8th Street at Broadway, Blake and Moffitt Building in back

The East Oakland Street Railway was a streetcar line from downtown Oakland to points east of Lake Merritt, beginning operations in 1892. According to The Street Railway Journal, January 1894, E.C. Sessions was the president. 4

In 1897, it was purchased by the The Realty Syndicate, and consolidated with the Highland Park & Fruit Vale Railroad (which Sessions had also owned). All of this would later become part of the Key System. 1

from Illustrated Album of Alameda County 1893

Photos of streetcars crossing the Indian Gulch Trestle (the trestle in Trestle Glen) clearly show the same type of streetcar in 1898. 2 Another photo showing a streetcar crossing the 8th Street Bridge has a different type of streetcar in 1892. That may have been a horse-car before the conversion to electric as there are no trolley wires visible. The source describes it as East Oakland Street Railway. 3

Trestle Glen, 1898 28th St. Bridge, 1892 3

The photo at the top was posted on the Oakland History group on Facebook.

The building is the Blake and Moffitt Block. See this photo, both the building and the building to the right. - gene

The photo shows the law office of Milton J. Green at upper left. His address in the 1892-93 directory was 478-1/2  10th Street, but his office must have moved to the Blake-Moffitt block, which you correctly identify in the photo; unfortunately there's a long gap in the directories. The photo shows the car operator switching the catenary at the end of the line. Note that the car reads "Railroad," not "Railway." - andrew

Links and References

  1. One Complete System Oakland Tribune August 31, 1897
  2. Image(s) used by permission of the UC Berkeley, Bancroft Library
  3. 8th St. Bridge to East Oakland UC Berkeley, Bancroft Library
  4. The Street Railway Journal January 1894 (p. 20)
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