Alpine Tract 1871

Description:
Subdivision map of Alpine 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 by Temescal Creek and Alpine Street (51st Street), on the north by Menlo Street (Aileen Street), on the west by Lowell and Adeline streets, and on the east by Telegraph Avenue. The tract was one of several in Temescal owned by Solomon E. Alden. Alden's mansion was located in the Alpine tract; a portion of it in 1913 became the Oakland Baby Hospital, precursor to Children's Hospital.

Date of Document:
1871

Document Author:
W.F. Boardman, surveyor, and Bacon and Company

Geographic Location:
55th Street and Market 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.