Walking the Streets Wallace Alexander Helped Create

Our Piedmont Recreation Department’s Walking on Wednesdays group had a cool, late-fall morning last Wednesday that turned sunny and great for our weekly walk. It was announced that we will have our annual Holiday pizza lunch at Zachery’s on Grand Avenue. After checking calendars, December 17^th was set for it.

We try to get to every safe-walking Piedmont street during the year but two streets we hadn’t walked in their entirety this year were Sea View and King Avenues. There were wonderful homes and to see, and the story of one of the early 20^th Century men who was extremely important in making Piedmont what it is today could to be told. A strong turnout of 45 walkers and four K-9 best friend were on hand for it.

We considered the historical figures who have Piedmont streets or buildings named after them. Frank C. Havens, Walter Blair, and Hugh Craig came to mind, but not Wallace Alexander. He made significant contributions to Piedmont, but there is no public recognition of him in the city, and he is little remembered today.

Wallace Alexander has been called “Piedmont’s Philanthropist.” A past article by Piedmont Historical Society President Gail Lombardi wrote about Alexander and his many contributions to Piedmont. For one, he was instrumental in the construction of Piedmont’s first commercial center, which included the first stores in Piedmont. In 1913 he gathered businessmen two acres from Frank C. Havens directly across from Piedmont Park for the center and in 1916 he hired architect Albert Farr to design the project.

The current commercial buildings on Highland Avenue replaced the center's original buildings in 1970. It was just across the street from where we were and there was an article in that day’s Piedmont Post by Gail Lombardi about the commercial center’s history.

Alexander and his wife, Mary, gifted the land for the Piedmont Interdenominational Church, which became the Piedmont Community Church. The building was also designed by Albert Farr and was built in 1916. Wallace Alexander was a key benefactor of the Piedmont Boy Scout Council, which has its office on the church’s grounds. He initially helped Reverend John Stuchell and the church launch the Piedmont scouting movement in 1910 and was a driving force behind the creation of the independent Piedmont Council in 1921. He also developed a long-standing Piedmont Boy Scout summer camp in the Sierras  that was named Camp Wallace Alexander.

Additionally, Alexander organized the purchase in 1921 of land in Piedmont Park from Frank C. Havens’ widow. This saved the park from residential development and provided land for Piedmont High School.

The group decided to walk to some of what Alexander created. We crossed Highland Avenue and went up to and then down Highland Way behind the Piedmont Commercial Center. We passed the Community Church and the Piedmont Boy Scout Council office and then turned up Mountain Avenue for a climb up to Sea View Avenue where the Alexanders lived.

We stopped at the northern edge of Alexander’s former estate, which ran from what is now 87 Sea View to Hampton Road, and more of Alexander’s history was shared. His family was a leader in the Hawaiian sugar industry, and he was born in Maui in 1869. The family moved to the Bay Area so that Wallace could attend school in Oakland. He married his Oakland High School classmate Mary Baker in 1904, and they chose a large site on the corner of Sea View and Hampton, which was then called Union Street, for their home. The Alexanders built a three-story mansion that they named “Brown Gables” for its large, brown painted dormers.

In 1911 Alexander’s mother built her own home at 92 Sea View across the street from Brown Gables, and Mary’s mother built a home further down the street at 236 Sea View. These homes are still there, but Brown Gables no longer exists. After Alexander died from a stroke in 1939 in Honolulu at the age of 70, Mary followed his wish that the mansion be torn down, and the land subdivided into 13 lots that were sold, so that more families could live in Piedmont. That is why these homes down to Hampton are newer than the large, older mansions up this west side of Sea View.

We stopped at 92 Sea View, Alexander’s mother’s home, and took the attached group picture. Also attached is a photo of Alexander. An interesting reminder of the Alexanders is inlayed in the sidewalk. It is the word “Kailani.” Lani means heaven, or heavenly in Hawaiian. So, Kailani means “heavenly sea”, or “heavenly seaside.” We then crossed Hampton and continued up Sea View to see the former home of Mary’s mother.

We continued down Sea View and crossed La Salle Avenue getting to the Piedmont/Oakland city line at Clarendon Cresent where the roadway becomes Oakland’s Ashmont Avenue. We went down Ashmont to Mandana Boulevard. A few steps up Mandana got us back into Piedmont where the street’s name becomes Crocker Avenue.

To see more of what Alexander created we turned up La Salle Avenue and went one block up to King Avenue. We went up King enjoying its lovely homes whose construction was spread out over the first half of the last century. We stopped at 84 King which was built in 1910. This was the Brown Gables’ carriage house. Across the street from it is Crocker Park. The land for the park was purchased by a group of neighbors headed by Alexander. An interesting curiosity was that in front of the houses along Hampton and King is a low brick wall that once was a boundary for the Alexanders’ estate.

Walking the entirety of King took us to Lincoln Avenue. Walker/Piedmont Park Commissioner Jack F couldn’t be with us for this walk but shared that the Ginkgo bilobas that line the street are a "living fossil" with a history dating back over 270 million years. Its survival is primarily due to cultivation by humans in China, where it was considered a sacred tree by Buddhist monks. It was almost wiped out by ice ages but was preserved in isolated pockets in China and spread through trade to Korea, Japan, and eventually the rest of the world.

We completed our return to the city center via Sheridan and Highland Avenues with a better understanding of Wallace Alexander and his contributions to Piedmont. His public service over a hundred years ago continues to be experienced today.