Berkeley Architectural Heritage Society Oral History Project ELLA (BARROWS) HAGAR 'Mediterranean~Stvle'in'fheeBerkelev Hills 245 Stonewall Road Berkeley, California 94705 Architect: WILLIAEi IURSTER Completed in 1928 in Holabird Garber Park and other subdivisions JOHN GARBER ESTATE Kellersberger's Plot No. 77 Interviewer Rosemary Levenson 261 Stonewall Road Berkeley, CA 94705 Regional Oral History Office Berkeley Architectural The Bancroft Library Heritage Society University of California P.O. Box 7066 Berkeley, California 94720 Landscape Station Berkeley, California 94707 TABLE OF CONTENTS--Ella (Barrows) Hagar Mediterranean Style in the Berkeley Hills FRONTISPIECE INTERVIEW HISTORY i AGENDA iii SAMPLE CONTRACT iv BERKELEY ARCHITECTURAL HERITAGE ASSOCIATION QUESTIONNAIRE v Choosing a Lot Architects and Architectural Styles Early Houses on Upper Stonewall Road Berkeley Address and Oakland Taxes The Garber Family John Garber Park and the City of Berkeley Quarry Cars and Steep Streets The Stonewall Community Annual Christmas Pageant A Closed Right of Way and Old Fish Ranch Road The John Roosevelts on Stonewall Road Levensons Move Next Door INDEX INTERVIEW HISTORY Ella Hagar's recollections of the development of the upper part of Stone- wall Road were recorded as a pilot oral history project for the Berkeley Architectural Heritage Association. The impetus was the interviewer's curiosity about the history of her own neighborhood. B.A.H.A.'s encouragement led to the completion of the project. We hope that others will also be encouraged to record the reminiscences of their knowledgeable neighbors and friends and thus preserve memories of the early history of Berkeley's buildings and neighborhoods that would otherwise be lost. The project started with the discovery in my house of a crumpled ozalid copy of the 1927 tract map of "Holabird Garber Park and other Subdivisions". It was hard to read since the black tissue paper reproduction was reversed, and all three feet of it had to be taped to a window. A photographic positive reduction was made, which is easily legible, and is reproduced as frontispiece to this volume. Wanting to find out more, I asked Ella Hagar if I could inter- view her. Since newly-married Gerald and Ella Hagar were the first to build in the new subdivision in 1928, she was the obvious person to turn to as memoirist. '.. Having gone so far, primarily to inform myself and my children about the history of the neighborhood where they grew up, I consulted with my Department Head in the Regional Oral History Office, Willa Baum. Mrs. Baum felt that the completion of a small-scale oral history memoir might be of value to B.A.H.A. and other local history groups with limited funds and active volunteers. Mrs. Hagar generously donated the money needed for the production of six copies of the memoir. Interviewing, editing, and final typing were volunteered. Tran- scribing, volume assembly, and other secretarial chores were done in R.O.H.O.'s office. Ella cheerfully agreed to fit yet another interview into her busy life. Several days before our date, an informal invitation-agenda letter and copy of the tract map were delivered. Both are included in this volume. Ella found these aids valuable in alerting her to the topics to be covered and in jogging her memory on proper names. Since Ella's memoirs have already been recorded and the volume is readily available to interested readers in The Bancroft Library, the standard biographical and demographic questions were not covered.* B.A.H.A.'s oral history questionnaire which includes such questions is included in this volume. *Ella Barrows Hagar, Continuing Memoirs: Family, Community, University, an interview by Suzanne Riess, Regional Oral History Office, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley, 1974, 272 pp. It was a pleasure to walk to work on Monday, April 28, 1978. Down 96 steps, and up "Court Street" as it appears on the map, to Ella's tiled living room in the Mediterranean house built for the Hagars nearly fifty years ago. As always, Ella was well prepared with notes, and well supplied with coffee for our break. Ella described howtheir young architect, William (Bill) Wurster persuaded the Hagars that they did not want an English Tudor house by building an enchanting little model. "He brought it up, and we said, 'We don't like it.' He said, 'Of course you don't like it. You don't put that kind of house on this kind of slope. We have to build a Mediterranean house that clings to the side.' That's how we came to build this. So, we said, 'All right, that's fine."' Mrs. Hagar also tells how some of the South Berkeley streets were named. The Garber tract consisted of forty acres, and Juliet Garber Stringham was given the job of naming the streets. "She named Stonewall Road because of her admiration for Stonewall Jackson; Belrose (Belle Rose) was part of her mother's name; Garber, of course, the family name and Tanglewood Road arose from her enthusiasm for Hawthorne's Tanglewood Tales." Ella also describes the excite- ment the day that the President's wife, Eleanor Roosevelt, came swirling by, in a red dress with sirens going on her car when she came to visit her youngest son, John, then a tenant at 261 Stonewall Road. The tapes were transcribed in the Regional Oral History Office. As I mentioned the project to other friends and neighbors, more questions and anecdotes surfaced. In the editing process, these were included in the form of additional questions to which Ella wrote the answers. Ella approved the edited transcript with minor revisions and signed the release form, also reproducedin this volume. The volume was final-typed and indexed. Our hope is that this small pilot project will be overtaken by a fleet of reminiscences recording the remembered history of our community and preserv- ing it in an inexpensive form readily available to all interested readers in both The Bancroft and the Berkeley Architectural Heritage Association libraries. Rosemary Levenson Interviewer-Editor 5 May 1979 Regional Oral History Office 486 The Bancroft Library University of California at Berkeley 261 Stonewall Road .;3erkel_.-.;r, CA q4705 - - - - -- b:.,-.r*.:- G?--- .. LI :*.- ?,-:~Tl.T ?A5 C;f nnewall Road bjer';czie;y, ;.;A 347C5 ymr Icnow, I l.;r:int to iln thj-s for mv own, 2nd n~r~T~-..;.~.T:'E ?qi.fi~,~~:ion.',rj+l~-rni~r-n.-~l?ni-rsinq,... 7: 1,y~)ljl-a915~,?~TT*? 7. eqn-.~ A!., -, t~n?!?) tn fir! 3nrlrql_?y :~~e~j+-~qt~lr,=-l?e~i+t-?t~.?"cjn+,~-,' :.'kic;I1 is tryin.. -to fir! an o~a.7historv o.f -,3er1rc:l!tvarcnitccti,~r~~.AI-tho~ql~ t'lis is not; ?.n o-fficr-?yrnjnct, I intc?nd to fol1.0--.lt;hn T-T.~<.-~?I;_o-:I,T~ ffiiirl?l..inns !r:.i.d (1o:~rn by Th? Reyional anral Tiistcr!r bf rice, ztnC wiil n.slc TTou-1;~ silru~our s'r-~ortf o contr?~ct~ ~ ~,!~3ichyivc?s you. f~ll contrnl. nvnr -h?:: tnnc(s) a.nd the trznscrint, if my, Berkeley Architectural Heritage Society P.O. Box 7066 Berkeley, California 94707 & The Regional Oral History Office The Bancroft Library University of California Berkeley, Californai 94720 We, Ella Barrows Haaar and Rosemarv Levenson 9 Narrator Internrimer do hereby give to the Directors of the Berkeley Architectural Society and The Bancroft Library for such scholarly and educational uses as they shall determine the following tape-recorded interview(s) recorded on 3-28-78 date (s) as an unrestricted gift. This gift does not preclude any use which we may want to make of the information in the recordings ourselves. a, l3.7&& Signature of Narx#tor Flla Barrows Haaar 245 Stonewall Road Berkeley, California 94705 Name & Address of Narrator Accepted for the Directors by /- 'Signature ofVInterviewer Rosemary Levenson 261 Stonewall Road Berkeley, California 94705 Name and Address of Intervimer Mav 3. 1979 Dated Mediterranean Style in the Berkeley Hills : Development of Upper Stonewall Road Subject of Interview (s) ?ow Icsc bzve yo2 ?ircC Fn Bcrkelcy'! - In r!tlch ncjghborhoods havc you livcd?. % k.e3?- I Car. ::ca su??ly inf6,-zztion nbozt sny perticular 5uilllr.q~in tkcre nci~~~~o~hoods?- -- Y.'hFch buildings dc ycx consider outst&r:Sing? Xone has your nei~hbcrhocPchzs~edover the ye~rs? -- What :;as ycur zesociaticjn urith this ir:divi~usl?- Can you rezcnbcr facts ond anecdotes about his czrcer? Can you scpply f~forzationabout eaj huildic~owith ahicb he ):as bcen escociatc~'? Cat yo.; sapply ini'orcation about thc dc:-~loyientof Eerkelcy is a city? Do you rcmcrber anecdotes about any of the folLowing subjc~ts: - Tt.c cortstructior. of ptzklic buildings? - The grzivth of cos~etci.alarees? Thc dcvclopzcct of trar,cvortetion pztterns? Thc plascicq parks, calks, Phc g:aJth of thc Uaiversity? Do gcu rcrrcii;bcr facts or anecdotes irtout 2r.y of the folloi-;in;: evezts? Thc earthquake of 1906? Thc firc of 1$.23? Ecrkelcy cxpcricnee durinz World Y;ar I? Viorld Kar 117- Berkalcy ir. the Dcpresaion of.the l?jO's'? - after Korlc! \%zrII? .-.-. Fith rk.ct Serkelcy orr,cf.izationc; have you bcen associnf cd? .*.i,ocll gou like to tic intcrricwed for thc Ordl History -t~rojcst? INTERVIEW WITH ELLA HAGAR (STONEWALL ROAD) Date of interview: 28 March 1978 ;-Beginning Cassette 1, Side A] Choosing a Lot Levenson: It's very nice of you to do this, Ella, to discuss Stonewall Road where you've lived for so long and where I moved in as your neighbor over twenty years ago. For reference we have here a map of the "Holabird-Garber Park and other subdivisions of John Garber Estate," 1927, and perhaps we can start by your talking about whatever you want.