Columns, Crest, and a Four-Mile Challenge: Conquering St. James Wood

Last Wednesday was a lovely winter morning, sunny and mild, and 49 members of our Piedmont Recreation Department’s Walking on Wednesdays group with five of their K-9 best friends were at the Exedra to enjoy it. The weather was great, but the group’s large size was a little surprising because they had been warned that this day’s walk was not an easy one.

The group has a soft goal of going to every safe walking Piedmont street each year, but there were a few that we didn’t to get to in 2025. These streets are often on Piedmont’s edges and may have some elevation. Two such streets were Crest and Somerset Roads off Hampton Road. They are long and steep, far from the center of town, and seldom visited. In fact, the group had only walked them twice in its eight year history. The weather was excellent, so it was a good morning for a challenge. Walker and Piedmont historian Meghan Bennett had provided historical information about the early Piedmont St. James Wood real estate development so this could part of the walk too.

We went up Highland, Sheridan, Wildwood, and Crocker Avenues, to Hampton Road in a long line and regrouped at Hampton Park where we talked about the St. James Wood development. This land in eastern Piedmont was initially owned by Frank C. Havens and F. M. “Borax” Smith’s Realty Syndicate, which they formed in 1895. They began acquiring large tracts of East Bay land even earlier, with Smith buying streetcar lines in 1890 to establish their massive land holdings and his Key System transit empire. In total, they bought 20 square miles of land in Piedmont, Oakland, and Berkeley, and built landmarks like the Claremont Hotel. However, Havens got into serious financial trouble in the mid-1910s and sold off almost all of his land and other assets before he died in 1918.

James Howard L'Hommedieu, who born in 1884 in New York and lived in Oakland and Piedmont, became the owner and developer of the St. James Wood land in the 1920s. He saw this land as an opportunity to develop something finer in home sites than had ever been attempted in the East Bay. He felt Piedmont was restricted to homes of “the better type” and eastern or “upper” Piedmont had become established as “the site of the finest homes in the bay district.” He felt this “high-class district” needed to expand and the St. James Wood site was the only place to do it.

L'Hommedieu laid out a subdivision of lovely winding streets and spacious homesites. All wires were underground and he spent thousands of dollars on trees, shrubs, and lawns. Six entrances to the development each had “stately gates” of two white columns. There were parks and each section of the sidewalks throughout the development had four terracotta tiles inlayed into them. It was the “Roaring 20s” and money didn’t seem to be an object.

L'Hommedieu also established restrictions to insure that development of every house would be of a size and type in keeping with its surroundings. The minimum cost of homes had to be from $6,000 to $15,000 depending on its location, and designs had to be approved by a board of leading architects. These guarantees were to be perpetuated under a plan provided by a St. James Wood Homes Association that was founded in 1926 to govern the neighborhood. Construction also started in 1926, and homes were built until the mid-1960s. In fact, a home on one last remaining, very steep lot on St. James Drive was built in 2018. Individual builders and leading architects designed many of these homes. L'Hommedieu died in 1950 at the age of 66 and was buried in Mountain View Cemetery.

The St. James Wood Homes Association represented the neighborhood’s over 185 homes. Its CC&R's required board approval of changes to homes’ color schemes and when owners wanted to remove trees. They were also required to seek approval to changes in the location or height of structures, including walls and fences. The association’s annual dues were $25 a year, but the last annual meeting was in 2012. Phil Chin, who lives in the neighborhood, said he received a notice a few years ago saying the association was being dissolved and the thousand dollars in its bank account was being given to a charity.

We took a group photo at Hampton Park and some walkers who wanted a shorter walk returned to the city center. The rest of us crossed LaSalle Avenue and went through the two, large, white columns on both sides of Hampton that were the main entrance to St. James Wood. In the sidewalk were the development’s signature brown tile inlays.

We went a short distance to the foot of Crest. Interestingly, the Crest sideway didn’t have the tile inlays. Homes on Crest were built in every decade from the 1920s to the 1950s, so initially it may not have been a primary street for the development.

Crest’s slope is initially moderate, but it increases significantly over about a quarter mile on the way to Somerset. We appreciated a lovely home’s steep slate roof and took a right on Somerset, but the degree of climb difficulty didn’t diminish. Somerset is initially very steep but levels out later. The hillsides showed signs of slides with some homes on significant slopes. Up the street is a very large, modern, multi-floor, white mansion with a metal gate that blocks a steep driveway. There were scaffolds around the home’s exterior, and it was being painted by a man who was not afraid of heights. The house almost seemed to be a fortress overlooking the valley below.

Our hearty band of walkers crossed over the Oakland/Piedmont city line twice and pressed on for almost another half mile before emerging on Estates Drive. The expansive view of Oakland, the Bay, and San Francisco was limited and a little disappointing because of lingering haze. The temperature had increased, some layers of clothes had been removed, and a cool breeze was welcomed. We went down Estates to the top of the steep upper portion of Hampton Road. We descended it and returned to the center of town via La Salle Avenue to St. James Drive where we noted a set of smaller columns that marks another entrance to the St. James Wood neighborhood.

It was a longer than usual walk of four miles and a little less than two hours for us, but we took some pride and satisfaction that we were up to the challenge. It was a great start at the beginning of 2026 for our Walking on Wednesdays group.

P.S. Sheila Leunig is a walker and member of the Piedmont Anti-Racism and Diversity Committee. She ask me to tell you about the MLK Celebration on Monday from 11 AM to 12:30 PM at the PHS Alan Harvey Theater. This year’s keynote speaker is Congresswoman Lateefah Simon and other speakers and performers include Piedmont Mayor Betsy Andersen, Alameda County Supervisor Nikki Fortunado Bas, the Black Student Union from the Piedmont Middle/High school, and the Destiny Arts dance company. Tickets are free but limited and registration is required. Registration can be done on the PADC website here.