This page contains some history of the Boy Scout Hut and John Hinkel Park in Berkeley, California, United States of America.
John Hinkel was a businessman who let the Boy Scouts camp on his land in North Berkeley in the early nineteen hundreds. He donated the land where John Hinkel Park is located to the City of Berkeley in 1919 on the condition that they allow Scouts to continue to use the property. The Boy Scout Hut in John Hinkel Park is now a designated landmark.
According to Victor Lindbald’s history of the Mt. Diablo Council, “The park was dedicated to the people in commemoration and appreciation of the services of the Boy Scouts of Berkeley to the community and the nation during the First World War” (1914 – 1918).
According to a City of Berkeley web page (2011):
John Hinkel – Berkeley businessman, John Hinkel, deeded John Hinkel Park to the city on May 22, 1919. The park is one of the last tributes to his philanthropy and humanitarianism.
Boy Scout Hut – The hut is one of John Hinkel’s many attributions to Boy Scouts.The hut was moved from what is now Martin Luther King Junior High School (formerly Garfield Junior High School) in 1938 in order to provide an enclosed meeting place for the boys who had been meeting at the park since 1920, and continue to do so today. The hut was also used by the Camp Fire Girls organization for ceremonies and by the Berkeley Shakespeare Festival as a dressing and meeting room.
Troop 24 has used the hut on occasion since 1994 for youth leadership training and program planning. Pack 30 has also used it from time to time as a regular meeting place since 1994. In the 2001 Berkeley Landmarks Preservation Commission meeting minutes of January 8, 2001 it was recorded that the Hut was in terrible condition and that the Scouts had been locked out of the hut by the City since the summer of 2000.
Troop 19 has been meeting regularly at the hut since at least September 2004 and taking care of the hut since then. In September 2005 the Lions Clubs District 4-C3 made major repairs to the hut. In October 2009 the Lions Club, Berkeley Council Member Capitelli, the Alpha Phi Omega National Service Fraternity chapter at UC Berkeley and the Friends of 5 Creeks participated in a major landscaping project at the park that removed ivy and other non-native plants.
John Hinkel Park was designated a City of Berkeley Landmark on 2 April 2001, Berkeley # 238. The park is located near Southampton Ave. between San Diego Road & Somerset Place in Berkeley, California.
According to Vince Lipinski (4/19/10), Charter Organization Representative, Berkeley Lions Club, for Troop 19:
Berkeley Troop 19 (founded 1916 & continually chartered since 1922) meets every Wednesday from 7:30-9pm at the Scout Hut in John Hinkel Park. They have met there for the past several years as their previous scout hut at Northbrae CC was closed to scouting.
Attached is our last major bldg-maint service project from 2005 [see image below] where the LIONs Club contributed $$$ plus service hours.
Boy Scout Troop 19 has been taking care of the building since then and most recently last October ’09 with Berkeley Council Member Capitelli, UC Alpha Phi Omega and the Friends of 5 Creeks (took part) in a major landscaping project removing ivy and other non-native plants.
For more about the history of John Hinkel Park see the web pages at: