A Picaresque History of the Port of Oakland

A picture of the waterfront of the early 1850’s is a picture of the town itself in its cradle days. Oakland was a typical American small-port village, clustering mainly about lower Broadway, called Main Street in 1854.

Two wharves jutted out into what was then the ship channel, with only two and a half feet of water at high tide. One of these wharves was at the foot of Main Street; the other, owned by William Taylor, was located close to the foot of Washington Street. Here ships were loaded and unloaded, resting on dry hardpan at low tide so that wagons could be driven alongside to handle the cargoes. Ferry service, if it could be called that, was at best irregular, and it was necessary for the captain and wharfinger at the Carpentier wharf where the ferry landed, to study tide tables to decide when the ferry could land and depart. When these calculations were finished, a boy would be sent through the streets blowing a horn and announcing the time of departure.

This job was one of high honor in the opinion of the village youth, and there was keen competition for it. The wharfinger’s job, at one time held by a relative of Andrew J. Moon, was not exactly a sinecure, for he was chief stevedore and longshoreman as well as boss of the ferry line.

Vegetable growers daily brought produce from their farms along San Antonio Creek in flat-bottom boats, propelled by oars and sail. Upon arriving at Oakland the vegetables were put on the ferry to San Francisco. When the tide was out a rope had to be lowered to the boat and boxes of carrots, cabbages, turnips, corn and other vegetables in season. had to be hauled up to the dock by the wharfinger.

When at night the tide was extremely low, wharfinger Andy Moon would row down to the bar, near what is now Peralta Street, and place a lantern on a piling to direct the captain of the ferry up the channel. Often, in spite of this precaution, the boat would be stranded on the bar and its landing delayed for hours. Meanwhile the wharfinger would patiently await the arrival of the boat, which was announced by blasts of its whistle summoning those expecting the return of members of their families who had gone to "the City."

The Carpentier "schoolhouse," located at 4th Street between Washington and Clay, had quite an attendance. When school was out the boys made for the swimming pool between Broadway and Franklin Streets. The area, as then described, was a sandy beach and a perfect swimming place. Also, there was clam and oyster digging and hunting in the fields a few blocks back from the waterfront.

The waterfront was the heart of the village existence. Here was the center of what business there was, the ferry to San Francisco,Taylor’s Wharf, where cargoes of hides were loaded for export, a lumber yard and planing mill, and sand for the plaster and mortar of the first brick buildings.

On Sundays religious services were held at the waterfront. Baptisms frequently took place on sunny afternoons at the foot of Washington Street. A wooden runway from the three foot bank to the beach was used for the candidates and their minister. On the beach stood the singers, and on Taylor’s wharf, the congregation.

More and more as the town grew the growing boys found work on the waterfront, digging oysters, packing and shipping freight by ferry to San Francisco. The erection of new buildings was begun and this brought lumber schooners to the wharves, giving work to stevedores. The noonday whistle of the planing mill became the symbol of industrial growth. However, Oakland was still a sleepy village when the first trains started running from the bay at the foot of 7th Street to Broadway.

As the town gradually spread back from the waterfront, new activities developed. Wagons began hauling sand from the cove between Broadway and Jefferson Streets, where good white sand was found in quantity. This materially aided the growth of the city, supplying the sand necessary for the mortar and plastering in new construction.

Ships brought in brick from a plant near where Napa now stands, and as the town progressed so did the harbor. The cattle industry in the back country took a step forward, and herds in the Livermore Valley and the Valley of Diablo were increased. Warehouses at the foot of Broadway were packed with hides for shipment around the Horn to New England. Very early small quantities of wheat for export began to reach tidewater.

Moon, Carpentier and Adams were active on the waterfront, increasing their holdings and powers, and at that time definitely aiding the growth of the town itself. Perhaps they felt instinctively that the railroad would some time come to Oakland and be compelled to seek terminal facilities.

The foresight and energy of this trio were booming things along mightily, although discontent over their waterfront deals was beginning to be felt. However, jobs, then as now, were necessary and they were the men who supplied them.

The first rumbles of the great waterfront battles were in the wind, and jobs or no jobs the peace and quiet of the little village was soon to be torn by hatred and violence.

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