History of Piedmont, California

This area, owned by the Peralta family, covered much of the northeastern shore of San Francisco Bay, now northern Alameda County.

[1] In 1860, retired South Carolinian Congressman Isaac Holmes bought a piece of land from his neighbor John Reed.

"[1] In addition to the hotel, Blair built a dairy farm on what is now Highland Avenue and a quarry where Dracena Park is today.

[5] The Piedmont Land Company hired landscape engineer William Hammond Hall to plan the avenues and subdivide the tract into 67 parcels.

They petitioned the Alameda County Board of Supervisors to withdraw the liquor license granted to the owner of the hotel.

Prominent signers included Annie Barton, Anna Richardson, N. Randall, Florence Wing, Inez Craig, M. Laurence, Ethyl Robert, and Mary Gamble.

Jack London married Bess Maddern in 1900, and the newlywed couple settled in a redwood bungalow in the hills east of Oakland.

[1] In 1902, London moved to 206 Scenic Avenue, and "tried to create a childhood he never had," Piedmont historian Ann Swift wrote.

[6] He entertained "Peter Pans of both sexes," flew kites, held bubble-blowing contests, and competed to see who could swallow the most soda crackers.

[6] London's friends included fellow Bohemians George Sterling, James Hopper, Herman Whitaker, Xavier Martinez, Blanche Partington, and Charmian Kittredge.

He loaned the city enough to buy the park, and encouraged the Bay Area architect Albert L. Farr to create the Civic Center Plan.

[1] In 1925, the city's first African-American homeowners, Sidney and Irene Dearing, got around the racially restrictive covenants by purchasing a home using a white family member as a proxy.

Piedmont's chief of police at the time, Burton Becker, was an active member of the Ku Klux Klan, and could not be counted on to protect them from violent threats against their lives.

[11] The American sociologist and historian James W. Loewen identified Piedmont as a "probable" sundown town, meaning that non-whites were not welcome after dusk and could face violence and intimidation.

[12] In early 2021, the city council indicated that it intended "to move forward with public acknowledgement and an apology for the abhorrent treatment Sidney Dearing and his family received in 1924.

[14] In the 1920s the high school offered an equestrian club for students who rode their horses around Piedmont, which was then much less developed than today.

Girls wore sailor-suit tops with uniform skirts, boys had a stricter dress code than today, and original artwork decorated the walls of the school.