Craftsman Charm and Queen Anne Grace on a Winter Walk

It wasn’t supposed to rain last Wednesday morning, but a drizzle turned into a light rain for our Piedmont Recreation Department’s Walking on Wednesdays group. It got jackets and umbrellas a little wet, but it was not enough to stop 41 walkers and four K-9 best friends from being at the Exedra and enjoying our weekly walk.

Before we got started, it was announced our walk on Wednesday, March 5th will be in the memory of Will Adams, who died unexpectedly in December. Jim Kellogg will lead a walking tour to Julia Morgan designed homes, like the first Wednesday walk Will led in 2021.

Piedmont students were on winter break, so it was a good week for us to visit the student-free Beach School. We could also see the Linda Beach Tot Lot that is going to be upgraded by the City. On the way to the school, there were historic homes on Nace, Howard, and Lake Avenues to see. Additionally, morning Piedmont Post readers learned there is a controversy at City Council regarding a proposed development at 210 Howard Avenue. A developer wants to build two structures divided into four condominium units on a flag-shaped lot that has a long, narrow driveway into the property. We could see the site too.

Off we went down Magnolia Avenue to the upper portion of San Carlos Avenue. We went across to Oakland Avenue, crossed it, and down Greenbank Avenue where we stopped in front of a charming Queen Anne Victorian at 225 Greenbank. According to Ann Swift’s 2007 “Cottages & Castles,” a book on Piedmont’s centennial houses, Ole Berg built this home in 1896. He was a 45-year-old Norwegian stevedore who worked on the Oakland docks and may have done much of the work himself. It was a simple, one-story home, and Ole added a garage in 1926. In the 1990s the house was raised to add a second floor. Today, there is a white picket fence and two inviting chairs in the front yard.

We continued across Grand Avenue and up to Cambridge Way and Howard Avenue. This section of Piedmont goes back to the city’s early days. “Cottages & Castles” says some homes were built in 1907 or before, but according to Zillow some were built a little later. We could have gone straight up Howard to Lake Avenue and Beach School, but despite the light rain, we wanted to see and learn about the homes on Nace. In 1906, Laura Fenton, the granddaughter of the founder of Fenton’s Creamery, married Maxwell Franck, a young civil engineer, and they moved into the new, classic Craftsman house at 52 Nace. One of the oldest houses on Nace is the “Gibson House” at 46 Nace. Before the Gibsons, the owner was the dairy man Fenton. In 2024 this house was the winner of the City’s Excellence in Integrated Garage Design and we took a group photo in front of its good-looking garage.

We came out of Nace on Lake, went down to Howard, and walked up to the disputed 210 address site. There is no home, only a curb cut with a narrow driveway up the hill. We assumed the site for the proposed condominiums is up there, and it seemed understandable the neighbors have issues.

We went back to Lake and were soon at Beach School’s main entrance. Egbert Beach Elementary can tie its history back to the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake. On that April 18th morning, thousands of people fled San Francisco for the East Bay, and Piedmont grew ten times over the next year. Piedmont was incorporated in 1907 and City leaders decided to build two schools to serve the growing community. The “Bonita Avenue School,” later renamed after its land donor, Frank C. Havens, opened in 1911. The “Lake Avenue School” was built in 1913 and renamed the “Egbert W. Beach School” in 1917 to honor of the first Piedmonter and first Californian officer killed in France during World War I.

We walked through the playground to the tot lot. The City is currently gathering users’ preferences for a Linda Beach Tot Lot Equipment Replacement Project. The old playground equipment will be replaced, ADA access from Linda Avenue to the playground will be created, the playground will be resurfaced with ADA compliant matting, and a new water fountain or bottle filling station will be installed.

The still drizzling, light rain convinced us it was time to return to the Exedra. We exited the playfield through the gates at Howard Avenue and made our way back as quickly as possible up Oakland Avenue.