The district once known as Oakland's second downtown started to decline in the 1950s, but during the past decade it has been undergoing a steady revival. Luckily, many of its historic buildings survived and are being gradually fixed up.

The Oakland Heritage Alliance has for years offered annual walking tours highlighting Fruitvale's diverse history. Now, OHA has put together a booklet that will allow visitors and curious residents to take tours on their own, strolling at their own pace and learning about Fruitvale's diverse history.

"Walking through a neighborhood brings it alive. You get to see the details you don't otherwise see," said Pamela Magnuson-Peddle of OHA, who wrote the text for the booklet, "Fruitvale on Foot: Three Historic Walking Tours of Oakland's Fruitvale Neighborhood."

It includes maps and information for tours of the Fruitvale Commercial District, Jingletown and the Peralta Hacienda neighborhood, which surrounds the site of the Peralta family's original adobes.

The neighborhood's history goes back as far as Oakland's. Though the Ohlone Indians had long lived in the East Bay, the Peraltas were the first "immigrants" to settle the area after Luis Maria Peralta received a vast land grant from the Spanish crown in 1820.

The district got its name around the turn of the century when it was planted with orchards, and was thus dubbed "Fruit Vale." It was annexed to Oakland in

1909 after its population doubled with refugees from the San Francisco earthquake.

Jingletown is a cluster of Victorians built for cotton mill workers that became a Portuguese and then Latino enclave.

On a brief walking tour Wednesday to celebrate the release of the booklet, recent improvements to facades in the commercial district were highlighted. The Unity Council has helped small businesses with grants through its Main Street program.

"There is no area of Oakland that's improved more, in my opinion, that the Fruitvale," said Council President Ignacio De La Fuente (Fruitvale-Glenview) before the tour.

De La Fuente had in the past butted heads with OHA on demolition of the historic Montgomery Ward building to make way for a school, but he praised the group's efforts in helping Oakland preserve its old buildings and prevent "cookie cutter" developments.

Some buildings on the tour are still waiting for help. One of those is the Fruitvale Hotel on San Leandro Street. It's the oldest commercial building in the district, but is boarded up and leaning to the side, on the verge of collapse if it's not renovated soon.

The Fruitvale booklet, which was designed by Jeff Norman of OHA, is the second in a series of neighborhood guides the group eventually hopes to produce. It was funded by a grant from the state's Office of Traffic Safety, administered by the city's Pedestrian Safety Project.

The Fruitvale guide and its predecessor, a walking tour of Temescal, are available through OHA for a $5 donation by calling 763-9218.

The Oakland Tribune: Cityside
Leanne McLaughlin, Managing Editor
(510) 208-6447
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