Linda Park, Oak Woodlands, and an Old Reservoir

There was a strong turnout of over 40 walkers and six K-9 best friends last Wednesday when our Piedmont Recreation Department’s Walking on Wednesdays group assembled at the Exedra for our weekly walk.

The Piedmont schools were on spring break. The weather was spring-like and the Piedmont Post had reported the pathway through Linda Park’s former off-leash dog area had been reopened. There was also some early Piedmont history associated with this area that we had never considered. This all made for a great morning to check out the park, talk some history, and walk through the Beach School campus.

We started off going down Magnolia Avenue, past the about-to-be-finally-opened-to-the-public Piedmont Community Pool, to San Carlos and Oakland Avenues. We made our long decent to Grand Avenue and then the climb up and over the Oakland Avenue Bridge. Its lampposts, lights, and guardrails make it a lovely entrance to the city, and we arrived at the Linda Park’s entrance at Oakland and Sunnyside Avenues.

The fencing around the park has been removed and we walked a short distance up its pathway to talk about this space. During the first half of the 20^th Century the Key System’s Number 11 electric streetcar ran directly from Oakland Avenue through what is now the park toward Piedmont Avenue. Take a look at the attached photo.

The park’s off-leash area was permanently closed last spring, after the Regional Water Quality Control Board notified the City that it needed to take steps to eliminate erosion and runoff from the hillside. The City permanently closed and revegetated the hillside to allow the City to address the problems and avoid steep penalties for noncompliance. Piedmont Public Works “hydroseeded” the hillside with a spray of seeds, water, and mulch. This mixture formed a protective shell over the soil, helping to stabilize the slope while new grasses and other plants took root.

The park’s hillside remains closed, as the revegetation is still in early stages. Signs asked visitors to stay on the path and for people and dogs to stay off the grass as it would be easily damaged. Other signage provided information about the revegetation project and the value of oak woodlands. A $5,000 donation from the Piedmont Garden Club’s Civic Improvement Committee will support this reforestation project. Piedmont’s parks have many mature oaks, but few areas are maintained as a natural oak woodland. Linda Park’s hillside with a naturally moist, northeast-facing slope makes an ideal location for this type of landscape.

We made our way through the park with beautiful California poppies along the way and exited on Linda Avenue. We went a few steps to Lake Avenue and climbed it to Sunnyside Avenue for some early Piedmont water history. The water for this area of Oakland and Piedmont in the late 19^th Century was provided by the Linda Vista Reservoir. It used to be right there on the Lake Avenue side of that street at Sunnyside. The reservoir was built by the Oakland Water Company in 1892 and had a capacity of 4 million gallons. It was also part of a fierce “Oakland Water War” between private companies that lasted from 1866 to 1907.

In 1866, Anthony Chabot founded the Contra Costa Water Company (CCWC), the first company to successfully pipe water into Oakland. Chabot also built major reservoirs like Lake Temescal in 1869 and Lake Chabot in 1876.

William J. Dingee founded the Oakland Water Company in 1893. However, the company’s water work started earlier after the CCWC refused to provide water to Dingee's properties in the Montclair and Piedmont hills. Oakland Water became a direct competitor to Chabot’s CCWC. The competition became literal warfare. Newspapers reported both companies worked to disrupt each other’s supply, engaged in rate wars, sabotaged equipment, and publicly claimed the other's water was "unfit for human consumption".

The war ended in 1898 when Oakland Water and CCWC merged. The new company was known as the CCWC, but Dingee was in control. However, the new CCWC lasted only until 1906. The Peoples Water Company, whose president was Frank C. Havens, was created and it took control of CCWC and other local water companies 1907.

Dingee's fortunes collapsed in about 1908. One report said he was swindled by a business partner. Following the collapse of his financial empire and subsequent bankruptcy, Dingee lived out his years in obscurity in Sacramento and died in 1941 at the age of 87. There’s a photo of him attached too.

However, Peoples Water immediately also faced challenges as the demand for water increased substantially in the early years of the 20th century. Ten years later, in 1916, the East Bay Water Company was incorporated and took over Peoples Water. But East Bay Water had problems too. Dissatisfaction with private water quality and costs led to public demand for a municipal system. In 1923, voters approved the creation of the East Bay Municipal Utility District (EBMUD) and it purchased the East Bay Water Company in 1928. 

The site of the former Linda Vista Reservoir is now a residential area, and we took the attached group photo in front of a home that is on the reservoir’s old border. We then retraced our steps back to Linda Avenue and entered the Beach School playground. A large number of preschoolers in bright yellow safety vests were having fun and didn’t seem to mind our briefly invading their space.

We exited the playground on the path above the new, beautifully rebuilt tot lot where other young people were having fun too. We continued on past the empty Pickleball courts that are closed on Wednesdays to a path that took us up to Howard and Oakland Avenues. We made our return to the city center climbing up Oakland Avenue to Arbor Drive, Fairview, Dale, Jerome, and Magnolia Avenues for an on-time noon arrival back at the Exedra. The climb back up the hill was a bit of a challenge as the temperature rose, but sheading extra layers and a little breeze helped these hardened, veteran walkers meet it.