Allendale, then and now

on

 I found this photo on ebay:


Its description:

Oakland: ALLENDALE AREA - EAST OAKLAND RURAL VISTA - 1915 Glass Plate Negative

Allendale Area - Rural Vista

Allendale School (formerly Fruitvale Grammar #3)

High Street - Just Over the Bridge

Oakland, California

Photographer: Cheney Photo Advertising Company

Allendale "is a neighborhood between Fruitvale and Maxwell Park, roughly between Foothill and MacArthur. Originally its own town, settled in 1895 it was annexed to Oakland in 1909. By 1906 Allendale had a Methodist church (anyone know which?), a bakery, butcher, hardware store, community hall and saloon on Allendale Ave."

Looking closely at the photo, there is a bridge across a creek drainage, which leads to a small lane that to the left / northwest becomes a wider road, intersecting on a perpendicular with another major road running east-west. We know we're looking north because the eastern hills can be seen in the distance and to the right. The photo is shot from a slight rise. Where is this, in the Oakland that we know?

By looking at this 1912 Map of Oakland and Vicinity in georeferencer.com, the area that seems to be represented is the intersection of High street and Allendale avenue, with my guess at point of view and direction of camera represented by a dot and an arrow, the dot roughly representing the intersection of what is now Lilac and Walnut Streets:


The red lines are rail tracks, and I think the tracks in the photo would be on what's now Courtland Creek Park. If you look closely, you can see the blur of a passing train in the right side of the photo. (Thanks to Andrew Alden for pointing that out!) The way Allendale transitions from a wider road to a lane after crossing the creek matches what's in the photo.

The view today, as represented by the 3D computer simulation of Google Maps satellite view:



Here's that location on regular Google Maps. (not satellite view)


It would be really interesting to see if any of these old buildings are still there. Here are some detail shots, added to the ebay listing:






Comments

  1. UnknownDecember 29, 2020 at 9:26 AM

    Great detective work! Thanks for posting this.

    ReplyDelete
  2. NotcomDecember 29, 2020 at 6:22 PM

    House w/ the water tower seems to be 43X5 Walnut.

    ReplyDelete
  3. JD from OaktownJanuary 8, 2021 at 3:14 PM

    "The old ox road was the lineal successor of a very ancient Indian trail that crossed the range close to the south slope of Redwood Peak, and led on across ridges and canyons, on and on into the San Joaquin Valley. As Indian trails are the most permanent and enduring of things, it is a safe guess that this trail antedated even the Mexican occupation. As John C. Fremont camped on this trail, where the Joaquin Miller cottage now stands, nearly eighty years ago, and named the Golden Gate, as at the time of the equinox he gazed on the sun setting between the north and south portal of that gate, he may be counted as the first notable sojourner on Lincoln avenue."

    This is solid gold Morgan. Thank you.

    ReplyDelete
  4. UnknownJanuary 8, 2021 at 3:50 PM

    Great photo! I live on Brookdale off of High street and after taking numerous walks through the neighborhood from Brookdale up to Suter and and High street over to 38th I am convinced that this photo is looking at the Brookdale/High street intersection. A fair number of the houses still exist and the most obvious one is the one on the right of the photo which is on Walnut on the east side of High street and the gambrel roofed house on High (middle of photo).

    ReplyDelete

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