Frank K. Mott

[1] Mott was born in San Francisco on January 21, 1866,[2] but his family moved to nearby Oakland when he was two years old.

To support the family, Mott quit school and worked as a messenger boy for Western Union and then as a telephone operator, the first ever in Oakland, according to his obituary in the Tribune.

[3] He achieved, in 1909, final resolution of the waterfront issue which had preoccupied the leaders of Oakland since the city's founding, with a negotiated agreement with Southern Pacific.

The massive harbor improvements which immediately followed were part of an unprecedented era of public works projects, including the dredging of Lake Merritt, the building of the current City Hall and the Civic Auditorium (now known as the Kaiser Convention Center), establishment of the pioneering Oakland Public Museum in the Josiah Stanford (now Camron-Stanford) House, and vast expansion and improvements to sewers, streets, lighting, electricity, fire and police protection.

[4] His family lived at three different addresses while he was mayor—1066 Jackson (1905–08), 1509 Webster (1909–1911), and 276 Lee Street in Adams Point (1912–1939)—all since demolished.