USA > California > Alameda County > Past and present of Alameda County, California, Volume I > Part 53
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Immediately after the ratification of the charter by the Legislature, the newly annexed districts were notified by the board of health to make proper sewer connections, but not one of the forty-nine thus notified complied with the order. Many nuisances were abated at this time and all possible was being done by the board with their limited powers to put the whole city in better sanitary condition. Vernon Heights was the name of the newly annexed district. As a reason for not complying with the orders of the board, it was stated that a more feasible project was on foot for the construction of a substantial sewer from Bay street to connect with the sewer along the northwest side of Lake Merritt. At the head of this movement was Edson Adams. They regarded their plans as better than the cesspool proposed by the board. There was a decrease in the death rate at this time-to 13.30 during January. The people in the annexed territory were granted longer time to put their premises in proper sanitary condition.
The board of public works, in May, 1889, estimated that bonds to the amount of nearly $1,500,000 would be required to effect the contemplated improvements. The Oakland council on February IIth established a new city grade. The action of the council in fixing the saloon license at $400 was followed by a genuine and spirited crusade against the liquor evil and by the organization of the Anti- Saloon Alliance. The measure was treated as a moral rather than a business proposition. It encountered much opposition throughout the county. Many contended that the license would drive out the light wines and beers and encourage the consumption of whisky and brandy and would thus prove a source of great harm. The mistake made by Oakland, it was claimed, was in compelling the pay- ment of a license for the sale of wine and beer exclusively. This meant a blow at the pure and harmless drinks of Alameda county-at one of its chief indus- tries. A majority of the people consumed the native wines, but now could not obtain them even in original packages or cases.
The new board of public works consisted of J. West Martin, E. W. Playter and R. M. Fitzgerald-an American, a republican and a democrat, respectively. Martin and Playter were formerly mayors. Under the new city administration in 1889 plans for great improvements were duly considered, among which were a new city hall, brick high school, boulevard, sewers, street extension, parks
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HISTORY OF ALAMEDA COUNTY
and Lake Merritt purification. Mayor Glascock was in favor of a bond issue to commence a general system of city improvement.
Early in 1889 the name of the West Oakland Herald was changed to the Western Christian Union. Rev. G. W. Bothwell, D. D., remained its editor, and Stephen R. Ward, its publisher.
In May, twenty-five lots at Encinal and San Antonio avenues and Union street were sold at auction; the price per lot ranged from $1,000 to $1,600. Charles S. Neal owned the property. M. J. Laymance & Co. at this time sold large numbers of lots in all parts of the city and suburban towns. The Kingsland tract, Brooklyn township, comprising eighty-four acres about one mile east of Fruitvale, was divided into one-acre lots and thrown on the market by Gaskill & Vandercook. It fronted on the county road running from Oakland to San Leandro. On June 30th the Oakland library had 14,468 volumes and on June 30, 1890, 14,888.
The rainfall at Oakland in the fall of 1889 was heavier than ever known before. By December IIth there had fallen since July 17.55 inches. During a shower in November a quarter of an inch of rain fell in five minutes. Lake Merritt was overflowing, a wide stream pouring over the dam. Lake Chabot was within one foot of the top and the end of rain was not in sight. All the streams of the county were over their banks. In the canyons the floods swept all before them.
BONDED DEBT OF OAKLAND
1880
$673,000 1885 440,000
1881
643,000
1886
397,000
1882
764,500
1887
397,000
1883
570,000
I888
397,000
1884
526,000
1889
397,000
In October, 1889, the towns of Lorin, Golden Gate, Emeryville, Newberry and perhaps Temescal, with other adjoining settlements discussed the advisability of incorporating as a consolidated municipality or as several separate towns. This action was caused by the demand for street light, sewer, police and other improvements which they could not secure without incorporation. At the meeting a committee was appointed to investigate the wishes of the various towns inter- ested and learn what they wished done. This committee reported to a large audience at Klinkner's hall on November 7th in favor of uniting Golden Gate, Lorin, Newberry and surrounding country under one corporation. The bound- aries and conditions generally did not suit the Golden Gate delegates, who suc- ceeded in their efforts to have the report laid on the table. Nothing definite was done because it appeared that the majority of those present at the meeting thought all the small towns should be annexed to Oakland.
The reception tendered to General Grant by Oakland and her citizens was a splendid ovation. As soon as he touched the soil of Alameda county, he was met by Mayor Andrus and the city council of Oakland, when his honor, stepping forward, said : "General Grant : Your merited ovations have encircled the world. They have been as grand and as varied as the nations who have offered them. And, yet, among them all, there has not been a more earnest, sincere and cordial
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HISTORY OF ALAMEDA COUNTY
welcome than that which the city of Oakland now extends to you. This is preeminently a city of homes and of families; of husbands and of wives; of parents and of children; of churches and of schools. There is no earthly tie more sacred and lasting than that of the family. At the family altar the fires of liberty are first enkindled, and there patriotism is born. The love of home, of kindred, and of country, is one. This is the source and the foundation of our welcome to you, the defender of our country, our firesides, and our families. I am authorized to further present to you this official expression of good will from our city authorities." The freedom of the city, with the resolutions quoted above, were then tendered to and accepted by General Grant, who thereupon grasped the hand of the mayor, and said: "Mr. Mayor : I thank you."
The council passed the following resolution : That upon receiving telegraphic notice of the signaling of the steamship City of Tokio off the "Heads," the mayor be requested to cause the American flag to be hoisted on the city hall, and the superintendent of fire alarm be and he is hereby authorized and directed to cause the fire-alarm bell to be sounded for five consecutive minutes, to give notice of the return to his country of America's most distinguished citizen, Gen- eral Grant.
During 1889, 400 dwellings and fifty-seven business blocks were erected in Oakland; other buildings brought the total up to 460. In 1889 Oakland appro- priated $8,930 for two new fire engines; it also paid Rudolph Hering $1,000 for a plan for a new or improved building. In December the council considered issuing bonds for the four following purposes : (1) Deepening Lake Merritt, and filling the marshes of West Oakland; (2) providing additional land and facilities for the school department; (3) purchase and placing of poles and wires for a system of electric lighting; (4) salt water storage reservoir for street sprinkling. It was estimated that these improvements would cost $1,000,000.
Late in January, 1890, the board of public works, in a courteous communica- tion, charged the city council with having usurped the functions conferred upon the former by the new charter. The board stated that it was willing to purchase peace and harmony with personal sacrifices, but was not willing to delegate to others the duties which the new constitution conferred upon it. That document gave them charge of the public works of the city not controlled by the general laws, and the board of public works had the right to expect the legislation asked for from the council to carry into effect their operations. Twelve or fifteen important measures had been recommended and desired, but the council had paid no attention to the requirements of the board. This request from the board of public works was received with considerable indignation by the councilmen, several of whom denied the charges and others controverted the premises assumed by the board. It was claimed that the board of public works had started wrong-started with the assumption that they were a superior body with superior powers, when in reality they were a subordinate body with subordinate powers, that their first act was to investigate the finances of the city-a step they had no legal right to take. The Ah Yon decision in the supreme court had likewise stripped the board of more of their assumed rights.
Temescal was quite a village by January 1, 1890. It extended from Thirty- sixth street, Oakland, to the bay and included Lorin, Klinknerville, Newberry and Claremont. A large sanitarium was planned there by a lady physician of
SCENE ON THE FIFTEEN MILE DRIVE AROUND LAKE MERRITT
LOOKING ACROSS LAKE MERRITT TO LAKESIDE PARK, OAKLAND
VIEW OF THE HILLS BACK OF OAKLAND
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HISTORY OF ALAMEDA COUNTY
Oakland. The old cannery buildings were transformed into amusement halls and nearby was the California Military Academy. Doctor Ayala gave land for a public park. There were the big public school, the St. Mary and St. Law- rence schools of the Catholics, the Church of the Sacred Heart, Home for Children, Home for Aged Women and others. In January Oakland was cut off from communication with all outside places by the floods which washed out the railroad tracks and washed down the telegraph poles. Three inches of rain fell from 9 o'clock at night until 7 o'clock the next morning.
Three improvements were demanded in 1890. A suitable high school build- ing; the dredging of Lake Merritt, and the reclamation of the West Oakland marshes. Many contended in the summer of 1890 that the Oakland sewer system was a rotten cesspool, that filth polluted the air because the drains were choked and broken, that Lake Merritt was a reeking pestilence-breeding bed of slimy ooze, that every street was a breakneck in its disruption; that dust settled upon everything with no water to wash half of it off; that the walks were traps for every pedestrian; that there was not a hotel in the city where a man could rest in comfort, sleep in peace and eat without inducing acute indigestion ; that every hostelry was the stronghold of a robber and a synonym for discomfort; that the city officials were the worst in the world-thieves, cut purses and abandoned wretches of the slums; that consequently the city was bowed down with taxation and had nothing to show for the outlay; that the gas company was in league with the opticians; that city water was nothing short of putrified poison, and that even the climate was one of the worst out of doors. After reciting the above the Tribune of June 3, 1890, more sanely said that it was time to face the truth and at least greatly improve the existing conditions.
In June about one hundred and seventy citizens of Oakland petitioned the city council to pass the ordinance pending to grant to the Edison General Electric Company the right to lay down, maintain and operate in this city wires and other conductors for the transmission of electricity. A special committee of the general committee of one hundred reported on artesian well-water supply in April, 1890. There were the following wells: On Bay Farm, at the old narrow- gauge pier, at Butchertown, at San Pablo and at Sobrante, all of which flowed only at high tide. Those with a constant flow were at Klinknerville, near Temes- cal, near Oak street, at Fruitvale, near Fitchburg and three at Alvarado, the latter three yielding from 3,000,000 to 5,000,000 gallons daily. In addition there were nearly one hundred others which did not flow, but yielded large supplies of good water. In April Oakland led all the other cities of northern California in the matter of street paving with asphalt or bituminous rock. One mile had already been constructed and another third of a mile was being contracted for.
In May residents of Lorin, Golden Gate, Emeryville and Newberry petitioned the county board to declare their towns a sanitary district and to have a sanitary officer appointed there. Attorney S. P. Hall presented the petition and asked for prompt action. The boundaries of the seven wards were so altered as to give them as nearly as practicable the same population; all were changed more or less except the Seventh. Broadway terrace at Prospect and Florence streets was placed in the market by Carnall-Fitzhugh-Hopkins Company of San Fran- cisco. About the same time, also, the Terminal tract, at Piedmont, at May and Bonita streets, was offered by E. A. Heron. It can not be truthfully said that
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HISTORY OF ALAMEDA COUNTY
the citizens in early years did all that they should and could to make this city attractive and beautiful. Many cities throughout the country surpassed it in this regard. It did not even improve its natural advantages, to say nothing of keeping up the sewer, water and street paving and many other systems as it should. The city had too many old codgers in office who were willing to sit down and let the city advance in rags and disgrace so long as the taxation was small. A dozen vital improvements were demanded in 1890 and the council only just awakened to the necessities and the possibilities.
In August a real estate exchange was organized in Oakland and was com- posed of the following dealers; W. W. Camron, Blow & Warder, J. H. Mac- Donald & Co., W. E. Barnard & Son, Benham & Thomas, Dusenbury & Wurtz, Riley & Jackson, A. J. Snyder and Leckie & Hawkett. The purpose of the organization was to cooperate in the purchase and sale of real estate-at private sales and public auctions. W. W. Blow was the first president of the association. The Ladies Syndicate and Exchange, a real estate concern, was organized in August, and began business with offices in the Blake building. The ordinance which determined the land necessary for the boulevard around Lake Merritt passed the council by a unanimous vote. The free library authorities asked for $50,000 to be used in constructing a new building, as the old one was wholly inadequate to meet the needs of the growing library. It required $15,899.15 to maintain the big library.
On October 10th Mayor Glascock vetoed the tax ordinance passed by the coun- cil on October 6th, on the ground that it was too high-that $1 on each $100 was sufficient. The year before, on a levy of $1, there was a surplus of $41,000. The position taken by the mayor was denied by many citizens who insisted that the dollar limit of the charter was not exceeded by the levy of $1.05, because part of the levy was for improvement and not for regular municipal expenses. It was further declared that as public sentiment favored advanced public improve- ments, a niggardly policy of city administration was both harmful and unde- sirable. Thus far every dollar that had been spent for public improvements had brought returns so satisfactory that more money should be spent in the same direction, was the general opinion. On October 13th the ordinance was passed over the mayor's veto by 8 to 3 votes. The project incorporating as a city of the sixth class of portions of Claremont, Peralta and Lorin was considered by the county board in November. The tract was bounded north by Berkeley, south by Alcatraz avenue, west by Grove street and east by an imaginary line.
The speedy adjustment of the Lake Merritt difficulties late in 1890 spurred the people of West Oakland to redoubled activity to reclaim the large marsh in their district. The West Oakland Improvement Association had done all it could to induce the citizens there to demand and enforce the reclamation, but until this time had failed to awaken the citizens to the importance of the improvement without further delay. Now the action of Oakland and Alameda did more to interest them than had been done by the association. Oakland made final plans for its boulevard around Lake Merritt and Alameda perfected its designs for a boulevard along the whole water front, and both demanded that a fine bridge to connect the two boulevard systems should be built across the tidal canal at Park street. The people generally insisted that the quality of city water should be improved and the council be brought to accomplish that result. Early
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HISTORY OF ALAMEDA COUNTY
in 1891 it further succeeded in reducing the water rates from 5 to 30 per cent. The estimated number of buildings erected in Oakland in 1890 was 548, at a total estimated cost of $1,881,450.
By a unanimous vote the council on December 9, 1890, passed to print an ordinance appropriating $20,000 with which to begin work on the Lake Merritt boulevard. This action was opposed before the council by John P. Irish on behalf of the people of West Oakland who believed it was a step taken at the solicitation of certain property owners in the vicinity of Lake Merritt and not generally by the city as a whole-that if the city was to be benefited why was not the reclamation of the West Oakland marsh likewise given a liberal appropria- tion? He referred sarcastically to the alleged self-sacrificing motives of the lake real estate owners in deeding their property to the city and declared it was done to save their own lives. Mr. Evans said the reason why a similar appro- priation was not given to West Oakland was not because the council wished to draw a deadline, as insinuated by Colonel Irish, but because the owners of the West Oakland marsh had not placed their property under the city government so that legal improvements could be made. Mr. Camron said in substance that the marsh would receive the necessary appropriation in due time. It was soon apparent that the position taken by Colonel Irish was favored by a majority of the best citizens-that both Lake Merritt and the West Oakland marsh should be improved under a joint act and at the same time.
The $20,000 appropriation ordinance for public improvement came up for final consideration on December 22d. An amendment reducing the amount to $10,000 was lost. The ordinance then passed by the vote of 8 for and 3 against. Mayor Glascock promptly approved the ordinance and said : "In doing this permit me to express the pleasure it gives to place the stamp of official approval on the first of the great improvements evidencing the awakening spirit of Oakland enterprise. That others equally necessary and important will follow there can be no doubt." He said the city had outgrown the provincial and had entered upon the metropolitan stage of municipal life. He spoke of dredging Lake Mer- ritt, constructing the boulevard, reclaiming the West Oakland marsh, building a new city hall and supplying additional educational facilities. The appropria- tion of the $20,000 would not in any way interfere with the issuance of bonds for any or all of these improvements, he said.
The year 1890 was a quickening one for all departments of progress in Oak- land and its various suburbs. The people had at last awakened to the fact of their possibilities and to the need of prompt and efficient action to keep abreast of the other progressive cities of the coast. There was a general revivification fol- lowed by better streets, sewers, sidewalks, and every other advance. In fact so urgent became the demand for improvements in these particulars that the council was compelled part of the year to hold extra night sessions to attend to the demands upon their consideration. New sewers had been built in every section of the city and the old ones were extensively repaired. Macadamizing and laying bituminous rock had gone on by hundreds of feet and all the paving companies were far behind with their work. However, it took the Glascock administration nearly two years, or until just before the municipal election in 1891 before it did what should have been done in 1889 and which the citizens then demanded should be done as a result of the political upheaval of March, 1889.
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HISTORY OF ALAMEDA COUNTY
The cable road to Piedmont was one of the important improvements put forward in 1890. A large hotel was going up at Piedmont. The electric road connecting Oakland and Berkeley was nearing completion-would be in operation by March, 1891. The Y. M. C. A. building was one of the greatest improvements this year. Others were the new Chemical building at Berkeley and the ship building plant on the estuary; three shipyards were in operation and several steamers and schooners had been launched. The board of trade, after making vast pretentions in 1889 finally sank into desnetude in 1890, when all their dreams were not promptly carried into execution. During 1890 about $550,000 was spent for buildings in Berkeley.
Early in 1891 two important questions to be taken into consideration by the new administration were: (1) Continuation of the public improvements planned and already commenced and (2) the question of high or low or any license for the sale of liquor. There were nearly two hundred saloons paying each $400 license which gave the city a revenue of about seventy-five thousand dollars annually. The proposed West Oakland park was an irregular tract extending from Eighteenth street to Twenty-eighth street in part and Yerba Buena street in part and from the railroad to Peralta, Minor and Center streets in part.
In 1890-91 the Legislature enacted a law which provided for the issue and sale of bonds with forty years to run. This gave the cities of Alameda county the opportunity which many of its citizens had clamored for and wanted a long time. Oakland was not in a situation to take advantage of this law, because the case concerning the annexed territory north of Lake Merritt was then pending in the supreme court, whence it had been appealed. Late in April a petition was circulated and numerously signed asking the council to call immediately an elec- tion to decide whether the territory heretofore annexed under a law which was declared to be unconstitutional should be reannexed under the new law. Over one hundred and forty signed the petition, among them many of the most prominent men in the city. By this time the question of calling such an election was supported by a large majority of the people. In May, the council having received a petition signed by more than one-fifth of the qualified electors, and there being no legal obstacles, called a special election on the reannexation question. The issuance of bonds for the West Oakland marsh reclamation, for the construction of the boulevard, for the improvement of Lake Merritt, for better sewers, for the streets and for other progressive and up to date measures had hung fire for many dreary months. The ordinances calling for bonds for the West Oakland park, the boulevard around Lake Merritt and vast school improvements were finally passed and immediately approved by the mayor on September 23, 1891. The next step was to call an election on the bond ques- tion. The bare suggestion of a bond issue of a million dollars, even for the most urgent improvements, caused the "old shellback silurians" of Oakland to shudder and grow sick with fear-fear that their taxes would be increased. No matter if the improvements then made should double the valuation of property, the sick feeling still remained. They could not see that this city was destined to extend from Pinole to Mission San Jose and from the bay eastward to and up the rolling foothills. The West Oakland park project embraced 112 acres, instead of 160 acres, in July, 1891. The total cost of its acquisition by the city was estimated at $112,000. It was necessary to fill about forty acres to the height of four feet
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HISTORY OF ALAMEDA COUNTY
at a cost of $48,000. John P. Irish and Father McNally were active in the movement to reclaim and beautify this objectionable tract.
The vote in Oakland in 1891 was-for annexation, 1,008; against annexa- tion, 263. In outside districts the vote was-for annexation, 19; against annexa- tion, I.
In July the following real estate firms and dealers recommended voters to cast their ballots in favor of annexation : W. J. Dingee, W. G. Henshaw, E. W. Wood- ward & Co., M. J. Laymance & Co., J. A. Jones, J. L. Scotchler, W. W. Blow, E. P. Vandercook, Gray & Swenarton, D. F. McDonald & Co., Benham & Thomas, H. M. Cameron, W. E. Barnard, W. H. Mackinnon, J. H. Macdonald & Co., E. A. Heron, Riley & Jackson, O. I. Denison & Co. and W. W. Camron. This annexation tract embraced the land that had been illegally annexed and included about two hundred acres owned by the Edson Adams estate. The petition calling the election was signed by over two thousand citizens. In August, 1891, the Oakland Syndicate Improvement Company planned to reclaim about two thousand acres of overflowed lands west of Oakland and north of the railroad mole. They asked the council to submit to the voters the question of granting them a bonus of $500,000 to be used in starting this reclamation project, because they claimed that it meant the return of the grain shipping facilities from Port Costa to Oakland, would furnish ample railroad facilities for all companies who desired terminal advantages and would add from $20,000,000 to $30,000,000 to the assessment roll of the city. L. W. Kennedy was president of this company. It was a remarkable fact in 1891 that the citizens of Oakland did not realize what wonderful strides real estate values were soon to take. The commercial importance and terminal prominence of the city were not appreciated and hence land near the harbor was offered at a ridiculously low figure.
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