SOUND
Soundwalk One
(Hidden Creeks & Streams)
This walk is through the gentle slopes of the
Mountain View Cemetery, at the end of Piedmont Avenue. Way on the outskirts of
Oakland when it was conceived by civic-minded leaders in 1863, it was 220 acres of
scrub brush and pasture land that was bought to provide new burial properties. America's first and foremost
landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted was commissioned to lay out the plan, his first solo project in the wake of the sensational design of Central Park. Narration is provided by Friends of Mountain View Cemetery chief docent Stafford Buckley, who recounts various contexts surrounding the upper portion of the property, formerly a pleasure park known as Blair's Park.
This was the headwaters of what is now called Cemetery Creek, almost all of which is underground. The 3 reservoirs are used by the cemetery to manage irrigation, and the creek then flows underground out to Piedmont Avenue, and from there directly down to the corner of
Lake Merritt where it emerges in front of the new cathedral. Only a small portion of this creek is visible, behind the flower shop on Piedmont Ave, or entering from Piedmont Court around the corner.
The music is from the 1947 Requiem of
Maurice Duruflé. Naturescapes mixed in were recorded mostly at dawn in the cemetery, and also include rain falling on the reservoirs.
To enjoy the walk, follow the path indicated on the map, parking along the main boulevard artery of the Cemetery, and strolling up the hill and around the reservoir. When you cross the weir in between the two large pools, you will be face to face with the first ever gravestone of Mountain View Cemetery (though she was relocated from another cemetery).
Deep Oakland Soundwalk 1 (MVC).mp3 click to listen or right click to download
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