Old Oakland

By the 1870s, elegant brick Victorian hotels were being built in the blocks surrounding the railroad station to accommodate travelers.

The ground floor of the hotels were designed as series of narrow shops so that pedestrians would pass by many of them just walking down the block.

The architectural styles of the time featured tall, cast-iron columns and large plate-glass windows.

In its early days, the Oakland Tribune rented a small office on 9th Street.

As of 2008, the neighborhood continues to gentrify as a downtown lifestyle district, more bistros and boutiques have cropped up, as more market-rate condominiums have been constructed nearby, and as transit-oriented development retail and housing become more and more in demand.