Halloween tour of downtown Oakland’s Cathedral Building
on October 31, 2012
The Cathedral Building on 15th Street, where Broadway and Telegraph split in downtown Oakland, is an eye-catching sight to some.
The building, built in 1913 during the Gothic Revival architectural movement, is rumored to have been the site of a popular Prohibition-era speakeasy. It looms over Broadway like a giant slice of wedding cake. There are luxury apartments upstairs, and retail on the ground floor–Uptown Runway, a fashion clothing boutique.
The owner of that store, Alanna Rayford, is refurbishing the basement with an eye to preserve its unique history, which oozes off the walls. In the eerie shadows cast down from a single lighting fixture on the ceiling, a lonely pair of turntables sits on a folding table in the corner of the empty room. Leftover Tootsie Rolls and Candy Corn are scattered around the basement, and through the walls echoes of voices past can be heard drifting through the space.
Follow along as Oakland North’s Pendarvis Harshaw and Mark Anderson tour the Cathedral Building’s underground tunnels–a mystery space, explored for Halloween.
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- A beer sits on the bar at Cafe Van Kleef, a bar across the street from the Cathedral Building.
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- Dan Lorenzo, bartender at Cafe Van Kleef, said there are rumors that a popular speakeasy was located in the basement of the Cathedral Building during the Prohibition.
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- The basement of the Cathedral Building is being renovated to host events.
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- Alanna Rayford is the owner of Runway., a boutique fashion store on the ground floor of the Cathedral Building, has plans to turn the basement into an art gallery.
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- Rayford is renovating the building’s basement, to host arts events and private functions.
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- The outside entrance to the building’s residential units.
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- The building’s communal letter box was designed in 1913.
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- The Cathedral Building’s elevator.
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- A scale model of the building, located at 1615 Broadway in downtown Oakland.
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Oakland North is an online news service produced by students at the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism and covering Oakland, California. Our goals are to improve local coverage, innovate with digital media, and listen to you–about the issues that concern you and the reporting you’d like to see in your community. Please send news tips to: oaklandnorthstaff@gmail.com.
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