East 18th Street Pier just one of Oakland's early improvements

21 July 2008, 1:56 pm

A national publication, "The Architect and Engineer," featured a descriptive article about Oakland's efforts to improve the lake. From its May 1916 issue: "The City of Oakland has won worldwide fame through the liberal expenditure of money for the beautification of its municipal parks near Lake Merritt. The lake has been transformed from an unsightly mudhole to a thing of beauty ..." The boat landing at East 18th Street was constructed to mark where one of the hillside streams flowed into the lake. Locally prominent architect Walter Reed (born in Alameda in 1878) was selected to design the landing. His other work around the lake included the curving pergola structure, "El Embarcadero," near today's Lakeshore Boulevard commercial district; the McElroy Memorial Fountain, near Grand Avenue; and the conversion of a water pumping station into a boathouse and tea house pavilion on the lake's western edge near downtown.... read more

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