Have you thumbed through some Arcadia paperbacks about Oakland before?  They publish city-wide and neighborhood books chock-full of old photos and recollections – including a great one covering our Oakland Hills.

Author Erika Mailman penned this Oakland Hills version, starting with a chapter called “Montclair and Environs.”  We hadn’t looked at the print edition in a while, but just discovered and wanted to share this online access.

You can actually page through the complete Montclair chapter on Amazon.com, in a legible size.  It’s a great record of Montclair’s olden days, with images displaying a remote and rural-looking place.

The photos prove it!  The Medaus, who owned and farmed most of the current-day village, are posed outside their homestead.  The Hayes school is shown, followed by the Montclair firehouse which replaced it.  And the undeveloped hills are snapped, along with an observatory built to attract real estate buyers.

Anyway, it’s a pleasant surprise to see this live Montclair chapter – click to look inside.