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Photograph of Downtown Oakland Historic District
Photograph by Sanfranman59, CC BY-SA 3.0. Via Wikimedia Commons.

Downtown Oakland Historic District

Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1998. 17 historic topographic surveys show this location, the earliest from 1895.

From the record

“The Downtown Oakland Historic District, in the Downtown Oakland area of Oakland, California, was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1998. The listing included 43 contributing buildings, one contributing site and one contributing object.”

Wikipedia article Downtown Oakland Historic District, CC BY-SA 4.0.

One of 160 National Register listings published here for Alameda County · listed in 1998 · category: District.

Sources: the Wikipedia article · the case file at the National Archives · the National Register database, National Park Service

The listing

  • Address. Roughly along Broadway from 17th to 11th St., Oakland, 94612
  • When was it listed? July 1998
  • Category. district
  • Census division. Oakland
  • National Register reference number. 98000813 - the number the National Park Service assigned this property when it was listed, and the key its nomination file is catalogued under at the National Archives.

Then and now

1895 to 1993

The ground this property stands on, surveyed 98 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.

Topographic sheet covering Downtown Oakland Historic District, surveyed 1993
Topographic sheet covering Downtown Oakland Historic District, surveyed 1895

Fires near this property

242 since 1992

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 242 fires within 5 miles of Downtown Oakland Historic District between 1992 and 2020, burning about 285 acres in total. None started naturally. 28 were recorded as arson. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a fire counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Reported cause Fires
Missing data/not specified/undetermined168
Arson/incendiarism28
Smoking18
Misuse of fire by a minor15
Equipment and vehicle use9
Debris and open burning4

The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.

DateCause SizeReported by Name on the report
9 September 2019Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreSanta Clara Unitnot named
9 September 2008Equipment and vehicle useunder an acreCalifornia Department of Forestry & Fire Protectionnot named
8 September 2005Debris and open burningunder an acreCalifornia Department of Forestry & Fire Protectionnot named
8 September 2004Equipment and vehicle use1.0 acresSanta Clara UnitSMALL
7 September 2020Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreSanta Clara Unitnot named
6 September 2018Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreCalifornia Department of Forestry & Fire Protectionnot named
6 September 2018Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreCalifornia Department of Forestry & Fire Protectionnot named
6 September 2018Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreCalifornia Department of Forestry & Fire Protectionnot named

Every fire recorded in Alameda County

Mines and quarries near this property

7 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 7 workings within 5 miles of Downtown Oakland Historic District: 6 producers, 1 past producer. 6 still produce. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction, Clay. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Where SiteCommodity StatusRecorded
Kaiser Industries CorpClayProducer
Ada Sand and Gravel Pit No 2Sand and Gravel, ConstructionProducer
Kaiser Sand & GravelSand and Gravel, ConstructionProducer
Kaiser Sand & GravelSand and Gravel, ConstructionProducer
Moller PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionProducer
QuarrySand and Gravel, ConstructionPast ProducerSedimentary
Sanderling DredgeSand and Gravel, ConstructionProducer

Every working recorded in Alameda County

Storms near this property

16 since 1996

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Oakland, the town this property stands in, in 16 storm reports between 1996 and 2025: 7 hail, 4 flood, 3 flash flood, 2 heavy rain. No death or injury is recorded in these reports. Each account below is quoted exactly as the forecast office filed it, from the NOAA Storm Events Database, and each date opens the federal record of that event.

WhenEvent Place namedHarm What the report says
January 2017HailOakland$5,000,000Damage dollar amounts is a low estimate. Impacts are not fully known, but any individual car crash would likely exceed this amount.
December 1996Heavy RainOakland$1,000,000no account filed
December 1996Heavy RainOakland$1,000,000no account filed
December 2025Flash FloodOakland-Vehicle stuck in three feet of water on westbound Interstate 580 west of 35th Avenue.
January 2020FloodOakland-Roadway flooding at I-580 W and Coolidge Ave off ramp. Number 1 lane flooded from Coolidge to Grand.
January 2020FloodOakland-Roadway flooding at WB-580 and Coolidge, slow lane flooded.
January 2020FloodOakland-Roadway flooding at I-580 W and Coolidge Ave off ramp.
November 2019HailOakland-Public reporting pea-sized hail in Alameda. Reported via twitter.
March 2018HailOakland-Several reports of pea-sized hail in Oakland via social media.
April 2018HailOakland-Small accumulating hail observed in Oakland.
April 2018HailOakland-Small hail observed in east Oakland.
April 2018HailOakland-Media report showing accumulating small hail in Oakland.
February 1999HailOakland-Smal hail fell in and around the Oakland Zoo.
January 1998Flash FloodOakland-flooded basement at Whittier Elementary School
December 2002FloodOakland-no account filed
December 1996Flash FloodOakland-no account filed

Every storm recorded in Alameda County

Maps showing this location

17 surveys

United States Geological Survey topographic sheets whose coverage includes this point. Matched by taking the middle of the area the National Park Service maps for this listing, then testing that coordinate against the published boundary of every sheet.

Listed places nearby

6 within 8 miles

Other National Register properties close enough to walk or drive between, ordered by distance from this one. Both positions come from the same geocoding pass that matched these properties to their map sheets.

Photograph PropertyDistance Listed
Kahn's Department Storeunder 500 feet1989
Oakland City Hallunder 500 feet1983
Federal Realty Building0.1 miles1979
Oakland YWCA Building0.1 miles1984
Security Bank and Trust Company Building0.2 miles1982
Alameda County Building and Loan Association Building0.2 miles2016

Sources for this property

National Archives recordThe nomination case file for reference 98000813 in Record Group 79.
Wikipedia articleCommunity-written account of this property, licensed CC BY-SA.
Alameda CountyAll 160 listed properties in this county.

Provenance

  • Listing record. National Park Service National Register of Historic Places, listed-properties dataset, current to 2026-05-22.
  • Map join. Address geocoded through the United States Census geocoder, then tested against the published boundary of every sheet in the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection.
  • How this page is made. Listing fields come from federal records; map-sheet coverage is a labelled coordinate-to-boundary calculation, not a source-field claim.
  • Wildfire. Short, Karen C. 2022. Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 [FPA_FOD_20221014]. 6th Edition. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.6 Collected with United States Government funding and usable without additional permissions or fees.
  • Mines and quarries. USGS Mineral Resources Data System (MRDS) https://mrdata.usgs.gov/mrds/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.
  • Storms. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/stormevents/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105. Narratives are quoted verbatim from the National Weather Service report and are not edited or summarised.