Old Oakland

Name: Old Oakland
Description: Explore Old Oakland, home to numerous 1800s buildings and modern murals.
City: Oakland, CA
Duration: 90 minutes
Distance: 0.85 miles
Guide: Gene Anderson
Mode: walking
Features: history murals 
Starts at: 821 Washington St.

Welcome to a walking tour of the Old Oakland neighborhood. Although this is not the oldest part of Oakland, it does have many of the oldest buildings still standing in Oakland.

The town of Oakland was incorporated in 1852, and started mostly with buildings near the waterfront. It became a city in 1854, and rapidly grew up Broadway. By the 1860s, this area was downtown, and many of these buildings date back to the 1870s and 1880s. Oakland continued to grow, but this is the Oakland that Jack London, Gertrude Stein, and other earlier Oaklanders would have known.

Before the freeways came through, part of Old Oakland and nearby West Oakland were the hub of Latino culture in Oakland.

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More information about this tour

tour map

Note: markers are for tour stops, not necessarily on the point of interest
  1. Ratto's Market and Deli
  2. Arlington Hotel
  3. Delger Block
  4. Washington Inn
  5. Swan's Market 🎧
  6. Clay Building
  7. Local 20 Mural
  8. Man Must Wak mural
  9. Saint Mary’s Church
  10. La Borinqueña Mexicatessen 🎧
  11. Mexicali Rose
  12. Dunn Block
  13. Central Pacific Station
  14. Leimert Building