Tilden Golf Course - Berkeley CA
Description
The Tilden Park golf course was constructed by the the East Bay Regional Parks District (EBRPD) with aid of the Works Progress Administration (WPA) relief labor in 1936-37.
WPA workers first uprooted 20,000 eucalyptus from former plantations of the trees in the Berkeley Hills. Then they prepared the land and laid out the course. It opened in November 1937.
Of the total cost of $173,000, abut $139,000 was paid out of WPA funds. The rest came from the Parks District.
The course was designed by William Bell, a nationally prominent golf course architect, who was assisted by Richard Walpole, who later became manager of the EBRPD.
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Sign to Tilden Golf Course - Berkeley CA
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View down on Tilden Golf Course - Berkeley CA
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Tilden Golf Course - Berkeley CA
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Tilden Golf Course - Berkeley CA
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Tilden Park Golf Course - Berkeley CA
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Rock Gate at Tilden Golf Course - Berkeley CA
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Rock Base Under Flagpole at Tilden Golf Course
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Rock Wall in Parking Lot
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Stone gate at back entrance to Tilden Golf Course - Berkeley CA
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Tilden Park Golf Course
Source notes
Berkeley Historical Society Newsletter, 20:3, Fall 2001.
Elbert Vail, The Early Story of the East Bay Regional Parks. Unpublished manuscript, available at East Bay Regional Parks District archives.
Elbert Vail, Progress Report, c 1940, available at East Bay Regional Parks District archives
Elbert Vail, 1940 Master Plan. Oakland CA: East Bay Regional Parks District, 1940, available at East Bay Regional Parks District archives
Amanda Sue Marshall, "WPA and CCC worksites in East Bay Regional Parks," research report for Living New Deal, January 2, 2012.
Mimi Stein, A Vision Achieved:Fifty Years of the East Bay Regional Parks District. Oakland CA: East Bay Regional Parks District, 1984. @ https://www.ebparks.org/civicax/filebank/blobdload.aspx?BlobID=25719
Brechin, Gray. 2008. "Forgotten Foundation". Bay Nature Magazine. January 1. https://baynature.org/articles/jan-mar-2008/forgotten-foundation
Smith, Harvey. 2014. Berkeley and the New Deal. Charleston SC: Arcadia Books.
Amanda Sue Marshall, The East Bay Hills: A Brief History. Charleston SC: The History Press, 2017.
Project originally submitted by Shaina Potts on August 25, 2010.
Additional contributions by Richard A Walker.
We welcome contributions of additional information on any New Deal project site.
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