Crossroads
CROSSROADS
Latham Square is actually a triangle, an accidental space created
by the meeting of new and old roads. Broadway did not extend
above 14th Street until the late 1880s, when it was needed to
channel the city's expansion to the north. Telegraph Avenue was
an older country road and telegraph route that linked Oakland to
Berkeley and the UC Campus.
Horse car and cable car lines were established during the late
19th century, and electric street cars ran regularly along both
Telegraph and Broadway. Riders arrived in the heart of Oakland's
business, civic, and entertainment district. City Hall, an early high-
rise government building, opened in 1914, and bank and office
towers lined Broadway. Kahn's department store, now the Rotunda
Building, opened in 1941, and Roos Brothers, a branch of the
department store chain, opened across Broadway in 1923.