Hiker's Rest Being Torn Down - Hill Section Landmark for 50 Years

Dorothy Longadin, author of the A Bit of History blog, sent me this clipping, which she got as part of an archive of the Montclarion from Chris Treadway. I'm sharing this with her permission. I've researched Hiker's Rest, because it's near where I live, and key to the history of the Oakland Hills, a subject that interests me a lot. Here's the article. Beyond it, I'll post a collection of newspaper clippings. I won't transcribe them all, but it will give you a sense of its history. Thank you, Dorothy and Chris. - MF

Hiker's Rest Being Torn Down - Hill Section Landmark for 50 Years

To the strains of "This Old House" pealing over a public address system, friends and neighbors gathered Sunday to say goodbye to Hiker's Rest, landmark of the Oakland hills for more than fifty years, now being torn down.

Exact beginnings of Hiker's Rest are somewhat obscure, but old-time residents agree that someone set up a lemonade stand on the site around the turn of the century to quench the thirst of the Sunday hikers who trekked to the "wilderness" out beyond Lincoln avenue.

[Click that link to read about hikers and hikes which would have gone by Hikers Rest. - MF]

HIKER'S REST picture left [1st picture] shows how building appeared in 1932 when Reineckes purchased property. Center: [2nd picture] Walter Graf takes over in 1941. Picnic tables have been replaced by parking space. Right: [3rd picture] Half century old building meets wrecking bar. Shown are Miss Emma Graf and Gunther Reinecke, owner.

(Photo by Hobby Spot, 2089 Mt. blvd.)

A small permanent building was erected about fifty years ago, and a chain of owners added a room, built on a porch, and made various other additions until 1932 when the property was purchased by Mr. and Mrs. Gunther Reinecke, the present owners.

For nine years Mrs. Reinecke operated a grocery store and refreshment stand, while her husband took jobs as a carpenter. They used the rear section as a residence.

Hiker's Rest even served briefly as an obstetrical ward, for the Reinecke's eldest daughter, Mildred, now Mrs. E. Congreve of San Leandro and a mother herself, was born there.

The Reineckes leased Hiker's Rest in 1941 to their next-door neighbors, Miss Emma Graf and her brother, Walter Graf whose four-acre chicken ranch was sold to make up half of Woodminster's Kearney tract.

The Grafs operated the store and restaurant together until Mr. Graf died two years ago. Then Miss Graf carried on alone. Neighbors all speak nostalgically of Miss Graf's homemade pies, and anyone who has ever hiked the Oakland hills knows Hiker's Rest as an oasis and meeting place.

Miss Graf who has lived in this neighborhood for 60 odd years recalls that as a student at Fruitvale school No. 1 at Boston avenue and School street, she was known as "the girl who lives up at Hiker's Rest." We didn't have any street addresses then, she says with a laugh, "but we didn't need one. Everyone knew where Hiker's Rest was."

Mountain Boulevard was nonexistent during Miss Graf's girlhood. Lincoln avenue was the only road that went to Hiker's Rest, and then wound on up to Joaquin Miller's house.

Map showing portions of Alameda and Contra Costa counties, city and county of San Francisco, California, carefully compiled from official and private maps, surveys and data
Britton & Rey, 1894

There was no transportation near Hiker's Rest. Miss Graf and her brother walked two miles each way everyday to school. She remembers proudly that her teacher said that although she was the student who lived farthest away, she came to school most often.

The future of the Hiker's Rest site will depend upon the development of the Woodminster district. For the present, the Reineckes will build a new dwelling on the property and wait and see. The Mountain blvd. access road will parallel the new freeway at that point and will be curbed and paved, while the new Lincoln avenue overpass will be built only a short way down the street.

If you look closely, you can see that the original Lincoln avenue cut left in a switchback, across from what's now the Mormon Temple, then connected with a road at what's now Mountain Boulevard. It still exists, it's "Lincoln Way," behind the parking lot. Where it crossed what's now Highway 13, and then went left is where Hiker's Rest stood. It's now an AT&T substation. The current straight alignment from Lincoln Avenue to Joaquin Miller road is the "Lincoln avenue overpass" mentioned above. C. H. Miller is Cincinnatus Heine Miller, AKA Joaquin Miller. I don't yet know who "MOORE" was.

Thus Hiker's Rest bows to "progress," and Miss Graf watches the automobiles speed past. "Nobody even knows what a hiker is anymore," she sighs.

Here are clippings I've saved about "hikers rest," in chronological order:

SKYLINE PLAY TODAY; RIP TO APPEAR ON THE HILL 13 Jun 1926, Sun Oakland Tribune (Oakland, California) Newspapers.com