Oakland Underfoot

5930 Vallejo Street

This is the street west of San Pablo that runs right on the Emeryville border. Surveying it required me to do a one-way walk from Oakland to Berkeley because I only needed to check the east side of the street.

1053 Alcatraz Avenue

I just can’t make this out, but a directory search found Robert H. Hahn, cement worker.

1281 30th Street

Hard to read this, but with a little Google help I see that it says “Cal Sideweld Bag Co / D. Myers Owner.” The 1969 Oakland City Directory lists the California Sideweld Bag Company at 1275 30th Street, with Dana Meyers as the proprietor. Sideweld bags are a widely used construction for inexpensive plastic bags.

This address is the former home of Acme Warehouse, which seems to be defunct and more’s the pity.

Agnes Street at Cochrane Avenue

3003 Peralta Street

Pretty hard to decipher, but I’ll call it 1930.

4715 Cochrane Avenue

I’ve never found a hand-drawn mark from J. Kemble before. The cursive initial is a nice touch.

Agnes Street at Cochrane Avenue

I’m pretty sure this must be from 1939. Ensor Buel put in an unusual number of flourishes here.

This is an empty lot in the 1991 fire area, which like others I’ve seen appear to have missed out on the general repaving afterward.