiseled it off his stamp). I don’t know why; probably he was just downsizing.

Banchero marks are scattered all over town, but they’re thick on the ground in East Oakland near his home base.

His marks continued until 1948, and possibly 1950. That’s a decent career.