“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.
Oakland North is taking a look at the history of Rockridge. We have stories on its early beginnings as a home for Oakland’s upper class by Ryan Phillips, a profile of one of Rockridge’s founding fathers by Amna Hassan, as well as what the area used to look like, in the words of some of its earliest settlers, by Megan Molteni. We also have photos of what the area looked like at the turn of the century compared to what it looks like now and a map of the area’s historical homes.
Do you have a story about Rockridge’s history you’d like to share? E-mail Ryan Phillips at If you want more, check out our first two editions of the series, on Temescal and Golden Gate.
