• Lake Merritt Wildlife Refuge
• Lakeside Park Garden Center
• BART Lake Merritt Station
• Grand Lake Theater
• Bellevue Avenue
• Lakeside Park

Lake Merritt is named for Samuel Merritt, Oakland's mayor from 1867 to 1869, whose efforts to preserve the tidal lagoon from industrial encroachment resulted in its designation in 1869 as the nation's first official wildlife refuge — a landmark moment in American conservation history that predates the National Wildlife Refuge system by decades. The neighborhood surrounding the lake grew through the late 19th and early 20th centuries as Oakland's most desirable residential address, its shoreline lined with historic apartment buildings, civic institutions, and parklands. The Lakeside Park Garden Center on Bellevue Avenue — operated by the City of Oakland and home to the historic dahlia garden, bonsai garden, and Japanese garden — provides the neighborhood's primary horticultural landmark. The Lake Merritt Wildlife Refuge remains an active migratory bird sanctuary, documented annually by the Audubon Society and the California Department of Fish and Wildlife. The Grand Lake Theater on Grand Avenue anchors the neighborhood's western edge, while the BART Lake Merritt station on East 12th Street provides the district's primary regional transit connection. That combination of conservation history, civic parkland, and urban lakeside vitality is the spirit behind the MY-NHD Lake Merritt collection.