Beast Blog

Notes from the Telegraph Ave Historic Walking Tour

I'd have more than notes if my digital camera weren't acting up -- all the photo files are corrupted somehow.

Anyway.

Telegraph Avenue used to reach all the way to Sather Gate, where it intersected with Allston Way. Meaning that Allston was the southern border of campus. This changed in the 30s or so.

The Berkeley street grid south of campus was once alphabetical. The north/south streets were named for men of science: Audubon (now College), Bowditch, Choate (now Telegraph), Dana, Ellsworth, Fulton, Guyot (now Shattuck), and Henry. The east/west streets were for men of letters: Allston, Bancroft, Channing, and Dwight (Durant and Haste were plowed through later).

The former Unitarian Church, now a dance studio, at Bancroft and Dana, is beautiful. I attended Cal for 4 years and never bothered to notice this building.

(This is where not having photos is frustrating). There's a parking lot, between Channing and Haste, on the block just east of Telegraph. The lot was the gardens of the Anna Head School for girls. The school buildings still exist - beautiful brown shingled edifices used by various university departments. The gardens haven't been wholly removed -- a look around the parking lot reveals a variety of tree species which had been planted many years before.

Posted by peterme at November 9, 2003 04:19 PM | TrackBack