44 Moss Avenue
1930 – F. E. Nelson
4 March 20221922 – Schnoor Bros.
25 February 2022
1375 Rose Street, Berkeley
I’ve documented the Schnoor Bros. mark from 1922 before, but this one is really 22-y. In fact, even the “s” on “Bros.” looks like a 2. That’s been known to happen.
1908 – C. J. Lindgren
21 February 2022
2911 Russell Street, Berkeley
A new date for this maker.
1938 – Frank Salamid
14 February 2022
Acton Street at Lincoln Street, Berkeley
This find completes the 1930s. Now I’m missing only the years 1915-18 and 1920 in Frank Salamid’s 40-year record.
Lindgren & Hicks
9 January 2022
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).
Artesian Water Works
3 January 2022
35th Avenue at Foothill Boulevard
Artesian Water Works was a private water company started in 1879 by “Captain” R. R. Thompson, in Alameda. If that is the company that made this main cover, then the mystery is why it’s up in Oakland in Fruitvale.
The company was acquired in 1899 by the Contra Costa Water Company, originally founded by Anthony Chabot in 1866. East Bay MUD took it all over in the 1920s. It’s conceivable, then, that this piece of iron was deployed somewhere between 1880 and 1900, most likely late in that time span. In the 1890s the company’s water came from the Fitchburg wellfield, which was where the Coliseum is today, so it may have served this part of Fruitvale. It was unincorporated territory at the time and thus not subject to Oakland’s ruinously low water rates.
Corners: Canning Street and McAuley Street
18 December 2021
McAuley Street was previously named Rose Street and is shown thusly on the 1912 street map. It was apparently still Rose Street in 1929.
Oakland Underfoot 