Events Calendar BAHA Events BAHA Annual Membership Meeting and Preservation Awards Thursday, 29 May 2008, 7:00 pm at the Hillside Club ________________________________________________________ Outings on Fridays Our popular series of guided tours, organized by Sally Sachs, returns this spring and summer. The tours take place on the first Friday of the month at 11:00 am (we meet at the tour location at 10:45 am). Lunch is optional. $15 per tour or $40 for the series Charles S. Greene Library, now AAMLO (courtesy of Oakland California Landmarks)   Friday, 4 April 2008 Charles S. Greene Library, now African-American Museum & Library of Oakland This Beaux-Arts Carnegie library was designed in 1900 by Bliss & Faville, with murals by Arthur Matthews. Designated Oakland Landmark #43, the building was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1996. Since 2002, the library has been the home of the African-American Museum & Library of Oakland, dedicated “to discover, preserve, interpret and share the historical and cultural experiences of African Americans in California and the West for present and future generations.” Lunch in Old Oakland. U.S. Court of Appeals Building (courtesy of som.com)   Friday, 2 May 2008 U.S. Court of Appeals Building Seventh & Mission Streets, San Francisco This imposing granite edifice was designed in the 1890s by James Knox Taylor, chief architect for the U.S. Treasury Department, to house the federal courts and the main San Francisco post office. When it opened in 1905, Sunset magazine called it the Versailles of the West. This tour is free but requires a reservation before 30 April. Lunch in San Francisco. Blake Garden   Friday, 6 June 2008 Blake Garden Kensington Sold out The Anson S. Blake House (Walter Bliss, 1920s) serves as the home of the Univesity of California president. The extensive landscaped grounds surrounding the house, which we will tour, are used as a teaching facility for the U.C. Department of Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning. Lunch in Kensington. Tao house   Friday, 11 & 25 July 2008 Tao House Danville The 11 July tour is sold out. Tickets are still available for the 25th. The Eugene and Carlotta O’Neill House (Frederick Confer, 1937) has a Spanish Colonial Revival exterior, but its interior reflects the O’Neills’ passion for Oriental thought, art, and design. This National Historic Site is administered by the National Park Service. The tour will last approximately 2 hours. Lunch in downtown Danville. To order tickets, send a check made out to BAHA and a stamped, self-addressed envelope to: BAHA Outings on Fridays P.O. Box 1137 Berkeley, CA 94701 You can also pay for tickets by credit card via PayPal. Please specify your outing date[s]. ________________________________________________________ Other Events St. Joseph the Worker (photo: Daniella Thompson, 2007) Berkeley Historical Society Spring Walking Tours All tours begin at 10 am and last until noon. Tickets: $8 for BHS members, $10 general. BHS members season pass $30. For reservations, call (510) 848-0181. Make your check payable to the Berkeley Historical Society and mail it to P.O. Box 1190, Berkeley, CA 94701. Saturday, 19 April 2008 Berkeley and the Wars: A Look Back at Local Military Sites Berkeley’s military connections date from Civil War veterans coming west and the founding of the university with federal funding that required military training for male students. Generations of soldiers, veterans and military organizations have since left their local mark. Guides Steven Finacom and John Aronovici will lead us through former Downtown and U.C. campus military sites, from Berkeley’s National Guard Armory to an artillery park, with special attention paid to May 1933, when Berkeley hosted a gathering of the Grand Army of the Republic (Union veterans of the Civil War). We’ll finish with a special showing of memorabilia from local GAR organizations. Saturday, 26 April 2008 The Elmwood, or “I Ain’t Gonna Work on Kelsey’s Farm No More” This walk, led by Dale Smith, takes us through John Kelsey’s Farm, where he grew the Elms of Elmwood. The Elmwood is one of the oldest commercial districts in Berkeley, little changed from the 1920s. A tight, compact business district, it serves the surrounding community with a surprising range of goods and services. This was one of the earliest areas in Berkeley to have a business quota system. The walk will take us through residential side streets where homes of the early settlers still stand as well as the “main drag.” Saturday, 10 May 2008 Northbrae Trolleys Led by Phil Gale, this tour will explore the relationship between the early electric street railroads and the real estate interests in the Northbrae area. Who were the big players? Why is Marin Avenue laid out straight up the hill? Why are so many streets named after counties? This walk will involve some stairs and steep grades, although all will be on the public right-of-way. Not wheelchair assessible. Saturday, 17 May 2008 Panoramic Hill Trails, Steps and History Defined by Strawberry Canyon and Hamilton Gulch, Panoramic Hill’s contrasting qualities of proximity to the university and steep, difficult terrain have made it unique among Berkeley neighborhoods since 1888. The tour will explore both aspects and (from the outside) the homes of doctors, professors, and eccentrics who lived there. Ron Sipherd, who has spent many weekends climbing and descending its slopes and collecting neighborhood lore, will lead this tour. This walk is strenuous and not easily wheelchair accessible. Bring water. Visit Ron’s website to learn more about this walk. Saturday, 31 May 2008 McGee Tract Paul Grunland, BHS tour leader since 1997, will lead a walk prepared by the McGee-Spaulding-Hardy Historic Interest Group through three historic neighborhood tracts, including the St. Joseph the Worker Church, where the first president of the Berkeley Historical Society, Father Harry Morrison, was pastor. Saturday, 14 June 2008 Bonus Tour: Recent Cal Libraries Those subscribing to at least three Spring 2008 walking tours can join a bonus tour of the recently built Jean Gray Hargrove Music Library and C.V. Starr East Asian Library on the U.C. campus. The tour will be led by Manuel Erviti, interim head of the Hargrove Music Library, and Deborah Rudolph, librarian at the Starr Library. The Hargrove Music Library (2004) is home to the number-one academic music library in the U.S. This high-tech building houses 190,000 volumes of music, books, and periodicals and more than 50,000 records, manuscripts and other rare materials. The C.V. Starr East Asian Library (2007), part of the Chang-Lin Tien Center for East Asian Studies, provides a central home for the University’s renowned collections on East Asia. The new library is located on the north edge of Memorial Glade. We will stop by Stanley Hall (2007) if there is time. ________________________________________________________ Photo: Daniella Thompson, 2005 Environmental Impact: Evolution of the Berkeley Landscape Berkeley Public Library Central Library Community Room 2090 Kittredge Steet Chuck Wollenberg, noted Berkeley historian, will present five programs featuring local experts on Berkeley’s environmental history. The programs will include lively discussions about Building with Nature, Environmental Perspectives on Development, the New Deal in Berkeley, and Environmental Justice. These programs are free. Monday, 21 April, 7:00 pm – Evolution of the Landscape Chuck Wollenberg, author of Berkeley: A City in History Dave Weinstein, writer for Berkeley Rocks: Building with Nature Monday, 28 April, 7:00 pm – The New Deal and Berkeley’s Environment Gray Brechin, geographer at U.C. Berkeley, author of Imperial San Francisco: Urban Power, Earthly Ruin Monday, 5 May, 7:00 pm – The Open Space Movement Dick Walker, geographer at U.C. Berkeley, author of The Country in the City: The Greening of the San Francisco Bay Area Sylvia McLaughlin, Save the San Francisco Bay Association Monday, 12 May, 7:00 pm – Development Policy: Environmental Perspectives Zelda Bronstein, former chair, Berkeley Planning Commission Erin Rhoades, Livable Berkeley James Vann, architect specializing in affordable housing Tueday, 20 May, 7:00 pm – Environmental Justice: Looking Into the Future Shyaam Shabaka, Ecovillage Farm Learning Center Raquel Pinderhughes, Urban Studies Professor, S.F. State Univers Beck Cowles, Ecology Center Timothy Burroughs, Berkeley Office of Energy and Sustainable Development ________________________________________________________ Free Downtown Oakland Walking Tours From May through October, the City of Oakland offers 90-minute walking tours through the downtown districts. Choose from eight different tour itineraries: Tour 1: Old Oakland Tour 2: City Center Tour 3: Uptown to the Lake Tour 4: Preservation Park Tour 5: Oakland Chinatown Tour 6: Waterfront Tour 7: Churches & Temples Tour 8: New Era | New Politics To make reservations, please call (510) 238-3234 or e-mail aallen@oaklandnet.com. Please specify which tour and date you are requesting in your message. ________________________________________________________ Your donations to BAHA are tax-deductible. Berkeley Architectural Heritage Association 2318 Durant Avenue Berkeley, CA 94704 (510) 841-2242 Copyright © 2008 BAHA. All rights reserved.