I’m so excited! Google Street View has finally added the streets I need in Oakland, California. Yeah!
I couldn’t wait to try out some searches. A couple of months ago, I tried to find my Grandparent’s house. Google gave me an approximation. I knew instantly it was the wrong house.
I was thrilled to see that they have added the whole street. The last time I was there was when I was 7 or 8 (way back around 1972), yet I remember the house from every angle. It didn’t take me long to find the right house.
Way back in my memory archive, I remember the house being very distinct. My Grandparents moved in in the 1920s. It wasn’t like one of the tract homes you find everywhere today–like the home I grew up in. It had it’s own style.
The house was easy to find. On the corner was a barber shop. Between the barber shop and the house was an alley. Their was a small chain link fence in front. I can remember swinging the gate open. The house was on an incline. There was a row of steps, a landing, and then more steps. I always remember that the front screen door had my Grandfather’s initials in the pattern. The front of the house was typical for it’s era. A small porch and to the right 3 paneled front room window (like a flat “U” shape)
The house was even more cool from the inside. My Grandfather made wine and had all his wine making equipment in the basement. Their was a trap door between the basement and the kitchen. Naturally, that was just another way for us kids to get in and out of the house 🙂 I can remember running down the back stairs around the bird cages and the garage and then into the basement. Then I’d climb up through the trap door opening and back into the kitchen. We weren’t supposed to do it, but who could resist?
Now, I’m off to find other homes. This part is more tricky. Though my relatives lived on E. 25th street and it’s environs, they moved long before I was born. I have not visual memory of these places and am trying to piece together the photographs. Since Google gives approximate addresses, I have no idea if I’m looking at the right side of the street or not. I hope to find cousins who remember where their Grandparents, Aunt and Uncles, and so forth lived.
If anyone has tips on how to figure out the house number you’re looking at, please post a comment. I would be really pleased if I could map out E. 25th Street where my Pacheco cousins lived for 50 60 years.
