HALS Documentation - What's involved? Part 2

The Northern California Chapter of HALS has completed documentation for three historic sites – the Kaiser Roof Garden (top photo, taken by Tom Fox) in downtown Oakland, Piedmont Way (2nd Photo) in Berkeley, and the Mary Burdell Victorian Garden at Olompali State Historic Park, in Marin County. To see the documentation for these sites visit the HALS Chapter website. Go to “Landscapes”, click on Alameda or Marin County, and then look for the site by City.

The National Park Service donated the services of Brian Grogan, who photographed all three sites using a large format camera and black and white film, which complies with HALS Guidelines for Photography. The written narrative for Piedmont Way was researched and written by HALS member Michael Crowe and funded by a donation from the SWIG Company. Member, Carol Roland did the history for the Mary Burdell Garden and found it to be eligible for the National Register. Her work was funded by a grant from the National Trust for Historic Preservation. Marlea Graham is doing the history of the Kaiser Roof Garden.

Several members of the PGA staff contributed to the HALS drawings for these 3 sites but it was Cate Bainton who pulled everything together. The documentation of the Burdell Garden will ultimately lead to the garden’s restoration, which is another reason for doing HALS. Part of the research involved studying historic photos, and then conducting field investigations to locate remnants of paths and other features. Archaeologists from Sonoma State confirmed the locations of paths.