ALAMEDA COUNTY Transcribed by: Linda Jackson 5/20/2008
The Ideal Place for Your California Home
by Henry Anderson Lafler
The climate of Alameda County is not so warm as to be depressing. There is never a day so hot that action is an effort. Here one does not decline into mere comfortable idleness as in more Southern regions. No one who has really tasted the delicious air of the East Bay Cities ever finds the lassitude of a warmer climate endurable.
A
PALATIAL RESIDENCE IN CLAREMONT , AN EXCLUSIVE
RESIDENCE SECTION OF BERKELEY.
THE
CLIMATE OF ALAMEDA COUNTY PERMITS OF MUCH LIVING
OUT-OF-DOORS: HENCE THE POPULARITY OF SUCH OPEN
PORCHES AS THAT SHOWN IN THE PICTURE
It is truism to say that large fortunes have come in America through the exploitation of some great natural resource such as oil, lumber, land, cattle, gold or copper. Many of the magnates in these staples throughout the United States west of the Rockies have, it seems, gravitated toward the beautiful Bay of San Francisco and sought within sight of its waters in Alameda County their ultimate homes. Piedmont, which has the distinction of being a community composed entirely of residences and lies on the hill slopes entirely surrounded by the City of Oakland, is said to have thirty-two millionaires, possessing the largest per capita wealth of any community of its size in the United States.
AN
EMBOWERED AVENUE IN PIEDMONT
On one avenue you see a charming and palatial home, its gardens riotous with roses, and are told that the wealth of its owner was made from the inexhaustible petroleum fields of California. The master of another mansion controls, you are told, the cattle on a thousand Nevada hills. A third owns a great slice of the yellow pine forests of the Sierras. Here on the East Bay hill slopes they are gathered, because here living is ideal--mere existence a pleasure.
It must not be thought that all the homes are those of people of wealth. On the contrary, tucked away in delightful nooks and corners of the hills is many a modest bungalow, only resembling the villas and palatial residences in that the roses in its garden bloom as luxuriantly and the purple bougainvilla climbs as profusely to the chimney top.
A
TYPICAL RESIDENCE IN THE PIEDMONT HILLS--ON ACCOUNT
OF THE IDEAL CLIMATE AND THE MAGNIFICENT VIEW,
THE GENTLE SLOPES OF THE HILLS OVERLOOKING
SAN FRANCISCO BAY ARE INCLINING THOUS-
ANDS OF WELL-TO-DO PEOPLE TO MAKE
THIS THEIR ULTIMATE HOME
The City of Berkeley occupies nine square miles and has the distinction of being the most rapidly growing community of its size in the United States during the last census period, increasing from 13,445 in 1900 to 40,000 in 1910. It is now estimated to have a population close to 64,000. The city with its beautiful homes is the seat of the University of California, the second largest university in the United States, with an attendance in excess of 8000. In the University grounds, many acres in extent, enriched with forests of oak and eucalyptus, are two architectural triumphs, either one of which would bring fame to any European city. The first of these is the Greek theatre--an amphitheatre of solid masonry built in a charming hollow of a wooded hillside and capable of accomodating ten thousand people at one time. This reproduction of a theatre of ancient Greece has become the mecca of the greatest artists of the stage, for, as Sarah
A
PIEDMONT HOME: AS THIS PICTURE SHOWS, THE PALM AND
PINE TOUCH HANDS IN ALAMEDA COUNTY
Bernhardt said: "Here, under the blue California skies, in the winey air, with the fragrant forests all about and an appreciative California audience, every artist is stimulated to reach the very pinnacle of achievement." The half-hour of music every Sunday afternoon brings thousands from the nearby cities.
The second notable architectural feature of the University campus is the Sather Tower, a slender shaft of white California granite, whose pinnacle is more than six hundred feet above the level of the blue waters of the Bay which it overlooks. This bell tower, or Campanile, was built as a memorial by Jane K. Sather and was designed by John Galen Howard. Although just completed, its fame is already widespread and it seems destined to rank as one of the most notable architectural achievements in America.