The sign mounted on top of the Grand Lake Theater is the largest rotary contact sign west of the Mississippi River. It measures 52 feet hig...

This totem pole is located at Lake Merritt. It is one of many interesting sights and activities that are housed along the three miles of sh...

The Park Street bridge which links Oakland to Alameda.  View other Sunday bridge photos at San Francisco Daily Photo .

An evening shot of the Lake Merritt pergola.  Same location as last week's Reflection.  For more Weekend Reflections, click here .

On Beacon Street just south of the Lake. This area is full of lovely, old apartment buildings from the 20s and 30s.  This apartment sign mea...

This Seventh-day Adventist church is located on Grand Avenue very near the Lake.  I could find no information about when the church was buil...

Spotted on Broadway near 20th Street.  This building has a minimum of three different advertisements on it. In January Sydney Eye did a coo...

In the 30s and 40s many Oakland neighborhoods had their own small movie theater.  Over time, the movie distribution business changed and big...

It was such a fine day yesterday that like hundreds of other Oaklanders, I was drawn to the Lake.  This portal and pergola are at its easter...

Spring is in the air. With no rain and shirt sleeve weather, we are definitely happy campers.  While walking around the lake today, I spied ...

I've always liked this old sign.  It's on MacArthur Blvd. just on the other side of the freeway from Mills College.  Back in the day...

 This bell tower was designed by Julia Morgan in 1904.  It is the first reinforced concrete structure built west of the Mississippi.  I...

St. James the Apostle is an Episcopal church founded in 1858 by the first Episcopal bishop of California.  The building may be the original ...

This large Victorian Italianate building still holds court on International Blvd. and 13th Avenue.  This style was popular between the 1860s...

Almost, but not quite.  This is the ConAgra flour making plant situated on the Estuary near the Park Street Bridge.  One of several industr...

 It's been raining all day and this evening the weather is finally breaking up.  Click here for Skywatch photos from around the world.

We don't have the Eiffel Tower but we do have the Tribune Tower .  It is shown here in homage to Eric Tenin of Paris Daily Photo .  He...

This Baptist church occupies the former original Greek Orthodox church that was on the site from 1921 to 1960.  This graceful structure loca...

This and an accompanying mural are found on Mandala Parkway and 20th Street.  It was designed by Desi , an Oakland street artist, as part of...

The Grand Lake Theater has been located on Grand Avenue since 1926.  Over time it has developed into a small multiplex and also houses a di...

A view of the Fruitvale Bridge from the Park Street Bridge.  As you can see, the Estuary still has some industry along its shore.  But the...

This photo is brought to you courtesy of those wacky guys at Automania .  I'm pretty sure they're all Desotos parked in a row eight ...

Smitty's is an old time watering hole on Grand Avenue just east of Lake Merritt.  It has always drawn a wide age range of clients.  This...

 Passage under the freeway in Jingletown.  Click here to view thumbnails for all participants

It had been pouring rain for a few hours and then suddenly it stopped.  This puddle on the bridge's pedestrian path reflects the still c...

The Greyhound Station is located at 22nd St. and San Pablo Avenue.  This is an edgy neighborhood that is on the cusp of being transformed ...

Esther's was one of the West Coast equivalents to New York's Lenox Lounge (see Ken Mac's post ).   However, Esther...

Spotted on International near 13th Avenue.  An amusing combination, to say the least.  What's next?  Perhaps "Donuts and Tattoos....

This cool, old sign doesn't look like it works anymore.  Who knew that telephone linemen had their own bar?  Notice the fake transformer...

International Blvd. runs from downtown Oakland southeast through both San Leandro and Hayward.  Many still call it by it's original name...

Downtown at 13th and Webster (I think) with a reflection of the Tribune Tower.  Don't know the name of this modern building.  Glass fr...

Nothing to watch in this Skywatch.  It was gray overcast all day.  Yuck.  And wouldn't you know it, the skies cleared at dusk and the ...

Meet Maria the Tamale Queen.  She and her assistant turned out to feed the crowds at the recent Preview Sale for the White Elephant Sale ....

This is the memorial fountain in Latham Square where Telegraph Avenue joins Broadway.  Erected in 1913, with the putti and floral swags it...

On all of the main corridors there isn't a telephone pole that doesn't have some kind of announcement---music, theater, political, l...

Here's the outdoor seating at a popular lunch spot in the lower Temescal district at 52nd St. and Telegraph Ave.  There's no sig...

The 21-story Tribune Tower has been a local landmark since 1923.  It's now dwarfed by more recent buildings.  The Tribune newspaper m...

The Oasis Market opened last fall at the corner of Telegraph and 30th to immediate success.  It is a middle eastern market and restaurant...

This is the I. Magnin building at 20th and Broadway.  It housed a chic department store until its closing in 1995.  Now it has a cafe and dr...

The Breuner Furniture Company went out of business several years ago but their corporate building lives on at 22nd and Broadway.   It has a ...

This green and black Art Deco building is downtown at Webster and 14th St.  (Thanks to «Louis la Vache» , who recently spotted it and passed...

One of the great things about CDP is that it makes you really look at your surroundings.  I've been on Pill Hill a gazillion times bu...

Skywatch Friday :  Looking toward San Francisco this afternoon from the Mormon Temple.  The past few days the clouds have started out a...

  This building looks like it's the same vintage as yesterday's post.  Check out the roof cubes.  It is the 1/4 lb Giant Burger on ...

This sign is all that's left of a used car lot that closed years ago.  I love the little sputnik-like finial at top.  There's still ...

This old building next to the Aloha bar looks like it's imploding.  It's a cautionary tale on what happens to wood when it remains n...