In the first half of the 20th century, concrete companies often stamped their company name into fresh concrete when installing a new sidewalk. The stamps typically include the city of the contractor and, occasionally, the year of the installation. Many stamps also featured a simple geometric shape to encase the words in a rectangle, oval, or some more elaborate shape unique to their company.
I walked the streets of Piedmont for 25 years before I noticed one of these stamps. Now I see them all over town and take delight in discovering a unique shape, a particularly well-preserved stamp, and stamps that have their installation year clearly marked. As Piedmont was mostly developed in the first half of the 20th century, concrete stamps are plentiful around town. Most list the name of a concrete company from Oakland but companies based in Albany and Alameda are not uncommon.
An enthusiast named Andrew Alden painstakingly documented all of the concrete stamps he could find in Oakland and created a website, Oakland Underfoot, with photos and brief histories about the contractors when he could find them. As most concrete contractors working in Piedmont in the 1920s and 1930s were located in Oakland, chances are this site may have additional information about a concrete stamp you discover around town.
Below are just a sampling of photos of concrete stamps taken on the sidewalks of Piedmont, including several from the 1930s. One stamp, from the Geo. D. Prentice company and dated 1928, curiously has the same street address as the undated but newer-looking Prentice & Kaiser stamp below.
Have you come across an old, unique, or well-preserved concrete stamp on one of your walks around Piedmont? Snap a photo and send it to the Exedra along with your name and which street you found the stamp and we’ll add it to this collection.