Our Piedmont Recreation Department’s Walking on Wednesdays group had a special reason to be at the Exedra this week for our weekly walk. We were going to Zachary's restaurant on Grand Avenue for a holiday lunch, and a great turnout of 44 walkers were on hand for it.
Priscilla W had called Zachary’s, and they were going to be ready for our invasion at about 11:45, and we headed out with visions of pizza in our heads. We took a direct route down Magnolia Avenue to Wildwood Avenue enjoying Christmas house decorations along the way. Our long line of walkers regrouped at Grand Avenue to talk about what was happening at the site of the old Shell Station, and little ones in the pre-school across the street called out to welcome us.
The station had been in Piedmont for 95 years, but it was announced in November of 2022 that it would close and be sold to Shell Recharge, a division of Shell Oil. The station had three 10,000-gallon gas tanks under the pumps that needed to be replaced by 2025. New tanks would have enabled the station to continue to sell gas for decades, but the increased popularity of electric vehicles made the owner feel uncomfortable with the future of gasoline stations and the investment. Shell has demolished most of the station and wants to replace it with a 14-bay electric vehicle charging hub under the Shell Recharge brand. No employees will be regularly on the site.
The Piedmont City Council voted unanimously this past November 19th to approve a conditional use permit for the new station. They established conditions that include the requirement of a security plan and restricted operating hours. Conditions also address residents’ concerns about noise and potential security risks with no staff usually present. Regularly scheduled site maintenance will be required, and noise measurements must be below 50 decibels. A planned chain fence has been changed to an eight-foot concrete wall along the rear of the property to further mitigate noise.
After discussing the new station, we still had time to go up Jean Street to the Morcom Rose Garden. It is in a natural bowl on a 7.5-acre site that was purchased by the City of Oakland in 1911 and named Linda Vista Park. However, the best park entrance was through land in Piedmont, and the Piedmont City Council joined the effort in June 1911 by acquiring Piedmont lots at the southern corner of Olive and Oakland Avenues.
In 1913 it was proposed the park be converted into a zoological garden. Several animal offers were received. Golden Gate Park offered elk and buffalo. F. M. “Borax” Smith offered several llamas from the large herd on his East Oakland estate, but the park directors decided not to go that direction.
Linda Vista Park’s conversion to a rose garden was a project of the Oakland Businessmen's Garden Club in 1930 with the support of the city. It was originally known as the Municipal Rose Garden. Additional work began in 1931 or 1932 as a Works Progress Administration (WPA) project. The first rose was planted on Jan. 27, 1933, and the garden was officially opened on May 28, 1933. Presumably, work was completed in 1935 with Depression era funding. The park’s name was changed in 1954 to honor former Oakland Mayor Fred Morcom, who served from 1931 to 1933. The park has been refurbished at least twice, in the 1950s and 1990s, with many of the old roses, some going back to the 19th century, being regrafted on new rootstock.
“Friends of the Oakland Rose Garden” volunteers, also known as the “Dedicated Deadheaders,” were doing their regular Wednesday gardening to maintain the garden’s beauty. One was Jennifer Peltzer, who once was a Wednesday walker but now is a Wednesday gardener. Another volunteer gardener said the Oakland Zoo had sent over a load of elephant poop for fertilizer. The winter roses were in buds and blooms, and lovely. After enjoying them, we retraced our steps to Grand for a short walk to Zachary’s.
We were right on time and a group photo was taken inside the restaurant. After fun conversations, and lots of pizza, we exited the restaurant and went back up Wildwood to return to the town center. It was a satisfying walk in more ways than one.
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