Strawberry Creek Park

Strawberry Creek Park is a hidden gem in the neighborhood of Berkeley known as Poet’s Corner. Here, beautiful Strawberry Creek returns to the open air as a result of a 1977 “daylighting” project that became an international model for the rehabilitation of urban streams. Strawberry Creek Park runs north-to-south along a former railway that once served travelers between Berkeley and Chicago. You can see the old train depot one block to the north (the building with the circular dome roof, now a Montessori School). Find a spot near the bank of Strawberry Creek where it emerges from under the bridge. Note that the floor of the creek below here is constructed from the rubble of the old cement culvert—when they daylighted the creek, they recycled the old material to form the creek bed! They also kept most of the displaced soil on the site, thereby minimizing the overall cost of the project. A couple of beautiful cottonwood trees (Populus fremontii) grow here, and a new playground has just opened to the public on the south side of the creek. An amazing café hosts live music on the weekends, and a pasta shop that serves fresh bread and baked treats—try a loaf of olive bread or a pecan cookie). On the site of an old railroad, along a creek that once ran through a cement pipe, this location is as charming and inspired as it gets in the heart of Berkeley.