A Call of the Wild in Boho Piedmont: Jack London, Marty Martinez, and the Scenic Stairs

Our Piedmont Recreation Department’s Walking on Wednesdays group gathered last Wednesday at our regular time at the Exedra. It was a little cooler than earlier in the week and great for walking. There was a strong turnout of 44 walkers and a record six K-9 best friends there to enjoy it.

Nancy D had offered to take us on a historical tour of her neighborhood above Oakland Avenue, which includes the historic Blair and Scenic Avenues. Nancy told us she became interested in the history of her neighborhood after she learned that noted architect Albert Farr once lived in her Oakland Avenue home for many years. Nancy said she draws on the research that Piedmont Historical Society President Gail Lombardi has done. Walker and Piedmont historian Meghan Bennett had previously created a website dedicated to the Bourgeois Bohemians in “Boho Piedmont” that Nancy also drew upon. Meghan’s site is https://www.paintingpiedmont.com/.

Nancy explained that the area above Oakland Avenue was a bit of bohemian neighborhood from about 1890 to 1910. This was a far different place than today. It was rural and sparsely populated. Writers and painters like Jack London and Xavier “Marty” Martinez lived there in some unique homes. Some of these creative types built their own homes, which seemed to be the thing that people involved in the arts did at the time.

Nancy led us across Highland Avenue and went up to Oakland Avenue. We turned up Oakland and stopped at 2010 Oakland, which was once the home of George Sterling, Frank C. Havens’ nephew. Sterling worked for Havens, and married Havens’ wife’s sister. Sterling was a frustrated artist and poet and traveled in a circle of artists. He met Jack London and encouraged him to live in Piedmont.

We backtracked a few houses and went up the one-block Hardwick Avenue to the steep Blair Avenue. As we were making our climb of Blair, Nancy pointed out the Sutro Mansion at the top of the street, hidden by other homes. Nancy told us that the mansion is not the first house built on this hilltop site. Initially, a much smaller, craftsman-style home was built there in 1876-77 by architect Joseph Worcester. He was not the architect for whom the University of California, Berkeley’s architecture department building is named. That’s Wurster Hall.

This house has another, special claim to fame. It was the house that Jack London rented and lived in when he wrote his classic, The Call of the Wild, in 1902-03. However, in about 1910, after London lived in the house, it was moved two lots up the street so that the Sutro Mansion could be built on the site and have expansive views of the Bay. We walked up to see the smaller house. It has a lovely, redwood shake shingle exterior and was enlarged after it was moved by adding a new first floor. It is reported to have been the first redwood shake exterior home built on the West Coast, and we took a group photo in front of it.

London was a prominent part of the artists’ colony that occupied this part of Piedmont in the early 1900s. He was a free-spirited, high-spirited man who sailed to the Orient, drank freely, and had at least three important women in his life. The success of The Call of the Wild provided him with considerable wealth. He built a separate home for first wife, Bessie, and their two daughters, further up the hill on Scenic Avenue. He died at the early age of 40 in 1916.

Just before this house is a 163 foot set of steep stairs up to the upper portion of Scenic. We started the climb, but just then Eliza W, the current owner of Bessie’s former home, came out to tell us about the house. There are 57 steps up to the front door. Some windows are original, and owners selling the house pass along a letter written by Jack London to the buyers.

We thanked Eliza and continued up to the top of the stairs for a little rest. There Nancy told us about painter Marty Martinez, another famous member of the Piedmont bohemian community, and showed us pictures of some of his paintings. Nancy led us down the appropriately named Scenic Avenue with its wonderful views of San Francisco to what was Martinez’s rustic bungalow home at 324 Scenic that was built in 1908. Festive parties with his bohemian friends, who included poet Joaquin Miller, were held there. Martinez later moved to Carmel-by-the-Sea, but his daughter and artist, Kai Martinez, inhabited this home until her death in 1989.

We made our way down this narrow part of Scenic and decided to have another adventure on our way home. This was descending the hill via Piedmont’s longest pedestrian pathway and set of stairs, the 281 foot Blair and Scenic Path. Its steep stairs go as far as the eye can see, and thankfully there is a handrail the entire way. All of us safely got back to Blair, and then down to Pacific and Mountain Avenues to the Community Hall parking lot. We gave Nancy a round of applause at the walk’s end for the wonderful tour of her historic neighborhood.

P.S. After our walk, Mike H emailed that Nancy's mention of Joaquin Miller today reminded me that the Pardee Home Museum as part of their event series will be holding a talk on Miller on Sunday, September 14^th, at 4 pm. Mike thought some of our group might be interested.  See https://pardeehome.org/special-events/