Elmwood, Berkeley, California

The Claremont district is a neighborhood straddling the city limits of Oakland and Berkeley in the East Bay section of the San Francisco Bay Area in California, United States. The main thoroughfares are Claremont and Ashby Avenues. The name "Claremont" was adopted December 20, 1879 at a meeting convened by a real estate developer and local resident, Grant Taggert. Within a year or so of this, the name of the main thoroughfare was changed from Telegraph Road to Claremont Avenue. The Telegraph Road had been named for the first telegraph line into Oakland, strung by the Alta Telegraph Company in 1859. The line ran from Martinez across the hills and down what was then named "Harwood's Canyon" after an early claimant to grazing lands in the canyon above the Claremont neighborhood, retired sea captain and Oakland wharfinger William Harwood. With the advent of the telegraph line, it became "Telegraph Canyon", a name that persists for a side canyon near the summit of the hills. The creek which runs through the Claremont neighborhood was first known as the north fork of Temescal Creek. It later became Harwood Creek, and eventually, Claremont Creek. During the 19th century, a stage coach line ran up the canyon and over the summit into Contra Costa County. This became an early auto route over the Berkeley Hills even after the first tunnel (the InterCounty Tunnel/Kennedy Tunnel) opened up in 1903 to the south of Claremont Canyon, at the top of Temescal Canyon above where the Caldecott Tunnel is today. In 1905, Duncan McDuffie opened up the Claremont Park development, an upscale tract with racial covenants, which prevented property owners from selling or renting to non-whites.In 1909, the portion of the district which now lies within the City of Oakland was annexed to the city. Until then, it had been an unincorporated area of Alameda County. In the early 1900s real estate interests associated with the Key System built the Claremont Hotel at the mouth of Claremont Canyon. The Key System ran one of its commuter train lines directly to the hotel up Claremont Avenue until service ended in 1958. This train became the transbay "E" train upon completion of the San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge. The principal west-east thoroughfare through the Claremont was at first Russell Street which led directly to the road up Claremont Canyon. With the opening of the first tunnel however, Ashby became the more direct approach to the Tunnel Road and was improved over the years to channel through traffic, especially during the 1930s when both the new Broadway (later re-named Caldecott) Tunnel and the Bay Bridge were constructed. Ashby and Tunnel Road were then designated State Route 24 and connected to the Eastshore Highway (now Freeway) to serve as an access route to the Bay Bridge and San Francisco. Upon completion of the Grove-Shafter Freeway in the 1960s, it was re-designated State Route 13 and connected to the new Warren Freeway. The Claremont district was one of the areas affected by the 1991 Oakland firestorm. The flames came within a few blocks of the Claremont Hotel, destroying much of the area northeast of Tunnel Road. The area has since been rebuilt.

Maybeck High School is a coeducational, independent, college preparatory high school located in Berkeley, California.

The Julia Morgan Theater, located in the former St. John's Presbyterian Church, is a historic building in Berkeley, California designed by architect Julia Morgan. The wooden building at 2640 College Avenue is built in the American Craftsman style with an exterior wood-shingle finish known as Berkeley Brown Shingle. The church building was desanctified and sold when the congregation moved to a new building in 1974. It now houses the Berkeley Playhouse. The structure is #8 on the city of Berkeley's list of historic landmarks. In 1975 it was added to the National Register of Historic Places (listing #74000507).

The Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life, formerly known as the Judah L. Magnes Museum from 1961 until its reopening in 2012, is a museum of Jewish history, art, and culture in Berkeley, California. The museum, which was founded in 1961 by Seymour and Rebecca Fromer, is named for Jewish activist Rabbi Judah L. Magnes, a native of Oakland and co-founder of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. The Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life houses more than 30,000 Jewish artifacts and manuscripts, which is the third largest collection of its kind in the United States.During the 2000s, negotiations were held to potentially merge the Judah L. Magnes Museum with what is now called the Contemporary Jewish Museum of San Francisco. However, the talks failed to produce an agreement to combine the two institutions.In 2010, the Judah L. Magnes Museum agreed to give its collection to the University of California, Berkeley, which will now display and preserve the museum's rare Jewish artifacts. As part of the agreement, the collection was moved from its location in an 8,600-square-foot house on Russell Street in Berkeley to a 25,000-square-foot building on Allston Way in downtown Berkeley. The Magnes Museum's board of directors had originally purchased the downtown building in 1997.The museum reopened in its new facility on January 22, 2012. In addition to the move, the name of the museum was changed to the Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life.

The Jabberwock was an American folk music club and coffeehouse active from 1961 to 1967, and located in Berkeley, California. It became among the most popular venues in the area's folk movement thanks to Bill "Jolly Blue" Ehlert. It stood at the corner of Telegraph Avenue and Russell Street, and featured several notable artists. The club was particularly frequented by pre-groups formed by future members of Country Joe and the Fish. The building was demolished two years after the business's closing.

The Berkeley School of Theology (BST) is a theological school affiliated with the American Baptist Churches USA and located in Berkeley, California. It is part of the Graduate Theological Union, a consortium of theological schools and centers in the Berkeley area. BST changed its name from the American Baptist Seminary of the West in July 2020. Prior to that it was called Berkeley Baptist Divinity School.

The California School for the Blind is a public educational institution for blind children, K-12, located in Fremont, California. Its campus is located next to the California School for the Deaf.

First Church of Christ, Scientist, Berkeley, now also known as Christian Science Society, Berkeley, is a Christian Science church, located at 2619 Dwight Way at Bowditch Street across the street from People's Park, in Berkeley, in Alameda County, California.The Christian Science Society, Berkeley continues to meet in their over-100-year-old church building.

People's Park in Berkeley, California is a park located just east of Telegraph Avenue, bounded by Haste and Bowditch Streets, and Dwight Way, near the University of California, Berkeley. The park was created during the radical political activism of the late 1960s.The local Southside neighborhood was the scene of a major confrontation between student protesters and police in May 1969. A mural near the park, painted by Berkeley artist O'Brien Thiele and lawyer/artist Osha Neumann, depicts the shooting of James Rector, who was fatally shot by police on May 15, 1969.While legally the land is the property of the University of California, People's Park has operated since the early 1970s as a free public park. The City of Berkeley declared it a historical and cultural landmark in 1984. Although open to all, it is often viewed as a sanctuary for Berkeley's low income and large homeless population who, along with others, receive meals from East Bay Food Not Bombs regularly. Many homeless outreach organizations, like the Suitcase Clinic, also visit the park regularly. Nearby residents, and those who use the park for recreation, partake in activities around the park like gardening, musical performances, and movie nights. Many of these events are planned and executed by the People's Park Committee.In response to UC Berkeley's renewed plan to build student housing on the site, the Defend People's Park coalition has formed to organize events, direct actions, mutual aid, and classes at the park since a student occupation began in early 2021. A People’s Park Historic District Advocacy Group also formed and pursued national recognition for the park. The California State Historical Resources Commission voted unanimously on November 5, 2021, to recommend the site for inclusion in the National Register of Historic Places.

The 1969 People's Park protest, also known as Bloody Thursday, took place at People's Park on May 15, 1969. The Berkeley Police Department and other officers clashed with protestors over the site of the park, using deadly force. Ronald Reagan, then-governor of California, eventually sent in the state National Guard to quell the protests.

Peralta Elementary School is a designated arts anchor school in the Oakland Unified School District. It was established in 1880 as a one-room schoolhouse, and today has around 325 students in 14 classrooms (K–5th).The school has a tradition of family involvement and activism that stretches back to the 19th century.In 2006, Peralta was one of six schools in California where African-American students scored an API that exceeded 800 on the state STAR test. In 2008, Peralta demonstrated that academic targets were achieved for all subgroups at the school. Since the early 1990 the Peralta staff, students, families and neighbors have been working to make the school a green oasis. Tons of asphalt have been removed and replaced with edible gardens, a small amphitheater, a new kindergarten play area, and a California natives garden. The gardens are teaching too, helping students to learn about healthy eating, science, and stewardship of the land. Families help maintain the gardens during monthly work days, which build community and give students a feeling of ownership and responsibility for their school. Peralta's gardens have been held up as local and regional models. Peralta is a community hub, with events and activities such as a community yardsale, walkathon and spring festival, Peralta in Bloom.

The Berkeley Piano Club was founded in 1893 by Berkeley women. In 1912 the club built a clubhouse designed by William L. Woollett with an internationally known performance space. It was designated a city historical landmark in 2005. The designation also includes the house, final home of John Galen Howard (his wife was club president from 1911-1913), in an upstairs workshop of which a trigger was designed for the atomic bomb by a Manhattan Project scientist. The landmark designation made the property eligible for state funding and a restoration was also completed in 2005.Nicolas Slonimsky lectured at the clubhouse in 1971.The club published a history for its centennial, The Berkeley Piano Club: One Hundred Years of Harmony by Mary F. Commanday.