USA > California > Alameda County > Alameda > Directory of the city of Oakland and the town of Alameda for the year ending 1874 > Part 3
USA > California > Alameda County > Oakland > Directory of the city of Oakland and the town of Alameda for the year ending 1874 > Part 3
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40
11
The city assessment rolls, from the fiscal year 1863-4 to date, have been as follows :
Year.
Amount of Assessment. $ 794,121
1863- 4
1864- 5. 970,125
1865- 6.
1,107,949
1866- 7
1,434,800
1867- 8
1,832,428
1868- 9
3,363,478
1869-70
4,256,702
1870- 1.
4,563,737
1871- 2.
5,215,704
1872- 3.
6,647,039
1873- 4.
18,539,303
Until the present year the assessment has been announced to have been at one-third of the actual value of the property ; but the custom has been changed, and property is now cited for what is deemed its market value. There has been a correspond- ing reduction in the rate of taxation-which is seventy cents on the one hundred dollars.
The city wharf was completed in August, 1872, and its first year's business amounted to $3,283.67. Charges had been fixed so as to produce revenue enough to pay the interest on its cost and running expenses. It has done little more than this during the first year, and the amount of business has so greatly in- creased that at the end of the second year there will be a con- siderable sinking fund to redeem some of the bonds issued to raise funds for its construction. The freight landed on this wharf during the year amounted to 20,634 tons. The wharf is now used to very nearly its full capacity, and if the city owned the site for another, it would be justified in building a second one.
The erection of the Grand Central Hotel is an event of much local importance. In size and elegance it is not inferior to any hotel on the Pacific Coast, and visitors from different parts of the State, and from the East, will be sure to entertain a more favorable opinion of Oakland on account of this enterprise.
The Oakland Street Railroad Company has extended its track from Temascal to Berkeley, and a branch has been constructed from the main line, at the junction of Broadway and Fourteenth Street, along San Pablo Avenue, for a distance of two miles. The business of these roads has kept somewhat in advance of the general growth of the city, so large a proportion of the newly erected dwelling-houses being in the suburbs.
The Oakland Gaslight Company has increased the capacity of its works by erecting a holder which will contain ninety thou- sand cubic feet of gas, and by enlarging its works in other re- spects, in order to meet the increased demands made upon them.
The Contra Costa Water Company has lately commenced the
PAGE & JORDAN, Ag'ts Hartford Fire Ins. Co., 462 Tenth nr Broadway, Oak'd.
Home Insurance Co. (Fire) of New York, BABER & ROFF, Agents, Broadway and Tenth, Oakland.
HOUSEWORTH'S SALES ROOM, 9 Montgomery Street, S. F.
E. W. WOODWARD, 952 Broadway, Ag't Royal Ins. Co .; Capital $10,000,000.
12
OAKLAND DIRECTORY.
building of a dam on the San Leandro Creck, at a point about eight miles from the central part of Oakland. Very extensive purchases of real estate and water rights have been made, and when the work now in progress is completed, there will be an artificial lake covering 12,000 acres of land, and having an aver- age depth of 100 feet. From the bar of the new dam to the company's pipes in East Oakland the distance is but six miles. The lake will have a capacity of forty thousand million gallons of water, and the stream flowing into it and the adjacent water- sheds will enable the company to furnish one hundred million gallons daily. If these estimates by the company be correct, Oakland has within reach, at the lowest cost, a water supply that will be ample for all time.
Land Titles
ABSTRACT OF THE ORIGIN OF THE TITLE TO THE LAND ON WHICH THE CITY OF OAKLAND IS SITUATED.
During the first few years after the settlement of the city, it was the popular belief that the " Squatter Title " was valid, and most of the property was purchased from those who had origi- nally taken possession. After the amount of litigation that is usu- ally required to establish the legality of a Mexican grant, the Peralta title obtained recognition, and has withstood every at- tack subsequently made upon it. We append the outlines of an abstract of title to any city lot:
1. Grant from the Mexican Government to Luis Maria Pe- ralta, of the " Rancho San Antonio," embracing the lands upon which the City of Oakland is located. Dated October 18th, 1822.
2. In 1842, Luis Maria Peralta made a division of the Rancho San Antonio among his four sons, Ignacio, Antonio, Domingo, and Vincente, and put them in possession of their respective portions. Vincente Peralta received that portion on which the City of Oakland is situated.
3. In 1851, Luis Maria Peralta executed an instrument pur- porting to be a will, wherein he ratified and confirmed the divis- ion of the Rancho San Antonio among his four sons, which in- strument, the Supreme Court of California says, estops the heirs of Luis Maria Peralta from denying said gift to his sons. [See 17 Cal. Reps., Adams v. Lansing.] The invalidity of title derived from the other heirs than the sons of Luis Maria Peralta is also declared by the United States Supreme Court, in a case growing out of the " Pretermitted Heir" title, decided in the early part of this year (1872) and not yet reported.
4. In 1854, the Board of Land Commissioners confirmed the northern portion of the Rancho, embracing the City of Oakland, to Vincente and Domingo Peralta ; and the same was afterwards, in 1855, confirmed by the United States District Court, and still later, at the December term in 1856, by the Supreme Court of the United States. (See 17 Howard.)
Best Piano Tuners at GRAY'S, 625 Clay Street, S. F.
Great Fires prove the Strength of the ÆTNA INSURANCE COMPANY.
LAND TITLES.
13
5. Ignacio, Antonio, and Domingo Peralta, to Vincente Per- alta, release and deed all of their interest in and to that portion of the Rancho embracing the City of Oakland. Dated November 28, 1853. Recorded in Liber " 8," of Deeds, Recorder's office, Alameda County.
6. Vincente Peralta to John Clar, (1-6); B. De La Barra, (1-12); Jos. K. Irving, (}); Jacob A. Cost, (}); John C. Hayes and John Caperton, (}). Deed dated March 13th, 1852. Re- corded in Contra Costa County, in which Oakland was at that date situated.
7. John Clar to J. K. Irving, deed of his interest, February 7th, 1852. Recorded in Contra Costa County.
8. B. De La Barra, (1-12) deed to J. K. Irving, J. M. Gog- gin and William Claude Jones ; William Claude Jones to Eugene Casserly ; J. M. Goggin and Eugene Casserly to J. K. Irving, Hayes, Caperton, and heirs of Cost, deceased.
9. J. K. Irving, party of the first ; John C. Hayes and John Caperton, parties of the second part ; Anna R. Poole, Catherine S. Lyons and her husband, Joseph Lyons ; Serena S. Young, and her husband, Alexander H. Young (heirs of Cost, deceased), " by William Poole, their attorney," execute a partition deed, duly proven, certified to and recorded in Alameda County.
10. Power of attorney from Anna R. Poole et al., heirs of Cost, to Wm. J. Poole, June 14th, 1853.
11. Power of attorney to Montgomery Blair, from same par- ties (except Serena S. Young, who was deceased, and left minor heirs, for whom Alexander H. Young signed as guardian), Feb. 2d, 1854.
12. Proceedings in Probate Court in the same year, by which interest the minor heirs of Serena S. Young became vested in Alex. H. Young.
13. Another partition deed to correct errors in description of lands not blocked off in former deed, reciting and approving the former ; the same in all other respects, between the same par- ties (except in place of Serena S. Young, deceased, was Alexan- der H. Young, " by M. Blair, their attorney in fact"). Dated May 1, 1854.
14. Deed from Anna R. Poole to John C. Hayes, ratifying and confirming the former deed of partition, and confirming the acts of Blair and Black as agents, Sept. 1st, 1858.
15. Similar deed to Hayes et al. from Jos. Lyons and wife, November 10th, 1858.
16. Similar deed to Hayes et al. from Alexander H. Young, March 27th, 1860.
Subsequent to the chain of conveyances traced, the title is vested in numerous owners, there being no other general claims. All the technicalities and defects which ingenuity can discover have been brought to notice. The numerous adverse titles had for years hung over property-holders like an incubus, and in the early part of the year 1869 the people began an organized move- ment to defeat them. The position of affairs was somewhat
PAGE & JORDAN, Real Estate, 462 Tenth Street near Broadway, Oakland.
North British & Mercantile Insurance Co. (British) BABER & ROFF, Agents, Broadway and Tenth, Oakland.
E. W. WOODWARD, 952 Broadway, Real Estate Agent and Collector.
14
OAKLAND DIRECTORY.
critical. The city was rapidly growing, and to allow the idea to go abroad that titles were insecure would check the progress of the city and cause incalulable mischief. Sound business policy overcame the desire to make a bitter fight, however, and the holders of the claims were induced to dispose of them at rates that were trivial. The specific claims were the Pretermitted Heirs' title, the Sisters' title, the Irving title, and the Cost title, and these comprised all general titles asserted by anybody to land within the City of Oakland. These titles were, by their several owners, conveyed to Henry Hillebrand, the City Clerk, who acted as a Trustee, and by him conveyance was made to the several property-holders. Nearly all the land in the city is now held by a perfect title, the Hillebrand deed removing all the clouds. These titles, except the Cost title, still cloud property outside of the old charter line. The principal ones, the Sisters and the Preter- mitted Heirs, are virtually defeated, and the property-holders, to save trouble and annoyance, have quite generally purchased the other claims.
The Kate Hayes Title covers that portion of Oakland township outside of the "Encinal Line," as laid down on our map. The Supreme Court of the State has sustained a decision rendered by E. W. Mckinstry, Judge of the Twelfth District Court, grant- ing a new trial on the motion made by the defendants (the prop- erty-holders). That decision was fatal to the claim, which, in itself, was but for a trifling interest. A new trial has not yet been had, and the result is regarded as a foregone conclusion, the law of the case having been decided beyond appeal.
Water and Gas.
About one-third of the population of Oakland use water ob- tained from the Contra Costa Water Company, and the remain- der procure it from wells. By digging to a depth of twenty feet a supply of pure fresh water can be obtained; but on account of the increased size of the city, and the prevalent fear that well water is becoming contaminated with sewage, many persons are abandoning their wells and using the water that is obtained from the mountain streams. The Contra Costa Water Company commenced operations in the latter part of the year 1866, and since that time about fifty miles of pipe have been laid. Water is obtained from the Temascal Creek. At its eastern branch, five miles from Oakland, a cañon has been dammed, and an artificial lake, six hundred feet wide and three-quarters of a mile long, has been created. The water is seventy feet deep in win- ter, and the capacity of the reservoir is two hundred million gal- lons. The daily consumption of water varies from half a mil- lion to a million of gallons per day, according to the extent to which people may irrigate their gardens. The company has also appropriated the water of the Fruit Vale Creek and built a res- ervoir there, with a capacity of one million gallons. In case the mountain streams run low, use is made of artesian wells in
First Premium to Guild, Church & Co.'s Pianos at GRAY'S, 625 Clay St., S. F
HOUSEWORTH'S PEBBLE SPECTACLES, 9 Montgomery Street, under Lick House, S. F.
The ATNA is at the head of Fire Insurance Companies in America.
THE RAILROAD SYSTEM.
15
Brooklyn, the water from which is forced by steam power into the mains.
In view of a constantly increasing population and a rapid growth of permanent improvement, with a consequent increased demand, many have expressed a fear that the water supply would fail entirely, in the event of a dry season, and leave the city, in the more densely populated localities, where the well- water is not fit for use, on account of contamination by drainage, without water, and the whole at the mercy of the flames. Such a fear, it will be seen, is unfounded, for the company, in order to meet the increased demand, has acquired, by purchase, the water rights of San Leandro Creek to the upper end of the ca- ñon, two miles above San Leandro. At that point a suitable dam is being erected, so as to form a lake of the valley above, which will contain, when completed, forty thousand million gal- tons of water, equal to a daily supply of one hundred million gallons, a quantity sufficient for the supply of a population of one million.
The location of this dam is about eight miles from Oakland, and it will be so far completed as to bring in the water for use in 1874, with an average pressure in the city of Oakland of two hundred feet.
The completion of this enterprise will give Oakland a first-class water supply, equal to the best in the United States.
The purity of the water supplied by the Contra Costa Water Company has lately been tested by the State Assayer, who certi- fies as follows: "I consider the water analyzed to be of excel- lent quality, and well adapted to domestic use."
The city is furnished illuminating gas by the Oakland Gas- light Company, which commenced operations January 1st, 1867. The city entered into a ten-year contract in 1868, to light the streets. The company receives 19 cents per night for each lamp. The annual amount of the bills for lighting the streets in the city is $15,000. The company has laid about eighteen miles of mains. The works are located on the corner of Washington and First streets, and have a capacity of two hundred thousand cubic feet per day. The price charged to consumers is four dollars and fifty cents per thousand cubic feet.
The Railroad System.
It is broadly asserted that Oakland is the center of the railroad system of the Pacific Coast, and a mere glance at any railroad map shows that such is the case. The several lines of railroad in operation in California are either owned or controlled by the Central Pacific Railroad Company, and they all concentrate in this city. Words cannot convey this idea as forcibly as any railroad map and an accompanying table of distances. Not only the railroads now in existence, but those projected and likely to be completed within the next few years, converge to the same point. As San Francisco now is, and ever must be, the metrop-
PAGE & JORDAN, Houses rented, 462 Tenth Street near Broadway, Oakland.
Fire Insurance on Dwellings and Personal Property made a Specialty ; BABER & ROFF, Agents, Oakland.
E. W. WOODWARD, 952 Broadway; Houses to Rent.
16
OAKLAND DIRECTORY.
olis of the Pacific Coast, the managers of railroads are compelled to locate their terminal improvements in Oakland, because they further their own interests by so doing. The Central Pacific Railroad Company owns seventy acres of land at the Oakland Point, used as a site for round-houses and work-shops. A plan- ing-mill has been in operation upwards of one year, and in it is prepared all the timber used in the construction and repair of bridges on the line of the road. At the present time over 7,000,- 000 feet of lumber and the materials for the construction of a large and commodious freight-boat, are on hand. The city has refrained from any attempt to open streets through this tract of land, at the request of the Company, upon representing that this ground is required for the purposes we have named, and in cut- ting it up by numerous streets its usefulness would be so im- paired that it would be necessary for the Company to seek for accommodations elsewhere. The Company also owns an area of three hundred and fifty acres on the water front, extending from the former tract toward Goat Island, with a frontage of nearly half a mile on ship channel. The Company has recently made extensive purchases of real estate near the head of the San An- tonio Creek, and it owns a large tract of hilly land a few miles south from Brooklyn, from which can be obtained an almost un- limited supply of earth for filling in and reclaiming marsh and tide lands. The wharf projecting from the Oakland Point is eleven thousand feet in length, and at the end of it there are twenty-six and one half feet of water at low tide, and thirty- three and one half feet of water at high tide, upon which have been erected extensive depots, railroad offices, warehouses, and ample facilities for the storage of grain, etc. The structure is built in the most firm and enduring manner, and nothing has been omitted that engineering and mechanical skill could suggest. The overland trains and the accommodation trains for San José, Sacramento, Stockton, and Marysville are run over the track laid through First Street, and the local trains are run over the Sev- enth Street track. Communication between San Francisco and Alameda is now maintained by a branch line of the Oakland road, which was completed on the first of October last. Its dis- tance is about four miles, extending from Harrison and Seventh streets and crossing San Antonio Creek by a substantial bridge seven hundred and eighty-six feet in length, with a draw of two openings of eighty feet each. Ten trips are made daily. The Oakland Ferry service has been much improved by the discon- tinuance of the old route to Alameda. Twenty-five trips each way are now made daily, and, during business hours, one is made every thirty minutes. At Broadway and Brooklyn Stations, commodious accommodations have been provided for passen- gers, and at the latter a round-house for locomotives has been recently erected.
At the Central Pacific Railroad Company's Wharf, from June 30th, 1872, to June 30th, 1873, one hundred and ten vessels have received their cargoes of grain, aggregating 161,134 tons.
Old Pianos taken in Exchange at GRAY'S, 625 Clay Street, S. F.
HOUSEWORTH'S PHOTOGRAPHIC PARLORS, 12 Montgomery Street, opposite Lick House, S. F.
Ætna Ins. Co. was established in 1819; R. C. GASKILL, Agent, Oakland.
DRIVES AND PLEASURE RESORTS.
17
The street railroad system of Oakland is very comprehensive, all of the streets of present or prospective importance being covered by a franchise; but there are only two companies that have expended any money or shown any signs of vitality. The Oakland Railroad Company's franchise covers Broadway from the water front to the charter line, and thence by the most direct route to Berkeley. The road is built and provided with rolling stock. It is five and one half miles long. Thirteen one-horse cars run regularly, and, when occasion requires, six two-horse cars and six flats are added. Fifty-one horses are kept in the company's stable at Temescal. The San Pablo Avenue branch of the Oakland Railroad Company extends to a point near the Oakland Trotting Park, a distance of two miles. Three cars run regularly every fifteen minutes during the day.
The Oakland, Brooklyn, and Fruit Vale Railroad is completed from the crossing of Broadway and Seventh streets, in Oakland, to the central portion of the town of Brooklyn, a distance of two miles, and the business transacted is about sufficient to pay cur- rent expenses and interest on the investment. It is contemplat- ed to extend this road to the County Court House, a distance of several blocks from its present terminus. Trips are made every half hour.
Some progress has been made in the construction of the Ala- meda and Piedmont Springs Railroad. The track has been laid a short distance from Alameda.
The street railroads projected promise to be remunerative en- terprises. The benefit of such improvements is very great, a pop- ulation of several hundred persons having been drawn to the vicinity of Temescal through the influence of the Oakland Rail- road. As communication between different parts of the city is made convenient and cheap, its growth will be accelerated, and the value of real estate, in every locality, will be enhanced.
Rides, Drives, and Pleasure Resorts.
The smooth macadamized streets within the limits of the city afford many miles of pleasant driving, and if there were no other resort, Oakland would be unusually attractive. There is a net- work of well-made roads through the Oakland Valley centering at Berkeley. The Telegraph and San Pablo avenues are the great drive-ways to the north of the city, and from them radiate numerous roads that lead into the hills. A fashionable and beau- tiful drive is that leading to Piedmont Springs, five miles from Oakland. From the Piedmont Springs Hotel, which offers every attraction for the comfort and enjoyment of its patrons, " per- haps the finest and most complete view of the Bay and its sur- roundings is obtained, while the " Bushy Dell " hard by, a ravine filled with a luxuriant growth of shrubbery and trees, is a most delightful and romantic spot, with excellent made walks run- ning through it. In this dell the Sulphur Springs are situated, the waters of which are strongly impregnated with sulphur, mag-
PAGE & JORDAN. Real Estate, 462 Tenth Street near Broadway, Oakland.
Three powerful Fire Insurance Companies operating conjointly in California; BABER & ROFF, Agents, Oakland.
E. W. WOODWARD, 952 Broadway, Real Estate Agent and Collector.
18
OAKLAND DIRECTORY.
nesia, and iron. They have medicinal properties of great value. No place of resort can be more favorably recommended to the notice of our Eastern visitors, while the city man out of health will find them very conveniently situated." From Piedmont there are good roads running through the mountains, and there is a labyrinth of pleasant drives. The mountain scenery is very fine, and it is difficult to realize that so great a change can be found in a half-hour's ride from Oakland.
The drive-way on the eastern bank of Lake Merritt is also a fashionable resort. The system of roads in East Oakland is quite complete, and the visitor can follow any road that he may observe without danger of being led into an unpleasant or dangerous lo- cality. The most important place of public resort, especially on Sundays, is Badger's Central Park, East Oakland, where there are highly ornamented grounds, a large pavilion for dancing, and all of the attractions ordinarily found at public gardens. That the excellent roads in and around Oakland are appreciated by visitors is attested by the fact that Oakland has six large liv- ery stables, all of them doing a prosperous business.
Building Improvements.
The number of buildings erected in Oakland during the period July 1, 1872, to December 1, 1873, will bear a favorable compari- son with that of previous years. East and West Oakland pre- sent very gratifying evidences of prosperity. One firm of con- tractors alone, Messrs. Power & Ough, estimate the amount of their engagements for the time referred to at $500,000, included in which is the Grand Central Hotel, one of the most elegant and costly buildings in the city. It is a block in length, from Webster to Harrison streets, four stories high, and is covered with a Mansard roof, the only deviation from its prevailing style of Italian architecture. Three large towers embellish the struct- ure, one at the center of the roof and one at each end. In each tower there is a tank, always kept full, containing 5,000 gallons of water. There are three front entrances, the main one in the center of the hotel, and the right and left half-way between the main entrance and the ends of the building. A porch extends from each entrance to the edge of the sidewalk, so that the guests may step from their carriages to the sidewalk, completely sheltered from the rain or the hot sun. The vestibule at the main entrance has a tesselated flooring of artificial marble. The ceiling rises eighteen feet in the clear. Laurel, oak, and walnut are represented in the graining, which has been executed with considerable care. Passing through a pair of swinging glass doors, the visitor enters the office at the right-hand side, whence he may ascend to the upper floor by the elevator. The reading- room and telegraph office are on the left-hand side of the vesti- bule, and can be reached directly from the street without passing through the hall.
Two flights of stairs from the street, one from the main hall and
Hear the GUILD, CHURCH & CO.'S PIANOS at Gray's, 625 Clay St., S. F.
THOMAS HOUSEWORTH & CO., Opticians, 9 Montgomery Street, under Lick House, S. F.
Get a Policy in the Ætna Ins. Co .; it is the best ; R. C. GASKILL, Agent.
BUILDING IMPROVEMENTS.
19
one from the rear, communicate with the upper floors of the build- ing. There are two main parlors on the second floor, with fine, large windows facing the street. A wide hall runs through the center of the building on all the floors. On this floor, on the other side of the hall, are the dining and breakfast saloons, con- nected with the hall by sliding doors. The sleeping rooms con- nected with the private parlors are so arranged as to be used either singly or in suites. The third floor contains suites and single rooms furnished in very good taste.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.