Oakland Tribune from Oakland, California • 27

ifr tF1 jwj rwrty SUjPAY, Eebnary 1. 199B THE OAKLAND TRIBUNE L0CAU3; New Rite Aid pharmacy could bring city landmark back to life Rite Aid will open new store downtown At scane point, tire ground-level exterte was remodeled with flat red marble and tan terracotta panels. The magnificent es- tries were squared off and short-' ened in scale. What had once been the grand banking hall (existing photogaphs reveal leet fered ceilings 40 feet high) teas 'f; sealed dosed. Only the Mtir 1 Street lobby with Its travertine 1 marble flooring ornamented bronze elevator doors and limestone walls remains essentially as it once was.

According to a recent article In Preservation News," published by the National Trust for Historic Preservation, Rite Aid. has more than 3,600 stores na- tionwkk and plana to open 100 new ones annually. The company recently bought (be ThrlflyPayless chain (signs were being replaced at the 51st Street and Broadway Payless tills week). 'HEN pharmacy giant Rite Aid opens a new store In the historic Central Budding at 14th and Broadway later mis spring, It will signal a new revitalization for a key downtown corner. The store will occupy what was once a mammoth banking hall serving customers of the! Bank, an early prominent East Dm Dnnmnlnl IwH1--11 pw imanpiai nunniiinn.

The 1 6-story Beaux Arts-style Central Building was erected in and replaced a smaller 5-story brick structure also owned by the bank. The taller replacement was designed by two prominent architects. Beaux Arts-tralned George Kelham and plo- neer Oakland architect Walter J. Mathews. Mathews started the ball rolling for Oakland's turn of the century downtown building boon by designing the dts first skyscraper the 1 1-story Easton Building The Easton, still standing is one Mock down at 13th and Broadway.

Mathews' career as an architect spanned the early days when Oakland was a horse-and-buggy town with dirt roads (he arrived in 1868 at age 18) wdl into the 20th century. He died )n 1947 (said to be, according to his Tribune obituary, the oldest Uvtng architect in the He was 97. In addition to the Broadway landmarks, Mathews' firm designed dozens of noteworthy building Landmarks .11 In 1,1,, rf flluaMLaa auwicnca.mEiunmgciiurcnca. hotels and high end residences. His buildings can still be found tiiroughoul California.

Cultural Heritage Survey flies reveal IMham ana Mathews ap-preach to foe Central Budding was to use rusticated terra-cotta stone with monumental arched entrances on both the Broadway and 14th Street frontages. laftwltnba A 10toiy shaft with bays of paired windows Is framed above and below by arched transitional stories with engaged columns, igforthe The daddlngfor tire shaft to brown pressed brick. A two-story capital with arched window pairs ocncam a crowning cotdcjcg cor-nice marks the top of the structure. The overall composition, comments the Survey, suggests Italian Renaissance sources, a style prevalent for downtown -lal high rises during the booming 1920s. The bank occu pied the buildings pound floOr Ezaninekm until ti and mezzanine few until the mid-1950s.

Office suites upstairs were leased as law, medical or other professional Isili stiillOli Dominant corners hi down- town areas, often with older buildings In need of rejuvenattonj appear to be candidates for flic current RlteAld expansion. According to a company spokesman, Rite Aid also Is con- Jr sidering opening a store In tiie long vacant (and proposed dty landmark Cox Cadillac showroom on Harrison and 27th streets. The Central Building la a primary contributor to a proposed Downtown Historic District slated to be nominated to the Na- tknal Register of Historic Places -later tills spring OAKUHONBIDSY ROOM PHOTO This Is a view of downtown Oakland's Central Bank Bulkflng In Its heyday. Moreau High students receive Civil War living history lesson Please read and recycle this newspaper L. 1 'il-'tlSiiiMr iu fles, and how tbe wounded were cared for by nurses and doctors on the ftatttefteld.

Moat didn't survive surgery due to one demonstrator said In front of a table of crude medical Instruments, such as saws, that were used at the time. Moat of (tiie doctors became alcoholics and got into medicinal Moreau student Juan Francisco was surprised the Iso much. It's realty red, the Unlon Ctty said after one of the Confederate sharp-a rifle. shooters handed him "How terrible, it was, with that plus your packs, those were real heavy, too. Many students were unaware that women played such a large part In that war: Not only did women tew uniforms and blankets, but they also ran the forma and businesses while men were away, one re-enactor explained.

mm ByJonmMnar BUSftSSWWTH OAKLAND Two years after Rite Aid Corp. blew into town and purchased Thrifty PayLeaa the Pennsylvania-based drug store chain Is Anally ready to begin construction on its own stores and to put the Rite Aid name on four extattna stores In Oakland. But the company Isn't moving into Just any old building. Rite Aid Is starting out by taking over 12,000 square feet on the ground floor of the Central Building on 14th and TYrnn fttmmnw uroaoway, Originally built in 1926, die 16-story budding was one of a series of skyscrapers that inarched along Broadway, said Betty Marvin, who head the Oakland Cultural Heritage Survey. Jt housed banks -other flnanrifli lnatttiitlnin fa (fa heyday, but haa been vacant for several years.

Now, the pharmacy chain alms to give the.Walgreens drug store down the block a little competition. Jeff Halbert director of real estate for Rite Aid, said construction Is aet to begin weeks. on die new store In a few Despite Its close proximity to Rite Aid, Walgreen's spokesman MlchadPolzln said the com-. pany Isn't worried. Sales at the Walgreen's store on 13th and Han Jmiubi lL.

oTOauwihy increased nr me unt time in a few years last year, and the Increasing foot traffic in die downtown areals only going to help business, he said. Weve been there since 1991. Well certainty be able to keep customers, Polzln said. Walgreen's had about $13.4 billion In sales nationwide last year, more titan any other pharmacy chain, although at about 2,350 drug stores it has for fewer retail outlets titan Rite Aid, with almost 4,000 stores. But Rite Aid Is only about $2 billion behind in sales and has aggressive program for building more pharmacies and marketing the Rite Aid name on the West Coast Rite Aid pUha to begin replacing the ThrlftyPayLess name with Rite Aid signs on Its drug stores later this month, a process that should take several months.1 The company will also kick off an advertising campaign to hdp Increase name re- cognition and begin to remodel several of the former Thrifty PayLeaa Although Rite Aid faces successful Bay Area competitors In both Walgreen's and Walnut Creek-based Longs, Rite Aid la the only (me of the three with pinna to hnilrf more Oakland stores within the next couple of 3ars.

Halbert said tiie need for more pharmacies tagwing na- agpglaby ttoowlde with the boomer population and the Increased use of managed care. There to an obvious need to drug stores," sakl Halbert who said he to looking at several (feasible locations to build a new store along East 14 th Street I Aside from the new afore In tbe Central Building Rite Aid to afeo In the process of leasing tiie old Cox Cadillac building at 27th and Harrison Street Hal-tjert said he putting drug stores in the two downtown locations Would be good to both the cpmpany and the community. Greg Rowe, economic devd-aent manager for the of Commerce, agreed. think ifa a good match for he said. They tend to Hut an nnphpfT on Inner-city nelgiborboods.

i Theyre willing to come far and spend the Investment (to put stores In historic buildings downtown). That makes us nappy. ALCOHOL PROBLEM? rpgp TREATMENT SERVICES Participate in research on a new alcohol treatment medication Summit Medical Center (510) 869-8846 ri i By Carolyn R. Strap! swffwma HAYWARD Union and Confederate soldiers described Civil War artillery while women In hoop skirts showed off lash-. 1860s during a living 1 300 histonr lesson for about Moreau Catholic High School Juniors.

Members of the American Ctvfl War Association, the National Civil War Association and tiie Re-enactors of the CMl War lined Moreau's football Add Friday as part of a special preorganized by teacher sentatiou JoeCenizaL "The kids can see first-hand that the people In the black-and-white Civil War were real people," said a member of two of Ok tkms that, came to the achooL He came dressed as a commander of tiie Confederacys 9th Louisiana Volunteer Unit. Cenlzals colleagues showed 3w soldiers packed students how Into cannons and rl- Castoff II Is good to see a downtown lnmlnijirfe kmaiflU IumV 4m fib lanamariDrougmDaciioiiK. (amen February 2 Branch Library Oakland 6:30 p.m. trim I i i i 5 SPECIAL GUEST READER Monday, Tbe Dimond 3565 Fruitvale Ave, Muggsy Bogun of the Golden State Warrior wil be reading stories to kids at the Oakland Public Ubrarys Dknond Branch. Find out how you can win warriors prizes through the Tea Tales Reading SEETHE 49ERS IN ASLANS Challenge, Mudlng a ptzzi IIKHnmdlmFim pizza So stop by your local Oakland Ribfic limy to get a Tal Tales sign-up sheet and read awavl But nuny, youVe only got uiti April 18 In finish.

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