Oakland Underfoot

EBMUD and EBWCo

12 September 2019

This access cover, next to the Paramount Theater on 21st Street, combines hardware from East Bay MUD and its primary predecessor, the East Bay Water Company. The two leaves look to be the same vintage and installed at the same time. It’s my theory that when EBMUD took the reins of the East Bay’s water system in the 1920s, they inherited a bunch of plumbing stock with the EBWCo logo and just deployed it until they ran out. It helped that local foundries could quickly adapt their existing forms to the new client.

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1928 – Lovisone & Co.

26 May 2019

Peralta Street at 16th Street

Lovisone & Co. used two different stamps in 1928. This was the first one, with straight text. Later in 1928 they switched to a stamp with arched letters, and used it in 1929 as well. From 1930 to 1939, the last year I’ve documented, they used an arched-text stamp saying “Lovisone” without the “& Co.”

The only reason I know this is from 1928 and not 1925 is that a 1928 mark appears on the other side of this driveway.

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1929 – J. H. Fitzmaurice (II)

29 April 2019

389 Euclid Avenue

This Fitzmaurice mark is rarely found and even more rarely dated.

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1936 – Lindgren & Swinerton

26 April 2019

6600 Broadway Terrace

Right next to the Hayward fault trace, at the entrance to Lake Temescal Regional Park, this mark sits out in the middle of the road.

Lindgren & Swinerton was the name of a company founded in 1888 by Charles Lindgren, an immigrant Swedish brickmason, and going strong today under the name Swinerton, Inc.. It adopted this name in 1923 to acknowledge the role of Alfred Swinerton, a pioneer in the use of reinforced concrete in the days before the 1906 earthquake proved its worth in spectacular fashion. The name lasted until 1942.

Lindgren was no relation to C. J. Lindgren.

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OMECO Products

6 April 2019

Park Boulevard and 8th Avenue

The Oil Marketing Equipment Company was at 325 Fremont Street, San Francisco. It was run by an Atherton resident named Frank D. Mahoney. You could phone him at GArfield 1-5328.

The 1948 San Francisco directory lists it as “Manufacturers and Distributors of Specialized Equipment for the Oil Industry.” Its factory was at Dollar and Linden Streets in South San Francisco, on the railroad tracks. As of 1960, its factory was in Redwood City at 3524 Haven Avenue. It was listed in the San Francisco directory until 1962. All of those addresses are occupied by newer buildings today.

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