Julia Morgan Architectural Tour of Elmwood Park and Claremont Court, Berkeley

(Photo above JM in Paris, 1900, Cathedral Notre Dame in the background.)

We're meeting outside the Julia Morgan Theater on College Ave. at Derby St. This is our first stop on the tour.
(Along the way we'll stop in if open, to see Bernard Maybeck's, First Church of Christ Scientist, a Nat'l Landmark site. Directly across the street is Julia Morgan's 1918 Baptist Theological Seminary. Built of brick to resemble the Ashmolean Library of Oxford. Britain's first public museum and the world's first university museum. note. The Seminary's windows and Tudor details recall the period when the Baptist Church was founded.)

Morgan graduated UC in 1894 with a degree in Civil Engineering, one of her specializations was structural engineering. (This benefited her clients greatly, as was seen after the 06' earthquake in her still standing buildings.)
She arrived in Paris in 1896. A few years later it was reported in the San Francisco Call: Paris, Oct.30,1902 - Julia Morgan of San Francisco passed the examination with honors at the Architectural section of the School of Fine Arts (Ecole de Beaux Arts, Paris France). The first woman to do so. Ironically one of the greatest architects in history, was made to wait two years, taking entrance exams before admission.

By the end of her 45 yr. career she had received over 700 commissions. It was said, "Her rational approach to home design and the public success of her large commissions gave Julia Morgan a solid reputation. It also won her the confidence of her clients. With the hard work, genius, inspiration and true artistic perception to create memorable works.
Over the course of her career, Morgan designed nearly one hundred buildings across California and the nation for women’s organizations. Her commissions included social and civic clubs for women; academic, residential, and recreational buildings; primary schools; orphanages; hospitals, sanitariums,and nursing residences. She also designed more than thirty YMCA buildings, including those in San Francisco and Berkeley.

We'll concentrate on the many Julia Morgan designed houses, churches and buildings in the Claremont Ct. and Elmwood neighborhoods. Unique here are the Julia Morgan ensemble houses, where she creatively and economically placed two houses on one large lot. We'll see several of these ensembles. In fact when JM bought her own house at Washington & Divisadero in SF in 1925, she bought a pair of houses there.

To read more about the many Julia Morgan public buildings, such as the Hearst Castle etc. go to wikipedia. She was one of California's most prolific architects. The first woman to receive the American Institute of Architects highest award, the AIA Gold Medal, awarded posthumously in 2014.
The three projects that immediately solidified her future career as a great architect, engineer and fully capable project/construction manager were the rebuilding of the new Fairmount Hotel after its semi-destruction following the earthquake. The design, engineering and building of the beautiful Bell Tower at Mills College and Carnegie Library there, both of which survived the earthquake without a crack. And the completion on time and within budget of the construction of the Greek Theater at UC for John Gayland Howard, campus architect.

After the last Julia Morgan home we'll find our way back through what I call the "Pacific Heights" of Berkeley.
Look for parking on the smaller side streets. Option for lunch afterward.