Northside Neighborhood Association

Northside Neighborhood Association

The neighborhood's early days

Daley's Scenic Park is the oldest subdivision in the Berkeley Hills. Thomas Daley first put lots on the market in 1889. By 1898, residents established the Hillside Club, which promoted building with nature and exerted profound influence on the course of American residential architecture.

Architecture

Daley's Scenic Park is the cradle of the Brown Shingle, Arts-and-Crafts home. It is the neighborhood where Bernard Maybeck's first residential commissions were built. More than half of the tract's homes were burned in the 1923 Berkeley Fire. Many others were demolished after WWII, victims of institutional expansion and development pressures. Nevertheless, our neighborhood still boasts the highest concentration of designated landmarks in Berkeley.

Residents

From the beginning, the tract's proximity to the university and its physical attributes—hills, ravines, creeks, and ancient oaks—attracted intellectuals, artists, writers, and naturalists. Early residents included Charles Keeler, Benjamin Ide Wheeler, Phoebe Apperson Hearst, John Galen Howard, Oscar Maurer, Lilian Bridgman, Mary McHenry Keith, and Dorothea Lange. The residential mix now includes many students living in apartments, rooming houses, and the nine USCA co-ops, as well as in houses owned by the various schools of the Graduate Theological Union.

Neighborhood Links

Northside-NA e-mail list
Northside EmPrep e-mail list
Northside Landmarks
Kluegel House landmark application
Phi Kappa Psi Chapter House landmark application

About our association

Who are we?

We are an association of neighbors who live in Daley's Scenic Park. We are dedicated to getting to know each other and to communicating on a regular basis about matters of concern to the neighbrhood.

What are our main concerns?

We live in a historic district with natural, cultural, and historic resources. Our main goal is to preserve the historic, bucolic, and residential character of our neighborhood.

Since more than half the homes in Daley's Scenic Park burned to the ground in the 1923 Berkeley Fire, we are attentive to disaster preparedness and have formed the Northside EmPrep group.

How do we communicate?

Our chief communication vehicle is the [Northside-NA] e-mail list on Yahoo Groups.

Neighborhood Links

Northside-NA e-mail list
Northside EmPrep e-mail list
Northside Landmarks