4826-24 Telegraph c1903

Description:
4826 (on left) and 4824 Telegraph Avenue (looking east), Temescal district, Oakland, Calif. The building on the left was owned by the barber, Joseph Basso (c.1870-1953), who is wearing the white smock. Two apartments were over the storefront. In the 1920s, the commercial space was home to a dry goods store (where Bosso's mother, Eil Bosso, worked), and later became Breschi's Department Store. [from Don Hausler and Ray Raineri notes] The facades of two buildings subsequently were remodeled in the Moderne style, and the first floor exteriors have gone through subsequent redesigns.

NowThen:
Click Here

Date of Document:
circa 1903

Document Author:
Unknown

Geographic Location:
4826 Telegraph Avenue, Temescal district, Oakland, Calif.

Context:
Immigrants from northern Italy had begun to settle in Temescal well before the turn of the 20th century. However, it was the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and fire that brought a significant influx of Italian Americans to Temescal, eventually transforming it into the East Bay s Little Italy. So many came many fleeing San Francisco s North Beach neighborhood that by the 1930s, most Temescal s stores, markets, banks, restaurants, and bars along Telegraph Avenue were Italian American owned. It was said that Temescal s commercial district so diverse was its businesses provided everything one might need.