I always get a kick from old walls around Oakland that are made of local stones. This one is on Loma Vista Avenue, in the upper Laurel.
Click the image to see a 1000-pixel shot of the whole thing. The mix of blue Franciscan rocks, golden Tertiary sandstones and the occasional reddish chert is distinctive, and it’s nothing that a local landscaping yard would ever offer. Its charm is homely and understated, but authentic.
We haven’t had a working quarry in Oakland for many years, so a lot of these walls are old, or rebuilt. Lovers of local stone today have to scavenge what they can from recycled rocks or their own cellar holes.
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