Some Helpful Links for the Glenview Regular

Glenview Groups:

•   Glenview Neighbors' Yahoo! Group

•   Just My Neighbors (join the buzz on your block by logging on to this list serv, which connects neighbors living within 1,000 feet of their front doors)

Safety: Neighborhood Crime Prevention Committee

•   Submit a Crime Report with the City of Oakland or Oakland Police Department

Neighborhood Schools: Glenview Elementary and Edna Brewer Middle School

Conservationists: Friends of Sausal Creek

Commuters: Casual Carpool and AC Transit's 18 and V lines

Green Spaces: Dimond Recreation Center and Montclair Golf Course

Nearby Libraries: Montclair and Dimond public branches

Glenview Media:

•   Glenfriends Wiki (a neighborhood Wiki)

•   The Lettuce Eat Kale blog covers Glenview Elementary's Produce Stand

•   Diablo Magazine and the East Bay Express cover the Glenview's culinary renaissance

•   The Friends of Sausal Creek monitor rainbow trout in Dimond Canyon

•   The Altenheim, a Glenview landmark on the National Register of Historic Places, reopens

•   The Montclarion covers East Bay Dance Center's new "Celebrating Songwriters" show

•   The Montclarion covers Glenview Elementary's Book Drive for Kenya (Parts 1 & 2)

•   The San Francisco Chronicle covers the Glenview for its "Street date" series (Parts 1 & 2)

•   An Oakland Local writer on her family's Glenview home

•   An update on the Glenview's own A Cote restaurant in SFGate.

Glenview Library: A Brief History

Around 1926, a small group of Glenview neighbors gathered with a common goal: to open a community library. They petitioned the City of Oakland for years until the city approved an ordinance authorizing the branch in 1933.

Local developer Harry P. Fisher, who developed most of the Park Boulevard strip, sold (or perhaps donated) a parcel of land to the city and in 1935, building permit A57581 was issued. Architects Archie & Noble Newsom constructed a Spanish colonial building with sweeping rafters and wall-to-wall bookcases. Close to a Safeway store and gas station, the Glenview Library branch offered an unprecedented service to the neighborhood.

The library opened to large crowds on October 11, 1935. Mayor William J. McCracken presided at the opening. Reverend Rollo LaPorte of the Park Blvd. Presbyterian Church gave the keynote speech, titled "Literature and Life." Several community members, including officials from Glenview Elementary, Edna Brewer Middle School (then McChesney) and Oakland High School came for the festivities. City librarian John B. Kaiser championed the effort, calling the branch’s existence as the result of the “community’s seven-year agitation” that benefited countless Oaklanders.

For nearly fifty years, Glenviewers browsed titles and leafed through books on the sunny, rear patio of the library. In 1981 the library closed its doors, due to California's ill-fated Proposition 13 and the opening of the nearby Dimond branch. After its closure, a self-serve "deposit collection" opened in July 1982 and continued through 1994. After earning landmark status, ultimately the lovely building at 4231 Park Blvd. was sold. The City of Oakland granted the property to John Richard Nelson and Billy Gene Davis, who opened a musical organ shop. (The deed may be viewed here.) The remnants of the library remain today, even if the bookcases only gather dust.

Photos and notes courtesy of the Oakland History Room and the Oakland Cultural Heritage Survey

Oakland Heritage Alliance's Glenview Walking Tour, July 31, 2010

September's Garden Median Clean-Up

Glenview neighbors came together this fall to tend to our community garden. Thank you to City of Oakland Council member Ignacio De La Fuente and all who came out to pull a few weeds and ready the beds for winter!

The Glenview Neighborhood Association • 4200 Park Blvd., PMB111 • Oakland, CA 94602 • glenviewneighbors@gmail.com