April 2025 - History Corner

#187 in an ongoing series about the history of the Hillside Club

Once Upon a Hillside: 25, 50, 75, 100, and 125 years ago

April 1900

The Hillside Club was founded on 5 October 1898. No newspaper articles about the young Hillside Club could be found for this month.

April 1925

Business Meeting, April 6

Mr. Owen C. Coy, director of the California State Historical Association, will speak on “The Significance and Romance of California Place Names.” This will complete the series of talks on early California history. [Owen Cochran Coy (1884-1952) had a long career in the history field. He was Professor of History at USC from 1925 until 1950. He was also secretary and later director of the California Historical Survey Commission 1915-23, and when it became the California State Historical Association in 1923, he was director until 1950. He served as a state technical director of the Historical Records Survey, W.P.A. in 1936. His son, also named Owen C. Coy, was also a historian.]

Spring Festival, April 20

There is a desire on the part of the chairman to revive the old-time custom of a Flower Exhibit. If you or your friends have any choice blooms, send them to the Club House in the morning or call Mrs. Clarence Fleager.

News Notes

The Choral Section will meet on the second and fourth Tuesday evenings at the Club House.

The Grounds Committee, Mr. Gerrick chairman, have planned another Labor Day for Saturday afternoon, April 18. Efforts will be made to complete the work started in the garden. A full attendance is urged.

Professor John William Gregg, landscape architect at the University of California, has just been advised that plans exhibited by him at the Second Annual Exhibition of the Pacific Coast Chapter of the American Society of Landscape Architects held at the Southwest Museum in Los Angeles, has received both first and second awards in the one class in which he exhibited, “Institution Plans.” The campus plan for the development of the Northen Branch of the College of Agriculture at Davis received first award, and the plan for the development of the campus and grounds of the Graduate School of Tropical Agriculture at Riverside received second award.

April 1950

The Hillside Club has a nearly complete archive of monthly newsletters. Unfortunately, there is a gap from October 1949 through January 1951.

April 1975

Fireside Meeting, April 7

Dr. Robert A. Scalapino will give the talk on “Crises in Asia and American Response” which he was unable to present in December. Professor Scalapino is uniquely prepared to discuss problems facing the United States in the field of Asian policy, and we are most appreciative of his willingness to speak to the Club.

Garden Party, April 13

Our party will start at the lovely Blake Gardens of the University of California’s Department of Landscape Architecture. Many of the over 2,500 species and varieties of plants from all over the world will be at their best—particularly the rhododendrons, azaleas, camellias, and bulbs. Hillsiders will be spotted around the grounds as docents to answer questions. After the “visual treat,” we will retire to our Clubhouse where “four o’clock tea” will be served. Yes, there will be a plant “give away” table. Bring your contribution to the Clubhouse before going to the Gardens, so that we will have the plants ready to go at teatime.

Spring Reception, April 21

In keeping with our national celebration of beginnings, the theme of this evening will be Commemoration of Our Early Years. A program reviewing the beginnings of Hillside Club is under the direction of Lois Tomlinson, who has researched minutes and memorabilia of our club and has selected material for the evening’s scenario. The evening will begin with the traditional Friendship Circle formed by members as they arrive, and will close with the introduction of officers and directors for the coming year.

Annual Theatre & Dinner Party, April 25

Ticket holders for tonight’s performance of “Mame” by the Contra Costa Civic Theatre are advised to at the theatre by 8pm in order to secure the block of seats reserved by the Hillside Club. The performance is already sold out. We are advancing the dinner hour for those holding reservations at Kirby’s restaurant in El Cerrito Plaza to 6pm to ensure a more leisurely dinner before going to the show.

Denmark USA

Our last Hillside Tour this spring will be to “Little Denmark USA.” This will be a 3-day trip to Solvang on May 16, 17, and 18. We’ll leave Friday morning and travel to Salinas where there will be a coffee break at Sherwood Gardens. Then onto Paso Robles for a delicious buffet luncheon at the famous old Paso Robles Inn. We’ll arrive at Solvang in the late afternoon, and after checking into your room, there will be time for relaxation or browsing before our social hour and dinner at Margaret & Paul’s Restaurant. In the evening there will be games, cards, or just conversation if you wish. Danneborg Inn, our motel, has a delightful poolroom available to us for these events.

In the morning, after a continental breakfast, we’ll tour Lompoc Valley with its beautiful flower fields and La Purissima Mission, which most graphically shows what our early day California missions must have been like. We’ll return to Solvang and the Danish Maid Restaurant for a buffet lunch, following which we’ll go east to an Arabian Horse ranch for a visit and horse show. After the show we’ll come back to town and the balance of the afternoon is free for shopping or looking.

Sunday, we leave for home, stopping at Kieffer’s in King City for a most delicious luncheon. We arrive back in Berkeley in the late afternoon. The cost per person will be $72 for this delightful trip.

April 2000

The Club’s archive of printed monthly newsletters ended with the May 1994 issue. If you know of a source for any newsletters between 1994 and the Club’s renaissance in the early 2000s, your historian would love to hear about it!