The Panoramic Hill Historic District typifies Berkeley’s early hillside neighborhoods. Steep and narrow Panoramic Way, carved out in 1888, opened the hill to residential development. University professors and early Sierra Club members were among the first residents. They engaged such influential architects as Ernest Coxhead, Bernard Maybeck, Julia Morgan, Walter H. Ratcliff, Jr., Walter Steilberg, and William Wurster, whose works collectively span several eras of Bay Region Style architecture. Flanked by Strawberry Creek and Derby Creek canyons, the hill is one of the most extensive surviving Arts and Crafts neighborhoods in Berkeley.

Pedestrian byways, from formal Orchard Lane with its 1910 Beaux-Arts staircase to rustic footpaths like Mosswood Lane, thread between houses and roadway. Although part of Strawberry Creek was culverted in 1923, bucolic wooded canyons and panoramic views remain.