Building Bridges on Foot: Chief Shavies Walks with the Community

There was a strong turnout of 45 walkers and three K-9 best friends at the Exedra last Wednesday for our Piedmont Recreation Department’s Walking on Wednesdays’ weekly walk. Additionally, there were two special walkers in attendance for the first time. New Piedmont Police Chief Frederick W. Shavies II and his assistant, April F, were with us.

Before we got started walking, Chief Shavies was introduced. He grew up in Oakland and went to Fremont High School, where he was an All-City football player. He graduated from Washington State where he was a defensive end on their football team and played in the Rose Bowl. After graduation he joined the Oakland Police Department in 2006 and rose to become its Deputy Chief of Police. He was appointed Piedmont’s police chief in July. Chief Shavies has children in the Piedmont schools and has obviously embraced the community. He has registered with the Recreation Department for Walking on Wednesdays and intends to walk with us when his schedule permits.

We like to see unique Piedmont architecture and there was an unusual home on a street that the group hadn’t gone to in two years. It is on Lexford Road, just off Hampton Road. To start our walk off with some beauty, we went behind the Exedra past the Community Hall and Tea House and up the Highland-Guilford steps in the upper part of Piedmont Park. The steps were a $155,000 project that replaced wooden railroad ties with concrete steps, landings, and handrails. It was completed in 2023 with support from the Piedmont Beautification Foundation and provides a handsome entrance to the park.

We emerged on Highland Avenue and crossed it to go up the one-block Sierra Avenue. Chief Shavies provided street crossing security for our large group on Highland and throughout the morning. On Sierra a Julia Morgan designed home was having extensive foundation and other work being done. At Sierra’s end the walkers went up Sheridan Avenue to Wildwood Avenue, the Hall Fenway, Crocker Avenue, and Hampton Road. We took the attached group photo with Chief Shavies on the park’s edge at King Avenue.

We continued on Hampton Road to Hampton Park/Field, and everyone made the climb up Hampton to Lexford and Huntleigh Roads. We crossed LaSalle Avenue and went between two white pillars that identified an entrance to the early 20^th Century St. James Woods Terrace neighborhood development. Each section of the development’s sidewalks have four distinctive terracotta titles inlayed in them.

We went up to the Hampton Triangle at Lexford. In the triangle is the first of two Piedmont Heritage Tree Southern magnolias within a long block of each other on Hampton. We continued up Hampton to the second one at Huntleigh. These trees are native to the southeastern United States, but Piedmont has many beautiful ones throughout the city. The Piedmont Heritage Tree Program was created in 2018 by the City Council based on a recommendation from the Park Commission. Twenty eight Piedmont trees have been recognized as "Heritage Trees."

We walked across Huntleigh to Lexford. Down Lexford, just before Hampton, we came to a unique, 1939 brick exterior home built in a Storybook style. It was designed by architect and engineer Carr Jones, who is considered one of the great Storybook builders in the Bay Area. It has a circular brick chimney, a wavy brick wall, a terracotta tile and slate roof, and bricks arranged as a maze in the front yard. A turret the middle of the house gives it a castle fort look and a sign at the front door proclaims, “The Roster Crows, but the Hen Delivers.”

Architect and walker Jim Kellogg shared more information from his days on the Piedmont Planning Commission. The house also has a unique brick garage to the right, which was an addition, and there is a swimming pool in the back. Jim said there was once a proposal to build a two-story pool house, but it didn’t happened.

As we were admiring the house, the owner, Eric T, came out. He told us that this is his wife’s childhood home and that their children built the maze as a Covid project from the many bricks around the house. Eric also said the best part of the house is its radiant heating.

We enjoyed talking with Eric and seeing his unusual house, but it was time to head back. We took Hampton, La Salle, and St. James Drive back up to Hampton, and then retraced our steps to the center of town. It was a little longer walk than usual, but everyone enjoyed it and being with the Piedmont Police Department’s Chief Frederick Shavies and April F. We had a terrific police escort all morning long.