| Blake Garden | |
|---|---|
_2.jpg) Formal Garden with reflecting pool and Blake House in Blake Garden | |
   | |
| Type | Public |
| Location | 70 Rincon Road Kensington, California, United States |
| Coordinates | 37°54′48″N122°17′07″W / 37.91346°N 122.28521°W /37.91346; -122.28521 |
| Area | 10.6 acres (4.3 ha) |
| Created | 1957 (1957) by |
| Status | Open year round |
| Website | ced |
Blake Garden is a teaching facility for theUC Berkeley College of Environmental Design in the hills ofKensington, California, a census-designated place of theEast Bay region of theBay Area inNorthern California, approximately 4 mi (6.4 km) north of the mainUniversity of California, Berkeley campus. It was originally designed by landscape architect Mabel Symmes for the estate owned by her sister and brother-in-law, Anita and Anson Blake; the trio lived inBlake House, a mansion on the estate designed by architectWalter Danforth Bliss and completed in 1924. The Blakes deeded the grounds to their alma mater, theUniversity of California, in 1957, which took full control after Anita's death in 1962, implementing a redesign byGeraldine Knight Scott starting from 1964. Blake House served as the official residence of thePresident of the University of California from 1967 to 2008. Since 2009, Blake Garden has been open to the public on weekdays.
In Berkeley (before Kensington).
One of the original trustees of the University of California, Anson Gale Stiles, purchased land onPiedmont Avenue, east of the present-dayBerkeley campus in the late 1860s.[1] Anson's Piedmont house was completed in 1895.[2] Anson ultimately left the property to his daughter, Harriet Waters Stiles (1840–1928). Additionally, two of Harriet's sons, Anson Stiles Blake (1870–1959) and Edwin Tyler Blake (1875–1949), would later build homes and gardens on this same property.
In Kensington.
When the Stiles/Blake family land on Piedmont was later purchased by the university in 1922 to buildMemorial Stadium, the families relocated to a 45-acre (18 ha) site in Kensington, encompassing where Blake Garden is today. The site was owned by Harriet who divided the land evenly between her four children: Eliza; Robert; Edwin; and Anson.
Two of those children - Eliza Seely Blake Thatcher (1872–1944), andRobert Pierpont Blake (1886–1950) - lived outside the Bay Area and sold their shares to developers.[3]: iii
The two other siblings, Anson and Edwin Blake, built two homes on the property in the Kensington hills. Anson Blake's house was completed in 1925, and is also known asLa Casa Adelante. Edwin Blake's house is also known asQuinta de La Lilas.[4]
The widowed Harriet would live with Edwin, while Anson's sister-in-law, Mabel Symmes (1875–1962), would live with Anson and Anita (1872–1962), his wife and Mabel's sister.[5] Anita and Mabel transplanted much of the Piedmont garden to the new Kensington site, taking four months and thirty truckloads to do so.[6]
Anson Blake's house is now Blake Garden (see below). Over the next thirty years, the Symmes sisters would continue to collect botanical specimens and develop the site. A small colony of semi-feral cats kept the rodent population from eating the plants.[6] From the start, the Blakes invited students from the Department of Landscape Architecture at the University of California to the estate.[3]: vi
Edwin Blake's house is now a Carmelite Monastery, which is adjacent to Blake Garden.
The garden was deeded to the University of California in 1957 by Anson and Anita Blake,[5] andMai Arbegast was appointed acting director of Blake Garden, working closely with the family to identify and catalog the plant species that had been collected.[7] Title on the site passed to the university upon the deaths of Anita Blake and her sister Mabel Symmes in 1962.Geraldine Knight Scott was appointed director of Blake Garden and began preparing the site for public visitation by clearing overgrown foliage and creating an influentialLong Range Development Plan in 1964.[8] For a "brief and unsatisfactory" time from 1962 to 1964,[2] it was used as a women's graduate student dormitory.[9][3]: 132 The remote location proved to be frightening at night and too distant, at approximately 4 mi (6.4 km) north of the Berkeley campus.[10]
The President of the University of California had traditionally lived inPresident's House, a residence on the Berkeley campus; whenClark Kerr was promoted from the Chancellor of Berkeley to UC president, he continued to live in his own private residence, and had President's House remodeled into University House to hold official events. University House would become the Berkeley chancellor's residence in 1965, whenRoger W. Heyns moved into the house. In 1967,Charles Hitch succeeded Kerr as UC president and selected Blake House as his residence; it would continue to serve as the residence for the University of California president from 1967 to 2008.[11] Hitch moved into the residence in April 1969, following aUS$459,000 (equivalent to $3,936,000 in 2024) refurbishment paid through private donations.[9] Improvements were designed by the architects Ron and Myra Brocchini, and upgrades to the grounds were designed by Scott to increase security and privacy while maintaining public access, including the stucco wall and fencing east of Blake House.[10] Hitch also paid a "posessory interest" tax equivalent to aproperty tax directly to Contra Costa County from his own pocket.[12]
Russell Beatty succeeded Scott as the director of Blake Garden in 1967, implementing a new mission as an "outdoor laboratory" for student projects in landscape architecture.[13] In addition, the Children's Adventure Garden and Playground was built in 1970, spearheaded byWalter Doty, and ran for three years, with children responsible for tending plants under the guidance of Berkeley students.[14] Under Beatty, the Cut-Flower Garden was created in 1973 and a bouquet was delivered daily to the House.[13]
Hitch's successor as UC President,David S. Saxon, lived in Blake House from 1975 to 1983.[3]: vii In 1983, the University of California helped incoming PresidentDavid P. Gardner purchase a different home inOrinda, as Blake House was configured with only two bedrooms at the time and Gardner wanted more privacy.[15] Nevertheless, Gardner used Blake House for official events and as an off-campus presidential office.[3]: vii In 2002, an inspection revealed cracks and water damage;Robert Dynes called it "pretty much unlivable" with a leaky roof, mold, and broken fixtures.[16]Mark Yudof broke from tradition when he became UC President in 2008; as part of his vow to bring "fiscal responsibility" to the system, he chose to live in a rented house instead of spending the estimated US$10 million in renovations and refurbishment for Blake House,[17] although a few events continued to be held at Blake House. The chair of theRegents of the University of California,Russell Gould, described the mansion as having "great bones, but it is a money pit."[16] In 2013, incoming UC presidentJanet Napolitano rented a house in Oakland as her presidential residence; at the time, Blake House was called "stately, but run-down" and it was estimated that required renovations could cost up to US$6 million, compared to the US$100,000 annual cost of renting a suitable house.[18]
TheSeldon Williams House, a historic residence at 2821 Clairemont Blvd, designed byJulia Morgan and completed in 1928, was purchased for the UC president in 2021;[19] according to a news release describing that acquisition, "UC's former official presidential residence, Blake House in Kensington, has been uninhabitable for more than a decade because of extensive — and cost-prohibitive — deferred maintenance, in addition to significant seismic risks and landslide hazards. The university plans to sell this property at an appropriate time, with proceeds going to UC Berkeley's College of Environmental Design."[20] The upper garden is crossed by theHayward Fault, which runs through Kensington parallel to Arlington Avenue, and the site is part of an area considered "highly susceptible to movement" as a potential site of a future major earthquake.[21]
Blake House was a 27-room mansion designed in a Spanish style byWalter Danforth Bliss[22] for Anson Blake and his wife Anita.[9] Hitch called it "the biggest three-bedroom house in the world", as the first floor was used for formal receptions and official functions, while residential spaces were limited to the second floor.[23] The 1967–68 remodel as the UC Presidential house left the building with 12,434 sq ft (1,155.2 m2) of floor space, seven bathrooms, two kitchens, and three bedrooms.[3]: vii Blake Garden occupies a site with grades of up to 50%; the land east of Blake House, sited on the upper third, is relatively flat, while the land west of the House is much steeper.[2] The grounds are divided into five "garden rooms": theFormal Garden east of the House;Redwood Canyon to the north of the House; the areasWest of the House, including the Lower Lawn and Mediterranean Section;Australian Hollow south of the House, and theCut-Flower Garden east of Australian Hollow, including a vegetable garden, the Cottage Garden, the Square Garden, greenhouses, and tool sheds used by the Blake Garden staff. In addition, there is an entrance area that connects the House with Rincon Road to the east.[23]
The siting of Blake House is integral to the garden's design: it shelters theFormal Garden from the strong prevailing winds off theGolden Gate.[2][23] The grounds for both estates were designed by Mrs. Blake's sister, Mabel Symmes, who graduated from the university's Landscape Architecture Department in 1914. Ms. Symmes' original plan showed great sensitivity to the site. Much of her original plan can still be seen in the design of theFormal Gardens east of the house, with its grotto, inspired by theVilla Tusculana atFrascati, Italy and thereflecting pool which was part of a system to take advantage of underground water.[4] The koi that live in the pool are named for Blake family members.[23]
The garden is home to nearly 1500 plant species, over fifty bird species, as well as raccoons, frogs, salamanders, and the occasional fox. The garden is allorganic, with many sustainable practices including four kinds ofcomposting,rainwater harvesting, and hives ofhoneybees. Decorations in the Garden include several sculptures with Asian themes, such as the glazed pagoda, which were purchased and installed originally by Anita Blake.[6]
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There are two streams on-site, draining the north and south edges; both were stabilized with vegetation during construction.[2] TheRedwood Canyon, withredwood cuttings brought from the Blakes' properties in Berkeley and St. Helena, is planted along a natural waterway. It also divides the property from the adjacent Carmelite Monastery.[23] In Symmes' original design, the adjoining Edwin Blake garden was designed to be a contiguous extension of the Anson and Anita Blake property; the Carmelites later built a fence north of the canyon, disconnecting a stone bridge that spans the stream. Most of the plants here are shade-tolerant.[6]
Plantings on the steep slope west of the house include theMediterranean Garden, a showcase of drought-tolerant plants from the world'sMediterranean climates in diamond-shaped beds linked by switchback paths leading to a lookout over the Bay on the property's western edge,[6] near a largelawsonite rock outcropping[23] and a picnic shelter reconstructed by ProfessorGarrett Eckbo.[24]
The original plan also shows a lake in theAustralian Hollow, the southwestern corner of the property, taking advantage of the high water table in that part of the garden.[25] In 2010 this area was restored to a native wetland by UC students, volunteers and Blake Garden staff. The wetland now provides habitat to a community ofPacific chorus frogs and area birds. This area is distinguished by a thornless blackberry brush tunnel.[23]
South of Blake House, Anita Blake and Mabel Symmes had planned and built a formal, symmetricRose Garden surrounding a square pool.[6] This is now theSquare Garden, retaining the water lily-filled pond, but with flower beds brimming with low-waterperennials instead of roses.[6] The area southeast of the House has been developed as theCut Flower Garden, including theCottage Garden, which has roses, flowers for cutting, vegetables and herbs and theEvent Lawn and surrounding beds, another example of water-smart gardening. Additionally, theCreate with Nature Zone offers a space for visitors of all ages to experiment and build with materials collected from the garden.
