December 2024 - History Corner

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

December 1899

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

December 1924

Business Meeting, December 1

Mr. E. W. Gifford, associate curator of the Anthropological Museum, will give an illustrated lecture on “The Pre-Spanish Inhabitants of California.”

Christmas Ceremonial, December 15

It is Christmas Eve in 1785 in Mission San Gabriel—everybody is there—Grandees, Rancheros, Soldiers, Indians, Friars, everybody to join in the celebration. Father Juan’s Indian Neophytes have prepared a wonderful miracle play. He has helped them but they have done everything themselves and are proud of it and it is such a wonderful play! Afterwards there will be games and joy, for it is Christmas! In accepting this invitation, it would be in keeping for those who have no ceremonial robes to dress as much like our hosts as we can conveniently. Mr. and Mrs. Bernard Maybeck are chairmen for this occasion. [The Hillside Club was not immune to the patronizing attitude towards Native Americans or ignoring the grievous harm done to them by the Spaniards.]

December 1949

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

December 1974

Fireside Meeting, December 2

The Program Committee is pleased to present Robert A. Scalapino, noted authority on Asia and US-Asian policy and Professor of Political Science at the University of California, Berkeley, who will speak on “The Crisis in Asia and American Response.” Drawing on his experiences in the Republic of China in 1973 and on his recently completed lecture tour to the USSR, Tokyo, Korea and other Asian countries, Mr. Scalapino is uniquely prepared to assess the current situation in that part of the world and to discuss the problems facing the US in the field of Asian policy. [Robert Scalapino (1919-2011) was born in Leavenworth, Kansas and received his Ph.D. from Harvard University in 1948. At Berkeley, he founded and was the first director of the Institute of East Asian Studies, from 1978 to 1990. He sat on the board of directors of the Council on Foreign Relations and was a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He remained active into his late 80s, serving as a government consultant and testifying at Congressional hearings.]

Children’s Christmas Party, December 14

Santa will again visit Hillside Club brining his bag of gifts. Please invite your children, grandchildren, nieces and nephews, or even adopt a child for an afternoon of fun—carols, magic, and of course, refreshments. Santa will need assistance, so please bring a gift for each of your guest children, preferably not to exceed $2, wrapped and plainly marked with the child’s name in large CAPITAL LETTERS.

Christmas Ceremonial, December 16

Glad Christmas Bells will ring in the Christmas season for Hillsiders this year. The St. John’s Bell Ringers with their fifty hand bells will entertain us with selections from their recent European concert program and traditional Christmas music. Under the direction of J. Richard Coulter, Minister of Music at Berkeley’s St. John’s Presbyterian Church, this group of young people will win your hearts. A rediscovered backdrop of a colorful stained-glass window created by Bernard Maybeck will be featured during the singing of carols by our own members. Come in your ceremonial robes and join in the fellowship at the Boar’s Head table and Wassail Bowl.

December 1999

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!