Blake Garden, Kensington

Blake Garden is a teaching facility for the UC Berkeley College of Environmental Design in the hills of Kensington, California, a census-designated place of the East Bay region of the Bay Area in Northern California, approximately north of the main University of California, Berkeley campus. It was originally designed by landscape architect Mabel Symmes for the estate owned by her sister and brother-in-law, Anita and Anson Blake; the trio lived in Blake House, a mansion on the estate designed by architect Walter Danforth Bliss and completed in 1924. The Blakes deeded the grounds to their alma mater, the University of California, in 1957, which took full control after Anita's death in 1962, implementing a redesign by Geraldine Knight Scott starting from 1964. Blake House served as the official residence of the President of the University of California from 1967 to 2008. Since 2009, Blake Garden has been open to the public on weekdays.

History

Blake family

One of the original trustees of the University of California, Anson Gale Stiles, purchased land on Piedmont Avenue, east of the present-day Berkeley campus in the late 1860s. Anson left the property to his daughter, Harriet Waters Stiles (1840–1928); two of her sons, Anson Stiles Blake (1870–1959) and Edwin Tyler Blake (1875–1949), would later build homes and gardens on the same property; Anson's Piedmont house was completed in 1895. When the Stiles/Blake family land on Piedmont was purchased by the University in 1922 to build Memorial Stadium, the families relocated to a site in Kensington encompassing where Blake Garden is today; the site was owned by Harriet and she divided it evenly between her four children, two of which lived outside the Bay Area (Eliza Seely Blake Thatcher, 1872–1944, and Robert Pierpont Blake, 1886–1950) and sold their shares to developers. The widowed Harriet would live with Edwin, while Anson's sister-in-law, Mabel Symmes (1875–1962), would live with Anson and Anita (1872–1962), his wife and Mabel's sister. Anita and Mabel transplanted much of the Piedmont garden to the new Kensington site, taking four months and thirty truckloads to do so.

Anson and Edwin Blake built two homes in the Kensington hills: Anson Blake's house (completed in 1925 and also known as ''La Casa Adelante''), now Blake Garden, and the Edwin Blake house (also known as ''Quinta de La Lilas''), now the Carmelite Monastery which is adjacent to Blake Garden. Blake initially had intended to use the site as a quarry. Over the next thirty years, the Symmes sisters would continue to collect botanical specimens and develop the site. A small colony of semi-feral cats kept the rodent population from eating the plants. From the start, the Blakes invited students from the Department of Landscape Architecture at the University of California to the estate.

University of California

The garden was deeded to the University of California in 1957 by Anson and Anita Blake, and Mai Arbegast was appointed acting director of Blake Garden, working closely with the family to identify and catalog the plant species that had been collected. Title on the site passed to the university upon the deaths of Anita Blake and her sister Mabel Symmes in 1962. Geraldine Knight Scott was appointed director of Blake Garden and began preparing the site for public visitation by clearing overgrown foliage and creating an influential ''Long Range Development Plan'' in 1964. For a "brief and unsatisfactory" time from 1962 to 1964, it was used as a women's graduate student dormitory. The remote location proved to be frightening at night and too distant, at approximately north of the Berkeley campus.

The President of the University of California had traditionally lived in President's House, a residence on the Berkeley campus; when Clark Kerr was promoted from the Chancellor of Berkeley to UC president, he continued to live in his own private residence, and had President's House remodeled into University House to hold official events. University House would become the Berkeley chancellor's residence in 1965, when Roger W. Heyns moved into the house. In 1967, Charles Hitch succeeded Kerr as UC president and selected Blake House as his residence; it would continue to serve as the residence for the University of California president from 1967 to 2008. Hitch moved into the residence in April 1969, following a refurbishment paid through private donations. Improvements were designed by the architects Ron and Myra Brocchini, and upgrades to the grounds were designed by Scott to increase security and privacy while maintaining public access, including the stucco wall and fencing east of Blake House. Hitch also paid a "posessory interest" tax equivalent to a property tax directly to Contra Costa County from his own pocket.

Russell Beatty succeeded Scott as the director of Blake Garden in 1967, implementing a new mission as an "outdoor laboratory" for student projects in landscape architecture. In addition, the Children's Adventure Garden and Playground was built in 1970, spearheaded by Walter Doty, and ran for three years, with children responsible for tending plants under the guidance of Berkeley students. Under Beatty, the Cut-Flower Garden was created in 1973 and a bouquet was delivered daily to the House.

Hitch's successor as UC President, David S. Saxon, lived in Blake House from 1975 to 1983. In 1983, the University of California helped incoming President David P. Gardner purchase a different home in Orinda, as Blake House was configured with only two bedrooms at the time and Gardner wanted more privacy. Nevertheless, Gardner used Blake House for official events and as an off-campus presidential office. In 2002, an inspection revealed cracks and water damage; Robert Dynes called it "pretty much unlivable" with a leaky roof, mold, and broken fixtures. Mark Yudof broke from tradition when he became UC President in 2008; as part of his vow to bring "fiscal responsibility" to the system, he chose to live in a rented house instead of spending the estimated US$10 million in renovations and refurbishment for Blake House, although a few events continued to be held at Blake House. The chair of the Regents of the University of California, Russell Gould, described the mansion as having "great bones, but it is a money pit." In 2013, incoming UC president Janet Napolitano rented a house in Oakland as her presidential residence; at the time, Blake House was called "stately, but run-down" and it was estimated that required renovations could cost up to US$6 million, compared to the US$100,000 annual cost of renting a suitable house.

The Seldon Williams House, a historic residence at 2821 Clairemont Blvd, designed by Julia Morgan and completed in 1928, was purchased for the UC president in 2021; according to a news release describing that acquisition, "UC's former official presidential residence, Blake House in Kensington, has been uninhabitable for more than a decade because of extensive — and cost-prohibitive — deferred maintenance, in addition to significant seismic risks and landslide hazards. The university plans to sell this property at an appropriate time, with proceeds going to UC Berkeley’s College of Environmental Design." The upper garden is crossed by the Hayward Fault, which runs through Kensington parallel to Arlington Avenue, and the site is part of an area considered "highly susceptible to movement" as a potential site of a future major earthquake.

Design

Blake House and Formal Garden

File:Blake Garden 11.jpg, Western facade of Blake House, from the Lower Lawn
File:Blake Garden 3.jpg, Eastern facade of Blake House
File:Blake Garden 30.jpg, ''Formal Garden'' and grotto with reflecting pool, east of Blake House
File:Blake Garden CA.jpg, Eastern facade and reflecting pool with magnolia trees

Blake House was a 27-room mansion designed in a Spanish style by Walter Danforth Bliss for Anson Blake and his wife Anita. Hitch called it "the biggest three-bedroom house in the world", as the first floor was used for formal receptions and official functions, while residential spaces were limited to the second floor. The 1967–68 remodel as the UC Presidential house left the building with of floor space, seven bathrooms, two kitchens, and three bedrooms. Blake Garden occupies a site with grades of up to 50%; the land east of Blake House, sited on the upper third, is relatively flat, while the land west of the House is much steeper. The grounds are divided into five "garden rooms": the ''Formal Garden'' east of the House; ''Redwood Canyon'' to the north of the House; the areas ''West of the House'', including the Lower Lawn and Mediterranean Section; ''Australian Hollow'' south of the House, and the ''Cut-Flower Garden'' east of Australian Hollow, including a vegetable garden, the Cottage Garden, the Square Garden, greenhouses, and tool sheds used by the Blake Garden staff. In addition, there is an entrance area that connects the House with Rincon Road to the east.

The siting of Blake House is integral to the garden's design: it shelters the ''Formal Garden'' from the strong prevailing winds off the Golden Gate. The grounds for both estates were designed by Mrs. Blake's sister, Mabel Symmes, who graduated from the university's Landscape Architecture Department in 1914. Ms. Symmes' original plan showed great sensitivity to the site. Much of her original plan can still be seen in the design of the ''Formal Gardens'' east of the house, with its grotto, inspired by the Villa Tusculana at Frascati, Italy and the reflecting pool which was part of a system to take advantage of underground water. The koi that live in the pool are named for Blake family members.

The garden is home to nearly 1500 plant species, over fifty bird species, as well as raccoons, frogs, salamanders, and the occasional fox. The garden is all organic, with many sustainable practices including four kinds of composting, rainwater harvesting, and hives of honeybees. Decorations in the Garden include several sculptures with Asian themes, such as the glazed pagoda, which were purchased and installed originally by Anita Blake.

Outdoor garden rooms in Blake Garden

File:Blake Garden 37.jpg, ''Redwood Canyon'' and creek
File:Blake Garden 1283 (6130050657).jpg, Disconnected stone bridge over the ''Redwood Canyon'' stream
File:Blake Garden 19.jpg, View west to the Golden Gate Bridge
File:Blake Garden 42.jpg, Garrett Eckbo pergola in the ''Mediterranean Garden''
File:Blake Garden 18.jpg, Blackberry brush tunnel in ''Australian Hollow''

There are two streams on-site, draining the north and south edges; both were stabilized with vegetation during construction. The ''Redwood Canyon'', with redwood cuttings brought from the Blakes' properties in Berkeley and St. Helena, is planted along a natural waterway. It also divides the property from the adjacent Carmelite Monastery. In Symmes' original design, the adjoining Edwin Blake garden was designed to be a contiguous extension of the Anson and Anita Blake property; the Carmelites later built a fence north of the canyon, disconnecting a stone bridge that spans the stream. Most of the plants here are shade-tolerant.

Plantings on the steep slope west of the house include the ''Mediterranean Garden'', a showcase of drought-tolerant plants from the world's Mediterranean climates in diamond-shaped beds linked by switchback paths leading to a lookout over the Bay on the property's western edge, near a large lawsonite rock outcropping and a picnic shelter reconstructed by Professor Garrett Eckbo.

The original plan also shows a lake in the ''Australian Hollow'', the southwestern corner of the property, taking advantage of the high water table in that part of the garden. In 2010 this area was restored to a native wetland by UC students, volunteers and Blake Garden staff. The wetland now provides habitat to a community of Pacific chorus frogs and area birds. This area is distinguished by a thornless blackberry brush tunnel.

South of Blake House, Anita Blake and Mabel Symmes had planned and built a formal, symmetric ''Rose Garden'' surrounding a square pool. This is now the ''Square Garden'', retaining the water lily-filled pond, but with flower beds brimming with low-water perennials instead of roses. The area southeast of the House has been developed as the ''Cut Flower Garden'', including the ''Cottage Garden'', which has roses, flowers for cutting, vegetables and herbs and the ''Event Lawn'' and surrounding beds, another example of water-smart gardening. Additionally, the ''Create with Nature Zone'' offers a space for visitors of all ages to experiment and build with materials collected from the garden.

Residents

* 1928–1962: Blake family (Anson Blake, Anita Blake, and Mabel Symmes)
* 1962–1964: Prytanean Alumni Foundation (female graduate students)
* 1969–1975: UC President Charles J. Hitch
* 1975–1983: UC President David S. Saxon
* 1983–1992: none, but hosted official events
* 1992–1995: UC President Jack Peltason
* 1995–2003: UC President Richard C. Atkinson
* 2003–2008: UC President Robert C. Dynes

See also

* List of botanical gardens and arboretums in California
* List of botanical gardens in the United States

References

Further reading

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External links

Official Blake Garden website
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Alternate link
at ''openlibrary.org''
*''Visiting Eden: The Public Gardens of Northern California'', photographs by Melba Levick, text by Joan Chatfield-Taylor. Chronicle Books, 1993,

{{University of California presidents

Gardens in California
Berkeley Hills
University of California, Berkeley buildings
Botanical gardens in California
Arboreta in California
Landscape design history of the United States
Protected areas of Contra Costa County, California
Tourist attractions in Contra Costa County, California
Official residences in California