Redwood Heights - Oakland

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Redwood Heights is a middle class residential neighborhood in the Oakland Hills. The neighborhood centers around 35th Avenue starting about a mile above MacArthur Blvd between Victor Ave and Highway 13. Redwood Heights includes Redwood Heights Elementary School and Redwood Heights Recreation Center and Redwood Heights Park.

The neighborhood is proudly middle class and diverse. According to the neighborhood association website,

Redwood Heights has the important distinction of being one of Oakland’s most ethnically diverse neighborhoods with a mostly middle class population. With over 24,500 residents, Whites make up about 33.9% of the population, Blacks 31.3%, Asians 20.5%, and Latinos 15.1%, with other races forming about 1.2% of the population.

The Redwood Heights Neighborhood Association was established in 1944.

History

Between the 1840s and the 1860s, the eponymous redwood trees of the area were harvested. One only has to look at the Blossom Rock trees to get a sense of the size of the trees in the area. Ten sawmills, including one on the nearby Palo Seco Creek busily churned out lumber. In 1852, there were more people logging than there were living in downtown (unless one counts Horace Carpentier's outsized personality as multiple people). The redwood was used for building the Bay Are cities and eucalyptus trees were planted in their places. The only redwood that is left is Old Survivor. Redwood Road was, like Park Blvd, a logging road.

The area began being developed in the 1920s. Avenue Terrace was subdivided in 1925 and called "The Piedmont of East Oakland." It had great views across the bay.¹

Most of the homes in the area are from the 1920s-1950s. The styles vary from craftsman to storybook and ranch. According to the Davenport Neighborhood Watch, "there is a large rock/stone “obelisk” on the corner of 35th Ave and Victor that says “Avenue Terrace” and may have once been a marker for the development."²