Monday Mural: Street Tattoo

This large mural celebrating the cultural diversity of Oakland is under the 980 freeway on San Pablo Avenue and 22nd St.  It was done in 1982 which makes it one of the oldest Oakland murals I've encountered.  Street Tattoo is the name given by the artists.  It's beautifully executed but in terrible shape due to long exposure to water runoff.  I've driven this street countless times and only today noticed it for the first time.  How is that possible?  For more murals, click here, here, and here.  I think a mural meme is in the works.  Would you participate?

freeway fusion

Essentially we are near the spot where three freeways merge.  This section replaced the double deck freeway that collapsed during the huge 1989 earthquake.  After the earthquake, support pier retrofitting went on around the bay.  A new round is going on now in many parts of Oakland.  These really are massive structures.  I used to think of them as temporary shade; since the earthquake I think of them as lethal and hope the new engineering protects us from anymore collapses.

The Pardee House

Welcome to the Pardee Home and museum.  Enoch Pardee came to California for the Gold Rush and ultimately served in the state legislature.  His son George served as governor and was particularly well respected due to his leadership after the 1906 earthquake.  The family home, built in the late 1860s, is considered to be one of the finest preserved Italianate homes in the state.  Lucky for us, Oakland is rich is Italianate architecture.  George's wife was a collector extraordinaire of many things including Chinese altars, Alaskan scrimshaw, and Mexican rosaries, which are displayed in the home along with many of the original furnishings.  In the 1970s the home was slated for destruction for the building of the 980 freeway.  Oaklanders rose up in protest and ultimately had it declared an historical landmark, thereby preserving it and its furnishings.  Though saved from the wrecking ball, it is now cloistered in a less than beautiful part of downtown where two freeways converge.  You can actually see it from the freeway where it glows despite its surroundings.

Corinthians Baptist Church

This Baptist church occupies the former original Greek Orthodox church that was on the site from 1921 to 1960.  This graceful structure located on Castro Street on the edge of downtown Oakland now faces the 980 freeway.