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Crescent Path Delights

By CHRIS YOUNG Special to the Planet (10-31-03)

About 30 years ago, A.J. Ayres and other kids in his neighborhood rode their BMX bikes to Crescent Park, a private park with three inlets in the Park Hills area of Berkeley. The park has served the neighborhood for more than a half-century. He remembers they would stage plum fights there in August, when their ammunition got spoiled and wouldn’t hurt as much.

“(The park) is something everyone enjoys,” said Ayres, 34, from his house near the park. “Kids play there all the time. Everyone watches out for everyone in this neighborhood.”

Each of the three paths leading to the park has its own character. Two of them slope, while the third is level. The park sits on top of a hill encircled by a street, the Crescent.

The northern path features 25 wooden steps. In late summer, the ground beyond is dried and cracked. A weathered wooden gate at the edge of the park leads to a canopy of trees—the plum ammo dump, ripe with fallen fruit covered in ants. From the canopy, the path suddenly opens up onto the park. A stone wall forms the foundation of one corner.

The south-facing path is paved with concrete. Somebody recently chalked a drawing that looked almost cubist on the path near the park boundary. This path is mostly flat, bordered by a brick-and-wood fence and tall shrubs.

The widest path, facing northeast, is strewn with bark chips. A water fountain built from four cinder blocks sits on one side, with a box that dispenses plastic bags for dog clean-ups on the other.

The park, surrounded by houses, has a swing set, basketball hoop with net intact, and a new children’s play structure. The park was empty early one Monday afternoon and at dusk.

The neighborhood got its start in 1938, when the Mason-McDuffie Company bought about 70 acres from local water companies to form a residential development of upscale single-family homes, said Paul Grunland of the Berkeley Historical Society in a telephone interview. Grunland wrote in a guided tour of the area that the development was annexed by the city of Berkeley in 1958, the last expansion of the city.

Olmsted Brothers, a landscape architect firm, designed the street layout and included parks within the blocks. Individuals bought sections of land, hired architects, and built their houses, which led to the diversity of architectural styles.

Mason-McDuffie also created the Park Hills Homes Association to oversee maintenance of the parks, which it does today. Residents pay for maintenance and insurance of the paths and parks with annual dues, around $100, said Dave Quady, former president of the association.