Poking around, looking for other stuff, I came across three 1880s? photos of Lake Merritt, and realized that a photographer - William Letts Oliver, or perhaps his son Roland - shot them one at a time, "panning" right, and that they'd make a good panorama. These are in the Oliver Family Photograph Collections.
| Title: Lake Merritt from Roland G. Brown house, Oakland. [1 of 3] [negative] Contributing Institution: UC Berkeley, Bancroft Library |
 |
| Title: Lake Merritt from Roland G. Brown house, Oakland. [2 of 3] [negative] Contributing Institution: UC Berkeley, Bancroft Library |
 |
| Title: Lake Merritt from Roland G. Brown house, Oakland. [3 of 3] [negative] Contributing Institution: UC Berkeley, Bancroft Library |
So I fed them to a photo stitching program.
The photos were taken from the Roland G. Brown residence. According to an 1879 city directory, Brown lived on Jackson street, apparently on the shore of the lake. If I place my viewpoint at Lakeside & Jackson in google maps 3d view, and "look" northeast, I see the same hill profile in the skyline.
 |
| https://goo.gl/maps/x2YkHauQwbrmbxEL7 |
I believe that's Oakland Avenue, in the distance, at left, but I'm not sure. This 1878 Second Ward of Oakland. (Thompson & West) suggests they may have been on what's now Harrison, or perhaps on Vernon. (See Palm Knoll) If you can tell me what those houses were, please comment.
Where were all the trees on the hills? Good question. Logging and fires are my guesses for why they were so bare.
Comments
Post a Comment