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Northbrae, Berkeley, California is an affluent neighborhood in Berkeley, California built as part of the northern expansion of North Berkeley. Its border is Solano Avenue to the North, Spruce Street to the East, the Albany city limits to the West, and Hopkins Street, Yolo Avenue, and Eunice Street to the south. It's bordered by the two commercial districts on Solano Avenue and Hopkins Street, as well as hilly terrain made up of volcanic rock,
After a 1906 earthquake along the western coast, about 15,000 residents from
The Northbrae neighborhood is known for its hilly terrain. The built environment follows along the natural topography which includes trees and existing outcropping of volcanic rock. The volcanic rock in the area, rhyolite, is primarily composed of
paths
/ref>
Friends of The Fountain and The WalkSolano Avenue AssociationFriends of King Park
Northbrae, Berkeley, California is an affluent neighborhood in Berkeley, California built as part of the northern expansion of North Berkeley. Its border is Solano Avenue to the North, Spruce Street to the East, the Albany city limits to the West, and Hopkins Street, Yolo Avenue, and Eunice Street to the south. It's bordered by the two commercial districts on Solano Avenue and Hopkins Street, as well as hilly terrain made up of volcanic rock, rhyolite
Rhyolite ( ) is the most silica-rich of volcanic rocks. It is generally glassy or fine-grained (aphanitic) in texture, but may be porphyritic, containing larger mineral crystals (phenocrysts) in an otherwise fine-grained groundmass. The mineral ...
, and 136 stairways carved into the landscape. The neighborhood is visibly distinct for its pink sidewalks and many stone pillars topped with concrete globes denoting street names. The central hub of Northbrae is the Fountain at the Circle, a water fountain designed by the head architect of the University of California surrounded by terra cotta roundabout and stairwell. Northbrae made it into the American Planning Association's list of Great Places in America in 2011.
History
After a 1906 earthquake along the western coast, about 15,000 residents from San Francisco
San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...
decided to move East. Commuter rail had made it possible to now inhabit the countryside and Duncan McDuffie and Joseph Mason took full advantage of this. Under Mason-McDuffie Co., they purchased 700 acres for a subdivision that would eventually be known as 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 ...
. Garden suburbs and the Beaux Arts style
Beaux-Arts architecture ( , ) was the academic architectural style taught at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, particularly from the 1830s to the end of the 19th century. It drew upon the principles of French neoclassicism, but also incorpora ...
were prominent influences for this new area. At one point, the local Chamber of Commerce even proposed that Berkeley be named the state capital and the developers named the streets of Northbrae after various California counties but it did not succeed. Northbrae was split up into four sections: "Northbrae" west of the Alameda, "Northbrae Terrace" east of the Alameda and denoted by two pillars rather than just one at each entrance on the Alameda, Berkeley Heights as a predecessor to the Berkeley Hills, and a small portion called Grand View Terrace which contains the districts most finest homes between Shattuck and Spruce streets.
Duncan McDuffie led Berkeley to become the first city in the United States to prohibit multifamily housing through zoning and Northbrae was the widest zoned single-family district. As with all of Mason-McDuffie Co. subdivisions, their homes in Northbrae included deed restrictions prohibiting sale to anyone who wasn't white.
Natural and physical features
The Northbrae neighborhood is known for its hilly terrain. The built environment follows along the natural topography which includes trees and existing outcropping of volcanic rock. The volcanic rock in the area, rhyolite, is primarily composed of quartz
Quartz is a hard, crystalline mineral composed of silica (silicon dioxide). The atoms are linked in a continuous framework of SiO4 silicon-oxygen tetrahedra, with each oxygen being shared between two tetrahedra, giving an overall chemical form ...
and is a significant feature of the area. The streets are arranged predominantly N-S in order to emphasize the views of the San Francisco bay and the hills. Most of the homes are bungalows and are tucked into the hills, connected by stairways that have been carved into the landscape. The original subdivision is visible by its pink colored sidewalks and stone pillars, though several rock pillars have been destroyed by homeowners throughout the years. The rock pillars and fountain were designed by John Galen Howard
John Galen Howard (May 8, 1864 in Chelmsford, Massachusetts – July 18, 1931 in San Francisco, California) was an American architect and educator who began his career in New York before moving to California. He was the principal architect at in ...
, the lead architect of the University of California, Berkeley campus.
Notable places and public amenities
The North Branch Berkeley Library, the Martin Luther King Middle School, and Solano Avenue shopping district are all integral parts of Berkeley. Northbrae is also home to several large parks. The MLK Middle School runs a program called the Edible Schoolyard that attracts many people every year. There are also many paths in the neighborhood originally built as shortcuts to streetcar lines./ref>
Transportation
The neighborhood was originally designed with the intention of each single family home having direct access to the train under the 1916 zoning law. Today, however, the North Berkeley BART station is a half mile away. Four AC Transit bus lines currently run through the neighborhood. There are 2 bicycle boulevards that promote alternative transportation.Active associations
Works Cited