Homes Beside the Water
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Alameda
has always been known as a residential city. Historically this homelike
character extended to the shoreline, unlike in Oakland, where the
historic waterfront was almost exclusively industrial. Though most
shoreline residences in Alameda were built on the south shore, two
housing tracts bordered the Estuary tidal canal and San Leandro Bay. The
first of these subdivisions, Waterside Terrace, mapped in 1912 and
largely developed by the 1920s, curved around the northeast shoreline
from High Street, on the tidal canal, to San Leandro Bay. The
development included pathways leading to tiny shoreline parks, still in
existence but hard to find.
The second development was the Fernside Marina subdivision, extending
between the Miller-Sweeny and the High Street bridges. It was laid out
in 1938 and was Alameda's last subdivision on the Estuary. The land once
formed part of Fernside, the palatial Victorian estate of A. A. Cohen, a
prominent attorney who built Alameda's first railroad.
Woodruff Minor
Historian
"Walk Along the Water"
© Oakland Museum of California, used with permission.
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