Leona Heights Neighborhood News

by Gordon Laverty

Did you ever wonder how the interesting buildings of Oakland were planned for and built?

In our neighborhood, Leona Lodge is one such place. The genesis of Leona Lodge can be traced to the effort of our local group called The Redwood Club, men and women engaged in young people's organizations in the Laurel/Dimond community. The idea occurred to them to build a "homemade" building to house youth functions.

A 1935 letter from George P. Sorensen, secretary of The Redwood Club, "To Whom It May Concern," helps us today to see what vision they had and how they went about getting Oaklanders to help make the vision a reality. Sorensen pointed out that there was City of Oakland-owned property in Leona Park that could lend itself well to the proposed program. Most people who drive past 4444 Mountain Boulevard near the present Leona Lodge can identify the deep dip in Mountain Boulevard within view of the Lodge. The original plan was to place the youth building on a flat site between the dip and present Highway 13. Plan A was to have the men and Boy Scouts of the four local troops make large adobe bricks and construct a cabinlike structure at very low cost. Experimentation proved that the local soils and amateur local capabilities did not allow such a plan to succeed. So they moved on to Plan B.

Plan B took much more energy and many years. The Redwood Club Board of 1935 was composed of Homer C. Mather, president; Lorenzo A. Harrington, vice president; Raymond C. Wolfe, chair of the building committee; and Mr. Sorensen, secretary. These men took their hopes-and-dreams story to the Park Department, Recreation Department, and City Council leaders. In the mid 1950s these Oakland leaders added city funding to the money raised by Redwood Club pancake breakfasts and other fundraising profits to bring the dream to reality.

The list is really a Who's Who of dedicated public servants of the time: Mayor Clifford E. Rishell, City Manager Wayne Thompson, Superintendent of Parks William Penn Mott, Jr., and City Council and Park Commission members Rilea, Youell, Hoover, Maggiora, Moravich, Osborn, Main, Miller, and J. Vendes Mann.

The building was not placed on the originally planned site but in a more dramatically sloped site on the north side of Mountain Boulevard with a more beautiful view, but that required the talented architectural skill of Herbert T. Johnson, AIA, whose cable-anchored Lodge makes a gallant statement.

Leona Lodge was dedicated in April 1959 and has been the home of Boy Scout Troop 339 and Cub Pack 369 over the years. Many regional Scout events are planned in the lower room of the building, and summer youth programs occur there. And of equal or greater importance are the many public-rental uses of the upper room, which can be arranged by calling the Oakland Parks and Recreation Department. Over the years, Redwood Club has enjoyed its use of the lower room authorized by the city in a Commission resolution recognizing the Lodge's pioneering and youth work of the Club. Prominent in present Club work are John E. Wynton, Jr., Andrew E. Gandolfo, and Lois Gandolfo, as well as Lawrence Leong.

So, when you drive or walk by Leona Lodge, tip your hat to honor many local pioneers and city officials who started an idea that to this day continues to serve the people of Oakland.