1918 – Sandin & Swanson

7 January 2013

1918s

3606 Glen Park Road

This is about as good as Sandin & Swanson marks get.

It’s possible, maybe even likely, that the little cross is a union mark. Cement contractors began to unionize in the 1900s decade, as well documented by Lincoln Cushing.

H K C Co.

6 January 2013

m-k-c-co

3409 Mirasol Avenue

This mark, by a Fruitvale contractor, feels out of place here—earlier than the rest. I have since found another one on Excelsior Avenue.

Peralta Avenue is now known as Coolidge Avenue. The street was renamed after Oakland annexed this part of town in 1909, so that puts this mark in the first decade of the 1900s if not before.

1973 – Patrick and Cathy’s family

5 January 2013

1973

3456 Oak Knoll Boulevard

We have Dad and Mom’s feet, and then Noah’s feet, Sean’s hands and Norman’s baby foot.

This is the first mark I’ve found from 1973.

1948 – Lee Scaramelli

4 January 2013

1948s

3400 Margarita Avenue

This mark includes Scaramelli’s first name, Lee. He is listed under that name in the 1926, 1928, 1935 and 1941 Polk’s directories, although the 1924, 1925 and 1933 directories list him as Livio.

It looks like he started to make the first “A” but then finished the letter as if it were an “R”, leaving this odd but creative result.

1948 – Frank M. Brown

3 January 2013

1948r

9301 Granada Avenue

1947 – L. B. Duffin

2 January 2013

1947v

3433 Oak Knoll Boulevard

I just discovered that this is a duplicate; sorry. It’s the latest date I have for Duffin so far. Apparently the Duffin & Riding partnership lasted from the late 1920s to 1941, after which the two names appear separately. The only thing wrong with that supposition is that my earliest Geo. Riding mark is from 1940. Perhaps one of the original pair died and a son carried on.

1946 – Duffin

1 January 2013

1946t

3541 Mirasol Avenue