Temescal Creek: Temescal Neighborhood and 51st Street Preview

The Grove/Shafter Freeway, so named because its route ran along Grove Street (now Martin Luther King Blvd) and Shafter Street, was a highly controversial addition to the Temescal neighborhood. Originally planned to run through Berkeley along Ashby, it was rerouted when planners found the City of Oakland far more welcoming of the project. Still, the local councilman objected to its construction. Land was seized under eminent domain and demolishing of the homes began in the early 1960s. The project was completed in 1969. As Americans continued to move to suburban areas, the State of California, heavily influenced by land developers, wanted to make it easier for people to commute and live farther from where they worked.

Don Luis Maria Peralta received a land grant from the Spanish government for what is nearly current day Albany, Berkeley, Emeryville, Oakland, and San Leandro. He passed on parcels of this property to his sons. His youngest son, Jose Vicente Peralta, was gifted the land surrounding the verdant and flourishing Temescal Creek. Vicente built his home along the creek, at what is now 5527 Vicente Way, the street named for his hacienda's location. The willow grove you see on the map went on to become Idora Park.

Idora Park was a 17-acre amusement park known as a "trolley park". The parks were built along or at the end of street car lines so they were easily traveled to by the general public. The park was constructed in 1903 on the site of a willow grove that was part of Vicente Peralta's estate. The walled-in park had a zoo, ostrich farm, performing animal shows, dance hall, racetrack, outdoor amphitheater, Japanese garden, bear grotto, a main street called the Glad Way, a penny arcade, photo gallery, and shooting gallery. The amusement park was particularly known for its opera house and many rides and roller coasters. After the 1906 Earthquake, 2,500 people sheltered in the park and were temporarily provided for by the park's owners. The large scale use of automobiles eventually killed trolley parks nationwide, and the park was closed and demolished in 1929.

The Grove/Shafter Freeway, so named because its route ran along Grove Street (now Martin Luther King Blvd) and Shafter Street, was a highly controversial addition to the Temescal neighborhood. Originally planned to run through Berkeley along Ashby, it was rerouted when planners found the City of Oakland far more welcoming of the project. Still, the local councilman objected to its construction. Land was seized under eminent domain and demolishing of the homes began in the early 1960s. The project was completed in 1969. As Americans continued to move to suburban areas, the State of California, heavily influenced by land developers, wanted to make it easier for people to commute and live farther from where they worked.

Temescal Creek is named for the sweat lodges that once existed in several locations along the creek, positioned so those using the sweat lodges could cool down afterward. One may have been maintained in the area of 51st and Telegraph, where there was likely a camp created by Huichin Ohlone. Temescal is the Spanish word derived from temescalli, which means "sweat house" in the Nahuatl language of Mexico.

If you're enjoying this tour, please consider making a donation to help us continue our work by clicking here.

Misnamed scientifically as Agraulis vanillae, the Gulf fritillary has nothing to do with vanilla. Rather this bright orange butterfly traveled up from Southern California in the 1950s on its host plant, passion flower (passiflora), after a Hollywood craze for tropical plants migrated north. These long-winged butterflies are able to emit a foul odor when being chased by predators. Gulf fritillary prefer open habitats. Plant a passion vine and you are likely to be visited frequently by these striking butterflies.

The dark-eyed junco (Junco hyemalis) is a long-tailed, round-headed bird in the sparrow family. They are hugely common throughout the US, particularly in winter, and often found searching for seeds and insects on the ground. When you're walking through this neighborhood, listen for their high, short chirp note often given in rapid succession when the birds fly, or more slowly as they forage.

Fire Station 8, the newest of Oakland fire stations, was completed in 2002 and replaced the previous building due to aging and unsafe infrastructure. The walkway connecting the sidewalk to the entrance is an art and history storyboard about the station and Temescal neighborhood. This interactive path was local artist Jeff Norman’s first commissioned piece by the City of Oakland. Constructed out of porcelain and granite tiles, the path contains historical information, maps, photos, and newspaper headlines.

It is likely that this area was paved and the lovely section of creek at 51st and Telegraph buried when sewer pipes were laid throughout the Temescal area in the first decade of the 1900s. The rest of the creek remained open to the sky until it was forced into an underground culvert in the 1970s because of pollution, sewage, and flooding. At this intersection was a large wooden bridge that had both car and rail traffic. It was removed when the creek was buried. The creek section through Frog Park was not buried until the early 2000s.

The site of this Whole Foods was once a park and gardens that then became the site of a hotel. At the time of its opening on April 2, 1871, the Daily Alta California reported the park was celebrated "with a big flourish of trumpets, and was visited by a large crowd of people throughout the day." Around 1873, the Humboldt Park Hotel opened and served as a local place for meetings and social gatherings for the Temescal area until around 1880.

Originally named the Alden Library after one of the major early landowners in the area, The Temescal Library was constructed in 1918 with grant money from Andrew Carnegie, and is one of Oakland's six Carnegie Libraries. Carnegie built thousands of libraries across the US to promote people's self-education and betterment. The facade is done with what's known as the Tudor Revival Style, and the library is an Oakland landmark as well as being on the National Register of Historic Places.

In 1859, a telegraph line was constructed between Oakland and Martinez by the Alta Telegraph Company, and the existing roads which ran alongside it were then renamed "Telegraph Road". The segment of the Telegraph Road which ran from downtown Oakland out to the Peralta estate in Temescal was first known as "Peralta Road". The segment which ran to and up Harwood's (now Claremont) Canyon was first known as "Harwood's Road", named for William Harwood, an early Oakland politician who leased grazing land in the canyon.

The Temescal Telegraph Business Improvement district has commissioned several artists to create public art installations throughout the Temescal neighborhood. This Temescal Creek utility box mural was created by Eduardo Valadez and is located along the creek's path at 51st and Telegraph. This prolific artist has painted more than 15 utility boxes depicting Ohlone culture, as well as native species and natural scenes.

Around 1873, Mr. Morse, the "Road Master" completed the bridge that spanned Temescal Creek. This changed the area drastically. The dusty -- or infamously muddy -- Temescal Avenue still had cattle and agriculture surrounding the area. At the time, roughly 400 people made up the village of Temescal. The Berkeley Railway trolley passed through every 15 minutes carrying passengers from downtown Oakland and Berkeley. The trolley was horse drawn until it was electrified in the 1890s. At the time, Temescal was also known as "Little Italy" due to the influx of Italian immigrants.

In addition to the freight lines that ran through the neighborhood, during the early 20th Century many streetcar systems and interurban railways ran through northern California. Prior to regular car ownership and the construction of so many roads, tunnels, and freeways, it was possible to get almost anywhere on a regional passenger train -- as far north as Chico! In fact, passenger and freight trains often dictated where growth developed. The railway construction was mostly driven by Francis Marion "Borax" Smith, who made his money in mining, then building infrastructure through land he owned to make it more valuable. Homeowners fought the installation of such lines on their streets. Passenger service on the Key System ended in 1941 due to falling ridership. The train lines were finally removed from Shafter in the late 1950s — and almost immediately after, the Grove/Shafter freeway was installed in the same area the homeowners fought to remove the railroad tracks. The remnants of the Key System, mostly bus routes, eventually became AC Transit.

What's going on with the pavement here? When this corner was reconstructed in 2017, smart street engineers included these permeable pavers. This means that water can permeate (also called infiltrate) into the ground below. Why? Covering urban areas with pavement resulted in rainwater having no place to go other than across the pavement and into storm drains at street corners. This water goes into creeks in large pipes (culverts) below ground and into the bay, full of pollutants, excrement, and trash. Here, instead, the water will be cleaned by soil and roots as it passes through the permeable pavement into the soil below slowly.

It is mind blowing to consider that Temescal Creek was culverted only in the 1970s through the late 1980s. Before that, the creek was open to the sky and to its ecosystem. As neighborhoods built up around the creek, and especially once roads were paved and highways moved in, the creek became constricted. When moving water is confined to a small space, the water usually begins to scour the land beneath it, cutting deeper and deeper and causing the creek to be "incised," or carved into the earth. Incisement often turns rain events into flooding events. After a particularly large flood event in 1962, plans were made to bury the creek inside a concrete pipe below street level. Fish could no longer swim up the creek, insects and plants were removed or buried along with the creek, and the ecosystem became much more sterile. For this reason, the opportunity to experience wild flora and fauna in this section is radically reduced. Even the creek that runs behind the DMV is a facsimile of the actual creek.

In 2008, The Temescal Telegraph Business Improvement District collaborated with students in Ray Patlan's class at California College of the Arts to create these panels. Several were created, and the ones that could not fit along this wall of the substation are located on the side of Kelly-Moore Paints on 42nd and Telegraph.

This substation was originally constructed in the early 1900s to meet the initial power needs of the local area. It underwent major improvements between 2010 and 2014 to increase electric capacity and complete a seismic retrofit.

This mural was added to the PG&E substation in late 2022. It is the second "Love Letter to Oakland" mural (the first is located at 4th and Oak) and this piece honors Oakland notables like the late Oakland Symphony conductor Michael Morgan, Mills College professor and artist Hung Liu, singer-songwriter Kev Choice, and young muralists Elaine Chu and Marina Perez-Wong of the Twin Wall Mural Co.

While many think of West Oakland as the home of the Black Panther Party, you are standing right in the heart of their origins. Huey Newton grew up in Oakland and graduated from Oakland Tech High School, and Bobby Seale grew up in Berkeley and Oakland; the two met at Merritt College. Temescal, once an Italian neighborhood, hosted a largely black population in the 1960s up until recently when Oakland housing prices caused Temescal to transition toward an upper-class white population. Newton and Seale formed the Negro History Fact Group at Merritt College and after the murder of Malcolm X, morphed into the Black Panthers. The Black Panther Party was founded as a self-defense response to protect Black people from police brutality. The 10-point program was penned right here in Temescal. Pictured are Seale and Newton from their high school days.

Artists Jeff Norman, Bruce Douglas, Remi Rubel and Sue Mark created an undulating public art walkway of blue and white tiles that emulates flowing water. Orange circles with Temescal Creek factoids dot the path like stones. The creek flows beneath a bridgelike bench. Nearby is a circle of bricks with quotes by community members, and a platform for sitting and climbing. The setting also features a map and photographs with descriptions of the neighborhood.

One of the newest post offices in Oakland, built in 2002, on 4900 Shattuck Ave is the site for one of Jeff Norman’s local projects, PostMark Temescal. Norman created the art piece after community residents complained about the post office’s lack of parking spots and the fact its facade turned its back to Shattuck Avenue. By installing this exhibit, Norman hoped to teach locals about the area’s social and ecological history. The piece contains a tribute to Temescal Creek, a circular structure with the map of the neighborhood, and inlaid stepping stones that have nuggets of information.

The painting depicted on this street light controller is a reference to the train bridge that once ran over Lake Temescal, which was part of the electric Key system. Prior to regular car ownership, trains ran through most areas of the Bay Area.

The chestnut-backed chickadee (Poecile rufescens) is an active, social and highly vocal little bird with colors to match its West Coast habitat. Part of the Tit family, this chickadee is a perching bird that nests in cavities. They love bugs, but aren't too proud to eat seeds and suet. And get this - the nests they create for their young are half hair from deer, rabbits and coyotes. They even use fur to cover their eggs. Pretty toasty!

Fennel (Foeniculum vulgare) is a flowering plant species of the carrot family. Originally indigenous to the Mediterranean, you will find fennel growing wild throughout the Bay Area, and are likely already familiar with the scent it gives off. You can eat the roots as a more fragrant version of celery, and its seeds are used as a spice to flavor both food and liquors. Fennel is also a host plant for the anise swallowtail butterfly.

On the overpass above 52nd Street, you'll see "Temescal Flows", a mural that highlights the waveforms of the creek and serves as a colorful entry monument to the neighborhood. Completed in 2012 by artist Alan Leon, this project was funded by the East Bay Community Foundation. The wavy lines are indicative not only of the creek that once flowed freely through this neighborhood, but also indigenous culture, children, and healing.

The site of this hospital began as the estate of Solomon Alden. At the end of the Nineteenth Century, the Temescal area was known as Alden because most of the land was purchased by Alden in 1854 from Vicente Peralta. Alden was initially a farmer, but as of the 1880 census had taken to calling himself “a capitalist” as a profession. The site of the Alden family home became the Oakland Baby Hospital in 1915, founded by Bertha Wright, a nurse, and Mabel Weed, a social worker. Hospital rates in 1914 were $2.50 for a private room and $1 for a bed in the wards. Families unable to pay were not charged a fee. Eventually, it became the Children’s Hospital & Research Center Oakland, one of the most important pediatric hospitals in the country.