Oakland Underfoot

1375 55th Street, Emeryville

I’ll call this “R-two-I” until I get a better idea who made it.

537 Spruce Street, Berkeley

Normally I only glance at J. H. Fitzmaurice stamps to see if they have a date. I didn’t expect to see an entirely new one that doesn’t exist, to my knowledge, in Oakland, in which “general contractor” takes the place of “cement contractor.” The curbs on this stretch of Spruce bear several examples of this mark.

I have few clues of the date of this stamp. The “cement contractor” version survives in Oakland with dates from 1928 to 1937. The adjoining sidewalks here, though, bear “J. H. Fitzmaurice Oakland Contractor” stamps from a later era. The earliest reference to Fitzmaurice as a general contractor in the newspapers is from 1959.

1299 Sunnyhills Road

“Nisalas” is an extraordinarily rare last name. This mark, the only one I’ve found, could date from the 1920s to the 1970s.

Oscar’s Alley

We may never learn who this is, but whoever it is is certainly a professional.

59th and MacCall Streets

Thanks to Ken for spotting the pair of marks on this corner, which explains why the Williams and old Sorensen Bros stamps look the way they do. The partnership must have operated around 1910 because the Sorensen Bros stamp, made after the pair broke up, is from 1914.

1823 62nd Street, Berkeley

This is awesome: Frink (1930-2017) was the first Black millionaire contractor in Bakersfield, with quite a life story. An ambitious charter school there is named for him.

There must be a story behind this driveway in south Berkeley.

512 66th Street

This time of year is excellent for walking, not just because the light is good with the leaves down and not just because the temperature is moderate, but because the low sun brings out marks like no other season. To my knowledge, this is the only mark by this maker in Oakland.

The firm was founded in 1900, by Charles Lindgren and Lewis Hicks, and disbanded in 1908. Lindgren went on to found the company known today as Swinerton, Inc. (and represented in Oakland by a 1936 Lindgren & Swinerton mark).