April 2026 - History Corner

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

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

April 1901

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

April 1926

Business Meeting, April 5

Will the sons and daughters of our present-day immigrants make as good citizens as those of the past? (Were your parents native born Americans?) in the light of his fifteen years’ experience in the schools of Hawaii, Vaughan MacCaughey will give his opinions on this question and discuss the possibility of making into real Americans the children of our foreign-born population. [After moving to Berkeley from Hawaii, Vaughan MacCaughey (1887-1954) edited the California State Teachers Association magazine for 30 years. Upon his retirement, he became the western representative for the National Audubon Society. … The Fireside Meeting’s focus on immigrants to California began with the October 1925 lecture and would continue through April 1926. The Northside area, where the Clubhouse was located and where most Club members lived, was one of several redlined neighborhoods in Berkeley which barred African-Americans, Hispanics, Jews, and other minorities. For much of its history, the Hillside Club was a very white and politically conservative organization.]

Notes

The Board of Directors are pleased to announce that the mortgage [on the Club House] has been reduced by an extra payment of five hundred dollars. Our indebtedness is still heavy, but by rigid economy we may soon hope to be able to carry our expenses within the normal income of the club.

April 1951

Fireside Meeting, April 2

Annual election of the directors for the ensuing Club year will be held at the first April meeting, which will feature a program new and interesting to music lovers. Our jovial Fowler Mallett will select from his extensive record library what he wishes to call “Reminisces: Musical and Trivial.” Mr. Mallett wishes to convey to his audience his philosophy of never taking anything too seriously. Certainly the results will not be “trivial.”

Operetta, April 16

Romantic Venice of the 18^th century will be the background of Louis M. Piccirillo’s new three-act original musical play “The Loves of Lucinda.” Many surprises are in store this year. The form of the operetta differs from former years and many new players will participate for the first time. Mr. Piccirillo has written a gay and dashing comedy which will introduce to the club as leading lady our member Mrs. Claudine Spindt who recently gave several concerts in the Easy Bay with great success. The stage crew under George Leatherman is constructing a magnificent set which will have for its backdrop a superb view of the Grand Canal of Venice painted by Mrs. Victoria Kimball. A string quartet, with Margaret Howard Goard at the piano, will furnish the musical accompaniment for the operetta. A quartet of gondoliers will be an added feature.

April 1976

Fireside Meeting, April 5

Informal—Members and Guests

Would you like to hear Warren Hanna tell about what he calls “thaumaturgic hermeneutics,” meaning the strange and wonderful world of Workmen’s Compensation, and about some of the surprising and even shocking things that happen in that field? As head of the country’s largest law firm specializing in Workmen’s Compensation cases, he has an inexhaustible fund of fascinating information and humorous anecdotes about people who work for other people in California, the shady tricks sometimes used to bilk insurance companies, and how the companies manage to catch some of the frauds.

Chairs for Sale

The Hillside Board of Directors have approved the sale of 36 wooden folding chairs that have been used at the club in recent years. They will be sold for $3 each and may be inspected at the Club. [These are probably the last of the wooden chairs purchased by the Club in 1924 and used until the present chairs were purchased in 1972.]

April 2001

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!