Oakland Underfoot

36th Avenue at Foothill Boulevard

The Mueller Company traces its history back to 1857, but its brass business dates from 1927.

I was just stopping for lunch in the older part of town and was pleased to find this. Sears & Baker was mentioned in the local papers from 1905 to 1933.

12th and Fallon Streets

Shand and Jurs was founded in 1922 by Reginald Cuthbert Shand (1886-1934) and Albert Ernest Jurs (1886-1964), manufacturing industrial tank equipment as the Threaded Products Company with a plant at 917 Carleton Street, in a building now gone. They became Shand and Jurs in 1928. Today their brand is part of L & J Technologies, a much younger firm headquarted in Hillside, Illinois. Amongst their many products was a line of bulb-headed fire hydrants that have an honored place in hydrant history.

These lids are next to each other at the county courthouse.

Mariposa was named for its abundance of butterflies, and sure enough the town displays them everywhere in photos, paintings — and concrete. I spent a fine warm evening strolling around, on and off the main drag, and spotted many examples of these two marks.

And I also found this dated sidewalk in the old town, which I believe is authentic.

Don’t visit Yosemite without stopping in Mariposa.

786 Prospect Street

The San Francisco firm of Lewis M. Merlo Inc. was founded shortly after the 1906 earthquake and is still going strong. They occupy the same address, 1336 Grove Street, today and have the same phone number they acquired in the late 1950s. Their addresses have changed over the years, from 1767 24th Avenue in the early 1950s to 1358 Divisadero in the late 1950s; they were at 1336 Grove, a former livery stable built in 1900, as of 1970. This utility lid and the sidewalk around it must date from that time period.

Details of the life of Lewis Michael Merlo (1913-1982) are scant. San Francisco directories in the mid-1930s list him with various menial occupations; the 1940 census records him as a concrete contractor with his brother Mario Elito Merlo (1917-2013). The 1950 census lists him as a concrete contractor at the 24th Avenue address, age 37, with his wife Erma as bookkeeper. The obituary of a man by the name of John Louis Merlo (1913-1982), with a wife named Erma, called him a founder of the firm. I can only guess that Lewis changed his name or a strange mistake was made. Also, the 1906 founding date must refer to an earlier practice that Lewis M. Merlo acquired in the late 1930s.