Leona Heights Neighborhood News

by Gordon Laverty

With the Labor Day weekend four-day closure to traffic on the lower deck of the Oakland-San Francisco Bay Bridge for earthquake retrofit work, and the adjustments many folks had to make in getting around, it seems appropriate to revisit what our Leona forebears had to deal with. Oakland was created in 1852 and consisted then and for years later mainly as a downtown section and different-named districts along the estuary. Oakland operated docks and wharves related to the redwood timber trade between Oakland and San Francisco, cattle shipping to the world, and other waterborne activities. Land connections were made by foot, horseback, horse, or ox-pulled wagons until the appearance of steam locomotives and rails. About 1870, the transcontinental railroad made Oakland its western terminus. Soon electric trains and rail cars permitted an Oakland rail network for electric streetcars and locomotives, among them the Leona electric line that provided the commercial feasibility to get the Leona, Stauffer, Hotel, and other mines' sulfur ore down to what was then the Southern Pacific Railroad for national delivery if desired, but mostly to the Richmond plant of Stauffer Chemical Company (and its predecessor) that made industrial sulfuric acid. The electric trolley system soon brought Oakland and San Francisco people to the Leona Hotel, which was located between Mountain Boulevard and Leona Street not far from the present entrance to the old Chabot Observatory. There is a wonderful photo of a 1900ish-dressed mother and her children walking to the hotel from the trolley parked on the rails that were on Leona Street. The old No. 5 car has also been pictured by the end-of-the-line car barn once located just below the Observatory buildings where Highway 13 now runs. The trolley ran on about 500-volt direct-current power, with the power coming from an overhead wire. In the old days, it was a musical experience to hear the clickety-clack of the wheels over the rail joints when the car went across another line or over a switch. There were delays when the trolley slipped off the power wire and the car jolted to a stop. Then the motorman and fare collector would get off and realign the trolley so the ride could continue. The old No. 5 line for years brought Mills College women back from dates and shopping to the old Mills Station near what is now the intersection of Calaveras and Rinehart Drive. Too bad the old Leona Hotel burned in about 1908, and autos did away with the trolley cars, but we can dream, can't we? Leonans, be sure to read the article on Neighborhood Crime Prevention Councils in this issue.