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Puget Sound Lumber Co.Early uses of the Estuary waterfront as a lumber depot continued well into this century. Near Larue's wharf, the E. K. Wood Lumber Company operated a large yard--at one time California's largest. The shipping yards of the Hogan Lumber Company took up much of the inner-harbor shoreline now occupied by the Portobello condominium development and KTVU-Channel 2.

Further east, near 5th Avenue, the lumber yards of William Smith and Company stretched 310 feet along the waterfront. Wharves received logs shipped in from the northwest, and the mills turned them into lumber to feed the booming construction industry in a rapidly growing state.

A diminished nearby supply of logs, a collapse in construction starts during the Great Depression, and finally, defense needs for waterfront land during World War II ended Oakland's historic heritage as a lumber town.

Steven Lavoie
Oakland Public Library, Oakland History Room

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Link to lumber mill imageHistoric photograph of lumber mill on the estuary - Oakland History Room, Oakland Public Library

 

 

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