Idora Park invitation 1908

Description:
Invitation to a reception and banquet in honor of the Secretary of the Navy to be held at the pavilion in Idora Park, Temescal district, Oakland, Calif. As noted in the invitation, Oakland mayor, Frank C. Mott, served as chairman of the General Committee; Frank W. Bilger, Oakland civic leader and owner of the Oakland Paving Company (what became know as the Bilger Quarry), served as chairman of the Committee on Entertainment of Officers.

Date of Document:
1908

Document Author:
City of Oakland

Geographic Location:
Telegraph Avenue and 57th Street, Oakland, Calif.

Context:
Idora Park was an amusement park that opened in the Temescal district of North Oakland, Calif. in 1904. Constructed on the site of an earlier pastoral pleasure ground, Ayala Park, Idora Park s 17 acres extended from 56th Street north to 58th Street, and from Telegraph Avenue west to Shattuck Avenue. Idora Park was owned by the Realty Syndicate, whose land holdings in North Oakland were extensive. The Realty Syndicate, which also owned the Key System transit company, established Idora Park to promote both streetcar use and real estate sales in the area. Among Idora Park s popular attractions were an opera house, dance hall, skating rink, amphitheater, a small zoo, miniature railway, rollercoaster, ferris wheel, and hot air balloon demonstrations. Reputed to have been the largest amusement park in the Bay Area, Idora Park closed in 1929 as streetcar use fell into decline and North Oakland had become built out. The park was razed that same year and in the 1930s replaced with a development of Storybook Houses becoming the first neighborhood in the west built with undergrounded utilities.