Benjamin Dix 2005

Description:
Benjamin Dix in front of his home at 575 57th Street (looking south) in the Idora Park neighborhood, Temescal district, Oakland, Calif. The Dixes, who purchased their home in 1962, were the third African American family to move into Idora Park (the Cobbs had been the first).

Date of Document:
6-Oct-05

Document Author:
Jeff Norman

Geographic Location:
575 57th Street, Oakland, Calif.

Context:
The Idora Park subdivision, developed in the 1930s on the former site of the Idora Park amusement grounds (which had operated from 1904 to 1928), had been primarily an Italian American enclave until African Americans began purchasing homes there in the 1960s (as white families fled to the suburbs). The Idora Park subdivision is considered to be the first urban neighborhood in the west to have installed all utilities underground.