Montclair (also known as the Montclair District or Montclair Village) is a hillside neighborhood in Oakland, California, United States. Montclair is located along the western slope of the Oakland Hills from a valley formed by the Hayward Fault to the upper ridge of the hills.
Although there is no formal definition of the neighborhood, the general boundaries are Highway 24 to the north, Joaquin Miller Road to the south, the city of Piedmont to the west and the Contra Costa County border to the east. The center of the neighborhood is a compact shopping district known as Montclair Village, which is located next to Highway 13 in the bottom of the valley. It lies at an elevation of 640 feet (195 m).
Geography
The Montclair district is situated around the Hayward Fault which forms a valley running primarily northwest to southeast. The district rises to the west slightly and to the east to the crest of the Oakland hills.
Prior to modern development Montclair was geographically demarcated by two creek valleys, one on the northeast and one on the southwest, that both run mostly east to west from the Oakland Hills down to the valley formed by the Hayward Fault and beyond.
On the northwest the upper reaches of Temescal Creek run down Thornhill Drive and Pinehaven Road. The creek remains visible above ground in the upper sections along Thornhill and Pinehaven. The creek has two branches that join at the intersection of Thornhill and Pinehaven. From this confluence the creek flows down the south side of Thornhill until Thornhill Elementary School where it then undergrounds and flows down the remainder of Thornhill and then down Mountain Blvd. to Broadway Terrace, before draining into Lake Temescal.
On the southeast end of Montclair, the north fork of Sausal Creek (also called Shephard Creek) runs down Shepherd Canyon. At Highway 13, near the parking lot of the Montclair Golf Course, the north fork of Sausal Creek has its confluence with the south fork (also called Palo Seco Creek) running from the eastern hills (encompassing Joaquin Miller Park). The creek then runs down through Dimond Canyon and across the flatlands (mostly in culverts) to San Francisco Bay.
History
Prior to the Spanish Mission era, native Huchiun and Jalquin tribes of Ohlone Indians populated the general area.
In 1820, Montclair and Dimond Canyon were part of the land from El Cerrito to San Leandro which was granted to Luis Maria Peralta. In 1842, Peralta divided his land among his sons and the San Antonio section, including Montclair and Dimond Canyon, went to his son Antonio Maria Peralta.
In the northern creek valley, Thornhill Road dates back to some of the earliest development of Montclair. This was an old 19th century logging road built by and named after Hiram Thorn. Thorn's road brought redwood logs to Oakland out of the vast forest known as the Moraga Redwoods where he ran a lumber mill at Pinehurst Road near Huckleberry Botanic Regional Preserve west of the community of Canyon. Thornhill later became a toll road to Contra Costa County.
From Shepherd Canyon extending toward the southeast, the Bayside hills were covered in a vast redwood forest known as the San Antonio Redwoods. Two especially tall trees (the Navigation or Blossom Rock trees) were used by sailors as a navigation aid to avoid Blossom Rock near Yerba Buena Island. Around 1847, settlers started logging the San Antonio redwood forest. In 1850, the area's first steam sawmill was built on the edge of Montclair at Palo Seco Creek in the head of Dimond Canyon. A logging road to the mill was built high along the northern side of Dimond Canyon which later became Park Boulevard. This logging road connected to a wharf at the foot of 13th Avenue and was used to transport the logs down Dimond Canyon to the Bay. By 1860, the San Antonio forest was logged completely. A second logging occurred after the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. In this instance the second growth redwoods (approximately 50 years old) as well as the stumps from the first generation trees were logged. One of the largest redwood stumps ever found (32 feet in diameter) is in the Oakland hills and only a single old growth redwood (the Grandfather) remains. Current third growth redwoods are protected in parks including Redwood Regional Park, Joaquin Miller Park and Roberts Regional Recreation Area and redwoods of various ages are found in many Montclair neighborhoods.