Lake Merritt

Camron-Stanford House offers striking views of Lake Merritt and the many activities that take place on and around it. It also provides intriguing views back into our rich local history.

The Spanish, the first Europeans to document visiting the area, saw something quite different from what we experience today. At that time the Lake was part of the estuary and large portions were tidewater marsh lands — muddy and odoriferous — mostly surrounded by an entanglement of trees and undergrowth. The water levels changed with the tides of San Francisco Bay.

In 1820, one hundred and seven years after Gaspar de Portola’s initial overland expedition to the East Bay and fifty-six years before the Camron-Stanford House ever existed, the whole area was part of the last and largest land grant deeded by the Spanish monarchy — nearly forty-five thousand acres in size. Governor Don Pueblo Vincente de Sola issued the lands to Sergeant Luis Maria Peralta for meritorious service. The rancho encompassed the area from San Leandro Creek to the south, and El Cerrito Creek on the north, and ran from the hills to the bay. Twenty-two years later Sergeant Peralta divided the land (using natural boundaries running from west to east) equally between his sons Jose Domingo, Vincente, Antonio Maria, and Ygnacio. At that time, the Lake was known as Estero de San Antonio.

When Mexico gained independence from Spain, Peralta’s rancho became part of the Mexican frontier. Twenty-six years later, however, Mexico’s tenuous authority over its vast California territories could not hold against a rising flood of fortune-seekers and settlers. The sheer numbers of people, arriving cross-continent and by ship eroded its grasp. After the war-like struggles of 1846 and 1847, it wasn't long before governmental control again changed hands. California became a part of the Union in September 1850.

In 1850, Dr. Samuel Merritt visited the East Bay. He was profoundly struck by Estero de San Antonio — or, perhaps, his vision of what it could be. This encounter sowed the seeds to the creation of Lake Merritt. In 1854 Merritt purchased land along the shoreline of “the lake” and began to cultivate the area. In 1863, he moved to Oakland and built a wharf and went into business selling building materials. Merritt prospered and, in 1867, became Oakland's mayor.

To increase the value of his land and pave the way for its further development, he heavily financed the building of the first floodgates across the tidal canal at 12th Street in order to raise and regulate the level of the tidal slough. The lake’s shore soon became a major real estate attraction. Over next century, the estuary arm southwest of the tidal dam gave way almost entirely to land fill (see illustration below).

The beautiful lake we see today, teaming with fitness enthusiasts along its edge, flecked with colorful sails on its surface, and dotted with a wide variety water foul everywhere, bears Merritt’s name, due, in large part, to his foresight, political savvy, and business acumen. The site he found so captivating that spring day, in 1851, became California’s first game refuge in 1870. Oakland's Lake Merritt is North America’s oldest wildlife sanctuary.