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54-695: The La Loma Park Historic District is designated by the city as a Berkeley Landmark since May 6, 2002. The area contains the La Loma Steps , another Berkeley Landmark that also has a historical plaque. Captain Richard Park Thomas' home was located on the site of what is today Greenwood Terrace. Some of the large trees here were originally planted by Captain Thomas and managed to survive the devastating fire of 1923 which swept through this part of Berkeley. Thomas enclosed his vast property with

108-544: A classification given by the City of Berkeley for buildings or areas of local historic importance. As of 2022, there are 346 listed landmarks by the city of Berkeley. Many of the properties have also received recognition at the federal level by inclusion on the National Register of Historic Places or by designation as National Historic Landmarks Download coordinates as: also called Old Berkeley City Hall , and

162-518: A collaboration with the State of California that culminated in 1868 with the creation of the public University of California . As construction began on the new site, more residences were constructed in the vicinity of the new campus. At the same time, a settlement of residences, saloons, and various industries grew around the wharf area called Ocean View . A horsecar ran from Temescal in Oakland to

216-691: A halt. Facing rising housing costs, residents voted to enact rent control and vacancy control in 1980. Though more far-reaching in their effect than those of some of the other jurisdictions in California that chose to use rent control where they could, these policies were limited by the Costa-Hawkins Rental Housing Act , a statewide ban on rent control that came into effect in 1995 and limited rent control to multi-family units that were built (or technically buildings that were issued their original certificate of occupation) before

270-706: A low, whitewashed fence on its north, west and south sides, leaving the east side — the upper hillside — open. Captain Thomas was the owner of the Standard Soap Company in West Berkeley, president of the California National Bank of San Francisco, and owner of the Berkeley Ferryboat Line. He had a reputation as a friend of the working man and an eccentric character, and was probably the first person who inspired

324-572: A reduced-scale replica of a cloister in Toulouse, France . In the 19th century, a stone quarry was opened at the head of Codornices Creek , abutting the north boundary of the La Loma Park tract. Some of the rock quarried here had a pinkish hue and was used to tint the concrete sidewalks and pathways throughout parts of North Berkeley, a practice that has been maintained by the City to this day, albeit using tint from other sources. The quarry

378-727: A small, though busy, wharf by the bay. In 1866, Oakland's private College of California looked for a new site. It settled on a location north of Oakland along the foot of the Contra Costa Range (later called the Berkeley Hills) on Strawberry Creek , at an elevation of about 500 feet (150 m) above the bay, commanding a view of the Bay Area and the Pacific Ocean through the Golden Gate . According to

432-471: A statewide referendum that proposed moving the California state capital to Berkeley was defeated by a margin of about 33,000 votes. The city had named streets around the proposed capitol grounds for California counties. They bear those names today, a legacy of the failed referendum. On March 4, 1909, following public referendums, the citizens of Berkeley were granted a new charter by the State of California, and

486-507: Is registered as a local historic landmark. The present structure was built after the 1923 fire destroyed its predecessor, located on the southwest corner of Le Roy and Virginia Street. Hillside was closed as a public school both because of a declining school-age population and because it sits immediately adjacent to the Hayward Fault , which runs directly behind it on La Loma Avenue. Upon being subdivided and developed, some residents of

540-733: The Berkeley Oak Grove Protest began protesting construction of a new sports center annex to Memorial Stadium at the expense of a grove of oak trees on the UC campus. The protest ended in September 2008 after a lengthy court process. In 2007–2008, Berkeley received media attention due to demonstrations against a Marine Corps recruiting office in downtown Berkeley and a series of controversial motions by Berkeley's city council regarding opposition to Marine recruiting. ( See Berkeley Marine Corps Recruiting Center controversy .) During

594-691: The Centennial Record of the University of California , "In 1866, at Founders' Rock , a group of College of California men watched two ships standing out to sea through the Golden Gate. One of them, Frederick Billings , thought of the lines of the Anglo-Irish Anglican Bishop George Berkeley , 'westward the course of empire takes its way,' and suggested that the town and college site be named for

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648-771: The Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory , which is managed and operated by the university. It also has the Graduate Theological Union , one of the largest religious studies institutions in the world. Berkeley is considered one of the most socially progressive cities in the United States. The site of today's City of Berkeley was the territory of the Chochenyo/Huchiun Ohlone people when the first Europeans arrived. Evidence of their existence in

702-664: The Library of Congress website. Berkeley's slow growth ended abruptly with the Great San Francisco earthquake of 1906 . The town and other parts of the East Bay escaped serious damage, and thousands of refugees flowed across the Bay. Among them were most of San Francisco's painters and sculptors, who between 1907 and 1911 created one of the largest art colonies west of Chicago. Artist and critic Jennie V. Cannon described

756-488: The Maudelle Shirek Building starting in 2007 Designation expanded in 1987 to include entire block. Berkeley, California Berkeley ( / ˈ b ɜːr k l i / BURK -lee ) is a city on the eastern shore of San Francisco Bay in northern Alameda County , California , United States. It is named after the 18th-century Anglo-Irish bishop and philosopher George Berkeley . It borders

810-729: The Mexican War of Independence . However, the advent of U.S. sovereignty after the Mexican–American War , and especially, the Gold Rush , saw the Peraltas' lands quickly encroached on by squatters and diminished by dubious legal proceedings. The lands of the brothers Domingo and Vicente were quickly reduced to reservations close to their respective ranch homes. The rest of the land was surveyed and parceled out to various American claimants ( See Kellersberger's Map ). Politically,

864-516: The Vietnam Day Committee . Berkeley is strongly identified with the rapid social changes, civic unrest, and political upheaval that characterized the mid-to-late 1960s. In that period, Berkeley—especially Telegraph Avenue —became a focal point for the hippie movement, which spilled over the Bay from San Francisco. Many hippies were apolitical drop-outs, rather than students, but in the heady atmosphere of Berkeley in 1967–1969 there

918-458: The 1880s Berkeley had segregated housing and anti-Chinese laws. The area near the university became known for a time as East Berkeley. Due to the influence of the university, the modern age came quickly to Berkeley. Electric lights and the telephone were in use by 1888. Electric streetcars soon replaced the horsecar . A silent film of one of these early streetcars in Berkeley can be seen at

972-605: The 1950s in the downtown area during remodeling of a commercial building, near the upper course of the creek. The first people of European descent (most of whom were of mixed race and born in America ) arrived with the De Anza Expedition in 1776. The De Anza Expedition led to establishment of the Spanish Presidio of San Francisco at the entrance to San Francisco Bay (the " Golden Gate )." Luis Peralta

1026-651: The Berryman Reservoir (Rose Street, now Rose Walk ) was completed in August 1910. A subsequent further extension was made in 1912, across Codornices Canyon, by means of a trestle for both streetcar and autos. The line was built to Regal Road and remained active until the end of all streetcar service in 1948. Berkeley Landmark This is a list of landmarks in Berkeley, California . "Berkeley Landmarks", "Structures of Merit", and "Historic Districts" are

1080-902: The Police Department to avoid escalation of violence and to protect bystanders during protests. During a protest against bigotry and U.S. President Donald Trump in August 2017, self-described anti-fascist protesters attacked Trump supporters in attendance. Police intervened, arresting 14 people. Sometimes called " antifa ", these ‘anti-fascist’ activists were clad in black shirts and other black attire, while some carried shields and others had masks or bandanas hiding their faces to help them evade capture after street fighting. . These protests spanned February to September 2017 (See more at 2017 Berkeley Protests ). In 2019, protesters took up residence in People's Park against tree-chopping and were arrested by police in riot gear. Many activists saw this as

1134-522: The Town of Berkeley became the City of Berkeley. Rapid growth continued up to the Crash of 1929 . The Great Depression hit Berkeley hard, but not as hard as many other places in the U.S., thanks in part to the university. In 1916, Berkeley implemented single-family zoning as an effort to keep minorities out of white neighborhoods. This has been described as the first implementation of single-family zoning in

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1188-434: The U.C. campus began to build up to the recognizable activism of the sixties. In the 1950s, McCarthyism induced the university to demand a loyalty oath from its professors, many of whom refused to sign the oath on the principle of freedom of thought. In 1960, a U.S. House committee ( HUAC ) came to San Francisco to investigate the influence of communists in the Bay Area. Their presence was met by protesters, including many from

1242-657: The U.S. was started by the Ecology Center in 1973. Styrofoam was banned in 1988. As the city leaned more and more Democratic, local politics became divided between "Progressives" and "Moderates". 1984 saw the Progressives take the majority for the first time. Nancy Skinner became the first UC Berkeley student elected to City Council. In 1986, in reaction to the 1984 election, a ballot measure switched Berkeley from at-large to district-based elections for city council. In 1983, Berkeley's Domestic Partner Task Force

1296-478: The United States By 2021, nearly half of Berkeley's residential neighborhoods were still exclusively zoned for single-family homes. On September 17, 1923, a major fire swept down the hills toward the university campus and the downtown section. Around 640 structures burned before a late-afternoon sea breeze stopped its progress, allowing firefighters to put it out. The next big growth occurred with

1350-609: The University of California and a high-demand housing market, Berkeley was relatively unaffected by the Great Recession . State budget cuts caused the university to increase the number of out-of-state and international students, with international enrollment, mostly from Asia, rising from 2,785 in 2007 to 5,951 in 2016. Since then, more international restaurants have opened downtown and on Telegraph Avenue , including East Asian chains such as Ippudo and Daiso . A wave of downtown apartment construction began in 1998. In 2006,

1404-415: The advent of World War II , when large numbers of people moved to the Bay Area to work in the many war industries, such as the immense Kaiser Shipyards in nearby Richmond . One who moved out, but played a big role in the outcome of the war, was U.C. professor and Berkeley resident J. Robert Oppenheimer . During the war, an Army base, Camp Ashby , was temporarily sited in Berkeley. The element berkelium

1458-465: The area include pits in rock formations, which they used to grind acorns. wildflower seeds, grass seeds, and many different foods, including squirrel fat, and a shellmound , now mostly leveled and covered up, along the shoreline of San Francisco Bay at the mouth of Strawberry Creek . Human remains and skeletons from Native American burials have been unearthed in West Berkeley and on campus alongside Strawberry Creek . Other artifacts were discovered in

1512-425: The area that became Berkeley was initially part of a vast Contra Costa County . On March 25, 1853, Alameda County was created from a division of Contra Costa County, as well as from a small portion of Santa Clara County . The area that became Berkeley was then the northern part of the "Oakland Township" subdivision of Alameda County. During this period, "Berkeley" was mostly a mix of open land, farms, and ranches, with

1566-536: The cities of Oakland and Emeryville to the south and the city of Albany and the unincorporated community of Kensington to the north. Its eastern border with Contra Costa County generally follows the ridge of the Berkeley Hills . The 2020 census recorded a population of 124,321. Berkeley is home to the oldest campus in the University of California , the University of California, Berkeley , and

1620-658: The city near the university and downtown. Increasing enrollment also led the university to wanting to redevelop certain places of Berkeley, especially Southside, but more specifically People's Park. Preservationists passed the Neighborhood Protection Ordinance in 1973 by ballot measure and the Landmarks Preservation Ordinance in 1974 by the City Council. Together, these ordinances brought most new construction to

1674-449: The dangers of alcohol. On April 1, 1878, the people of Ocean View and the area around the university campus, together with local farmers, were granted incorporation by the State of California as the Town of Berkeley. The first elected trustees of the town were the slate of Denis Kearney 's anti-Chinese Workingman's Party , who were particularly favored in the working-class area of the former Ocean View, now called West Berkeley. During

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1728-718: The district formed the La Loma Improvement Club. One of their efforts included subsidizing the northward extension of the Euclid Avenue streetcar line from Hilgard to the Berryman Reservoir, which today is adjacent to Codornices Park and the Berkeley Rose Garden . The Euclid line was first constructed in 1903 as an extension of the Telegraph Avenue streetcar line, and originally terminated at Hilgard and Arch streets. The extension to

1782-490: The eighteenth-century Anglo-Irish philosopher." The philosopher's name is pronounced BARK-lee , but the city's name, to accommodate American English , is pronounced BERK-lee . The College of California's College Homestead Association planned to raise funds for the new campus by selling off adjacent parcels of land. To this end, they laid out a plat and street grid that became the basis of Berkeley's modern street plan. Their plans fell far short of their desires, and they began

1836-474: The end of the Vietnam War in 1975. While the 1960s were the heyday of liberal activism in Berkeley, it remains one of the most overwhelmingly Democratic cities in the United States. After the 1960s, Berkeley banned most new housing construction, in particular apartments. Increasing enrollment at the university led to replacement of older buildings by large apartment buildings, especially in older parts of

1890-559: The end, the park remained undeveloped, and remains so today. A spin-off, People's Park Annex , was established at the same time by activist citizens of Berkeley on a strip of land above the Bay Area Rapid Transit ("BART") underground construction along Hearst Avenue northwest of the U.C. campus. The land had also been intended for development, but was turned over to the city by BART and is now Ohlone Park . The era of large public protest in Berkeley waned considerably with

1944-773: The fall of 2010, the Berkeley Student Food Collective opened after many protests on the UC Berkeley campus due to the proposed opening of the fast food chain Panda Express . Students and community members worked together to open a collectively run grocery store right off of the UC Berkeley campus, where the community can buy local, seasonal, humane, and organic foods. The Berkeley Student Food Collective still operates at 2440 Bancroft Way. On September 18, 2012, Berkeley became what may be

1998-406: The first city in the U.S. to officially proclaim a day recognizing bisexuals: September 23, which is known as Celebrate Bisexuality Day . On September 2, 2014, the city council approved a measure to provide free medical marijuana to low-income patients. The Measure D soda tax was approved by Berkeley voters on November 4, 2014, the first such tax in the United States. In the fall of 2011,

2052-663: The founding of the Berkeley Art Association and the rivalries of competing studios and art clubs. In 1904, the first hospitals in Berkeley were created: the Alta Bates Sanatorium (today Alta Bates Summit Medical Center) for women and children, founded by nurse Alta Bates on Walnut Street, and the Roosevelt Hospital (later Herrick Hospital ), founded by LeRoy Francis Herrick, on the corner of Dwight Way and Milvia Street. In 1908,

2106-601: The homes of several others in the neighborhood, a fact memorialized by Maybeck Twin Drive off of Buena Vista above La Loma. Further up Buena Vista Way is an estate known as the Temple of Wings with its Corinthian-style columns, an early 20th-century bohemian hangout. A former public school, Hillside Elementary School is located in the La Loma district on the block bounded by Le Roy Avenue, Buena Vista Way and La Loma Avenue. It

2160-519: The mainline of the transcontinental railroad into Oakland was re-routed, putting the right-of-way along the bay shore through Ocean View. There was a strong prohibition movement in Berkeley at this time. In 1876, the state enacted the "mile limit law", which forbade sale or public consumption of alcohol within one mile (1.6 km) of the new University of California. Then, in 1899, Berkeley residents voted to make their city an alcohol-free zone. Scientists, scholars and religious leaders spoke vehemently of

2214-533: The nationwide Occupy Wall Street movement came to two Berkeley locations: on the campus of the University of California and as an encampment in Civic Center Park. During a Black Lives Matter protest on December 6, 2014, police use of tear gas and batons to clear protesters from Telegraph Avenue led to a riot and five consecutive days and nights of protests, marches, and freeway occupations in Berkeley and Oakland. Afterwards, changes were implemented by

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2268-529: The nickname for the district: " Nut Hill ". An old map includes a notation that he kept an illegal still on his property. He devised a scheme for an aerial tramway running from the Berkeley flatlands to the hills. Every Fourth of July, he fired off an old civil war cannon from "Fort La Loma", a plaza he constructed up the hill from his home. The site is today occupied by "Hume Cloister," also known as "Hume Castle" on Buena Vista Way, named for Samuel James Hume and his wife, who had architect John Hudson Thomas design

2322-603: The ranch to each of his four sons. What is now Berkeley lies mostly in the portion that went to Peralta's son Domingo , with a little in the portion that went to another son, Vicente. No artifact survives of the Domingo or Vicente ranches, but their names survive in Berkeley street names (Vicente, Domingo, and Peralta). However, legal title to all land in the City of Berkeley remains based on the original Peralta land grant. The Peraltas' Rancho San Antonio continued after Alta California passed from Spanish to Mexican sovereignty after

2376-681: The rest of the nation, fueled by spillover from the San Francisco housing shortage and population growth. South and West Berkeley underwent gentrification , with some historically Black neighborhoods such as the Adeline Corridor seeing a 50% decline in Black / African American population from 1990 to 2010. In the 1990s, public television's Frontline documentary series featured race relations at Berkeley's only public high school, Berkeley High School . With an economy dominated by

2430-555: The state law came into effect in 1995. For cities such as Berkeley, where rent control was already in place, the law limited the use of rent control to units built before the local rent-control law was enacted, i.e. 1980. During the 1970s and 1980s, activists increased their power in local government. This era also saw major developments in Berkeley's environmental and food culture. Berkeley's last Republican mayor, Wallace J. S. Johnson , left office in 1971. Alice Waters opened Chez Panisse in 1971. The first curbside recycling program in

2484-473: The streets and projects to improve social service provision for this demographic, homelessness has continued to be a significant problem in Berkeley. A culture of anti-establishment and sociopolitical activism marked the 1960s. The San Francisco Bay Area became a hotspot for hippie counterculture , and Berkeley became a haven for nonconformists and anarchists from all over the United States. Most public discourse around homelessness in Berkeley at this time

2538-641: The university campus along what is now Telegraph Avenue . The first post office opened in 1872. By the 1870s, the Transcontinental Railroad reached its terminus in Oakland. In 1876, a branch line of the Central Pacific Railroad , the Berkeley Branch Railroad , was laid from a junction with the mainline called Shellmound (now a part of Emeryville) into what is now downtown Berkeley . That same year,

2592-458: The university preparing to develop the park. The city of Berkeley has historically been a central location for homeless communities in the Bay Area. Since the 1930s, the city of Berkeley has fostered a tradition of political activism. The city has been perceived as a hub for liberal thought and action and it has passed ordinances to oust homeless individuals from Berkeley on multiple occasions. Despite efforts to remove unhoused individuals from

2646-538: The university. Meanwhile, a number of U.C. students became active in the civil rights movement . Finally, in 1964, the university provoked a massive student protest by banning distribution of political literature on campus. This protest became the Free Speech Movement . As the Vietnam War rapidly escalated in the ensuing years, so did student activism at the university, particularly that organized by

2700-589: Was among the soldiers at the Presidio. For his services to the King of Spain , he was granted a vast stretch of land on the east shore of San Francisco Bay (the contra costa , "opposite shore") for a ranch, including that portion that now comprises the City of Berkeley. Luis Peralta named his holding " Rancho San Antonio ." The primary activity of the ranch was raising cattle for meat and hides, but hunting and farming were also pursued. Eventually, Peralta gave portions of

2754-512: Was closed by the 1940s. In the late 1960s the quarry was made into a public park, "Glendale-La Loma Park". A number of notable people have lived in the La Loma Park/Nut Hill area over the years, including many professors from the University of California, Berkeley , among them, J. Robert Oppenheimer and his nemesis-colleague, Edward Teller . Famed San Francisco Bay Area architect Bernard Maybeck made his home here, as well as

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2808-550: Was considerable overlap between the hippie movement and the radical left. An iconic event in the Berkeley Sixties scene was a conflict over a parcel of university property south of the contiguous campus site that came to be called " People's Park ". The battle over the disposition of People's Park resulted in a month-long occupation of Berkeley by the National Guard on orders of then-Governor Ronald Reagan . In

2862-400: Was established, which in 1984 made policy recommendation to the school board, which passed domestic partner legislation. The legislation became a model for similar measures nationwide. In 1995, California's Costa–Hawkins Act ended vacancy control, allowing rents to increase when a tenant moved out. Despite a slow down in 2005–2007, median home prices and rents remain dramatically higher than

2916-475: Was synthesized utilizing the 60-inch (1.5 m) cyclotron at UC Berkeley, and named in 1949, in recognition of the university, thus placing the city's name in the list of elements. During the 1940s, many African Americans migrated to Berkeley. In 1950, the Census Bureau reported Berkeley's population as 11.7% black and 84.6% white. The postwar years brought moderate growth to the city, as events on

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