Piedmont Avenue (Oakland, California)
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Piedmont Avenue (Oakland, California) | |
|---|---|
 A look up Piedmont Avenue | |
 Location in Oakland | |
| Coordinates: 37°49′35″N 122°15′09″W / 37.8264°N 122.2524°W | |
| Country | United States |
| State | California |
| County | Alameda |
| City | Oakland |
The Piedmont Avenue neighborhood is a district in North Oakland, California. It is named for Piedmont Avenue, the main commercial street of the district. The neighborhood is bounded by Broadway on the west, Oakland Avenue and City of Piedmont (a separate municipality, an enclave within Oakland) on the east, the Mountain View Cemetery on the north, and the MacArthur Freeway section of Interstate 580 on the south.
The Piedmont Avenue shopping area has provided retail shopping for the town of Piedmont, California, as well as Oakland's own affluent Montclair neighborhood, which along with the city's wealthy Rockridge neighborhood, converge on the north and east borders of the Piedmont Avenue neighborhood. Many restaurants and boutique retailers line the street.
History
The Piedmont Avenue neighborhood was founded in the late 1800s.[1] It was annexed into Oakland in 1897.[2]
Landmarks and features
At the north end of Piedmont Avenue and Pleasant Valley Avenue is the hillside Mountain View Cemetery, which was designed by Frederick Law Olmsted and opened in 1863. It is known for Millionaire's Row, a section high on the hill lined with the ornate mausoleums of wealthy families, including those of Domingo Ghirardelli, Henry J. Kaiser, and Charles Crocker. Other notable people buried in the cemetery include civil rights activists Fred Korematsu and Bobby Hutton, poet Ina Coolbrith, and architect Julia Morgan, who also designed the nearby Chapel of the Chimes. The cemetery was featured prominently in the 2018 movie Blindspotting.[3]
Near the center of the Piedmont Avenue commercial strip, at 4021 is another Julia Morgan-designed building, originally built as the Fred C. Turner Stores. This 1916 red brick building hosts both restaurants and retail, and features glazed terra cotta in the style of the della Robbia family.[4]
Next door is the location of the original Longs Drugs store.
Piedmont Avenue also has "the Bay Area's Book Row," with multiple independent bookstores concentrated within a six-block radius.[5], the Piedmont Theatre, which is the oldest still-operating theater in Oakland (built in 1917);Cite error: A <ref> tag is missing the closing </ref> (see the help page).
Education
Piedmont Avenue Elementary School, located north of the business district, has grades Kindergarten through 5th. Attendance is roughly 350; average class size about 20. The Catholic Church of Saint Leo the Great also operates a school on Piedmont Avenue. A small private school, Park Day also has a middle school campus located on Ridgeway near Piedmont,[1] and the Archway School (grades K-8) is at 41st and Gilbert [2].
References
- ^ "Piedmont Avenue | The Piedmont Neighborhood in Oakland, CA". www.visitoakland.com. Retrieved 2018-09-05.
- ^ "PANIL - Neighborhood Chronology". panil.org. Retrieved 2018-09-05.
- ^ "'Blindspotting' is a Spot-On Portrait of an Oakland in Flux". KQED. 2018-07-17. Retrieved 2018-09-05.
- ^ Wurm, Ted (Winter–Spring 1990). "Historic Piedmont Avenue". Oakland Heritage Alliance News. Retrieved 5 September 2018.
{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: date format (link) - ^ "Drummond: Oakland's Piedmont Avenue show bookstores' death reports exaggerated". www.marinij.com. Retrieved 2016-02-13.