In the 1880s and 1890s , a large number of shops and small and medium-sized houses were built to accommodate the large number of European Americans , African Americans , Portuguese , Irish , Mexicans , Japanese , and Chinese immigrants who settled in West Oakland . Many African Americans were employed as porters for the Pullman Palace Car Company , and the headquarters of their union , the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters , was at 5th and Wood Streets . The writer Jack London lived in West Oakland in the late 19th century , and his novel '' The Valley of the Moon '' is set in West Oakland . Many of the houses built in that period are still standing today and make up the quaint character of the neighborhood . Oakland 's baseball team , the Oakland Oaks , played at the Oakland Baseball grounds West Oakland in 1879 . In 1906 , many people left homeless by the 1906 San Francisco earthquake settled in West Oakland . The original wooden train station at 16th and Wood Streets was replaced in 1912 by a large Beaux Arts structure which is still standing , though it was severely damaged in the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake
1989 Loma Prieta earthquake
1989 Loma Prieta earthquake
West Oakland, Oakland, California