The area was originally part of
Oakland Point. It was a residential area of
Victorian homes, many of which still stand, some in disrepair and some having undergone rehabilitation. The neighborhood takes its name from Prescott School, which is located on the block adjacent to 10th and Campbell. Though the current school building dates to 1979, the school has been in several buildings at the same location for over 150 years. It was founded in 1869 and was named for the historian
William H. Prescott, who had died in 1859, but had been very influential and was much memorialized across the United States.
Prescott, Arizona is also named for him. In its early years, the school was also alternately called Point School, after Oakland Point. Seventh Street was an
African-American cultural center of Oakland from the 1940s to the 1960s, due to nightclubs such as Slim Jenkins' Place, Esther's Orbit Room and the Lincoln Theater, which drew top blues and jazz performers from across the United States. The area was sometimes referred to as "The Harlem of the West." The decline of 7th Street has been blamed on the construction of the Cypress Freeway, the Oakland Main Post Office—and subsequent
BART elevated track lines, which took up much of the street. Prescott earned its nickname "Lower Bottoms" after the construction of the
Cypress Freeway in the 1950s that split the West Oakland neighborhood in two and isolated
Oakland Point from the remainder of West Oakland. The one housing project is
Campbell Village Court. The neighborhood has suffered from high rates of crime, gang activity, and poverty since the decline of Oakland's industrial economy in the late 20th century. In the late 1960s, the first headquarters of the
Black Panther Party was located in a Victorian house on Peralta Street near 11th. Many years later, on August 22, 1989, BPP founder
Huey P. Newton was gunned down on the 1450 block of 9th Street, just a few blocks from the former Party headquarters. The shooting is alleged to have been over a failed drug deal. The street on which the shooting took place has since been renamed Dr. Huey P. Newton Way. The building immediately adjacent to where the shooting took place is now the Black Panther Party museum and is adorned with a large mural commemorating the women of the Black Panther Party. A bronze bust of Newton is located two blocks away along the walkway in the middle of Mandela Parkway, where Newton Way dead-ends. During the
Loma Prieta earthquake of October 17, 1989, the
Cypress Street Viaduct suffered catastrophic failure and collapsed along a 1.25 mile section of the freeway. The collapse resulted in 42 deaths, the greatest loss of life in any one location from the earthquake. Following the collapse, the freeway was not rebuilt, due to environmental impact concerns, and the desire by the West Oakland community to reconnect the neighborhood with the rest of the city, among other reasons. A new route for
Interstate 880 was selected along an industrial area and railroad yard around the outskirts of the neighborhood. The site of the former viaduct became Mandela Parkway, a wide urban
boulevard named for South African president
Nelson Mandela. == Points of interest ==