Photo: Courtsey of the Oakland History Room
“Rock Ridge is designed for people who will appreciate a high class residence district,” read a 1905 promotional brochure for Oak Park Homes. “It is only one block from the College Avenue Carline on the West,” the ad continued. “Rock Ridge, where poppies bloom in November, where meadow larks and quail announce the coming of day, and the air has a woodsy odor. With the charm of it all around him, one forgets that the heart of the city is twelve minutes away. Yet such is the case.”
“Rock Ridge” eventually became known as “Rockridge”—the neighborhood that encompasses a large portion of North Oakland from Broadway Terrace to the city’s border with Berkeley, and from the area surrounding 51st and Telegraph to Lake Temescal. The neighborhood has changed over the years, especially with the addition of Highway 24 and a BART station after the 1960s, but remains a stable and affluent area.
By Ryan Phillips
The trends that were established at turn of century remain stable, therefore Rockridge remains white and affluent with a mean household income of $182, 500 (Census tract 4002). Urban boundaries once drawn imprint themselves within a landscape.