Berkeley Historical Society Spring 2016 Walking Tours

Old Art Gallery, U.C. Berkeley (photo courtesy of Mosaic Spotter)

Tours start at 10:00 am and end at approximately 12:00 noon. Tours are limited to 30 paying participants unless noted otherwise. Pre-paid reservations are required, and tickets are not refundable. Tours are conducted in rain, shine, or Berkeley fog and are wheelchair-accessible unless otherwise noted.

Ticket Order Form
BHS members $8; General $10

Saturday, 12 March 2016
Sites and Stories of Berkeley’s Art Museums
Led by Steven Finacom

The University of California Berkeley Art Museum reopened in January at its new site in Downtown Berkeley. It’s the second “Berkeley Art Museum” downtown; the first was in the 1920s. In conjunction with the BHS Real and Imagined Art Museums and Galleries in Berkeley exhibit, this walk will visit, on and off campus, several intriguing buildings or sites of early public or private art exhibit facilities dating back to the 19th century.

Saturday, 9 April 2016
Our Ocean View Victorian Berkeley
Led by Stephanie Manning

The evolution of research is reflected in this walk. We will talk about such things as what scientists used to think about the West Berkeley Shellmound, what historians used to think about the natives who lived here, where white people settled in the mid-19th century, and the gradual formation of what we see there today, including the changing demographics and architecture.

Saturday, 23 April 2016
The Ashby BART Neighborhood
Led by Janet Byron

The Ashby walk is in the area around the station of an early steam train line that ran from Oakland to Berkeley. There is a wealth of varied historic architecture, as well as culture and history from the Buggy Bank to the Berkeley Bowl, the home of a famous writer, churches and Buddhist temples, a storybook funeral home, and more. The 2.5-to-3-mile walk is fairly flat, mainly on sidewalks along tree-lined streets.

Saturday, 7 May 2016
Phoebe Hearst on Campus
Led by Bill Roberts

Phoebe Apperson Hearst (1842–1919) was “the best friend the University ever had.” On this walk, we will discover her many contributions, intellectual as well as physical, to the Berkeley campus and beyond. There are some hills on the campus, but the walk is wheelchair accessible.

Saturday, 14 May 2016
Authors & Artists of the Ina Coolbrith Era
Led by Aleta George

Join Aleta George, author of a new biography on California’s first poet laureate Ina Coolbrith, for a loop walk on North Berkeley roads and pathways. On the walk, Aleta will tell stories about Coolbrith and her colleagues Bret Harte, Charles Warren Stoddard, George Sterling, Joaquin Miller, and Charles Keeler.