9871 Olive Street
Marks by R. W. Johnson are rare and vague. This is as good as they get.
1939 – R. W. Johnson
10 November 20151938 – Frank Lopes
9 November 2015
9811 Olive Street
I’ve recorded this date before, but here’s a strike that removes all doubt.
1933 – Lovisone
8 November 2015
3916 Fairway Avenue
This is a far better strike of the Lovisone mark than the previous one I documented. I can safely say it’s the best in Oakland.
1930 – Hutchinson Co.
7 November 2015
3858 Fairway Avenue
1927 – The Oakland Paving Co.
6 November 2015
10506 Byron Avenue
The concrete guy did a great job on the south end of Byron, until the very last step.
This next set of stamps is from the last part of Oakland. As of today, I have surveyed the sidewalks on every block of the city. As usual, I’ll present the marks in chronological order. This set will run for the next month, and then this blog will enter a new phase.
PG&E vault grill
5 November 2015
PG&E’s high-voltage vaults are covered by round lids with a grill, and they have dates. This one is on 20th Street near Broadway.
PG&E access covers
4 November 2015
Some of PG&E’s access covers have dates on them. These two examples are on 20th Street near Broadway, and you can see the subtle differences in the designs from 1969 and 2011.
These aren’t the same thing as a sidewalk stamp. These dates are presumably the day the covers were manufactured, not the day they were lowered into place on the street. Indeed, the older lid may have been used somewhere else for many years. We’ll never know. Whereas sidewalk stamps bear the dates they were created, like a newspaper.
Oakland Underfoot 