Sather Gate - University of California - Berkeley

Sather Gate, University of California – Berkeley

Sometimes when you open a door you end up going someplace you never intended at all. Last night I was making a visit to The Rag Blog and right before my eyes was a picture of Sather Gate, the great rallying site for many the 1960’s protests.

My husband attended UCB from January 1961 to January 1964; we both lived in married student’s housing in nearby Albany.  It was always wait-listed and a very affordable housing project that was made available and run by the University.  But I digress.

Sather Gate was the place you would meet friends, the place where you would exchange ideas and even engage in lively protests. I didn’t realize that this icon of the Berkeley campus had recently undergone a massive restoration or even that it was on the U.S. Registry of Historic Places.

“Designed by John Galen Howard and built by Giovanni "John" Meneghetti in the Classical Revival Beaux-Arts style, Sather Gate was completed in 1910. Atop the gate are eight panels of bas-relief figures: four nude men representing the disciplines of law, letters, medicine, and mining, and four nude women representing the disciplines of agriculture, architecture, art, and electricity. They were sculpted by Professor Earl Cummins.“ Source: Wikipedia

In 2008 Sather Gate was dismantled and the restoration began. The project was completed in April of 2009 and rededicated in June 2009 almost 100 years from its original completion date – now Sather Gate is fit as a fiddle and ready to welcome the next one hundred years of students and provide them a meeting place and a site where a lively exchange of ideas can be exchanged.