Oakland’s Elite Lose Irreplaceable History

High in the hills above Oakland’s grittier side, narrow streets wound their way through wooded canyons alive with deer, birds and raccoons. Houses by prominent architects such as Julia Morgan, designer of Hearst Castle, stood among the trees with spectacular views of San Francisco and the Golden Gate Bridge.

This was where the elite of Oakland and Berkeley lived, along with refugees from the urban clamor of San Francisco: doctors, lawyers, judges, professors, star athletes, corporate executives, writers, artists and elected officials.

The houses of at least 72 UC Berkeley faculty members were among more than 2,700 homes razed in the firestorm that swept through the Oakland and Berkeley hills this week. Prized art collections, renowned architectural landmarks, libraries of rare books, manuscripts in progress and years of research were demolished.

The fire destroyed one of the Bay Area’s most prestigious regions, a serene and cultured place where many residents felt like they lived in the country yet were just a short drive from downtown Oakland or San Francisco. In a few hours, a uniquely Northern California neighborhood vanished, a close-knit, integrated community with jogging trails through the eucalyptus and Monterey pines.

“I found it to be the most interesting neighborhood I ever lived in,” said Deirdre English, the former editor of Mother Jones magazine who lost everything in the fire, including manuscripts of two books she was writing.

On English’s small street in Upper Claremont, which was filled with writers and artists, the loss was devastating. An oil painter lost his life’s work; a prize-winning radio playwright lost all her tapes; a neighbor lost a vast art collection; another neighbor lost the two-story pipe organ he spent 10 years building.

When the fire came, English said, she and her neighbors fled together, abandoning their cars when stopped by a wall of flame and helping each other to safety as they ran down the only hillside not then engulfed.

Oakland A’s star Rickey Henderson, former baseball great Reggie Jackson, novelist Maxine Hong Kingston and former Oakland Tribune publisher Joseph Knowland were among those who lost their homes in the holocaust that claimed at least 23 lives.

Despite Oakland’s image as a city of racial tension and turmoil, the hills of the East Bay have long been a popular enclave for those who could afford the area. Many residents worked across the bay in San Francisco but chose to live in the East Bay area because of the sweeping views, sunny weather and friendly neighborhoods.

“Oakland is really kind of two places,” said Tim Neagle, foreign news editor at the San Francisco Chronicle who lost his home in Upper Rockridge to the fire. “The infamous Oakland is down on the flat with all the poverty and crime. When you get back up in the hills it’s completely different. It’s hard to believe you’re in the same place, but it’s Oakland.”

Five neighborhoods were partially or completely destroyed in the fire: Hiller Highlands, Broadway Terrace, Montclair and Upper Rockridge--all in Oakland--and Claremont, which straddles the border between Oakland and Berkeley. Some likened the region to Pacific Palisades or Laurel Canyon in Los Angeles, but with a special flavor that many believe is found only in the Bay Area.

“There were quite a few very important houses that were lost that are really irreplaceable,” said Edward J. Blakely, a UC Berkeley professor of urban planning whose Montclair home narrowly escaped the fire. “Ansel Adams photographs, artworks, books, huge archives that our professors had are gone forever.”

Each neighborhood had its own individual character. Claremont and Montclair were older neighborhoods that contained landmark works of architecture from the early 1900s as well as newer mansions and small cottages. The relatively new planned community of Hiller Highlands included hundreds of townhouses and condominiums. But all of the neighborhoods contained a culturally diverse mix of people, millionaires and renters, retirees and students, academics and professionals.

“It was one of the best kept secrets in the Bay Area,” said Tim Gallen, head of a public relations firm whose home escaped the fire. “It went from a neighborhood of pine needles and winding one-lane roads, to a very cultured area with statues and grand entrance ways and huge homes, to an area with homes that were being redone and turned around.”

The conflagration destroyed dozens of houses designed by some of the most distinguished California architects: Warren Callister, William W. Wurster, John Hudson Thomas as well as Morgan, who worked mostly in the early 1900s.

“We have obviously lost an incredible sector of that period’s housing that was really magnificent,” said Mary Comerio, a UC Berkeley professor of architecture.

Among the priceless works of art destroyed was a collection of early California art and contemporary paintings valued from $18 million to $45 million. None of the 800 pieces, owned by James L. Coran and Walter A. Nelson-Rees, were insured.

Adelaide Bishoff, widow of painter Elmer Bishoff, lost her entire collection of paintings, drawings and photographs. Art collector Robert Shimshak and photographer Marion Brenner lost their vast collection of contemporary art and architectural photographs.

Kingston, a best-selling author who lectures in English at UC Berkeley, reportedly lost a novel she was writing. Prof. Norma Evenson lost her entire collection of material on architectural history. Sociology Prof. Richard Ofshe, who shared in the 1979 Pulitzer Prize for public service given to the Point Reyes Light for its investigation of Synanon, lost extensive research on cults.

Other professors and artists lost valuable libraries of rare photographs of early California, art collections they had planned to give to the university and lifetimes of research they had collected in their specialties.

“There was total devastation of these wonderful collections of art and artifacts,” said Bonnie Pittman, assistant director of the University Art Museum. “We’re talking millions and millions of dollars.”

The fire also took its toll on the region’s medical and political community.

At least 13 doctors at Alta Bates-Herrick Hospital in Berkeley--where burn victims from the fire were treated--lost their homes. Oakland City Councilwoman Marge Gibson Haskell lost two houses. The fire destroyed the homes of Municipal Judge Judy Ford and Alameda County Supervisor Warren Widener.

State Sen. Nicholas C. Petris (D-Oakland), regared as one of the Legislature’s most skilled orators, lost his home of 21 years in Montclair, including his extensive library of Greek history and English literature works. The senator said he and his neighbors hope to reconstruct their neighborhood just as it was, going back to the original builder who still has the plans for the subdivision.

“I had the feeling of living in the country, yet I was only eight or 10 minutes from the office in downtown Oakland,” Petris said. “There were birds in the morning to wake us up, whole coveys of quail in the back yard. You had a feeling of comfort in a neighborhood where you knew people.”

Like the senator, others also are beginning to recover from the shock of their loss and are making plans to rebuild the neighborhoods that they loved.

“Although it was a terrible thing, at least these people had insurance,” said Sally Woodbridge, who has written a number of books on the architecture of the area. “If you’re going to look for a silver lining, it’s a great opportunity for architects.”

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