USA > California > Alameda County > Oakland > Illustrated album of Alameda County, California; its early history and progress-agriculture, viticulture and horticulture-educational, manufacturing and railroad advantages-Oakland and environs-interior townships-statistics, etc., etc > Part 10
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There is a Board of Health, consisting of five mem- bers, appointed by the Mayor, whose terms of office are two years and are so appointed that two of them go out of office and the other three in alternate years. The Board of Health has charge of all sanitary meas- ures. It has the appointing of a Health Officer, who is also City Physician, and must be at least thirty years of age and a graduate of a regular medical college. The Health Officer is the executive officer of the Board, and must see that all laws and ordinances relat- ing to the public health and the rules and regulations of the Board of Health are enforced. There are also Sanitary and Plumbing Inspectors under the direction of the Health Officer and the Board of Health.
PROPERTY VALUES IN AND NEAR OAKLAND.
While Oakland is all that could be desired as a place of residence, it is a matter of fact that those seek_ ing investment for the purpose of making it a perma- nent place of abode will find property values very moderate and taxation comparatively light.
The most valuable residence property in the city is held at $150 a front foot. Medium property may be had from $50 to $75, and cheap lots which are access- ible by steam and street cars are sold at from $20 to $40 a front foot, while suburban sites may be pur- chased at from $10 to $20 per front foot.
PLATE 22.
CHURCH OF ST FRANCIS DE SALES, CORNER OF 21 AND GROVE STS., OAKLAND . CAL.
47
ILLUSTRATED ALBUM OF ALAMEDA COUNTY.
The following comparative tables were recently pre- pared by Mr. A. A. Denison, showing that, notwith- standing the natural advantages of climate, location, etc., real estate is cheap in comparison with other cities of California and Eastern States :---
Price per foot of most valuable business property :-
Chicago. $6,000
Minneapolis 1,500
Kansas City 1,750
Los Angeles 3,000
Oakland 1,500
San Diego 2,000
San Francisco 5,000
Price per front foot of cheapest business property within one mile of center of business :-
Chicago .. $300
Minneapolis 100
Kansas City. 60
Los Angeles 150
Oakland
40
San Diego 100
San Francisco
150
Price per front foot of most desirable residence prop- erty :-
Chicago $Soo
Minneapolis 300
Kansas City
200
Los Angeles 500
Oakland. 100
San Diego 200
San Francisco 600
Price per lot (with size) of good medium residence property :---
Chicago, 25×150 ... -$5,000
Minneapolis, 25x150.
3,000
Kansas City, 50X100. $3,000 to 4,000
Los Angeles, 50X100. 3,000 to 5,000
Oakland, 50X 100.
1,500 to 2,000
25X100 850 to
1,200
San Diego, 50X140.
2,000 to
3,500
San Francisco, 25×100
I, Soo to 4,000
Price of cheapest residence property, giving size of lots, within two miles of business center :-
Chicago, 25X100 $2,000
Minneapolis, 50X100. 600
Kansas City, 50X100.
600
Los Angeles, 50X150.
400
Oakland, 25x100 150
San Diego, 25X100.
200
San Francisco, 25X100.
500
Highest and lowest prices of acres within four miles of business center :---
Chicago
-$10,000 to $20,000
Minneapolis
1,250 to
5,000
Kansas City
500 to
1,0000
Los Angeles
1,750 to 5,000
Oakland
250 to
2,000
San Diego.
500 to
5,000
OAKLAND'S SCHOOLS.
Early History and Present Status-Excellent Buildings and Competent Instructors.
The history of the public schools of Oakland dur- ing the past thirty-five years is an interesting one and shows wonderful progress. Parents desiring a de- lightful residence place with the best school advan- tages, will find Oakland one of the best, if not the very best, place in the United States for the education of their children.
The earliest record of public schools in Oakland is found in a note of a Board of Education meeting on October 14, 1858, when R. A. Morse presented his bill for $675 for teaching school during the ten months next preceding, and so fragmentary are the records of the time that it is not shown whether the bill was ever paid. In February, 1860, Franklin Warner succeeded Mr. Morse, and in March, 1862, the Board of Education purchased the lot on which the Lafayette School now stands, and erected thereon a two-roomed schoolhouse.
The first Act of the State Legislature creating a Board of Education for the city of Oakland was approved March 31, 1866, and in accordance there- with eight members were appointed by the City Council. The teachers, in 1867, under this Board, were six in number, having the charge of three hun- dred and eighty-two pupils, and the pay roll amounted to only $510. The Legislature of 1868 passed an Act enlarging the powers of the Board of Education of Oakland, defining its powers and duties. During the past twenty-five years the public schools have been in a highly flourishing condition, and are now second to none in the Union.
During the first year after the passage of the new Act, fifteen teachers were paid $1,240 monthly, and had the charge of five hundred and twenty-seven pupils. The Legislature of 1868 also approved an Act authorizing Oakland to issue $50,000 in ten per cent bonds, for the purchase of school sites and erection of buildings. Four other issues of bonds have since been made for school purposes. In 1870, $50,000 of ten per cents ; in 1872, $50,000 in eight per cents ; in 1874, $12,000 in eight per cents, and at a special bond election in 1892, the sum of $400,000 was voted for the use of the School Department in purchasing building sites and erection of new buildings. In 1874 the first two issues were redeemed by a new issue of $100,000 in eight per cents. These bonds have been nearly all redeemed.
The erection of a new High School at a cost of $165,000 is now in progress, and, when completed, the present High School building will be used as a
48
ILLUSTRATED ALBUM OF ALAMEDA COUNTY.
Grammar School. The remaining $235,000, raised from the sale of the $400,000 bonds, is being ex- pended in the erection of new buildings, and in making needed additions to others. When these are completed, Oakland will be one of the best equipped cities, with regard to its public schools, in the Union.
There is one feature of the Oakland School Depart- ment which is unique-in which it stands quite alone -and that is in the possession of a fully equipped Astronomical Observatory. This is the only Public School Department in the world which is thus pro- vided. The Observatory building was erected and equipped with funds furnished for that purpose by a private citizen of Oakland, the late Anthony Chabot, and by him was made a free gift to the Board of Education, in trust for the city of Oakland. Its orig- inal cost was $15,000. By a bequest in his will, he left an additional sum for improvements to the Observ- atory, and these have been recently completed by the Board of Education. It is situated in the middle of Lafayette Square, which is bounded by Tenth, Eleventh, Jefferson and Grove Streets, and the use of which, for this purpose, was given by the City Council. Its exact geographical position is in latitude 37 deg., 48 min., 5 secs. north ; longitude 122 deg., 16 min., 34.4 secs. west from Greenwich, or, in time, 8 hours, 9 minutes, 6.3 seconds west from Greenwich ; 3 hours, o minutes, 54.2 seconds west from Wash- ington.
The Superintendent of Schools is Director of the Observatory, and the Astronomers in charge are Charles Burckhalter, of Oakland, and C. B. Hill, of the San Francisco Sub-office of the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey. The instruments are as fol- lows : A Clark eight-inch equatorial, with eye pieces of powers from forty to eight hundred ; a fine position micrometer and spectroscope; a Fauth transit, the exact counterpart of the instrument in use upon Mount Hamilton. The chronograph and mean time clocks were made by Fauth, the sidereal clock by Howard, and the chronometers by Negus.
Monday evenings are reserved for the schools, and Friday evenings for Observatory work. The other evenings of the week, except Sunday, are given to the public. Cards of admission are obtained on applica- tion to the Director of the observatory.the City Super- intendent of Schools, at his office in the City Hall, where a record of appointments is kept and publicly displayed. Ten is the largest number for which cards are issued for any one evening.
The teachers under the direction of the Oakland Board of Education are paid as well as the best in any city in the land. In the upper grades there are many
cities where the salaries are much higher than those paid in Oakland, and this is particularly true as re- gards principalships, but in the grammar and primary grades the salaries are in advance of those paid in most places.
All teachers are required to hold a certificate given by the City Board of Examination, composed of the Superintendent and four other members appointed by the Board of Education. This Board holds examina- tions semiannually, and is further empowered to grant city certificates without examination in certain specified cases.
The system of classification now satisfactorily in use comprises eleven grades, from the time of the pupil's entrance, at the age of six, into the primary department, at the eighth or lowest grade, to gradua- tion, at the age of seventeen, from the High School, thoroughlily fitted for entrance, primarily, to the State University, and, incidentally, to any of the great col- leges of the country. Four numbered grades are included, respectively, in the Primary and Grammar Schools, and the High School has three classes. Furthermore, each grade is subdivided by scholarship into "A " and "B" divisions, subject to a semiannual reclassification and promotion.
The High School ranks, according to the opinion of experienced educators, with the very best of its class in the whole country. Three courses are car- ried on side by side, each uniting with the others in certain branches ; these are the literary, scientific, and classical courses, and in all of them special promi- nence is given to English, in which branch of study it is frequently found that candidates for university matriculation are poorly prepared.
Drawing is studied through all the grades, under a special instructor, becoming naturally more complex with the advanced pupils, until, with the High School grades, it takes the form of industrial and inventive drawing. A department of industrial education is maintained, also under a special instructor, where there have been fitted up benches for woodworkers, ctc.
For the benefit of such as are at work during the ordinary school hours, a night school is maintained for five nights of every week at one of the Grammar Schools in each locality of the city, and at the High School building, where boys and girls who cannot attend school during the daytime, have an opportu- nity of obtaining an education. The sessions last two hours and a half.
There are at present fourteen public schools in Oakland, and three others, including the new High
000
RESIDENCE
'OLIVINA VINEYARD'
WINERY PLANT AND RESIDE
PLATE 23
WINERY
.
E OF JULIUS P. SMITH, LIVERMORE VALLEY, CAL.
49
ILLUSTRATED ALBUM OF ALAMEDA COUNTY.
School, will be erected within the next twelve months.
The enrollment of children in the public schools at the present time is nearly eleven thousand. The daily average attendance for one hundred and ninety-nine days' of the school year 1892-93, was nearly seven thousand. There are one hundred and ninety-eight regular teachers in the employ of the department. Of these twenty-two are males and one hundred and seventy-six females. The salary of the highest is $225 per month-that of the principal of the High- School-and the lowest, the half-day assistants, $40 per month. The tax levy for school purposes during 1892-93 was twenty-four cents on the $100 valuation.
It will be seen from the foregoing that anyone desiring to find a location for a healthful and pleasant residence, with unexcelled climatic conditions, and at the same time the best educational and other equally desirable advantages for their families, cannot find a better place to settle down than Oakland or some of the towns in Alameda County adjacent to the county seat.
PUBLIC LIBRARY.
The Oakland Free Library has about five thousand members and has twenty five thousand volumes. It is governed by five trustees, elected at the biennial municipal election. There is a reading room in con- nection with the library. The reading room is kept open daily, holidays excepted, between the hours of 8 A. M. and 9 P. M. There are under control of the library trustees four branch reading rooms, one each in East Oakland, West Oakland, North Oakland, and at Twenty-third Avenue. These are under the charge of curators, and have many visitors daily.
NEWSPAPERS.
There are in Oakland three daily newspapers, one morning and two evening. The oldest of these is the Morning Times. The evening papers are the Tribune and the Enquirer. These papers are all ably con- ducted, and cover fully each day all portions of the city, as well as having special news reports from the suburban towns. They also give daily the general news of the State, our country, and the world. Be- sides these there are twelve secular and six religious weeklies published in the city.
AN INEXHAUSTIBLE WATER SUPPLY.
The city of Oakland and its suburbs are supplied with water from three sources, the first of which is
Lake Temescal, located in the hills northeast of Oak- land. This lake is formed by a dam across Temescal Creek. It has had an approximate capacity of one hundred and ninety million gallons, but during the fall of 1890 the dam was raised, and the capacity about doubled. This was the first important source of supply. It has an elevation of about four hundred and thirty feet above the Oakland base line. Being considerably higher than the other sources, the water from this lake is principally used for the most elevated parts of the city and suburbs. Sausal Creek, east of the city, is made to furnish the water for Highland Park and vicinity. The main source of supply, how- ever, is Lake Chabot, located in the hills about eight miles east of the city. This lake is about four miles in length, and the surface level has an elevation of about two hundred and thirty feet above the city. It carries, at the present rate of consumption, several years of supply. According to the official statement of the company, they have expended about $4,250,000 in establishing this system of water supply. In 1889 . the company greatly improved the quality of the water by constructing a complete and extensive system ofstorage, settling and distributing reservoirs. About two hundred miles of water pipe have been laid by the company. It is estimated by competent engineers that the water supply for Oakland is sufficient for a population of fully one million people, and when our city contains as many inhabitants as that, there are other sources yet untouched, adequate for the in- creased demand.
The great extent of lawns and gardens in and about the city, which are kept so bright and attractive by irrigation during the summer months, makes Oakland the largest consumer of water, according to popula- tion, of any modern city. The average consumption of Oakland per capita per day is two hundred and thirty-five gallons. Washington, D. C., is the next largest consumer, using one hundred and seventy gallons, while London uses only thirty-three gallons per capita, and San Francisco, seventy gallons.
CHABOT HOME.
Among the institutions of Oakland is the Chabot Woman's Home, endowed by the late Anthony Chabot. It is situated at No. 66 Sixth Street. It is not an eleemosynary institution, but is a place where work- ing women who have no homes can have home com- forts and a pleasant room, with library and other like privileges, for a moderate sum. The home is gov- erned by a Board of corporate trustees and is in charge of a matron.
50
ILLUSTRATED ALBUM OF ALAMEDA COUNTY.
AMUSEMENTS.
For many years Oakland has been without a proper theater, and first-class companies seldom came to the city on account of the poor accommodations. There were several halls and the Colosseum, but until the erection of the Macdonough Theater, in 1891-92, none were adequate for a first-class play. The latter build- ing is equal to any on the coast and surpasses most of them. It is complete in all its appointments.
OAKLAND TOWNSHIP, OUTSIDE.
Town of Berkeley-Villages of Temescal, Golden Gate, Lorin, Emeryville, Claremont, Stock Yards, etc.
In the northern part of Oakland Township, outside of the boundaries of the city of Oakland, extending along the bay shore to the northern boundary of the county, is a level tract of about fifteen square miles in extent, which is being rapidly settled up with comforta- ble homes and suburban villages. These will in all probability, within the next quarter of a century, or less, be included within the city limits of Oakland.
BERKELEY.
In the territory above mentioned, extending to the Contra Costa line on the east and to the bay on the west, having an area of nearly nine miles square, is the town of Berkeley, known as the University town, as within its borders is the University of the State of California. The foundation of the town was laid in the little village which sprang up immediately after the selection of the site of the State University, in 1868, but it was not until 1878 that the town was incorpo- rated. The growth of the University has been. the growth of the town, so that from a few families in 1868 it now has a population of about nine thousand, and its government is under a special charter from the Legislature. During the past two or three years many of the principal streets of the town have been macada- mized their entire length, and the work of improving others is progressing rapidly. The lines of the town were extended toward the south and east in 1892, so that comparatively a small territory lies between it and Oakland. Its location for beautiful homes cannot be excelled, and from rising ground, within the town boundaries, are to be had splendid views of the Bay of San Francisco, the islands, and the Golden Gate.
While the seat of the higher education-the State University-Berkeley has also an excellent public school system, and has beside a number of the best preparatory schools for both sexes, including the High School, the Berkeley gymnasium for boys, Peralta Hall,
and Miss Head's school for girls. The public schools were organized in 1878, with Rev. Martin Kellogg, for twenty-five years a professor at the State University, and now its honored president, as one of the leading members of the Board of Education. From the small enrollment of three hundred and forty in 1879 it has grown to upward of one thousand seven hundred in 1893. The school census shows a growth from five hundred and fifteen in 1879 to nearly two thousand three hundred in 1893.
The town of Berkeley has all the advantage of na- ture to make it, in a sanitary regard, a town ranking with the best. Its hill slopes secure thorough drainage into deep water of the bay. Its hills seem to be nat- ural reservoirs filled with pure water from the distant Sierra Nevada, and it is necessary only to drive a tunnel to secure an abundant supply. The Alameda Water Company has two tunnels and reservoirs, one behind the Institution for the Deaf and Dumb and the Blind, with a capacity of two million five hundred thou- sand gallons, and the other above the Berryman prop- erty, with a capacity of twenty-three million. The town is lighted with gas supplied from Oakland, and an electric light company belonging to the town. It has electric arc lights distributed all over its corpo- rate limits. The site of East Berkeley is commanding and healthful. It is directly opposite the Golden Gate, and as the elevation of the University is about three hundred feet above the waters of the bay, a magnifi- cent panoramic view is obtained from every place where vision is not shut off by trees. By day the in- habitants look down upon the beautiful bay and its is- lands and its kaleidoscope of moving ships. As the day ends, they can enjoy seeing the sun set through the Golden Gate, for the fine sunsets are one of the scenic attractions of the place. In the evening the view of the bay is hardly less charming than by day, for the lights on the ships, the railroad piers, the is- lands, and in San Francisco streets make an illumina- tion as pretty as could be imagined. It is slightly colder in winter and warmer in summer in Berkeley than it is in Oakland, but the climate is a pleasant one nevertheless, and the air is noticeably pure and the public health good. For good sewerage no better site for a city could be found in the world. The improvement in its sewerage system is progressing with its street improvement.
Owing to the excellent railroad facilities now en- joyed, many business and professional men of San Francisco and Oakland are taking up their residence in Berkeley and the suburbs between it and Oakland, erecting handsome homes with extensive grounds. Beside the half-hourly trains of the Southern Pacific
PLATE 24
1891
PIEDMONT DISTRICT SCHOOL
PIEDMONT DISTRICT SCHOOL, WEBSTER AVE. NEAR CEMETERIES, OAKLAND.
51
ILLUSTRATED ALBUM OF ALAMEDA COUNTY.
Company running to East, West, and North Berkeley, there are now three electric lines running from Ouk- land, running cars every ten minutes. The open country along these lines is rapidly filling up. There is a horse.car line running between East and West Berkeley, and another one running to Peralta Park, in the northern limits.
There are in Berkeley strong congregations of the various religious denominations, with able pastors. During the past year there has been completed, just outside and at the entrance to the State University grounds, a handsome brick and stone structure known as Stiles Hall, for the use of the University Young Men's Christian Association.
The State Institution for the Deaf and Dumb and the Blind, mentioned elsewhere in a special article, is within the corporate boundaries of Berkeley.
The transcontinental and State railroad lines for the central, southern, and northern routes pass through West Berkeley along the bay shore. It is becoming quite a thriving manufacturing town, and its residents show a commendable activity in taking advantage of the favoring situation for trade and commerce in which they find themselves.
The population of Berkeley is between eight and nine thousand. The assessed valuation is $6,000,000, and the town tax is seventy cents on the $100 valua- tion. The expenses of running the town government are about $60,000 annually. The sum of $1 10,000 has recently been expended for an electric plant for light- ing the streets of the town. The school facilities being at present inadequate, the question of voting bonds for the erection of more schoolhouses is being agitated by the citizens.
CLAREMONT.
Adjoining Berkeley on the east is the beautiful little villa of Claremont.
TEMESCAL.
Just outside of the city limits of Oakland, between it and Berkeley, and properly a continuation of Oak- land, the streets being extended through it, is the unincorporated suburb of Temescal, containing a pop- ulation of between two and three thousand. Through this suburb run the three electric roads to Berkeley. Its prominent citizens are, agitating the question of annexation to Oakland, and it must be only a short time until it is included in the corporate boundaries of Oakland. It was an early Spanish-American settle- ment.
GOLDEN GATE AND LORIN.
On the line of the East Berkeley branch road of the Southern Pacific and between Oakland and Berkeley are these two suburban villages, about one mile dis- tant from each other. Both are growing rapidly. The. former is at the end of a cable road with a half-mile horse-car extension, and one of the electric car lines to Berkeley runs through the latter. Efforts have been heretofore made to consolidate these villages with Temescal under a town incorporation. Other efforts are being made to include them within the Oakland city limits.
EMERYVILLE.
Outside the Oakland city limits, on the shore of the bay, is the suburb of E neryville. Here the Judson Works are situated, and the warehouses and work- shops of the Michigan Furniture Factory. Shell- mound Park, a summer picnic ground, and the Oak- land Trotting Park are also adjoining this suburb. The transcontinental, State, and Berkeley local trains pass through. The West Berkeley train branches off at Shell Mound Station. This is also the terminus of the California and Nevada narrow gauge, and it is said will be the Alameda County end of a new ferry to San Francisco, if this road should be the terminus of a competing transcontinental line. The ferry company has already been incorporated.
THE STOCK YARDS.
In Oakland Township, between Oakland and West Berkeley, on the line of the overland Central Pacific Railway, are situated the Stock Yards, where thousands of cattle and sheep are slaughtered for the markets of Oakland and surrounding towns and cities, and for San Francisco as well. There are about a dozen firms doing a slaughtering business here, and the annual out- put is quite large. There are annually slaughtered about two hundred and fifty thousand sheep, twenty- three thousand hogs, thirty thousand beeves, and two thousand five hundred calves. The annual output of the yards is about $1,500,000. They are situated upon the bay, and the refuse is cast into it and floated off with the tide.
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