Oakland's character grew richer as the city did. The young Jack London prowled its waterfront before he ever wrote a word, and the wharves where he loafed are now Jack London Square. In the 1920s and '30s the city raised two of the finest movie palaces in the West — the Fox Oakland and the great Art Deco Paramount, all gilt and neon. And in 1950, on the shore of Lake Merritt, Oakland opened Children's Fairyland, a storybook park whose whimsy is said to have helped inspire Walt Disney's own. The Town had become a place of theaters, parks, and waterfront stories.
Our Oakland logo carries the California grizzly and the lone star above "California Republic — Est. 1850," the shared retro emblem of our California towns; the bear and star are the state's own, and 1850 marks the year California joined the Union — the state's birthday, not the town's, which came two years later in 1852. Rendered in worn black-and-white, like a WPA poster or a crate label, it ties Oakland to every other California town we make. What makes this one Oakland is the story behind it — the oak groves, the Necklace of Lights, and the western end of the railroad.
Why People Visit Oakland
Visitors come to Oakland for a Bay Area city with its own strong character: a wild lake at its center, Art Deco theaters and a historic waterfront, redwood hikes in the hills, and one of the most celebrated food scenes in California. The museums and Jack London Square sit minutes from the lake, and San Francisco is a quick trip across the bay. Equal parts oak-grove heritage and creative energy, Oakland rewards anyone drawn to the heart of the East Bay.
