An Oakland that's no longer there: Lost landmarks and what's there now

"Long Lost Oakland," a collaboration between East Bay Yesterday and Front Group Design, chronicles geographic features, plants and animals that were once found in Oakland. A full-color map is the centerpiece of a project consisting of a walking tour, speaking events and a podcast mini-series. less "Long Lost Oakland," a collaboration between East Bay Yesterday and Front Group Design, chronicles geographic features, plants and animals that were once found in Oakland. A full-color map is the centerpiece of ... more Photo: Oakland Llo East Bay Yesterday Photo: Oakland Llo East Bay Yesterday Image 1 of / 24 Caption Close An Oakland that's no longer there: Lost landmarks and what's there now 1 / 24 Back to Gallery

If ever you find yourself at the intersection of Bay Place and Harrison Street in Oakland, close your eyes, open them, and close them again.

On first glance, you will see what everyone sees – a gleaming Whole Foods that helms the upscale Adams Point neighborhood. On second glance, you'll likely see the same. But on third glance, and only if you've done your homework, you may see something else entirely.

One need not venture alone into this space-time flux. A new map, created by the popular East Bay Yesterday podcast and Front Group Design, will be your guide.

"We see things in 3-D," says Liam O'Donoghue, host of East Bay Yesterday. The map enables you to "see things in 4-D."

The added dimension is "historical perspective," he says. The destination, metaphysical.

O'Donoghue debuted the "Long Lost Oakland" map – a collaboration with Oakland-based illustrator T.L. Simons of Front Group Design – on Kickstarter last week. The 17-by-22-inch design features buildings, plants, animals and geographic landmarks that were, at one time or other, present in the city. The full-color map is the centerpiece of the project, which also consists of a walking tour, speaking events and a podcast miniseries.

Click through the gallery above to see pieces of the map featuring lost landmarks, and what's there now.

"This project isn't about evoking nostalgia or romanticizing past eras," the Kickstarter description explains. "It's about trying to make sense of the constantly shifting nature of Oakland in the midst of this moment when we can look around and literally watch the landscape of our city change before our eyes."

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The overture of Oakland today, and the Bay Area in general, is that of change. Blink and you might miss the city that was there just the day before.

The forces of gentrification and displacement mean the city's facade isn't the only thing that looks different. In 1980, Oakland's black population was 159,000 – 47 percent of the city's total. In 2017 it dwindled to 109,000, or 28 percent.

"Right now, it understandably feels like a crisis, an emergency," O'Donoghue says, which can lead to trite, "regurgitated" conversations.

O'Donoghue hopes the map gets people talking about the past in order to understand the present and prepare for the future.

"It's not reasonable to expect a city to never change," said O'Donoghue. "That's their nature."

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Looking back at the transformations that have occurred in Oakland "expands our creativity," he says. "It allows us to imagine what the city could be." It also forces us to face our mistakes.

Let's return to the corner of Bay and Harrison. A century ago the Whole Foods was once an oasis of another kind – the Piedmont Baths.

The complex, which went defunct in 1939, housed Turkish and Russian baths, salt and freshwater tubs, a barbershop, a café and a 70-by-20-foot swimming tank. In its time – between 1890 and 1939 – the bathhouse contained "every variety of bathing appliances known to civilization," according to its Oakland Wiki page. Now there's a mochi bar and an aisle devoted to every variety of gluten-free baked good.

But if the map teaches us anything, it's that nothing is stable. At some point or another, we and that which is familiar to us follows the same fate as the Piedmont Baths and the East Bay's grizzlies and the Checkerspot Butterflies. What is here today will inevitably be gone tomorrow.

You can purchase a Long Lost Oakland map for yourself here.

Michelle Robertson is an SFGATE staff writer. Email her at mrobertson@sfchronicle.com or find her on Twitter at @mrobertsonsf.