For decades, East Bay residents have strolled and picnicked in the verdant grounds of Blake Garden, an 11-acre estate tucked away in Kensington that long served as the official home of the University of California’s president.
Now UC Berkeley is considering the biggest change to the estate since it stopped housing the university’s chief executive in 2008: demolishing the empty 1924 mansion that has provided a stately backdrop for so many weddings, dog walks and painting parties.
Campus officials say the 13,000-square-foot home is seismically unsafe and would cost $15 million to renovate — more if it were to be converted to a new use, such as a museum or conference center. They plan to expand the surrounding gardens, which are maintained by UC Berkeley’s College Environmental Design, into the current footprint of the house and continue allowing the public to access them, said university spokesperson Kyle Gibson.
“The house is in extremely poor condition,” Gibson said. Like many of the homes in Kensington, Blake House is located in an earthquake fault zone, and Gibson said seismic activity has caused cracks in its foundation. “It’s definitely a safety hazard to have a house that’s structurally failing in the garden,” he said.
The university is seeking a consultant to prepare an environmental impact report on the proposed project, necessary because the house would likely qualify as a historical resource under the California Environmental Quality Act.
The Mediterranean-style Blake Estate, with its formal gardens and bay views, was built for Anson Blake, the grandson of a University of California trustee, and his wife, Anita, a nationally renowned plant collector. The couple later bequeathed the property to the university, according to “Blake Garden: A History,” a book produced by the garden’s staff.
The university’s landscape architecture department began cultivating plants in the gardens in the late 1950s, with the family still living there. After Anita Blake passed away, a series of UC presidents occupied the house and hosted social events there from 1969 through 2008. The last UC president to live there, Robert Dynes, complained to the Los Angeles Times that the property had become “pretty much unlivable,” citing roof leaks, mold and a long commute to UC’s Oakland offices.
UC rented pricey digs for its presidents for years afterward, until buying a $6.5 million Claremont Blvd. home in 2022 to serve as the new official residence.
Carolyn McNiven, a local preservationist and board member of the Berkeley Architectural Heritage Association, criticized the university for what she described as a failure to maintain Blake House while spending money on other properties.
“It’s demolition by neglect,” she said, emphasizing that she was speaking on her own behalf and not for the association.
McNiven said she attended a wedding at Blake House in its heyday in the 1970s. She described the home as “gracious,” surrounded by a rose garden and a field of irises, part of the original landscape plan by Anita Blake and her sister Mabel Symmes, who was among the first women to study landscape architecture at UC Berkeley.
“If you let something like that run down, of course it’s going to be unattractive,” she said. “If they wanted to save it, they could figure out a way to save it.”
On a recent visit to Blake House, weeds grew through the flagstone walkway that led to the carved wooden front door, and cobwebs adorned the arched windows that flanked it. Through one of the windows, a glimpse of the San Francisco Bay and a large fireplace hinted at the home’s onetime grandeur.
Visitors walked the estate’s gravel paths in twos and threes or rested on benches in front of a tree-lined reflecting pool. The gardens are currently open to the public Tuesday through Friday.
Kate Peterson, 60, said she grew up a short walk from Blake Garden and was dismayed to hear of the house’s possible demise. Her family would often impress out-of-town visitors with a trip to the garden, she said. Now a professional dog walker, she’s watched the property’s condition decline over the years but still comes regularly with her charges to enjoy the peace and greenery.
“I think it’s really sad that it would be torn down and not refurbished,” she said. “I know money is tight everywhere these days, but really? This is a treasure.”
Friends Annabelle Conlin and Jan Zaitlin were sketching near the back side of the beige stucco mansion, watching hummingbirds flit among the native plants that tumbled down the hillside. From there, more signs of the house’s disrepair could be seen: peeling paint on the columns, plywood covering ground-floor doors and windows.
They were relieved to hear that the university planned to keep the gardens intact.
“It’s a wonderful place,” said Conlin. “The ponds with the fish, they’re very cool. We’re more into the grounds.”
“I love old buildings, but it has not been maintained,” she added. “If they could preserve some part of it, it would be great.”
“I’m fine if they get rid of the whole thing,” her friend offered.
“She’s not sentimental about old things,” Conlin chimed in.
The two did have some requests for university planners contemplating the gardens’ future: better restrooms, and open hours on weekends.
After UC Berkeley prepares an environmental impact report, the proposed Blake House demolition will go to the UC regents for approval. The university plans to retain the building’s foundation as part of an outdoor “teaching area” for the College of Environmental Design and leave the reflecting pool in front of the home in place, according to a university document outlining the project. More of the building’s facade could also be preserved, depending on the results of the environmental review, Gibson said.
UC Berkeley’s demolitions of other historic buildings have drawn controversy as it has gone on a construction spree in downtown Berkeley to accommodate more student housing. A more-than-100-year-old, rent-controlled apartment building and a city-landmarked 1930s gas station fell to the wrecking ball to make way for Anchor House, a dorm for transfer students that opened in 2024. And preservationists have cried foul over the university’s plans to knock down Victorian buildings on the former campus of Anna Head school, including what they believe is Berkeley’s first-ever brown-shingle structure.
Because the University of California is a state entity, it is not generally subject to local planning regulations.