The Heart of Berkeley: The Historic McGee-Spaulding District

 

This map of the Oakland Township also shows Point Isabel at the top, with Cerritos Creek marking the Alameda County-Contra Costa County line. Cerritos San Antonio is the Albany Hill. Codornices Creek winds down from the hills. The intersection of three tracts near Codornices Creek — two owned by Schmidts, one by Cal. Ins. Co. — are roughly where Domingo Peralta lived in 1860. James McGee's tract, #67 on Kellersberger's map and here as well, was not yet mapped out into blocks. The Berkeley Branch of the Northern Rail Road extends up to Shattuck and University Avenues, facilitating travel to Oakland and, by ferry, to San Francisco. Both men and women, many with names familiar today, owned land.