page_title: Telegraph Avenue
section_title: Origins
hierarchical_section_title: Telegraph Avenue / Origins
caption_attribution_description: English: Looking north on Telegraph from downtown Oakland.
context_page_description: Telegraph Avenue is a street that begins, at its southernmost point, in the midst of the historic downtown district of Oakland, California, and ends, at its northernmost point, at the southern edge of the University of California, Berkeley campus in Berkeley, California. It is approximately 4.5 miles in length.
  Among some Berkeley residents, especially University of California students, Telegraph refers mainly to a four-block section just south of the university, from Bancroft Way to Dwight Way. As a center of campus and community life, this section of Telegraph Avenue is home to many restaurants, bookstores, and clothing shops, along with street vendors occupying its wide sidewalks. Here Telegraph Avenue attracts a diverse audience of visitors, including college students, tourists, artists, street punks, eccentrics, and the homeless.
context_section_description: Telegraph Avenue originated from several separately named thoroughfares.
  In 1859, a telegraph line was constructed between Oakland and Martinez by the Alta Telegraph Company, and the existing roads which ran alongside it were then renamed "Telegraph Road". The segment of the Telegraph Road which ran from downtown Oakland out to the Peralta estate in Temescal was first known as the "Peralta Road". The segment which ran to and up Harwood's (now Claremont) Canyon was first known as "Harwood's Road", named for William Harwood , an early Oakland politician who leased grazing land in the canyon.
  The Telegraph Road followed the route of present-day Telegraph Avenue from Downtown Oakland to Temescal, then ran along what is now the route of Claremont Avenue up to the summit of the Berkeley Hills where it became Fish Ranch Road.
  In Berkeley, the trustees of the private College of California (the predecessor of the University of California) laid out a residential subdivision south of their new campus in order to finance its construction. The streets were named alphabetically from east to west; the third street was named "Choate Street", after Rufus Choate. Oakland subsequently extended a road to connect with Berkeley's Choate, but named it "Humboldt Avenue".
  Oakland's first horsecar line was built in 1869 and ran along Telegraph Road to 36th Street. It was extended to Temescal a year later, then to the university campus via Humboldt and Choate  after the university relocated from Oakland in 1873. A business district grew up along Choate Street.  The horsecar line was eventually replaced by a steam dummy line, and later by an electric streetcar line.  This transportation corridor stimulated the development of neighborhoods along its route, as well as an amusement park, Idora Park, between 56th and 58th Streets.
  When the segment of the Telegraph Road leading up to Harwood's Canyon was renamed "Claremont" to suit the interests of a developer of the district (see Claremont, Oakland/Berkeley, California), the cities of Berkeley and Oakland opted to change Humboldt and Choate to Telegraph since Oakland's portion of the thoroughfare was already aligned with what remained of the old Telegraph Road between the new Claremont and downtown Oakland.  The Town Trustees of Berkeley made the change by ordinance on October 10, 1892.
  The last segment of the old Telegraph Road, the portion that ran up the canyon to the summit of the Berkeley Hills, was renamed Claremont Road by the Oakland City Council on February 14, 1913, acting on a petition by the owners of the Claremont Hotel.
caption: Looking north on Telegraph from Downtown around the turn of the century.
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