Berkeley Rose Garden

Coordinates: 37°53′6.9″N 122°15′46.3″W / 37.88525°N 122.262861°W / 37.88525; -122.262861

The Berkeley Rose Garden.

The Berkeley Rose Garden is a city-owned park in Berkeley, California. The Rose Garden is situated in a residential area of the Berkeley Hills between the Cragmont and La Loma Park neighborhoods, occupying most of the block between Eunice Street and Bayview Place along the west side of Euclid Avenue.

The Rose Garden is in the form of a terraced amphitheater nestled in a small canyon and offers stunning views of the city and bay of San Francisco and the Golden Gate. Over a hundred varieties of roses grow along the terraces, with maximum blooming occurring in early Spring.

The park is bisected by Codornices Creek. The north side of the Rose Garden includes a set of tennis courts. The south side is a grove of Coast Redwoods, bay trees and coastal live oak.

Codornices Park

Across Euclid Avenue is Codornices Park, an older city park (established 1915) of which the Rose Garden was initially considered an extension. Codornices includes a large lawn, picnic area, children's play equipment and a long concrete slide. Here, two forks of Codornices Creek have their confluence, right along the line of the Hayward Fault. Here too was once the clubhouse of the Codornices Club, a neighborhood improvement and social club.

A pedestrian tunnel runs under Euclid, connecting the Rose Garden with Codornices Park. In this section, from 1912 to 1928, before the Rose Garden was established, a 275-foot-long (84 m) wooden streetcar and road trestle spanned Codornices Creek along Euclid.^[1] In 1928, the trestle was filled in, a culvert laid through it for the creek, and the pedestrian tunnel constructed.^[2]

Construction of the Rose Garden began in 1933 with funds provided by the federal Civil Works Administration. Construction continued in subsequent years with funding from the California State Economic Relief Administration and the federal Works Project Administration. It opened on September 26, 1937.

Since its inception, the Rose Garden has been the site of numerous rose shows.

References

• Annual Reports of the City of Berkeley Recreation Department, 1933-1940
• Berkeley Gazette, September 27, 1933

1. ^ Key System Streetcars, Vernon Sappers, Signature Press, 2007, pp. 175, 208
2. ^ Sixth Annual Report of the City Manager, 1928-29, City of Berkeley, pp.34, 60.

External links

• City of Berkeley's web page about the garden.
• Article by Gray Brechin that includes a description of the Rose Garden.
• Friends of the Rose Garden, a volunteer group that helps take care of the garden.