BAHA Fall Walking Tours

Claremont Creekside (Anthony Bruce)

In conjunction with our revised and expanded edition of the popular 41 Walking Tours of Berkeley, we’ll be leading a series of five walking tours in select Berkeley neighborhoods. All tours take place on a Saturday from 10 am to noon. Tour limit: 25 participants.

Members: $10 per tour / $40 for the series
General: $15 per tour / $50 for the series

Saturday, 19 September 2009
10:00 am–Noon
Dwight Way Station: The Downtown That Never Was
Leader: Steven Finacom

Nineteenth-century business boosters tried unsuccessfully to shift the center of Berkeley’s Downtown several blocks south to Dwight Way Station. They failed, and instead the area became today’s district of fascinating Victorian homes, small-scale commercial buildings, and nearly forgotten historic sites at the intersection of Downtown, the Southside, the Le Conte neighborhood, and the areas west of Shattuck Avenue. Walk is level and accessible, along sidewalks.

Saturday, 26 September 2009
10:00 am–Noon
West Berkeley
Leader: Stephanie Manning

Berkeley’s oldest district, once the independent town of Ocean View, abounds in historic relics and early Victorian architecture, retaining its charming village-like character. Walk is level and accessible, along sidewalks.

Saturday, 3 October 2009
10:00 am–Noon
North-Central Berkeley
Leader: Daniella Thompson

This little-explored area was farmland until the trains came to Berkeley in 1876. It was settled by laborers and tradesmen—some of them quite prosperous—as well as by prominent politicians, architects, and businessmen. In the 20th century, the district housed its share of well-known poets. In the architectural mix are Victorian, shingled Arts & Crafts, Art Deco, and modern buildings, but the dominant style is Colonial Revival, fashionable between 1895 and 1905. Walk is level and accessible, along sidewalks.

Saturday , 10 October 2009
10:00 am–Noon
Claremont Creekside   SOLD OUT
Leader: Anthony Bruce

When Claremont was conceived in the early 1900s, much of Berkeley had been subdivided in the traditional grid pattern without regard for the topography, and creeks had been buried. Why not create a “residential park,” wrote Duncan McDuffie in Claremont’s promotional brochure of 1905, “where the delightful contours of the land are kept intact, the streets curved and parked, and lots are all generous in size, and so laid out as to be planned for homesites, with oaks and a bit of creek, perhaps?” No doubt, the creek-traversed lots were an inspiration to creativity, as the varied configuration of the creek called for unique solutions in home design. Walk is level but not wheelchair accessible.

Saturday, 17 October 2009
10:00 am–Noon
Berkeley Villa Tract
Leader: Susan Cerny

This walk takes us along Codornices Creek through the center of the Berkeley Villa Tract, part of Napoleon Bonaparte Byrne’s 800-acre farm, which was subdivided in 1873. By 1877, Henry B. Berryman owned all of the Villa Tract, Byrne’s house, and the reservoir just west of Euclid Avenue. Walk is moderate, requiring some climbing. Not wheelchair accessible.

To order tickets, print, fill out, and mail the ticket order form.
You can also pay for tickets by credit card via PayPal. Please specify number of tickets and walk date[s] in the Description line.