Safeway-Claremont 1972

Description:
Safeway supermarket at 5354 Claremont Avenue (looking northeasterly), just north of the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV), Temescal district, Oakland, Calif. The building was constructed, and opened as a Safeway store, in 1961. The trees behind the Safeway building on the right mark the course of Temescal Creek.

Date of Document:
March, 1972

Document Author:
From Appraisal Report prepared by John W. Hamilton, Vice President of Urban Property Research Co. in San Francisco

Geographic Location:
5354 Claremont Avenue, Oakland, Calif,

Context:
This was the site of the Lusk Cannery which operated here from 1877 to 1888. Josiah Lusk had been raising fruits and vegetables for the fresh produce market when he started a small cannery in 1868 originally located on 40th Street several blocks west of Telegraph Avenue. After moving to the Claremont Avenue site, the plant became the largest cannery west of the Mississippi River. All the cans were manufactured by Lusk using tin shipped from Europe. In addition to cannery buildings, the property included a women s dormitory of twenty-five rooms with four beds each, and a ladies dining room. An Italian gardener supplied fresh vegetables to the women from the company s garden. The women s room and board cost 35 cents a day. About 800 people were employed here in the 1887 season, including several hundred Chinese immigrants and some children. Lusk took William Coleman on as partner in 1881, but Coleman suffered financial reversals, and the cannery closed in 1888. The property was sold at auction to a syndicate and broken up into pieces. The Lusk home (once located between the former Safeway and the DMV) eventually became Bohannon s Pacific Cancer Institute. On the portion of the property adjacent to the Safeway store, the Independent Brewing & Malting Co. had been established. That was succeeded during Prohibition by the Keva Mattress Co. In another former Lusk building, Paul Carosso opened an observatory, furnished rooms, and a saloon. In the 1890s, Carosso stirred up considerable controversy due to the alleged questionable character of the resort. [Jennifer Dowling note]