Our Piedmont Recreation Department’s Walking on Wednesdays group jokes that it never rains on Wednesday mornings in Piedmont. The week before it had rained the days before and after their walk, but that Wednesday morning was sunny and beautiful. We were lucky again last Wednesday. It was going to rain later in the day, but it was just cloudy during our morning walk time. A strong turnout of 48 walkers and three K-9 best friends were on hand at the Exedra to get their steps before the rain.
Pala, Mesa, and Monte Avenues, just above Highland Avenue, were nearby streets we could walk, and we could then climb the steps between Pala and Scenic Avenue to see views of the Bay and the looming clouds.
We went up Highland Avenue, turned up Oakland Avenue, and stopped in front of the house on the corner. According to Ann Swift’s 2007 “Cottages & Castles,” a book on Piedmont’s centennial houses, this Victorian was built by John Rackliffe and his wife Ellen in 1899. Rackliffe was 73 years at the time but needed a large house for his family that included his two adult children and a grandson. The Rackliffes were one of the few families listed in the 1900 Piedmont Census. The house’s cross gabled roof and octagonal corner turret with gables of different sizes and a witch cap roof are typical of Queen Anne designs of the period. Jim Kellogg pointed out the seamless addition that architect Grier Graff later designed for the home.
The area above Oakland and Highland Avenues was a bit of bohemian neighborhood in the early 20th Century. Writers and painters such as Jack London and Xavier Martinez lived there in some unique homes, and before them land developer Frank C. Havens also resided in this area.
Many of the homes in this neighborhood were built soon after the San Francisco Earthquake. After Piedmont became a city in 1907 home construction boomed. The homes were built above an early pathway that went from Moraga Avenue to the one-room cabin of Walter Blair, the first European settler in the area. Blair named the path “Vernal” because of the abundant ferns and shrubs that grew around a nearby spring. That roadway was renamed “Highland Avenue” in 1911. The homes built above the street were part of the Alta Piedmont Track and Alta Heights development of Wickham Havens, Frank C.’s son. We wondered if Wickham’s “Alta Piedmont” resulted in later references to “Baja Piedmont” for the streets below Highland.
We went up Oakland Avenue, turned left on the one-block Hardwick Avenue, and walked down it to Blair Avenue. We went back down to Highland and then up to Pala. Up Pala we turned down Mesa, and enjoyed the attractive homes built in Bungalow, American Foursquare, Colonial Revival, and Craftsman styles. Seven homes on Mesa’s just two blocks were built in 1907, making them “Piedmont Centennial Houses.” We took special notice of the home at 17 Mesa. Its exterior ornamentation is unique with lovely, miniature columns supporting large, curved brackets on the porch.
We went up Moraga Avenue to Monte and back it to Pala. The homes along Monte were built between 1906 and 1960. We stopped to appreciate another beautiful home, this one at 110 Monte. Its design is interesting and complex with a hipped roof, twin towers, stained glass windows, and a red tiled roof in an unusual L-shaped design with varied roof heights.
We went up Pala to the Scenic Pala Steps. We took a group photo using the steps as tiers and climbed 161 feet to their top. We went up Scenic, and enjoyed the expansive, cloudy view of the Bay from an open spot at a turn in the road. We continued up the street and marveled at homes built on Scenic’s steep ridge above Blair Park and Moraga Avenue below. Even more surprising were story poles on a vacant lot indicating a new home is planned for the steep slope. Further up Scenic we passed the longest path in Piedmont, the 281-foot steps down to Blair. They go as far as the eye could see but would have to wait for another Wednesday walk. Our return to the Exedra was via Alta Avenue, Blair, Pacific, Mountain, and Highland Avenues with more beautiful, cloudy views along the way.