Hillside Elementary School is a 50,302 ft² former public

elementary school A primary school (in Ireland, the United Kingdom, Australia, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, and South Africa), junior school (in Australia), elementary school or grade school (in North America and the Philippines) is a school for primary ed ...

in the hills of

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 Emer ...

, at 1581 Le Roy Avenue, bordered by Le Roy Avenue, Buena Vista Way, and La Loma Avenue. It is registered as a local historic landmark and is listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

History

Hillside first opened in the Fall of 1901 on the nearby southwest corner of Le Roy Avenue and Virginia Street. This first Hillside, constructed under the auspices of the newly formed

Hillside Club The Hillside Club is a neighborhood social club established in 1898 by residents of Berkeley, California's newly formed Northside neighborhood to protect the hills from unsightly grading and unsuitable buildings. It took its cue from the Arts ...

, for the Berkeley Public Schools, was one of the hundreds of structures that was destroyed by the 1923 Berkeley fire. The school was temporarily relocated, from late 1923 until August 1926, to the University School (1414 Walnut Street) while a new school building was constructed. The

Berkeley School District 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 ...

built the present structure in 1925 on the site of several homes that were destroyed by the same fire that destroyed the original Hillside.Amanda Bartlett
"This historic Berkeley school could be overhauled as a tech billionaire's fantasy home"
''San Francisco Chronicle'', November 3, 2019. It was designed by prominent Berkeley architect Walter H. Ratcliff. A major seismic retrofit was made in the 1930s and an additional wing added in 1964-65. The 1930s work included upgrades pursuant to the

Field Act The Field Act was one of the first pieces of legislation that mandated earthquake-resistant construction (specifically for schools in California) in the United States. The Field Act had its genesis in the 6.4 magnitude 1933 Long Beach earthquake w ...

which resulted from the

1933 Long Beach earthquake The 1933 Long Beach earthquake took place on March 10 at south of downtown Los Angeles. The epicenter was offshore, southeast of Long Beach, California, on the Newport–Inglewood Fault. The earthquake had a magnitude estimated at 6.4 , and a m ...

. The building is landmarked for the degree to which it is intact, along with the quality of both architectural design and construction. In the late 1960s, Hillside became a primary school (K-3) as part of a district-wide re-organization. In 1982 it was added to the

(#82000961). In 1983, the school district closed Hillside because of a declining school age population, and because it sits near or on the

Hayward Fault The Hayward Fault Zone is a right-lateral strike-slip geologic fault zone capable of generating destructive earthquakes. This fault is about long, situated mainly along the western base of the hills on the east side of San Francisco Bay. It runs ...

. The Berkeley Montessori School (since renamed The Berkeley School) and the Berkeley Chess School leased part of the site. In 2012, the

Berkeley Unified School District The Berkeley Unified School District (BUSD) is the public school district for the city of Berkeley, California, United States. The district is managed by the Superintendent of Schools, and governed by the Berkeley Board of Education, whose member ...

sold the school to the German International School of Silicon Valley (GISSV). GISSV replaced damaged walkways and entrance steps and removed a deteriorated temporary building that had been had been situated on the old Kindergarten playground since the early 1970s, and in early 2016, replaced the original slate shingles with new historically accurate slate shingles and also replaced the original copper gutters, which had been vandalized and stolen. The school used it for their Berkeley campus from August 2012 until December 2016, when they closed the building due to unmet seismic retrofit needs. Diggings nearby show the fault may be braided in the area, and an active fault trace below the building cannot be ruled out. In 2018, the German School sold the property to Finnish entrepreneur , who plans to use it for artist studios. Area residents have used Hillside's playground as a de facto neighborhood park since it was constructed; a pedestrian path is heavily used. In 2009, with sale of the site to a housing developer pending, local residents proposed a special assessment district to fund purchase of the playground section of the site.

BUSD Principals

* Clara. G. Potwin, 1901-1907 (d.1907) * Jeannette Barrows, 1907-1937 (d.1945) * Eugenie E. Jackson, 1937-1943 * Helen B. Maslin, 1943-1959 (d.1963) * Theodore F. Blitz, 1959-1973 (d.1993) * Frank L. Fisher, 1973-1978 * Kathryne L. Favors, 1978-1981 (d.2008) * Marian K. Altman, 1981-1983

In film

Hillside stood in as an English mansion in the 2012 movie '' The Master''. Filming took place during June 2011."Finding filming sites in Bay Area is just the beginning of this job", Edward Guthmann, ''San Francisco Chronicle'', July 17, 2013

References

* Directory of Berkeley Public Schools, Annual, 1918- * Article
"Board Acts to Halt Sliding of Hillside School", Berkeley Daily Gazette, September 20, 1927.

External links

German International School of Silicon Valley, Berkeley Campus

Berkeley Chess School

Hillside Association of Berkeley

Hillside Association of Berkeley

Rehabilitation Scoping Guide
{{Authority control Buildings and structures in Berkeley, California Education in Berkeley, California Schools in Alameda County, California Defunct schools in California Parks in Berkeley, California School buildings completed in 1925 National Register of Historic Places in Berkeley, California School buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in California Tudor Revival architecture in California 1925 establishments in California

History

BUSD Principals

In film

See also

References

External links