May 2026 - History Corner

Welcome to the 200^th installment of the History Corner! I published the first column twenty years ago, in January 2006, and it has been a (mostly) monthly column ever since. It has been a pleasure writing these pieces about our Club’s long history, and I hope you have enjoyed reading them. – David Mostardi

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

May 1901

The Story of the Birth of the Hillside Club

Much of what we know about the birth of the Hillside Club in 1898 comes from a single newspaper article, published in the San Francisco Call on 19 May 1901. It is here that we learn that the first meeting was held on 5 October 1898, it is here that we are given a list of thirty initial club members, and it is here that Hillside Club founder Margaret Robinson succinctly states the Club’s principles:

That hillside streets be made convenient and beautiful by winding at an easy grade and as narrow as country roads or lanes, except in case of important thoroughfares. That trees be planted the length of the streets, suitable to the locality and of uniform variety. That as hillside lots bounded by curved roads are necessarily irregular, houses should be placed upon them in studied groups, to avoid obstruction of a neighbor’s view, a most altruistic principle that every prospective builder in Berkeley must needs approve of. That in house-building only natural materials be used, such as shingles, shakes, rough stone or clinker brick. That no oil paint be used inside or out, it having been proven that unstained and unpainted wood bears weathering indefinitely and grows more beautiful each season. Therefore, for reasons of economy as well as honest and beauty, all paint or stain should be discarded. The club holds that no colors are so soft, varied and harmonious as those of wood colored by weather. To prevent checking or shrinking, sills and casing may be treated with several coats of dull brown paint; but trimmings have no place or reason in good house building. They also hold that houses built of wood should follow the natural treatment, which is straight lines, since towers, arches or round windows are essentially indicative of stone or brick masonry, and therefore, illogical and ugly in wood, and that overhanging eaves add to the beauty of a house with their long shadows, and help to protect it.

The article goes on to quote Robinson on topics such as where to place a house on a hillside, how fill is generally to be avoided but is sometimes necessary depending on lot drainage, and how plaster walls “must go” because the plaster inevitably shrinks and cracks upon the non-shrinking laths. Recent club meetings are summarized, including talks on “Building Material,” “Shingles and Stains versus Boards and Paints,” and “Porches.”

Photographs of eight representative houses accompany the article, including those of Charles Keeler, Volney Moody, Lillian Bridgeman, and Fletcher B. Dresslar, all of whom became Hillside Club Members. Also included is a photograph of the brand-new Hillside School, built and furnished according to the Club’s principles: an achievement of which the Club was very proud indeed.

The article was written by one Alice Chittenden—probably the landscape painter Alice Brown Chittenden (1859-1944). She was born in Brockport, New York but came to San Francisco as a child and never left. Her father encouraged her art studies at the San Francisco School of Design, later known as the California School of Fine Arts and, today, San Francisco Art Institute. Chittenden later taught at the School of Design for 43 years. She exhibited and won medals at many World’s Fairs, including the 1894 California Mid-Winter International Exposition.

May 1926

Business Meeting, May 3

Annual reports of the officers. The Children’s Choral Club under the direction of Mr. Wheeler Beckett, will open the meeting with a series of musical numbers, including “Viking Song” by Samuel Coleridge Taylor, “Blanche of Provence” by Cherubini, and “Tally-ho!” by Franco Leoni.

May 1951

Fireside Meeting, May 7

Reports on another year of Hillside’s progress will be presented at this meeting for members only. There also will be light musical numbers by the popular Hillside Club male chorus.

Spring Reception, May 21: Formal, Members only

Combination features of the annual Spring Reception—the introduction of new members and of the members of the 1951-52 Board of Directors—will be presented in a program prepared by the chairmen, Mr. and Mrs. Fred Flanders. The Club history by Mrs. B. Grant Taylor and songs by Hillside’s male chorus will precede the annual election skit, which will reveal the Club’s new officers.

Notes

Mr. Bernard R. Maybeck has been named recipient of the Nation’s highest architectural honor, the Gold Medal of the American Institute of Architects. The award will be received on his behalf by his son, Mr. Wallen W. Maybeck, in Chicago on May 10.

May 1976

Annual Spring Dinner, May 10

You are invited to celebrate the 200^th birthday of the USA at our Annual Spring Dinner Party. The Committee has planned a delicious roast beef dinner, a very interesting program, and appropriate decorations.

Gold Country Tour, May 15-16

Bus Tour leaves the clubhouse at 8am, Saturday, May 15. The bus is now filled, with two private cars in addition. National Hotel in Nevada City is completely sold out to Hillside members, 55 in all.

Ice Follies Show, Oakland Coliseum Arena, May 19

Come, bring your friends, and enjoy this beautiful show and benefit our club at the same time. Each ticket means $1 to our club. Easter Seals also benefit. Tickets are $6.50 each and are tax-deductible.

May 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!