Montclair (also known as the Montclair District) is a neighborhood of Oakland, California. Montclair is located in the hills east of Piedmont in a valley formed by the Hayward Fault.
Although there is no formal definition of the neighborhood, the general
boundaries are Highway 24 to the north, Highway 13 to the west, Skyline
Boulevard to the east, and Joaquin Miller Road to the south. The center
of the neighborhood is a compact shopping district known as Montclair Village, which is located next to Highway 13 in the bottom of the valley. It lies at an elevation of 892 feet (272 m).
The hills of Montclair are heavily forested, and generally
characterized by winding streets and large single-family houses. The
neighborhood includes several of the highest ranked public schools in
Oakland - Montclair Elementary, Thornhill Elementary, Joaquin Miller Elementary, and Montera Middle School.
History
Prior to the Spanish Mission era, native Huchiun and Jalquin tribes of Ohlone Indians populated the general area.
In 1820, Montclair and Dimond Canyon were part of the land from El Cerrito to San Leandro, which was granted to Luis Maria Peralta.
In 1842, Peralta divided his land among his sons and the San Antonio
section including Montclair and Dimond Canyon went to his son Antonio
Maria Peralta.
Prior to modern development, Montclair was geographically demarcated
by two creek valleys, one on the northwest, and one on the southeast
end of the Hayward Fault rift. The upper reaches of Temescal Creek
ran through the northwest valley, and remains visible above ground
today in the upper sections along Thornhill and Pinehaven Roads. The
creek has two branches that join at the intersection of Thornhill and
Pinehaven. From there, the creek flows down then south side Thornhill
Dr. until Thornhill Elementary School were it then undergrounds. Then
it flows underground down the remainder of Thornhilll and then down
Mountain Blvd. to Broadway Terrace, before draining into Lake Temescal.
In the northern creek valley, Thornhill Road dates back to some of
the earliest development history of Montclair. This was an old 19th
century logging road built by and named after Hiram Thorn. Thorn's road
brought redwood logs to Oakland out of the vast forest known as the
Moraga Redwoods, where he ran a lumber mill at Pinehurst Road near Huckleberry Botanic Regional Preserve, west of the community of Canyon. Thornhill later became a toll road to Contra Costa County.
On the southeast end of Montclair, the north fork of Sausal Creek
(also called Shepherd Creek) runs down Shepherd Canyon. At the freeway,
near the parking lot of the Montclair Golf Course, the north fork of
Sausal Creek has its confluence with the south fork (also called Palo
Seco Creek) running from the eastern hills (encompassing Joaquin Miller
Park). The creek then runs down through Dimond Canyon and across the
flatlands (mostly in culverts) to San Francisco Bay.
From Shepherd Canyon extending toward the southeast, the Bayside
hills were covered in a vast redwood forest known as the San Antonio
Redwoods. Around 1847, Europeans started logging the San Antonio
redwood forest. In 1850, the area's first steam sawmill was built on
the edge of Montclair, at Palo Seco Creek in the head of Dimond Canyon.
A logging road to the mill was built high up along the side of Dimond
Canyon, and later became Park Boulevard. This logging road connected to
a wharf at the foot of 13th Avenue and was used to transport the logs
down Dimond Canyon to the Bay. By 1860, the San Antonio forest was
logged completely.
After the logging period, Caspar Hopkins, an early settler of the
Fruitvale District, formed the Sausal Creek Water Company and built a
dam and reservoir at the upper end of Dimond Canyon near the current
Highway 13 at Montclair. The reservoir later became part of the East
Bay Water Company and remained until the early 1920s. Early maps show a
road passing the reservoir along the current Waterhouse Road, and
extending up toward the dam in the direction of Bridgeview Drive along
what is currently the Upper Dimond Canyon Trail. In 1867, Hugh Dimond
purchased the canyon.
In the first half of the 20th century, the main line of the Sacramento Northern Railroad ran through Montclair. The tracks ran southward from Lake Temescal
and crossed into Montclair over a trestle at Moraga Ave. and Thornhill
Dr. Thre is now a "pocket park" located at this location in
rememberance of this crossing. Then the route ran along a high berm
between Montclair Recreation Center and Montclair Elementary School,
before crossing Mountain Blvd. and Snake Road via trestle, and
continuing up Shepherd Canyon to a tunnel, the west portal of which was
located immediately below Saroni Drive. Today, much of the old
right-of-way above the village and in Shepherd Canyon is a pedestrian
and bicycle path. Although the old railroad trestles throughout
Montclair were all removed decades ago, in recent years a pedestrian
bridge was built in the same location of one of them, across Snake
Road, to connect the two major sections of the pedestrian pathway. The
trail was paved as well at the same time.
One of the first schools located in Montclair was at the current
site of the now-closed Moraga Avenue firehouse, and was named in honor
of John Coffee Hays, one of the founders of the city of Oakland. The Hays school was closed in 1913.
Though already sparsely populated since the logging days, major
residential subdivision of the village and hills began in the 1920s.
The 1927 Montclair firehouse was designed in the Hansel and Gretel style by famed regional architect Julia Morgan. Following the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake,
the Oakland Fire Department built a new station house on Shepherd
Canyon Road, and upon completion, vacated the 1927 structure.
In March 1930, the Montclair branch of the Oakland Public Library
was opened on Mountain Blvd. near Thornhill Dr. to serve the growing
village. The small building was built in the English cottage-style, and
remains in use today. After 1965, additions were completed for the
children's room and patio at the rear of the original building.
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