Laurel District History - Oakland

Fremont Tract, 1913 CC BY 2.0 LISgirl

The name of the Laurel District comes from one of the first tracts dividing the land for further development in 1900, Laurel Grove Park. ^1,3 Other early parts of the district were Key Route Heights and Key Route Acres, after Borax Smith's Key System streetcar company. The Realty Syndicate ran a streetcar line to the area and eventually held a contest to name the area. ² The area didn't become part of Oakland until the 1909 annexation.

Early History

1878 Thompson and West map excerpt

As with the rest of Oakland and much of the East Bay, the land in the area was granted to Luis Maria Peralta by the Spanish crown in 1820, ignoring the Ohlone who had formerly lived here.

Luis Maria Peralta divided the grant between his four sons c.1842. This section was given to Antonio Maria Peralta. California became a state in 1850, and in 1853, Alameda County was formed out of Contra Costa County and part of Santa Clara County. This area became part of Brooklyn Township, which extended from Trestle Glen to San Leandro Creek.

Antonio Maria Peralta deeded some of the land to George Washington Adams. By 1869, Sidney Johnson owned it. Another large land owner in the area of Oscar L. Shafter.

Beginning in 1888, it was possible to get to the area via the Laundry Farm Railroad, which ran to Mills College and the Laundry Farm Hotel.

In 1895, the Beulah Heights Orphanage was opened by Carrie Judd Montgomery.

Development and the Key System

"Borax" Smith acquired a controlling interest in the Laundry Farm Railroad, and then it was converted to electricity in 1896. It was eventually consolidated into what became the Key System.

1912 map excerpt

Laurel Grove Park

In 1900, Johnson sold his land to the Westalls, who owned other land nearby. The Westalls hired surveyor George E. Fogg to subdivide Laurel Grove Park, then realtor Henry Z. Jones to sell it. Fogg put Laurel Avenue down the center, with Quarry (now Maple Avenue) on the northwest side and School St. on the southwest. The map extended beyond Kansas Street, and gave the streets in the area their present day names of U.S. states. ^1,3 Presumably the tract's name referred to the bay laurels growing along Peralta Creek and Berlin Branch on either side.

1905 map excerpt

By July 1904, a Laurel Grove Improvement Club had been formed. This was later shortened to Laurel Improvement Club.

Fruitvale Heights / Key Route Heights

In 1907, the Transbay Realty Company bought land that had belonged to O.L. Shafter. They initially called the development Fruitvale Heights, but soon changed to Key Route Heights. One of the first references to the Key Route Heights name is from 1909, with the Fruitvale Boulevard Land Company hiring the Hutchison Company to build sewers.

1907 ad1913 map excerpt

Annexation

In 1909, residents voted for the biggest and last annexation by Oakland. It included the Laurel District, along with the surrounding areas like Fruitvale, Dimond, and Allendale. Not long after the vote passed, the Key System announced plans to extend its Liese Avenue line (along 38th Avenue) to the new Laurel school, which opened in February 1910.

Key Route Acres

A 1911 plot map shows Key Route Acres as a small tract just northeast of the Laurel Park Grove tract. By this time, Hopkins (now MacArthur Boulevard) had been extended eastward, and the Key System had streetcars running along it in addition to the route up 38th Avenue. The new tract mostly kept with state names for streets, continuing California and Arizona from Key Route Heights, but with Madeline Street inserted after Kansas.

1911 tract map ⁴

Fremont Tract

The Fremont Tract was along High Street below Hopkins (now MacArthur). It opened in 1911, and ads in 1912 tout the educational opportunities of the nearby school and Mills College.

1911 ad1912 ad

Laurel Terrace Tract

Just above Key Route Acres was the Laurel Terrace tract. The map for Laurel Terrace was accepted in 1912.

Laurel Terrace

Commercial District

Despite access via the Key System, by 1912 the area was still sparsely populated. The 1912 Sanborn maps show some houses, but many vacant lots. There were only a handful of commercial buildings, all near Hopkins and Edson, streets better known by their current names, MacArthur Boulevard and 38th Avenue.

1912 Sanborn excerpt

The 1913 directory shows that 3934 - 38th Avenue was the real estate office of W.C. Davis and Company, agents for Key Route Heights. Across the street at 3924 Hopkins was the barbershop of Ferdinand "Ferd" Dederky, and 3930 Hopkins was a grocery run by Walter Whittall which dated back to 1911.

By the mid-1920s, there were enough people to support several grocery stores, a drug store, a hardware store, a gas station (Key Service Station), a repair garage (Hopkins Street Garage), even Tony Larence's cigar store. One of the grocery stores was a Mutual Store, which opened in March 1925 at 3836 Hopkins. 1926 brought another chain grocery, a Pon Honor Store at 3807 Hopkins.

As the population increased through the 1930s, the commercial district grew, as did the variety of shops. The 1930s saw the opening of two long-time businesses, The Food Mill (still open!), and Rose's Place (open until the 1980s.) One thing that helped the growth of the commercial district was the extension of U.S. Highway 50 from Sacramento to Oakland in the 1930s. It ran along Hopkins through the area, and was one of the main routes into Oakland, especially after the opening of the Bay Bridge in 1936. This in turn led to a number of motels opening along the route, although the Oaks Motel didn't open until 1955. And 1939 brought not one but two movie theaters, the Laurel Theater and the Hopkins Theatre.