2000.2.22

This is a three-storey building (with penthouse on top) fronting on a corner of Jack London Square. A wooden sign at right advertises "Castaway," presumably a restaurant on the first floor. A sign on the building advertizes the Mikado restaurant, fronting on Webster St. An exterior elevator is on the side of the building facing the Oakland Estuary. Three automobiles, all of late 1950's vintage, and all of Ford make, are parked on the Webster St. side of the building. Photo "# 5-R7178" is inked in on the back. From "The Oakland Tribune" January 21, 1997 Oakland's historic waterfront warehouse by Annalee Allen The Gibson Terminal was built for the Lawrence Warehouse Company one year after a city charter amendment created an independent port commission mandated with the power to "build, equip, maintain and operate port facilities." A $9 million bond issue approved by voters underwrote the improvements. The Gibson Terminal had straight parapets on all four sides and pilasters and alternating bays marked by multipaned windows with metal sashes. The terminal was one of the largest of many warehouses clustered between Second Street and the water. In the mid-1930s the Lawrence Company combined with a competitor, the Haslett Warehouse and Trucking Company, established in 1879 by an early California immigrant, Samuel Montgomerie Haslett. Haslett and three generations of his descendants had developed the company into one of the largest firms in the west, with facilities in San Francisco, Sacramento and Stockton as well as Oakland. Longtime residents of Alameda, Haslett family members lived in that city's "gold coast" neighborhood, famous for its elegant Victorian-style homes. In 1955, Samuel's grandson Don sold the Gibson Terminal facility to the port for $50,000. A third of the building's east end facing Webster Street was demolished to make way for construction of a trans-estuary tube over to Alameda. The port spent $1 million to "make over the remaining portion of the old warehouse into a "modern" office and restaurant complex. Architect Larry Bruno accomplished the transformation, in keeping with the port's master plan to develop Jack London Square. The concept for creating a restaurant and entertainment district in the area near the foot of Broadway was on the Port Commission drawing board in the years following the end of World War II. Noting how popular San Francisco's Fisherman's Wharf was becoming, commissioners sought to create a similar destination, capitalizing on the enduring popularity of Heinold's First and Last Chance Saloon, the weathered wood-sided haunt frequented by many notable figures, including Jack London himself. The old saloon (first opened in 1888) stood in its original location, a short distance from the Gibson Terminal. The square was officially dedicated with fanfare May 1m 1951 on the occasion of Oakland's 99th Birthday. Throughout the 50s, the square enjoyed steady, if moderate, success. Older buildings were cleared, landscaping and parking were added and new restaurants and a first ever "boatel" were built, designed to attract the pleasure-boating crowd to moor up and stay awhile. In 1961, commissioners were ready to take the development to a new level by converting the old Gibson Terminal to a mixed-use complex. The former Water Street was converted to a pedestrian promenade connecting the converted terminal to the water's edge. A small marina for private vessels became a picturesque backdrop for diners patronizing a ground-level restaurant in the building.. A glass elevator glided up the exterior to a second rooftop restaurant. Polynesian in theme. The port itself became the anchor tenant in the building, moving its office headquarters into the other floors not occupied by the restaurants.

Used: City of Oakland

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