Current Events
UPCOMING EVENTS!
Lecture Series - Second Thursdays at Chapel of the Chimes
January 14 – Ray Raineri: North Oakland A History in Photos.
Ray Raineri, photo archivist, will share his memories of growing up in North Oakland’s Italian neighborhood, drawing from his vast slide library. Idora Park will be featured.
February 11 – Gray Brechin: The New Deal and its Impact on the East Bay. Popular lecturer Gray Brechin will once again highlight the New Deal’s cultural and historical contributions to the East bay landscape.
March 11 – Martin Meeker: The Oakland Army Base Oral History Project. Historian Martin Meeker will share some highlights of his book on The Oakland Army Base Oral History Project. The Project is based upon in-depth, interviews with individuals who were affiliated with the base during its period of operation (1941-1999).
April 8 – Joint OHA/ AIA Lecture – lecturer to be announced
May 13 – Partners In Preservation Awards
June 10 – Anthea Hartig National Trust for Historic Preservation: Anthea Hartig directs the National Trust’s western office and has an interest historic built environment. Topic to be announced.
Lectures are held at Chapel of the Chimes, 4499 Piedmont Ave. in Oakland. Admission: $10 OHA Members/$15 Non-members
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OHA Walking Tour Leader Bios
Our tour leaders are enthusiastic and dedicated. For the first time we invite you to read a bit more about them. We thank you for your interest and hope this page inspires you to join us this summer as we further explore our diverse city!
Annalee Allen
20 Years Later: Loma Prieta and Oakland’s Downtown, August 2, 11am
Oakland’s Historic Town Squares, co-leader, September 19, 11am
Annalee Allen is a weekly columnist with the Oakland Tribune, writing on topics relating to landmarks, tours, and local history. The author of two books on Oakland, she is deeply involved in area historic preservation, serving on the boards of the Alameda County Historical Society, and the Pardee Home Museum, among others. As coordinator of the city sponsored Oakland Tours Program, Annalee promotes the work of volunteer guides who lead walking tours of Oakland’s downtown. A past president of the Oakland Heritage Alliance, she also served for several years on the city’s Landmarks Preservation Advisory Board. Annalee has been a resident of Oakland’s Rockridge neighborhood since 1978.
Phil Bellman
F. M. “Borax” Smith Estate, 7/18
Phil Bellman is a longtime East Oakland resident with interests in history, architecture and historic preservation. He served as an early member of the OHA Board of Directors and edited the OHA News for several years. He has led tours relating to Borax Smith both in Oakland and the Nevada desert for many years. Professionally, Phil works with Kaiser Permanente in the field of medical education.
Chris Buckley
Rezoning: Facing Oakland’s Future, co-leader, August 1, 10 am
An Oakland native, Chris Buckley retired in 2005 from the Oakland City Planning Department after 30 years as city planner. Duties included Landmarks Board Secretary, major drafter of the Historic Preservation Element of the Oakland General Plan and Design Review Supervisor. He is currently a city planning consultant and has been assisting Oakland Heritage Alliance through the thickets of the Downtown rezoning. He is also an OHA representative on the Commercial Technical Advisory Committee for the Citywide rezoning. His technical knowledge of city planning, zoning and historic preservation methodology is combined with great familiarity with Oakland’s architecture and neighborhoods.
Ernie Chann
Chinatown Oakland, August 9, 10 am* (*optional lunch group after)
Ernest Chann retired as office manager of the Earle Alexander Company. He is a past President of the Chinese Historical Society of America, a Board member of the Alameda County Historical Society, the Camron-Stanford House, the Oakland Asian Culture Center and Oakland Asian branch library. In addition to leading this tour for OHA, Ernie is also an active docent with Oakland Museum History Division, the Chabot Science Center and the Oakland Zoo.
Michael Crowe
Mountain View Cemetery, co-leader, July 11, 10 am
The Fox Theatre and Uptown Art Deco, July 25, (Resevation needed).
Michael Crowe is recently retired from the National Park Service, after 20 years of federal service. He coordinated the National Historic Landmark program, Federal Surplus Property Transfer program, and the income tax rehabilitation program. Michael is founder and former president of the Art Deco Society of California. He is currently a board member of Oakland Heritage Alliance. He is the former president of the California Preservation Foundation and has served as President of the San Francisco Landmarks Preservation Advisory Board. He gives walking tours of Mountain View Cemetery, and Art Deco architectural tours of Oakland, San Francisco, Berkeley and Alameda. He holds a Masters in Art History from the University of Cincinnati. He has written numerous articles on preservation topics for national publications and is author of Deco by the Bay: The Art Deco Architecture of the San Francisco Bay Area, and with Bob Bowen, San Francisco Art Deco.
Patricia Dedikian
The Fox Theatre and Uptown Art Deco, July 25, (Resevation needed).
Patricia Dedekian has been a member of Oakland Heritage Alliance since 1982, joining after OHA helped her neighborhood successfully stop a large condominium project that would have culverted a creek and towered above the surrounding craftsman homes. She then helped lead an OHA walking tour of that neighborhood, Richmond Boulevard, several times before moving to the Upper Rockridge area of Oakland.
Patricia joined the OHA Board of Directors in 1998 and began chairing the Fox Theater subcommittee that OHA had formed to help find a way to preserve the Fox. The committee went on to form its own 501c(3) Corporation, Friends of the Oakland Fox, and she served as president of that organization until the restored Fox finally reopened earlier this year.
Patricia continues to live and work in Oakland, and enjoys doing what she can to help make Oakland a cool place to be.
Kathleen diGiovanni
Montclair Village: Oakland’s Early Hill Town, August 23, 1pm
Kathleen Leles DiGiovanni is a long-time Oakland Heritage Association walking tour leader and a regular contributor to the OHA News. A librarian at the Oakland Public Library, Kathleen has logged thousands of hours working in the Oakland History Room, promoting and guiding exploration of Oakland’s history through the library’s rich resources. She thinks it’s the best job in the world. In addition to this year’s Montclair Village tour, Kathleen has also led walking tours for OHA in Glenview and Lakeside Park.
Bruce Douglas and Sue Mark
Oakland’s Historic Town Squares, 9/19
marksearch, an Oakland wife-husband team (Bruce Douglas + Sue Mark), has been creating community art projects since 2000. In their unique brand of interdisciplinary art, marksearch creates interactive projects inviting people to reflect upon their communities and increase their awareness of the natural environment within the urban fabric. Their methodology synthesizes their varied backgrounds: Bruce Douglas, a Professional Mechanical Engineer, brings green-building skills, extensive knowledge of local creek and environmental issues and community-building activities; Sue Mark, with a BA in philosophy and linguistics and an MFA from the California College of the Arts, has created national and international community-based public art projects about local history and community collaboration since 1996.
Their ecologically and socially-based projects rely on daily life experience, weaving the needs and views of local agencies and the public with the specific qualities of local history, the built environment, and the ecosystem. Using kinetic vehicles, traveling signage, unconventional surveys, and official logos, they craft a conversational commons, pushing the boundaries of how community-based art can influence public policy. The OHA walking tour is part of their current project, 10,000 Steps, a community driven parks awareness effort focusing on building stewardship for downtown Oakland’s historic squares. 10,000 Steps will result in a self-guided walking tour that will lead people to these four parks. To learn more about the project, visit www.10000stepsoakland.org
Dennis Evanosky
Laurel: Dairies, Cherries and Bungalows, July 19, 10 am
Scaling Leona Heights, August 16, 10 am
The Civil War at Mountain View, September 20, 10 am
Dennis Evanosky is the city editor at the Alameda Sun and a free-lance writer with five published books: East Bay Then and Now; San Francisco in Photographs; San Francisco Then and Now; Oakland’s Laurel District; Mountain View Cemetery and Alameda’s Architectural Treasure Chest. He is currently the editor of the Alameda County Historical Society’s newsletter. Dennis served the Oakland Heritage Alliance as its newsletter editor for two years. He has received several Partners in Preservation Awards, with Steve Mix and Eric Turowski for a calendar featuring the Oakland Laurel district’s history; for restoring the Civil War section of Mountain View Cemetery; and for assisting Bill Caldwell with Oakland: A Photographic Journey. He has since teamed with Eric J. Kos to create 11 more history calendars featuring both Oakland and Alameda. Eric and Dennis also created the web site www.oaklandhistory.com.Dennis leads tours for Oakland Heritage Alliance that include the Laurel and Dimond Districts, Leona Heights, the Estuary, Preservation Park and the Pardee Home Museum; the Redwoods and Mountain View Cemetery’s connection to the Civil War.
Karen Fiene
Mills College Campus, September 13, 2 pm
I have a Bachelor of Architecture from the University of Tennessee and have been practicing architecture in the Bay Area since ’82 (27 years). I spent 13 years with the firm of EHDD Architects where I served the last 3 years as President – (they have done many of the buildings on the Mills campus including Aron Arts Center, Olin Library, Mills Hall Restoration, Natural Sciences Building and most recently, the Music Building Renovation.) I’ve been the Campus Architect for the last 3 ½ years and have overseen our new capital projects including: Courtyard Townhouses, Natural Sciences Building, Music Building Renovation and currently the new Graduate School of Business. This is a dream job for me to be surrounded by such rich historic architecture and landscape design and to be able to work with an institution whose goal is that of educating women to become leaders of the 21st century!
Bert Gordon
Mills College Campus, September 13, 2 pm
Professor of European History – Mills College
Dr. Gordon has great breadth of experience at Mills from 1969 to the present, both in administrative and teaching capacities. He has been Acting Provost and Dean of Faculty, and taught courses as varied as “The History of Mills College: From Seminary to Sesquicentennial”, “Eastern Europe, the Russian Revolution, and the Evolution of the European Union”, “History of Travel and Tourism in the Western World”, and “Modern French History”. He is on the editorial board, Journal of Tourism History, and co-editor, H-Travel network, part of H-Net (Electronic History Network). He edited “Historical Dictionary of World War II France: The Occupation, Vichy and the Resistance, 1938-1946”, and authored “Collaborationism in France during the Second World War”. Dr. Gordon co-leads the Mills College tour with architect Karen Feine.
Sara Fetterly
Stroll a Transformed Shoreline, August 29, 10 am
Sara Fetterly began working as a naturalist for the East Bay Regional Park District in 2001 and has recently moved from Ardenwood Historic Farm to Crab Cove. Prior to her work with EBRPD, she spent several years as a Peace Corps volunteer, did field research as both a wildlife biologist and a marine biologist, and was the school programs director for Coyote Point Museum. Sara holds a B.A. degree in Environmental Geography from San Diego State University as well as a Masters of Education from the University of San Francisco. In her spare time she loves traveling, hiking, camping, snowboarding, and spending time with her family.
Daniel Levy
Walking the Key System’s C Line, August 15, 10 am* (*optional extension)
I cannot remember a time when I did not love trains. In my Trestle Glen home, I used to go exploring in my backyard, fantasizing that I would find some old Key System track. When I got older, I explored old streetcar right of ways with my dad and created a website with the photos I took (www.oberail.org). For my Eagle Scout project, I wanted to share my love and knowledge of the Sacramento Northern Railway, so I researched, designed and installed informational signs on the Temescal and Montclair bike paths, where the trains ran. My love of transportation turned to love of cities as I continued to explore and as I worked at AC Transit last summer. I am interested in bringing Oakland to its full potential and making public transportation an attractive alternative to the automobile.
Ruby Long
Piedmont Avenue, August 8, 10am
Ruby Long has lived in the Piedmont Avenue area of Oakland and studied its history for more than 15 years. She has led local walking tours for the Oakland Heritage Alliance, the Sierra Club and Pleasant Valley Adult School. In addition, she has taken classes and done independent research in Oakland and Berkeley history. She is a docent at the UC Botanical Garden, where she leads tours and is part of the Fall docent class at Mountain View Cemetery.
Pamela Magnuson-Peddle
Jingletown: Industry to Art, July 26, 10 am
Pamela Magnuson-Peddle loves the stories old buildings tell. She is an active member of the Oakland Heritage Alliance, including six years on the board and one year as President, and leads walking tours of both the Fruitvale and Laurel districts. Her published histories include articles for the Oakland Heritage Alliance Newsletter, MacArthur Metro, and the Alameda County Historical Society newsletter. She has also written two self-guided walking tours of Oakland neighborhoods: Waterfront Warehouse District and Fruitvale on Foot.
Sue Mark and Bruce Douglas (see Bruce Douglas and Sue Mark, above)
Oakland’s Historic Town Squares, 9/19
Betty Marvin
Oakland Point and the West Oakland Marsh, August 30, 10 am
Betty Marvin studies local history and buildings in the Oakland City Planning Department’s Cultural Heritage Survey project.
Celia McCarthy
Rail Meets Water: Then and Now, August 22 10 am
Celia McCarthy has been working as an Environmental Planner at the Port of Oakland for twelve years. She has been responsible for implementation of many cultural resources mitigation measures, including developing interpretive materials at several locations, publishing Pacific Gateway: An Illustrated History of the Port of Oakland, by Woodruff Minor, completing Historic American Engineering Record (HAER) documentation of the Oaklalnd Harbor Training Walls and the Todd Shipyard, and establishing the Port’s photographic archives. Celia is a graduate of the Master’s Program in Cultural Resources Management at Sonoma State University.
Woody Minor
Amelia’s Airport: Oakland’s Historic North Field, 7/12
Woodruff Minor is a consultant and writer specializing in history and architecture. His books include On the Bay: A Centennial History of the Encinal Yacht Club, Pacific Gateway: An Illustrated History of the Port of Oakland, The Architecture of Ratcliff, and the recently published A Home in Alameda.
Jane Powell
The Bungalows of Fairview Park, July 25, 2 pm
Labeled “the bad girl of bungalow writing”, Jane Powell is a restoration consultant, house restorer, lecturer, and author of six books, including Bungalow Kitchens, Bungalow Bathrooms, Bungalow Details: Exterior, Bungalow Details: Interior, Bungalow: The Ultimate Arts and Crafts Home, and Linoleum. She has written for magazines including Old House Journal, Style 1900, and American Bungalow, and many local publications including oaklandnews.com. She has also appeared on HGTV’s Curb Appeal and Food Network’s Ultimate Kitchens.A popular and entertaining speaker, Jane has lectured at conferences including Pasadena’s Craftsman Weekend, Seattle’s Bungalow Fair, and many others. She has also spoken for preservation organizations, home builders groups, and retail businesses across the country.As a hands-on restorer, she has brought ten vintage homes back to life and sold them to appreciative buyers, and continues the ongoing restoration of her own home, the 1905 Jesse Matteson house.
Ray Raineri
Temescal: A Bit of Old Italy, September 12, 10 am
Veteran tour leader-historic photo archivist and Oakland native, Raymond Raineri grew up in the Temescal district and graduated from Oakland Tech High School with the June graduating class of 1957. Along with anecdotes of his youth and Italian-American experience in Oakland, he shares stories of the settlers, the work of Italian immigrants and their early enterprises, and photos from his personal historical photo collection. Some of his photos of Temescal history are posted on Oakland Tech’s history page: http://oaklandtech.com/staff/about-tech/photos-history Don’t miss the ‘Notable Alumni’ link, also at the Oakland Tech site. Ray graduated from San Francisco State with a BA in Sociology, worked for 30 years for the Alameda County probation department, and has been retired for 20 years. He is an active member of many organizations; among those are the Oakland Heritage Alliance, the Alameda County Historical Society, The Piedmont Historical Society, The Emeryville Historical Society, The Sons of Italy, and the Colombo Club.
Naomi Schiff
Rezoning: Facing Oakland’s Future, co-leader, August 1, 10 am
Naomi Schiff, board member and former OHA president, has been advocating historic preservation in Oakland since 1980. During the current zoning update, she has been working to secure increased protection for historic resources in the downtown area. She was a founding board member of Friends of the Oakland Fox. She is currently serving on the technical advisory committee for the citywide residential zoning update. In its third historic location in downtown Oakland, her small business is located in the Press Building on 12th Street. Favorite project: helping to convince the school district to preserve 550 wooden windows at Oakland Tech.
Barbara Smith
Barbara Smith comes from a long line of East Bay natives; her two grandmothers were born in Oakland in the 1860’s. A graduate of the University of California at Berkeley, she was one of the original history docents at the Oakland Museum of California. She is the founder of the docent program at Oakland’s historic Mountain View Cemetery where she has led history tours since the 1970’s.
Long active in the community, she is president of Contra Costa for Every Generation, a county-wide nonprofit organization with the mission to make Contra Costa’s communities good places to age. She and her husband, Heber Smith, live in Alamo and are the parents of three daughters and have seven grandchildren and one great grandson.
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Ongoing Meetings.
Oakland City Planning Commission
Alternate Wednesdays, time varies, City Hall
Call (510) 238-3941
Oakland City Council
Tuesdays at 7:30pm City Hall, Council Chambers
Call (510) 238-3941 or check www.oaklandnet.com for dates.
Oakland Heritage Alliance
Board of Directors, first Tuesday 6-8pm, 444 17th Street
PGA building, Call (510) 763-9218
Oakland Landmarks Preservation Advisory Board
2nd Monday, 4-8pm, City Hall, Hearing Room
Call (510) 238-3941
OHA will list events, activities and meetings related to history and preservation that may be of interest to our members. To submit items: Event Information
Action / Volunteer / Resources / Archives / Partners in Preservation
