Twenty-eight heat resistant members of our Piedmont Recreation Department’s Walking on Wednesdays group gathered at the Exedra this Wednesday at our regular time. It was forecast to be in the mid-90s, but Joyce and Woody Bailey, who were visiting from Maryland, said it wasn’t really hot because there wasn’t any humidity.
One seldom traveled Piedmont street we hadn’t gotten to this year was my Florada Avenue. Getting to it would let us have a “fall colors” experience on Wildwood Avenue where its maple trees were almost-New England colorful. Additionally, we could walk through Wildwood Gardens and check out the controversial vacant lot/house project on Wistaria Way. However, a walk-through Wildwood Gardens would be incomplete without some history of Frank Colton Havens, the man responsible for it.
We went down Highland Avenue, turned up Wildwood Avenue, and stopped to enjoy the burnt red leaves on the maple trees that line both sides of the block. The attached group photo was taken and some basic Havens information from Gail Lombardi’s Piedmont Historical Society articles and Meghan Bennett’s History of Piedmont website was told.
Havens was from New York. He came to San Francisco in 1866 and worked in banking, stocks, insurance, and investments. In 1895 he created the Oakland-based “Realty Syndicate” with F. M. "Borax" Smith. They became major real estate developers in the East Bay, particularly in Oakland, Berkeley, and Piedmont. The Syndicate accumulated at least 13,000 aces of valuable hilltop land that stretched from near Mills College to the boundary of North Berkeley. It built the Claremont Hotel in Berkeley and was also the parent company of the Key System transit company.
Ken Hubbert provided some new information from a book, Borax Pioneer, about Smith. At some point before 1910, Smith and Havens came into conflict, for reasons unknown. One explanation was Smith joined in a water business that competed with a Havens business. Another was that Havens knew where Key System lines were going to be built and tipped off his family and friends to buy the land first at Smith’s expense. On December 9, 1910 it was made public that they had divided their interests, and sadly, after they had created so much together, never met or spoke again.
Havens owned all the land from Crocker Avenue down to Oakmont Avenue and Oak Road, and wanted to build an estate that he would call “Wildwood.” Havens’ mansion is at 101 Wildwood Gardens, which we went to earlier this year.
We turned into Wildwood Gardens, passing the two, partially hidden pillars that marked the entrance to Havens’ estate. We walked up to Wistaria Way and went up its loop to the recently cleared lot. It was once part of a home that was donated to a local church and sold in 2022. We were surprised to see site work was in progress. A large piece of equipment was down the hillside and drilling big holes for piers that will secure the home’s foundation. By chance, the landowner, Geoff G, was there. He was waiting for Piedmont building inspector Greg B, who was just driving up. Geoff explained he was dividing the lot into two parcels and constructing two new homes, one for his family, with an ADU alongside one. A new California law, known as "SB9,” which is intended to address California's housing crisis by allowing homeowners to divide their lots and construct up to four houses on a single-family parcel, allows this. The neighbors had issues, but the project is moving forward. Geoff hopes to celebrate Christmas 2025 in his new home.
We continued on and emerged on Woodland Way and went up it to LaSalle Avenue. Just down it, is Florada. At a dogleg left turn is my home on the right. Further down the street is the Oakland/Piedmont city line where Florada becomes Portal Avenue.
That was as much Oakland exploration most walkers wanted on this hot day, but some went on to see an Oakland house just beyond the line with a wonderful cactus garden. By chance the owner was also outside and told them about his 15+ years gardening project. These walkers did an about face and caught up with the others as we all went back up Florada, LaSalle, Muir, and Crocker Avenues for a return to the Exedra via Wildwood and Sheridan Avenues.
Comments