Elmwood

 

With its close proximity to downtown Berkeley and the UC Berkeley campus, and access to San Francisco via Rockridge and Ashby BART, it’s also one of the best commuter neighborhoods in the East Bay. Elmwood developed just before the turn of the th century as a fashionable suburb for transplanted San Franciscans. A few Victorians were erected before, but the real boom came a few years later when a mixture of bungalows, shingled boxes, and period revival homes filled the neighborhood’s quiet, tree-lined streets. Some of Elmwood’s most sought-after real estate is the stately shingled homes inspired by West Coast Arts and Crafts architects Greene & Greene and Bernard Maybeck. College Avenue, Elmwood’s main shopping corridor, is home to dozens of shops and restaurants.