Trolley Tracks and Turnarounds: Piedmont’s Key System Stroll

Last Wednesday was the last winter walk of the 2024/25 season for our Piedmont Recreation Department’s Walking on Wednesdays group and a lovely morning. A parade-like turnout of 52 walkers and six K-9 best friends were at the Exedra for it. Besides the weather, there was a special reason to be on hand.

Chuck Oraftik is a train enthusiast and quite knowledgeable about the transit systems that served Piedmont and the East Bay during the first half of the 20th Century. He and Charlene Louie had done a great deal of research on these lines for the group. Unfortunately, Charlene couldn’t walk with us, but Chuck had a handout with maps and historical photos to share and he led a tour of three of the four Key System lines that once served Piedmont.

Chuck started out with a little historical background. In 1870 the Transcontinental Railroad finally reached Oakland and set off a second explosion of East Bay growth. From 1870 to 1890 the Oakland area grew by five times. Many businessmen and speculators sought to make their fortunes by luring customers and workers to the downtowns of Oakland and San Francisco and charging them to get there.

More than thirty transit companies formed during this period. For many years these startups were largely an uncoordinated patchwork of lines with conflicts of egos, politics, track gauges, construction standards plus rapidly evolving power sources: from horsepower to steam power to cable and then to electrical power.

Observing this 20-year period of population growth and transit system development, Francis Marion (Borax) Smith saw land investment as a path to wealth and saw efficient transit as a means to increase land values. So, in the 1890s he formed a Realty Syndicate with Frank C. Havens, and they ultimately bought nearly 20 square miles of land in Piedmont, Berkeley, and Oakland. Smith then managed to acquire ownership of all of the East Bay transit systems. He reorganized and coordinated the system, improved efficiency and schedules and extended routes into his lands to increase their value. Thus, the Key System was created.

To further increase ridership and land values he also upgraded trains’ equipment and schedules and also created new destinations and attractions, such Berkeley’s Claremont Hotel and Blair Park in Piedmont. Smith made and lost fortunes twice in the process.

After sharing this background, Chuck led us down Highland Avenue to Park Way where we stopped at the corner for more information and a group photo. The 10 Line ran down Highland Avenue then turned downhill along the north side of Park Way to Grand and Piedmont Avenues and eventually to downtown Oakland.

However, before the 10 Line, starting in 1878, horsedrawn rail cars came up an unpaved Moraga Avenue from Piedmont Avenue and then along Highland Avenue, which was then called Vernal Avenue. In 1890 a cable line also pulled cars up Oakland Avenue to Vernal and then gravity took them back down to Grand Avenue via Carmel and Oakland Avenues. But they were all gone by 1902 due to the creation of new, more reliable and efficient Key System routes.

Chuck took us down Park Way following what was the 10 Line right-of-way. It is now covered by homes on the north side of the street that were built in the 1950s and 1960s after the Key System was shut down. The 10’s “Dracena” and “Arroyo” stops were connected by a stairway that we used to reach Ramona Avenue. We went down Ramona to Monticello and Arroyo Avenues. Charlene Louie lives on Arroyo in a home built on the former Key System right-of-way and she came out to greet us. This area was where Piedmont’s C Line to San Francisco merged with the 10 Line to Oakland. This was a very busy Junction during commute hours with a streetcar running every few minutes.

Chuck then took us down York Avenue, paralleling the Key System’s C Line between York and Riccardo. Along York we found another pathway near Holly Place that was a C station stop and took it up to Ricardo Avenue. Then it was on to Latham Street where, on the west side of the street, three long, narrow homes were built in 1960 on the right-of-way land. We went to the corner of Oakland and Jerome Avenues, which was the terminal of the C Line and the 12 Line which ran down Fairview Avenue to downtown Oakland via Grand Avenue. There was also a brief discussion of the 11 Line which ran along Linda past Beach School then up and over to Oakland Avenue via what is now the Linda Avenue Dog Park.

Chuck pointed out that the 10 Line was torn out in 1948 and the C Line in 1958 by National City Lines. The trains were replaced by AC Transit. N.C.L. was a holding company owned by General Motors, Standard Oil, Firestone Tires, Phillips Petroleum, Goodyear and others. It quickly and quietly purchased all East Bay streetcar lines in 1946. In 1949 N.C.L. was convicted of fraud, anti-trust and fined $5,000, which is about $60,000 in today’s dollars. Chuck said there are reports that similar interests today are behind the funding of various political and PR campaigns, as well as thousands of lawsuits looking to delay and ultimately kill hi-speed rail across America.

That was the end of our enjoyable Key System tour. We expressed our appreciation for all the information and effort Chuck and Charlene put in to make us more knowledgeable about this important part of Piedmont’s history.

P.S. I’ve attached the handout Chuck provided on our walk and also a group photo and a couple of old Key System pictures.