Directions to The Blake Garden
Directions From Berkeley, Emeryville, Oakland, SF
Take 80 and get off on Buchanan, which turns into Marin. Cross San Pablo Ave and continue going up until you hit the bear fountain at the Circle. Go around and enter Arlington Blvd. Once you pass Kenyon Ave, watch for the Kensington Public Library to your right. Make a left on Rincon and go all the way, almost to the end, where you will see a wall with a very discrete entrance. We will meet in the parking lot. If you arrive late meet us under the large shade tree in the rose garden.
Directions From Richmond, El Cerrito, San Pablo, Pinole El Sobrante
Get to San Pablo Ave at Barrett. Go up Barrett and make a right on Arlington Blvd. Once you pass Moeser Ln, watch for the Kensington Public Library to your left. Make an extreme left on Rincon and go all the way, almost to the end where you will see a wall with a very discrete entrance. We will meet in the parking lot. If you arrive late, cross the garden’s entrance gate, walk straight down the dirt path to the lower portion of the rose garden (there are other flowers planted in that area too). You should see the large shade tree straight ahead.
Description
Located next to a convent, the official residence of the UC Berkeley Chancellor sits empty because it has to undergo a costly retrofit but the surrounding gardens offer you beautiful plants, trees, shrubs and flowers, a creek, a reflecting pool amid early 20th century architecture, a grove of evergreens, a rose garden with a gazebo and a view of the bay framed by trees. A progression of spaces divides the site into separate areas that reflect the varied topography and microclimates in the garden. The gardeners, employed by UC Berkeley, continued to tend the garden during the pandemic but missed the public. Nuns from the Carmelite convent next door - wearing “civilian” clothes - patrol the grounds. They will let you know if you are breaking the garden’s rules: “Dogs aren’t supposed to run off leash and children are not to pick flowers.” There is a bathroom with running water near the gardeners’ offices. The shaded parking lot has limited spaces. Arrive early if you don’t want to park farther away.
History
In the early 1920′s. Mr. And Mrs. Anson Blake, of Berkeley, sought a new site for their home. The Blakes impressed on the architect, Walter Bliss, that it be sited to take advantage of the views and shelter a portion of the garden from western marine exposure. The property, originally 22 acres, was designed to incorporate two homes; one for each of the brothers, Anson and Edwin Blake. The garden is half its original size today. With Edwin’s death in the mid 1950s, the 22 acre property was divided into two parcels. The Anson Blakes retained 10.5 acres around their house. Edwin’s house retained a two acre parcel leaving the remaining land to be divided into small housing lots. Eventually, Edwin’s house was donated to the Roman Catholic Church who established a Carmelite Monastery. In 1957 Mr. and Mrs. Blake deeded their house and garden to the University of California, “reserving unto themselves and the survivor of them the right to occupy the property for life.” With the death of Mr. Blake in 1959 and Mrs. Blake in 1962, the house and garden passed to the University.
