Solano Avenue in
Berkeley and
Albany,
California
California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...
is a two-mile (3.2 km) long east-west street. Solano Avenue is one of the larger shopping districts in the Berkeley area. Businesses along Solano Avenue cover a wide range, including grocery stores, coffee shops, drugstores, bookstores, antique dealers, apparel outlets, ethnic restaurants and a movie theater.
Route
Solano Avenue begins, at its western end, on the southern slope of
Albany Hill, next to the
I-80/
I-580 interchange and
Union Pacific railroad
The Union Pacific Railroad is a Railroad classes, Class I freight-hauling railroad that operates 8,300 locomotives over routes in 23 U.S. states west of Chicago and New Orleans. Union Pacific is the second largest railroad in the United Stat ...
tracks. The Albany Hill segment of the street is primarily residential and somewhat steep, climbing in the first three blocks.
At
San Pablo Avenue, Solano bends slightly to the south; this is the start of the shopping district. Solano Avenue serves as the de facto
Main Street of Albany, and initially, this was in fact its name within the city of Albany. Solano passes under the elevated
BART
Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) is a rapid transit system serving the San Francisco Bay Area in California. BART serves List of Bay Area Rapid Transit stations, 50 stations along six routes and of track, including eBART, a spur line running t ...
tracks at Masonic Avenue. For four and a half blocks, starting half a block after Curtis Street, the northern side of Solano is in Berkeley, while the southern side and the street itself are in Albany. Between the Albany
city limits
City limits or city boundaries refer to the defined boundary (real estate), boundary or border of a city. The area within the city limit can be called the city proper. Town limit/boundary and village limit/boundary apply to towns and villages. ...
and The Alameda, Solano Avenue is the main shopping area of Berkeley's
Thousand Oaks neighborhood. Landmarks along this segment of the street include the Oaks Theater, a
movie palace built in 1925, which has recently closed down, and the first
Andronico's grocery store, formerly known as "Andronico's Park and Shop" (for a time, simply "Park and Shop").
After crossing The Alameda, Solano Avenue enters a former electric railroad right-of-way, originally constructed by the
Southern Pacific for its Shattuck Avenue line
suburban trains, and after 1941, used by the
Key System for its
F line trains. The Key trains ran here until 1958, when the system was dismantled and the right-of-way was converted to
automobile
A car, or an automobile, is a motor vehicle with wheels. Most definitions of cars state that they run primarily on roads, Car seat, seat one to eight people, have four wheels, and mainly transport private transport#Personal transport, peopl ...
use, opening on December 15, 1962. Solano Avenue thus passes through the
Northbrae Tunnel (constructed in 1911 by the Southern Pacific, and now also referred to as the ''Solano Ave. Tunnel''), which curves to the south. Solano Avenue ends at its intersection with Del Norte and El Dorado Streets just beyond the south portal of the tunnel.
Solano Stroll
Every year on the second Sunday of September, businesses along Solano Avenue host a
street festival called the
Solano Avenue Stroll. Founded in 1974/75 by Ira Klein, who managed Berkeley
boutique
A () is a retail shop that deals in high end fashionable clothing or accessories. The word is French for "shop", which derives ultimately from the Ancient Greek
Ancient Greek (, ; ) includes the forms of the Greek language used in anc ...
"The Iris", the event initially began on the East end of Solano Avenue as an "open house" of Solano Avenue retail businesses, and eventually included the entire Solano shopping district between
San Pablo Avenue in Albany and The Alameda in Berkeley.
During the Stroll, Solano Avenue and all cross streets are closed to traffic. Local businesses and vendors set up booths along both sides of the street and sell clothing, jewelry, art and food items to the public; in recent times,
theatre troupes,
puppet shows and
amusement rides
Amusement rides, sometimes called carnival rides, are mechanical devices or structures that move people to create fun and enjoyment.
Rides are often perceived by many as being scary or more dangerous than they actually are. This could be due to ...
have also been a part of the festival. Various live bands, most local, have played sets at the Stroll, with notable past musicians including
RatDog drummer/
Primus co-founder
Jay Lane (with
jam side project ''Alphabet Soup'') and Marc Biedermann (founder of
Blind Illusion, and former bassist for thrash metal band
Heathen). School
jazz
Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Its roots are in blues, ragtime, European harmony, African rhythmic rituals, spirituals, h ...
,
classical and
marching bands from Richmond, El Cerrito, Albany and Berkeley have also appeared at the Stroll since its early years.
The event opens with a parade down Solano. As the end of the parade moves downhill, the street is gradually opened to pedestrians only, and stays that way until late in the afternoon. According to a University of California-Berkeley press report, the 2005 event attracted between 120,000 and 150,000 attendees. Around 300,000 people were attributed by organizers to have attended the 2009 festival, a number largely overshadowed by vacant Solano Avenue storefronts and the
late 2000s economic downturn.
In 2001, the Solano Stroll was designated a "National Local Legacy" by
The Library of Congress.
Public transportation
Solano Avenue has in the past doubled as a right-of-way for two
interurban
The interurban (or radial railway in Canada) is a type of electric railway, with tram-like electric self-propelled railcars which run within and between cities or towns. The term "interurban" is usually used in North America, with other terms u ...
rail lines, the
Southern Pacific Railroad
The Southern Pacific (or Espee from the railroad initials) was an American Railroad classes#Class I, Class I Rail transport, railroad network that existed from 1865 to 1996 and operated largely in the Western United States. The system was oper ...
and the
Key System, and was intersected by the
Santa Fe Railroad.
Three of the Southern Pacific's
Interurban Electric Railway met at the "Colusa Wye": the Ninth Street line, the California Street line, and the Shattuck Avenue line. On the north side of this junction, the Southern Pacific constructed an electric sub-station whose legacy survives in the name of a small cul-de-sac behind the former site of the building (now demolished). The junction was also the terminus of the three lines, called "Thousand Oaks Station". After the SP abandoned its electric trains in 1941, the rival Key System took over the tracks of the Shattuck Avenue line through the Northbrae Tunnel, but terminating at a stop east of The Alameda. The tracks on Solano were paved over and the catenary wires removed. Until the early 2000s, the trace of these tracks was still visible in the pavement on Solano adjacent to Colusa. After the Key System abandoned its train service to San Francisco in 1958, and upon the opening of the Northbrae Tunnel to auto traffic in 1962, AC Transit ran its
F and 33 bus lines to the former Key System stop east of The Alameda, with alternate runs continuing down Solano to a terminus at San Pablo.
Solano Avenue also intersected Key System streetcar lines at San Pablo Avenue and The Alameda. When
BART
Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) is a rapid transit system serving the San Francisco Bay Area in California. BART serves List of Bay Area Rapid Transit stations, 50 stations along six routes and of track, including eBART, a spur line running t ...
was built alongside the Santa Fe's right-of-way, a station at Solano Avenue wasn't included. However, it is only about a 15–20 minute walk to both the
El Cerrito Plaza and
North Berkeley BART stations.
AC Transit currently operates
bus service on Solano Avenue, and three local bus lines connect Solano to
Downtown Berkeley. Line 18 runs along the entire length of Solano. Line 7 goes through the Northbrae/Solano Avenue Tunnel and stops at The Alameda before turning. Line 79 makes two stops, at The Alameda and Colusa Avenue. In addition, lines
72,
72M, and
72R cross Solano at San Pablo Avenue.
Several AC Transit transbay buses connect Solano Avenue to
San Francisco
San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...
. The G line runs along Solano between Colusa and San Pablo, while the FS line covers the part of Solano east of Colusa. Line L crosses the western end at Pierce Street; while Line H crosses the eastern end, running over the top of the Northbrae/Solano Avenue Tunnel.
Historical items
*Solano Avenue was named for
Solano County. Many other streets in the vicinity of Solano are likewise named for California counties. This was done as part of a campaign in the early 1900s to have the state capital moved from Sacramento to Berkeley. The legislature put the proposal on the 1908 ballot, but the measure lost by 35,000 votes.
*The portion of Solano Avenue within the city of Albany was originally named "Main Street" but this was soon changed to conform to the name "Solano" used within the city of Berkeley.
*Upper Solano Avenue was an important hub of the Southern Pacific's
East Bay Electric Lines (later called the "Interurban Electric Railway" after the
Bay Bridge was constructed). Three lines intersected at Solano and Colusa Avenues, the "Colusa
Wye": the Shattuck Avenue line (using Solano Ave. between The Alameda and Colusa Ave.), the California Street line, and the Ninth Street line (using Solano Ave between Colusa Ave. and Jackson St.). The station here was called "Thousand Oaks". The Southern Pacific also maintained an electric substation on the north side of the intersection which supplied power to the entire northern section of the East Bay Electric Lines. A small cul de sac behind the building that now occupies the site of the old substation is still called "Station Place".
*A watchman's tower, the Masonic Tower, used to sit at the intersection of the Santa Fe and Southern Pacific tracks, on Solano between Masonic Avenue and Key Route Blvd. Today, a dry cleaning establishment occupies the site.
*After the Key System acquired the use of the Southern Pacific's Shattuck Avenue line tracks for its F-line, its trains terminated on the east side of The Alameda.
References
External links
Solano Avenue AssociationSFGate.com guide to Solano Avenue
{{SFBayshopping
Streets in Berkeley, California
Shopping districts and streets in the San Francisco Bay Area
Streets in Alameda County, California
Tourist attractions in Alameda County, California
Albany, California
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