Our Piedmont Recreation Department’s Walking on Wednesdays group had a good turnout of 36 walkers and two K-9 best friends at the Exedra last Wednesday for our weekly walk.
The Shell station on Grand and Wildwood Avenues was being demolished and the conversion to a Shell electric vehicles recharging station had started. We decided to go see the work and revisit the history of the commercial buildings on Grand Avenue.
History from Piedmont Historical Society president about this section of Piedmont was shared. In 1929 the Piedmont City Council adopted an ordinance allowing businesses from the city line just beyond Wildwood Avenue to Linda Avenue on the west side of Grand Avenue, and to Fairview Avenue on the east side. Seven months later voters rejected another zoning ordinance to extend the business district to Oakland Avenue. Today, the Grand Avenue business district remains the same as it was in 1929.
We went down Magnolia to the little visited MacKinnon Place cul de sac. We went up to its top and found a hidden, 110-foot path down to Arbor Drive. The group stayed on Arbor past the Nova Circle to Oakland Avenue, went down to Grand, and walked the east/uphill side of Grand to Linda Avenue.
Across the street was once the site of a beer garden. In 1892 Axel Gruggel built a restaurant on this corner that he called A Mon Chateau (My Castle), and a beer garden in the back on Linda. Over the years, the establishment had different owners, including three bachelors in 1907 who were denied a liquor license when they became available because neighbors didn’t like the restaurant’s noise. However, the bachelors continued to sell liquor. In 1908 they were arrested, and their liquor was confiscated. In 1911 a new owner changed the restaurant into “The Piedmont Casino,” where poker was played. But gambling was illegal, and the casino was raided in 1912. Nine card players were arrested, and each was fined $55. Not surprisingly, the casino closed soon after.
In 1914 the building became the Grand Avenue Grocery Company and in 1922 the Del Monte Market. The store did well until a Piggly Wiggly supermarket opened down the street at Sunnyside. The competition was too much. The Del Monte Market closed in 1935, and the building was torn down in 1936. A succession of gas stations occupied the space until 1987 when Chevron sold the property, and the current two-story Piedmont Financial Center was built on the site. There was also a popular, locally owned Foudy’s Fine Food on the block from 1950 to 1967.
Meghan Bennett’s History of Piedmont website (https://www.historyofpiedmont.com/grocery) provided more history. There were homes where the current Ace Hardware is, but between 1961 and 1963 they were torn down, and in 1963 the 40th store of a local Louis market chain was built on the site. The store was also remembered by walkers being a Big T store, but that store was unsuccessful and closed. In 1985 Ace Hardware move up Grand from where Walden Books is now. We continued down Grand to its corner with Wildwood Avenue. The Shell station had been partially demolished, and workers were doing some clean up.
Piedmont Shell had been in Piedmont for 95 years, but it was announced in November 2023 that it would close that month. The property was sold to Shell Recharge, a division of Shell Oil. The station had three 10,000-gallon gas tanks under the pumps that needed to be replaced by 2025. New tanks would have enabled the station to continue to sell gas for decades, but the increased popularity of electric vehicles made the owner feel uncomfortable with the future of gasoline stations and the investment. Influencing this was California’s plans to achieve 100% new zero-emission vehicle sales by 2035 and have a 25% reduction in smog causing pollution by 2037. Shell is replacing the station with a 14-bay electric vehicle charging hub under the Shell Recharge brand. Fast charging will be provided with power up to 360kW. No employees will be regularly on the site.
A group photo was taken in front of what remained of the station, and we went up Wildwood to Palm Drive. We found a hidden 246-foot, bamboo lined path up to Magnolia and made our return to the Exedra.
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