#21—Highland Hospital
Walk #21—Highland Hospital
Saturday, 20 October 2012
It was 56F and overcast at the start of the walk. The sun did not come out during the walk.
Here is a map of the walk (purple color). The blue pin is the start of the walk.
On the map is a red triangle pin with an exclamation point inside it. In North Oakland (same city), the numbered streets are, well, streets. In East Oakland (same city) the numbered streets are, well, avenues. And they can be streets, too, but with an “E” before the number. The E is for East.
Right from the start of the walk is the intersection of 14th Avenue, 19th Avenue (yes!) and East 29th Street. There is a lot of this in East Oakland.
If you want a street view from the map, you need to click the link on the bottom, “View Walk #21—Highland Hospital in a larger map.”
Highland Hospital is across the street (14th Avenue). On page 133, author Fleming calls the older part of the hospital “a fantastic example of California Spanish Baroque architecture.” No disagreement.
Highland Hospital specializes in trauma care. It is owned by Alameda County, and was the subject of a recent motion picture, The Waiting Room.
Author Fleming suggests “it might not be a great place to walk at night.” That is sage advice.
Here is the first turn, up East 26th Street WAY. The book doesn’t mention “Way”, but that could be because the paper on the sign that is mostly covering up “Way.” Anyway, that’s the turn.
This is the view up the staircase.
This one is “split by a steel handrail” and is in decent condition (page 134).
We’ve turned right onto Wallace Street. Note there are no sidewalks.
Here’s the turn back downhill, East 25th Street Way.
It does look “recently restored” (page 134).
Back down on 14th Avenue, we came to the palm trees mentioned on page 134. We are at the tree pin on the map.
Moving along, we are looking now at the left turn to go up Comstock Way. Fences around houses are almost ubiquitous in East Oakland.
Looking up to 17th Avenue.
Here is the “lovely, most unrestored Victorian” at 2302 17th Avenue (page 135).
We knew the book would showcase this house, because of the “conical roof.”
A guess: it’s built of redwood, a great soft wood and which does not easily rot. The Latin name is Sequoia sempevirens. Note, the second species of this tree is the giant sequoia in the Sierra Nevada, and the third is from China. There are living examples of the Chinese redwood on the path up to Hearst Street on Walk #5, between the East Asian Library and McCone Hall (Saber Tooth Cat statue). The first two redwoods are evergreen. The Chinese version is deciduous.
Farther on, this is 2142–17th Avenue. In the book, it’s “once majestic, with a sad, added–on porch sagging off its back side (page 135).”
There is a modest porch on the other side of the house. It isn’t sagging so much as just not being constructed at something resembling level.
The chimney in the house is a fine one. It looks like half of it is inside the house itself.
Then we turned down East 21st Street and saw the “strangely angled columns, mirrored from one bungalow to the next.” The first two homes in this photo were built in 1924.
The book mentions a house across the street at #1605. Note the telephone wires in the area stand out.
Here is the turn to the right, up East 23rd Street. Note: no “Way” on the sign.
This is the cement stamp from 1925 (page 135).
This is the view up the E23 stairs.
There was a dog on the left side, half way up. It did not bark for quite a while. That’s unusual! There was this interesting collection of art, too. More fowl!
There is a good deal of back tracking on the remainder of the walk. Here’s another look at Highland Hospital.
The morning was “totally” overcast so Walk #18 was a non–starter, so we did #21 instead.
The book reports 268 steps and 2.0 miles. The step count is right, but the distance is 1.7 miles. (distance calculated by Google maps). If you are taking the bus to this walk, lines 57, 58X and the NL will work, also. They stop out on MacArthur Boulevard, near the hospital. The lines with 3 digits generally won’t work, as they are either for school trips or run in the early hours of the morning.
Next—Remillard Park, if we get a clear morning.
