West & Central Berkeley Area

Known originally as Ocean View, Berkeley got its start at the Bay’s edge on land that had been part of the Spanish land grant to Luis Peralta. The first structure was Jacob’s Landing (1853) at the foot of what is now Delaware Street. For many years, the land to the east and south was devoted to farming, along with light industrial uses in the western area. West and Central Berkeley are still home to many structures from those early days, chiefly workingmen’s small frame houses, along with numerous Victorians, Classical Revivals, and ”California” bungalows. Berkeley’s first formal Town Hall was erected in 1884 at the corner of Sacramento Street and University Avenue, midway between the western and eastern ends, in an effort to appease conflicting interests of the newly incorporated town’s two disparate populations.