CC SA-BY Our Oakland

The C. L. Dellums apartments is the former Hotel Woodrow at 644 - 14th Street on the northeast corner of 14th Street and Martin Luther King, Jr. Way. The hotel was originally built in 1912 as the Alamo Hotel. After time as a residential hotel, it fell into serious disrepair, and was closed following the Loma Prieta Earthquake.

Alamo Hotel

The building was originally built as the Alamo Hotel in 1912, for a cost of $100,000. 1 It was sold in 1913 by builders H.C. Morris and F.A. Muller to the Sheehy Estate Company of San Francisco. 2

1913 2 1913 ad

Hotel Woodrow

In 1918, Dick Adams. founder of the Hotel Adams, purchased the Alamo Hotel and renamed it the Hotel Woodrow. 3

Around 1924, Mrs. Lauren J. Smith was the proprietor. 4

As with many hotels of the era, it served as both a regular hotel and a longer-term residence hotel. Stanley P. Wilson, an engineer with the Southern Pacific Railroad, lived there from 1926 to 1954. 5

1922 ad1924 4

C. L. Dellums Apartments

In 1995, a few years after the Loma Prieta Earthquake, the building was repaired, converted to low-income housing and named after C. L. Dellums.

Links and References

  1. More Than Million Is Being Spent In Hotels Oakland Tribune June 22, 1913 (photos)
  2. Alamo Hotel Building Sold; San Francisco Estate Owner Oakland Tribune June 6, 1913
  3. Hotel Changes Hands Oakland Tribune September 19, 1918
  4. Hotel Woodrow Oakland Tribune March 2, 1924
  5. S.P. Wilson Dies; Turned Down Riches Oakland Tribune January 7, 1969