Eden Dale - Oakland

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Eden Dale was the name of the 12-acre Tillman (also sometimes rendered as Tillmann) family estate along Fruitvale Avenue, near what is now Lynde Street. There are some great pictures of Eden Dale on Facebook from the "Tillmann Family Archives," mostly found in the Oakland History group.¹

The Tillman family was Frederick Tillman, Jr. and Emma Mangels Tillmann, daughter Agnes Lilly Tillman (van Eck), son Fred Tillman and ???. Frederick Tillman was the senior partner at Tillman & Bendel, a company which was based in San Francisco and created the Del Monte brand name, but was also the owner of the Oakland Preserving Company in Oakland. ² Tillman had a gardener named Henry Maier who was from Germany. ^{1, 3}

A San Francisco Call article described it as "one of the handsomest" homes in the beautiful Dimond area.²

The house was constructed starting in 1892, on what was previously known as Badger property.⁴ Note that the 1878 Thompson & West Atlas showed that W.G. Badger's property was only on the east side of Sausal Creek. At some point this property was sold to Isaiah A. Wilcox, and then Frederick Tillman, Jr. purchased this six acre property from George N. Merriam and his wife for $16,000 in May of 1892.^5,6,7 It is not yet known when the Tillman family purchased the other six acres on the west side of Sausal Creek, which was owned by S. J. Gower in 1878.

The main residence burned in July, 1900.⁸ The property was sold in 1910.

[Q: why does the source material on FB go back and forth between Tillman and Tillmann?]