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I S S U E N U m b E r 1 • A P r IL 2 0 1 8 by Dennis Evanosky An Oakland Tribune photographer set up his camera on Webb Avenue just across from Fire Station #1 and took this panoramic photograph of the damage caused by the 1920 Park Street Fire. The panorama stretches from the Joseph Knowland home and the Southern Pacific Railroad station on Lincoln Avenue on the right to Webb Avenue and the extent of the fire damage along Park Street and at Bank Alley on the left. Image: Oakland Tribune. he San FranciSco Bridge company was stored bicarbonate of soda in the water tank. When the Tdredging the Oakland Estuary on Wednesday, January 7, firefighters added sulfuric acid to the mix, pressure from 1920, near the High Street Bridge. While work was under- the ensuing chemical reaction forced water from the tank way, the company damaged the fourteen-inch main that and into the hoses. Firefighters also arrived at the Lincoln carried water into Alameda. “Dredger Breaks City Water Avenue blaze aboard a Waterous pumper, likely Waterous’ Main,” the Evening Times-Star told its readers. The timing first single-engine fire truck, which the prolific manufac- couldn’t have been worse. turer had delivered to AFD in 1908. At 2:44 p.m., the next day, fire broke out in the packing AFD also used a Seagrave triple-combination truck to room of William and Earl Bolt’s Kellogg Express Company fight the blaze. This truck contained a water tank, a pump at 2418 Lincoln Avenue, just across the street from the to deliver the water and hoses to disperse the water onto Southern Pacific Railroad (SP) station that stood on the site the fire. The city also sent a service truck to assist the of today’s Oil Changers at Lincoln and Tilden Way. The firefighters. Alameda Fire Department (AFD) responded in full force. Thirty-mile-an-hour winds gusting out of the northeast Some of the equipment stood ready at Station #1, just a fed the flames. “Wind Uproots Trees, Lays Fences Low,” block away on Webb Avenue. the Evening Times-Star headline read the day before the The department deployed four combination hose-and fire. This convinced AFD Chief Walter T. Steinmetz to call chemical-trucks to fight the growing fire. These trucks Continued on page 2 . A la m E d A Mus SEU m Q ua r t E r L y • I ss ue N U m b E r 1 • A P r IL 2 0 1 8 Park Street Fire . .Continued from page 1 which stood right across from to supply water to the fire hydrants Kellogg’s, where the fire had started. in the vicinity of the blaze. “Water for outside help. Steinmetz knew that flow showed a marked reduction in the wind could send flames racing “(SP) did effective work on the its early stages to compensate for the south down Park Street into the heart Lincoln Avenue side of the fire,” the broken main, which was about a mile of the business district. He telephoned Fire Prevention Bureau of the Pacific from the fire,” the Fire Prevention Oakland Fire Chief Elliott Whitehead, later reported. SP saved not only its Bureau stated in its report. and Whitehead responded with a pair fancy Queen Anne-style train station, of motorized combination pump-and but the stately Italianate-style house To compensate for the low water hose-wagons and a pumper with the across Lincoln, home to the Joseph pressure, firefighters connected capacity to send 1,200 gallons of Knowland family. Joseph’s widow, Oakland’s 1,200-gallons-a-minute water a minute onto the flames. eighty-seven-year-old Hannah, was pump to a hydrant on the Oakland living there at the time of the fire. SP side of Estuary. They connected a pair Steinmetz also asked for help firefighters also prevented the fire of hose lines to the pump and ran from a private fire tug, as well as the from jumping its tracks that ran on them across the Park Street Bridge to fire boat from the San Francisco Fire today’s Tilden Way and Lincoln Avenue. a hydrant in Oakland—a distance of Department. The fire was burning too Thanks to the railroad, the fire did not 900 feet. These hose lines effectively far away from the Estuary for water spread any further north along Park stood in for the damaged fourteen- from these vessels to reach the flames, or west along Lincoln. inch water-main. however. SP pitched in with four railway switch engines equipped with Damage to the 14-inch water The fire destroyed all the buildings hoses. The railroad used the main near High Street the day before on the east side of Park Street between water from the well at its station, left only a single twelve-inch main Lincoln and Webb avenues, as well as several structures on north side of Webb. The fire jumped Webb and destroyed the Anderson Building on the southeast corner of Park and Webb. Habanas Cuban Cuisine stands at that site today. The Anderson Building once housed Alameda’s first post office. The Masons held their first meetings in the hall upstairs. They had moved up Park Street to Alameda Avenue by the time the fire struck. By 1920, the Woodsman of the World were holding their meetings in the hall. Firefighters contained the blaze at Park and Webb and saved Fire Station #1 from the flames. A wood-framed fire station stood on the south side of Webb at the site of the parking lot just to the east of today’s Sandwich Board from 1877 to 1908. It served as home to Citizens Hook & Ladder No. 1 and Thompson’s This sketch made by the Fire Prevention Bureau of the Pacific shows the extent of the damage done by the 1920 Park Street Fire. Image: Alameda Museum. Continued on page 3. 2 A la m E d A Museu EU m Q ua r t E r L y • I ssu E N U m b E r 1 • A P r I L 2 0 1 8 Park Street Fire . .Continued from page 2 home. The Vietnam House stands cuisine today. AFD records show that Hose Company No. 1. They dressed there today. Although their facades the fire had damaged Louis’s store the 1908 station—rechristened as were fashioned of wood, Mazzini’s and the Alameda Times-Star offices Fire Station #1—in stucco, making and the sporting goods store—today’s next door. Anticipating the worst, it better suited to resist any flames. Churchward Pub—had interior walls Louis had thrown his inventory out Fortunately the fire did not reach the made of brick. These walls stopped onto Park Street. Unfortunately, looters station. However flames did wreak the fire from spreading up the west had helped themselves to much of havoc with alarm wires that entered side of Park Street. that footwear. the station, putting the city’s entire When Joey and Lisa Churchward Louis took out an advertisement fire-alarm system out of commission. remodeled the old Pop Inn bar into in the Evening Times-Star. He asked The fire jumped Park Street at the Churchward Pub, they learned of that those who were “safeguarding Webb Avenue and destroyed the the role that their building played in this stock” to “kindly return whatever wood-framed building on the south- the 1920 fire. They visited the Alameda they have to my store at their earliest west corner of Park and Bank Alley Museum and obtained a copy of a convenience.” (today’s Times Way). Lee Auto Supply photograph of the fire and hung it stands where patrons once quaffed on one of the walls that stopped the LEARN MORE ABOUT THE beer at the saloon there known as blaze from spreading any further up PARK STREET FIRE AT “The Louvre.” (The fire destroyed this Park Street. Visit the pub at 1515 Park Street and raise a glass to the walls THE ALAMEDA MUSEUM saloon—and three others—just eight LECTURE APRIL 26. days before Prohibition took hold in that saved Park Street. Alameda.) Along with The Louvre, “(The) brick walls in the direct See page 4 this building also housed Hofmann’s path of the flames, a marked reduction for more information. Café. Flames also gutted Mazzini’s in the velocity and a change in the hardware store and the sporting goods direction of the wind and additional store next to The Louvre. fire streams made possible through Thank you A brick building and brick walls outside help were factors in the final on the west side of Park Street helped halting of the conflagration,” the FOR SUPPORTING THE stop the flames. The brick building Fire Prevention Bureau of the Pacific ALAMEDA MUSEUM on the northwest corner of Park reported. Street and Bank Way was the first By 7 p.m., the fire was out. OUR APRIL LECTURE brick commercial structure on Park. Louis Durein owned a shoe store, IS SPONSORED BY: It originally housed Conrad Liese’s two doors down from the Odd Fellows butcher shop. At the time of the fire Hall at Park Street and Santa Clara the Exchange Bank called the building Evelyn Kennedy Avenue—where diners enjoy Ole’s REALTOR®, CRS, SRES The automobile in this photograph helps date it to the early 1950s. Fire Station #1 stood on License #00979900 Webb Avenue until 1969. The buildings to the right of the station are evidence of the rebuilding Alameda Office efforts after the blaze.

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