Happy 168th Birthday Oakland!
Happy Birthday to the City of Oakland! Incorporated on May 4, 1852, the largest city in the East Bay turns one year older.
On its birthday, let us go over and fall in love with some of the wonders that have put Oakland on the map:
Lake Merritt & The “Oak-ness” Monster
Lake Merritt, “The Jewel of Oakland,” is a unique lake with both freshwater and saltwater. It is the largest lake of its kind in an urban area and has been listed as a National Historic Landmark since 1963.
This lake has its very own monster called the Oak-ness Monster, that has been appearing there since the 1940s. The best spot to catch a glimpse of this mega-beast is from docks at the Lake Chalet restaurant. It is also the home to large breeding populations of herons, egrets, geese, and ducks, and is the oldest wildlife refuge in North America. Countless migratory birds make the lake their home during the winter months. You may also visit the oldest bonsai tree in the United States located at Bonsai Garden at Lake Merritt.
Mountain View Cemetery
Oakland’s most popular park is a cemetery, Mountain View Cemetery which stretches for 226 acres in the hills above Oakland and has one of the stunning views of the San Francisco Bay in town. It is a popular place to picnic or just walk around.
Oakland Museum of California
One of the grandest museums you’ll find in The Bay Area is the Oakland Museum of California. With more than 1.9 million objects, OMCA brings together its multi-disciplinary collections of art, history, and natural science with the first-person accounts and often untold narratives of California, all within its 110,000 square feet of gallery space and seven-acre campus.
Gnomes and Redwood Forests
Did you know Oakland iis inhabited by gnomes? There are hundreds of painted gnomes throughout the city that are attached to utility poles. The artist who created them continues to remain anonymous. These paintings are a prime example of how big of a role art plays in the city’s identity. There’s no need to leave the city to see redwoods. A few miles from downtown, there is Redwood Regional Park, where you can wander around these giant beauties. It contains a huge forest of coast redwoods within 1,830 acres of the wilderness area.
Hidden Staircases
There are hundreds of hidden staircases. After the 1906 earthquake destroyed San Francisco, many residents moved across the bay to the Oakland hills. To create easy access to public transportation at the bottom of the hills, hundreds of staircases were built and still remain tucked in between houses in these neighborhoods.
Of course, there is Jack London Square with movie theaters, restaurants, bars, shops and the ferry terminal. Chinatown is located in downtown Oakland; it has nine tea shops, 45 restaurants, and more than 222 stores. Over on Telegraph, you’ll find the historic Fox Theater, a 2,800 seat concert venue that was once a movie theater. A live music venue in a historic building housing an art school, bar, restaurant & courtyard.
It’s also a major port city, responsible for 99 percent of containerized goods moving through Northern California.
Disney Inspiration
Did you know Disneyland was inspired by Oakland’s Fairyland? Plus Fentons Creamery, Oakland’s historic ice cream parlor, had a cameo in Pixar’s UP.
Happy Birthday to The Town!
We’ll leave you with this cool aerial view of the Oakland downtown area filmed with a drone courtesy of TAPP Channel.
h/t: oaklandca.gov, localwiki.org, visitoakland.com, museumca.org
