Duncan McDuffie (September 24, 1877 – 1951) was a

real estate developer Real estate development, or property development, is a business process, encompassing activities that range from the renovation and re- lease of existing buildings to the purchase of raw land and the sale of developed land or parcels to othe ...

, conservationist, and

mountaineer Mountaineering or alpinism, is a set of outdoor activities that involves ascending tall mountains. Mountaineering-related activities include traditional outdoor climbing, skiing, and traversing via ferratas. Indoor climbing, sport climbing, an ...

based in

Berkeley, California Berkeley ( ) 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 Irish bishop and philosopher George Berkeley. It borders the cities of Oakland and E ...

, United States.

Developer

McDuffie is best known for developing the Claremont and Northbrae neighborhoods of

Berkeley Berkeley most often refers to: *Berkeley, California, a city in the United States **University of California, Berkeley, a public university in Berkeley, California * George Berkeley (1685–1753), Anglo-Irish philosopher Berkeley may also refer ...

and St. Francis Wood district in San Francisco. His upscale developments were laid out as "residential parks," with streets following the contours of hills and underground power lines. His developments included

racial covenant A covenant, in its most general sense and historical sense, is a solemn promise to engage in or refrain from a specified action. Under historical English common law, a covenant was distinguished from an ordinary contract by the presence of a se ...

s to exclude non-whites from home ownership, and he also promoted

single-family zoning Single-family zoning is a type of planning restriction applied to certain residential zones in the United States and Canada in order to restrict development to only allow single-family detached homes. It disallows townhomes, duplexes, and multi-f ...

laws to exclude non-whites.

Conservationist

McDuffie was a notable conservationist, and was president of the Sierra Club from 1928 to 1931 and 1943–1946.

East Bay Regional Park District

In 1934 McDuffie helped create the

East Bay Regional Park District The East Bay Regional Park District (EBRPD) is a special district operating in Alameda County and Contra Costa County, California, within the East Bay area of the San Francisco Bay Area. It maintains and operates a system of regional parks which ...

in the

Berkeley Hills The Berkeley Hills are a range of the Pacific Coast Ranges that overlook the northeast side of the valley that encompasses San Francisco Bay. They were previously called the "Contra Costa Range/Hills" (from the original Spanish ''Sierra de la ...

California state parks

McDuffie helped establish the California state park system with the help of his friend Governor

C. C. Young Clement Calhoun Young (April 28, 1869 – December 24, 1947) was an American educator and politician who was affiliated with the original Progressive Party and later the Republican Party. He was elected to five consecutive terms in the Californ ...

. He won the

Pugsley Medal The Pugsley Medal was created by Cornelius Amory Pugsley in 1928. The award honors champions of parks and conservation. Responsibility for selecting the recipients has shifted from the American Scenic and Historic Preservation Society to the Na ...

for his service on the California State Parks Commission.

Mountaineer

McDuffie was an accomplished

in the Sierra Nevada, and made first ascents of Mount Abbot and

Black Kaweah Black Kaweah is a mountain of the Kaweah Peaks Ridge of the California's Sierra Nevada, in Sequoia National Park. The peak has a local magnetic disturbance that has caused compasses in the vicinity to vary by up to eight degrees. Fulgurite ...

. Along with Joseph N. LeConte and James S. Hutchinson, he pioneered a high mountain route in 1908 from

Yosemite National Park Yosemite National Park ( ) is an American national park in California, surrounded on the southeast by Sierra National Forest and on the northwest by Stanislaus National Forest. The park is managed by the National Park Service and covers an ...

to Kings Canyon, roughly along the route of the modern

John Muir Trail The John Muir Trail (JMT) ( Paiute: Nüümü Poyo, ''N-ue-mue Poh-yo'') is a long-distance trail in the Sierra Nevada mountain range of California, passing through Yosemite, Kings Canyon and Sequoia National Parks. From the northern terminus a ...

. In 28 days, they completed a trip of 228 miles through the high mountains, including several previously unexplored sections.Parsons, Harriet, edited by David R. Brower, Sierra Club: A Handbook, "Mountaineering", Sierra Club, San Francisco, 1947, page 16 McDuffie suffered from

Parkinson's disease Parkinson's disease (PD), or simply Parkinson's, is a long-term degenerative disorder of the central nervous system that mainly affects the motor system. The symptoms usually emerge slowly, and as the disease worsens, non-motor symptoms becom ...

for nearly 20 years before his death in 1951. The Sierra peak Mount McDuffie is named after him.

References

External links and sources

Duncan McDuffie: Cornelius Amory Pugsley Silver Medal Award, 1928

SIGNATURE STYLE: Duncan McDuffie - Natural neighborhoods: Visionary developer created elegant urban 'residential parks', San Francisco Chronicle, Dave Weinstein, February 7, 2004
{{DEFAULTSORT:McDuffie, Duncan Sierra Club directors American mountain climbers Architects from California Businesspeople from California Real estate and property developers Businesspeople from Berkeley, California 1877 births 1951 deaths People with Parkinson's disease