Hillside Elementary School is a 50,302 ft² former public

elementary school A primary school (in Ireland, India, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, South Africa, and Singapore), elementary school, or grade school (in North America and the Philippines) is a school for primary ...

in the hills of

Berkeley, California Berkeley ( ) is a city on the eastern shore of San Francisco Bay in northern Alameda County, California, United States. It is named after the 18th-century Anglo-Irish bishop and philosopher George Berkeley. It borders the cities of Oakland, Cali ...

, at 1581 Le Roy Avenue, bordered by Le Roy Avenue, Buena Vista Way, and La Loma Avenue. It is registered as a local historic landmark listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

History

Hillside first opened in the Fall of 1901 on the nearby southwest corner of Le Roy Avenue and Virginia Street. This first Hillside, constructed under the auspices of the newly formed Hillside Club, for the Berkeley Public Schools, was one of the hundreds of structures that were destroyed by the

1923 Berkeley fire The 1923 Berkeley, California, fire was a conflagration that consumed some 640 structures, including 584 houses in the densely built neighborhoods north of the campus of the University of California in Berkeley, California, on September 17, 192 ...

. The school was temporarily relocated, from late 1923 until August 1926, to the University School (1414 Walnut Street) while a new school building was constructed. The

Berkeley School District Berkeley most often refers to: *Berkeley, California, a city in the United States **University of California, Berkeley, a public university in Berkeley, California *George Berkeley (1685–1753), Anglo-Irish philosopher Berkeley may also refer to ...

built the present structure in 1925 on the site of several homes that were destroyed by the same fire that destroyed the original Hillside.Amanda Bartlett
"This historic Berkeley school could be overhauled as a tech billionaire's fantasy home"
''San Francisco Chronicle'', November 3, 2019. It was designed by prominent Berkeley architect Walter H. Ratcliff. A major seismic retrofit was made in the 1930s and an additional wing added in 1964-65. The 1930s work included upgrades pursuant to the

Field Act The Field Act is a California state law that mandates earthquake-resistant construction for public school buildings. The Field Act was one of the first pieces of legislation in the United States to mandate earthquake-resistant construction, and ha ...

which resulted from the

1933 Long Beach earthquake The 1933 Long Beach earthquake took place on March 10 at south of downtown Los Angeles. The epicenter was offshore, southeast of Long Beach, California, on the Newport–Inglewood Fault. The earthquake had a magnitude estimated at 6.4 , and ...

. The building is landmarked for the degree to which it is intact, along with the quality of both architectural design and construction. In the late 1960s, Hillside became a primary school (K-3) as part of a district-wide re-organization. In 1982 it was added to the

(#82000961). In 1983, the school district closed Hillside because of a declining school age population, and because it sits near or on the

Hayward Fault The Hayward Fault Zone is a right-lateral strike-slip geologic fault zone capable of generating destructive earthquakes. The fault was first named in the Lawson Report of the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake in recognition of its involvement in the ...

. The Berkeley Montessori School (since renamed The Berkeley School) and the Berkeley Chess School leased part of the site. In 2012, the

Berkeley Unified School District The Berkeley Unified School District (BUSD) is the public school district for the city of Berkeley, California, United States. The district is managed by the Superintendent of Schools, and governed by the Berkeley Board of Education, whose mem ...

sold the school to the

German International School of Silicon Valley The German International School of Silicon Valley (GISSV) is a private school educating children from preschool to grade 12 using bilingual full immersion. It has sites in Mountain View and San Francisco in California.The Master''. Filming took place during June 2011."Finding filming sites in Bay Area is just the beginning of this job", Edward Guthmann, ''San Francisco Chronicle'', July 17, 2013

References

* Directory of Berkeley Public Schools, Annual, 1918- * Article
"Board Acts to Halt Sliding of Hillside School", Berkeley Daily Gazette, September 20, 1927.

External links

German International School of Silicon Valley, Berkeley Campus

Berkeley Chess School

Hillside Association of Berkeley

Hillside Association of Berkeley

Rehabilitation Scoping Guide
{{Authority control Buildings and structures in Berkeley, California Education in Berkeley, California Schools in Alameda County, California Defunct schools in California Parks in Berkeley, California School buildings completed in 1925 National Register of Historic Places in Berkeley, California School buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in California Tudor Revival architecture in California 1925 establishments in California Berkeley landmarks in Berkeley, California

History

See also

References

External links