Alden Tract 1868

Description:
Subdivision map of Alden Tract, located in what at the time was the unincorporated area of Alameda County known as Temescal, immediately north of the city of Oakland, Calif. The lots shown are bounded on the south partially by 41st, 42nd, 43rd, and 44th streets; on the north by Temescal Creek; on the west by Adeline Street; and on the east by Telegraph Road. The Alden Tract was created from land owned by Solomon E. Alden. Alden s residence, just north of Temescal Creek, is shown in the upper right.

Date of Document:
1868

Document Author:
W.F. Boardman, County Surveyor

Geographic Location:
45th Street and West Street, Oakland, Calif.

Context:
Beginning in the 1850s, Solomon E. Alden purchased what eventually amounted to 600 acres in Temescal. In 1868, he platted his first residential subdivision, Temescal Park, just east of the Telegraph road (today's Telegraph Avenue), between preset-day 49th Street and 51st Street, Oakland Calif. The Alden Reading Room, and then the Alden Branch Library (today s Temescal Branch Library), and the Alden Hotel were named after him. His daughter, Elsie, and her husband, John Edgar McElrath (1844-1907), split apart the original Alden mansion, creating three separate residences. In 1914, one of the residences was sold to the newly formed Baby Hospital Association, which in 1930 became Children s Hospital Oakland. Children s Hospital Oakland affiliated with UCSF in 2014 to become UCSF Benioff Children s Hospital Oakland.