Two of my interests are walking to stay fit and learning about American history. Upon discovering 41 Walking Tours by the Berkeley Architectural Heritage Association (BAHA), I found that I could do both at the same time. The booklet offers walking maps along with descriptions of structures and settings where remarkable figures in history made their mark. Intrigued, I began the tours in 2021, in the company of an OLLI friend. We completed all 41 in 2023. Here are examples of what we learned.
We learned that Phoebe Apperson Hearst was one of the University of California’s greatest benefactors. Her 1891 donation funded a scholarship program for women that still exists today. In 1897, Hearst became the first woman to serve on the university’s board of regents. She opened a student center in her home where women could meet and socialize. At the time, women were excluded from the social structures available to male students. As well, Hearst acted as a strong and effective voice for the hiring of women to join the faculty.
Phoebe Apperson Hearst, 1890-1899
In 1898-1899, Hearst financed an international competition to choose an architect to develop a campus master plan. This plan led to the building of the university’s most iconic structures: the Campanile and Sather Gate. Hearst, along with architect John Galen Howard, designed the Hearst Memorial Mining Building, named in honor of George Hearst, Phoebe’s husband. George made a fortune in mining and represented California in the US Senate. The handsome Hearst building was completed in 1907.
In addition to playing a pivotal role in the early development of the university, Hearst was a major force in promoting kindergarten education. She made possible the nation’s first free kindergartens for children from working-class families and established training schools for kindergarten teachers in San Francisco and the District of Columbia. Moreover, Hearst co-founded the National Parent Teacher Association whose affiliates remain active in primary schools today.
Hearst Memorial Mining Building, University of California at Berkeley.
We learned about Helen Bruton and Florence Swift. They designed the Byzantine-style mosaics that grace a 1905 building designed by John Galen Howard. The building was the university’s powerhouse. It subsequently became an art gallery for 35 years beginning 1934. Under the auspices of the Works Progress Administration, Bruton and Swift completed the colorful 18-by-10 foot mosaics in 1936-1937, installing the mosaics in niches on either side of the building’s east entrance. Both artists were born in the Bay Area and studied at the New York City Art Students’ League. In the spring of 2023, the university began work to conserve the mosaics and improve the building to serve as part of a new campus microgrid of 100 percent clean energy.
Helen Bruton, Sculpture & Dancing (left) and Florence Swift, Music & Painting
Longtime admirers of Chiura Obata’s serene paintings of Yosemite and the High Sierras, we learned that he also documented two of the most traumatic events of the 20th century. One was the 1906 San Francisco earthquake; the other was the World War II incarceration of Japanese Americans.
Obata painted eyewitness watercolors of refugee camps and city ruins while walking through San Francisco in the earthquake’s aftermath. He himself had been made homeless by the disaster and was living in a refugee tent.
Chiura Obata, Japantown ruins, San Francisco, 1906
During World War II, Obata, a university faculty member, was forced to leave Berkeley in 10 days to be incarcerated with 120,000 other Japanese Americans under President Roosevelt’s Executive Order 9066. He was in danger of losing his life’s work when University President Robert Sproul stepped forward to safeguard the paintings. While imprisoned, Obata continued to paint, creating watercolors to depict life in Topaz, Utah, the site of the camp where he and his family lived behind barbed wire.
Chiura Obata, Dust Storm, Topaz, 1943
The San Francisco Asian Art Museum displayed Obata’s earthquake and incarceration artwork while we were engaged in the BAHA walks. We were fortunate to have the opportunity to visit the exhibit of watercolors rarely seen before and connect them to where Obata lived and worked in Berkeley.
Before starting the walks, we knew that a 5-to-6,000-year-old shellmound important to the Chochenyo-speaking Ohlone comprises a multi-block area that includes 1900 Fourth Street. We learned that it was one of an estimated 400 that circled the bay in early history. The above-ground portion was degraded, shovel by shovel, between 1853 and 1910. The only segment not built upon is covered by a parking lot. Its future use is contested. Developers have a permit to build housing and retail while the Ohlone community is intent upon restoring the area to a place of prayer and culture. In 2020, the shellmound was included on the list of the most endangered places by the National Trust for Historic Preservation. For now, the art of a nearby footpath gives honor to the creativity, skills, and spirit of the Ohlone people.
Unnamed artist, 4 of 23 pavers in front of the former. Southern Pacific Railroad Station located near the shellmound, undated
We learned about another historic place that has virtually been erased – the site of Jose Domingo Peralta’s home. Peralta’s father, Luis Maria Peralta, was the recipient of an 1830 Spanish land grant encompassing what is Alameda County today. The Peralta family was among the Spanish who colonized the Bay Area beginning 1776. The Spanish displaced, subjugated, and brought deathly disease to the Ohlone people. Luis Maria, a sergeant in the Spanish military, was given 44,800 acres for 40 years of service to the Spanish king. He divided the land among his four sons in 1842. Jose Domingo received the area that became Albany, Berkeley, the university, and a portion of Oakland. The treaty ending the 1850 Mexican-American War recognized the rights of the Peraltas to their land but required them to prove their land titles in court. Twenty-five years of litigation compelled the Peraltas to sell many acres to pay legal fees and property taxes. In 1872, the combined property of the brothers was valued at $200,000, significantly reduced from the assessment of $1.4 million in 1851.
No longer existent is Jose Domingo’s adobe home built in 1841, reputedly the first house built by non-indigenous people in Berkeley. A plaque is in place at the site, located near St. Mary’s College High School on the Berkeley-Albany border; but it is completely obscured by shrubbery. However, a representation of the historic role of the Peraltas can be seen in Berkeley’s downtown post office. Suzanne Scheuer painted a mural there entitled Incidents in California History. The Peraltas are named in the scroll at the bottom righthand of the artwork and are symbolized by the painted figures. Scheuer was commissioned to create the mural by the US Treasury Department’s Section of Fine Arts in 1936.
Suzanne Scheuer, Incidents in California History, 1936. US Post Office, Allston Way, Berkeley
We learned about the history of Berkeley when it was called Ocean View. In 1853, Captain James Jacobs built a wharf called Jacobs Landing. The wharf enabled ships to dock to load cargo such as produce grown by farmers who had taken over Peralta land and transport the goods to San Francisco for sale. Additionally, the wharf permitted ships to dock to unload cargo such as lumber from Sonoma-Mendocino for storage in a distribution center. In the 1870s, Southern Pacific located its mainline along the shore, attracting more industries to the recently incorporated town of Berkeley because of ready access to national railroad systems. In 1979, the 800 block of Delaware Street was accorded the status of an historic district to mark Berkeley’s Ocean View era.
800 block of Delaware Street. Photo: Danielle Thompson, 2004
We learned about shipping magnates. They lived in some of the grandest homes in Berkeley.
Captain Jefferson Maury of the Pacific Mail Steamship Company moved to Berkeley from San Francisco in 1885. Pacific Mail is known in US history for being the main transport of 19th century Chinese immigrants to the US. As many as one thousand Chinese immigrants arrived on a single ship.
Captain Jefferson Maury House, 1922 remodel of the 1885 house
Captain Charles C. Boudrow was vice-president of the San Francisco-based California Shipping Co. The company owned the world’s most extensive fleet of ships at the time. Boudrow’s 1899-built home in Berkeley was known “as the finest in the city.”
Captain Charles C. Boudrow House, 1899. Photo: Danielle Thompson, 2006
Finally, we learned that Berkeleyans are generous in sharing information about their historic houses and are curious to learn more. Residents offered us stories about their restoration efforts and the gifting of houses by one generation to the next. Several took pictures of the information about their homes contained in our copies of 41 Walking Tours. One homeowner gave us a tour of a Queen Anne house with a witch’s hat turret and beautiful wood wainscotting, floors, doors, cabinets, and staircases.
In essence, what residents conveyed to us was their family histories. In this way, our walks informed us of living history as well as past history and kept us outdoors for good health and a fine time.
Linda Wing, Ph.D., is an OLLI @Berkeley member and volunteer. She completed the 41 walking tours designed by the Berkeley Architectural Heritage Association in the company of Mary Ann Kiely, also an OLLI @Berkeley member and volunteer.