Oakland Underfoot

1631 Spruce Street, Berkeley

Oakland has a single example of Reed’s mark, barely over the Berkeley line.

1529 Le Roy Avenue, Berkeley

Both this and the other 1908 (formerly 1906) Esterly mark are on the Hayward Fault, so it’s not clear how much longer they’ll last.

1529 Le Roy Avenue, Berkeley

A fine double mark, though the date is dim. Oakland has a double mark from 1907.

4250 Fair Avenue

Only the second Wm. Ward mark I’ve found.

1211 104th Avenue

Unlike my previous example from 1945, this uses only the last two digits of the year.

1501 Harrison Street

J. H. Fitzmaurice, founded in 1922 and still going strong as a general contractor, was the first sidewalk maker in Oakland to use the barrel-shaped stamp format, which it introduced in 1926 and used into the 1950s at least. Only a handful of this stamp’s first configuration — with “OAKLAND” placed above the center — have stamped dates inside the mark. So I had to capture this one even though I have another example from the Grand Lake neighborhood.

1452 Lakeshore Avenue

This is a clearer example of the year than the one I had before, which I decided was really from 1938.