Mira Vista — Not Your Usual Country Club, or Golf Course

The common image of country clubs as enclaves of bedrock conservatives may be true in some parts of the country. In El Cerrito, however, the lays claim to a different pedigree.

For starters, one of the founding leaders was Cal sociology professor Robert Hunter, a socialist early in his career who “later in life, after he moved to California, caught the golf bug,” according to club member Richard Lee in a recent talk on the club’s history sponsored by the El Cerrito Historical Society.

Formerly the “Berkeley Country Club”

Hunter, the club’s first secretary, gathered at Wheeler Hall on the Berkeley campus with a group of other professionals and businessmen from Berkeley, El Cerrito and nearby to plan a golf and social club in the hills of Contra Costa County, according to the 1990 history of the club by the late , Mira Vista Golf and Country Club 1920-1990.

Their venture, launched in 1920, was named “Berkeley Country Club,” even though it was located in a different county from Berkeley. (It was renamed the Mira Vista Country Club in 1934 and then acquired its present name, Mira Vista Golf and Country Club, in 1944 when it went from being a semi-private to a fully private club, according to Collins’ book.)

Progressive policies

“This club,” Lee told the audience of about 55 people gathered in the club’s main hall, “has a history of being progressive socially in the sense that at a time when many clubs were racially discriminating against people, not allowing people who weren’t white to join the club, this club for many, many decades now has not had that policy. … After I joined in the late ’90s, before there were any state laws regarding this, the club made a decision to allow gender-neutral, significant-other policies, to allow same-sex partners, to have their partners be significant others for the purpose of membership.”

The progressive orientation, Lee said, “is one of the things that attracted me to this club in the first place — there were other clubs that I wouldn’t join."

Impressive architecture

One of the club’s most distinctive elements is the magnificent main hall, designed by architect Walter Ratliff. On the outside, it looks a bit like an English Tudor manor, and on the inside, it resembles something of a blend of a church sanctuary, baron’s ballroom and Nordic mountain lodge — with its lofty peaked ceiling supported by large arched wood beams, its sparkling chandeliers, its commanding fireplace and its floor-to-ceiling windows at the head of the room overlooking the Bay and containing images highlighted with tinted glass.

“I think we’re sitting right now in probably the nicest interior space in the entire city of El Cerrito,” said Dave Weinstein, vice president of the Historical Society. His comment about the main hall came as he was introducing the evening’s history talk and informal club tour, which was held Oct. 13.

During the program, Sally Belshe described the painstaking restoration that she helped organize of the tinted images from the original leaded-glass windows, a project accomplished with the help of at least 40 club members. She noted with pride one new image that wasn’t in the original set — a woman golfer.

Roller-coaster ride in club fortunes

The club was a hit from the beginning and through its early years. Its membership quickly swelled to 350 as it became a popular venue in the East Bay social scene, hosting proms, cotillions, weddings, dances and banquets, including victory feasts for Cal wins in the Big Game against Stanford. Its golf tournaments were big news in the local press.

“It was a tremendous success financially as well as socially,” Lee said.

Prosperity didn’t last, however, and the club’s survival appeared in doubt as membership plunged during the Great Depression, falling to only 30 members in World War II, Lee said.

Austere budgeting kept the struggling club alive, and as Collins’ book notes, prosperity in the 1960s saw a rebound to 325 members. The number has since ebbed to the current roster of between 220 and 235 regular members, with a membership drive being planned on completion of the current reconstruction of the greens.

The shift to member-owned

One of Mira Vista’s defining transformations came in 1980 when the members finally agreed, after years of discussion, to purchase the club from the owners and established what it remains today — a member-owned organization.

Collins drew on her insider’s view when she described this change in her book on the club’s history:

“…The mood of the club was at an all-time time high!

“Members became most interested in the operation of the club. They were now partners in a million dollar business.

“It was a revelation to see this enthusiasm. Now, Mira Vista Golf and Country Club would become THE BEST GOLF CLUB IN THE BAY AREA! How wonderful it would have been for the founding fathers of the Berkeley Country Club to see how far their efforts had progressed. Their goal, as stated, was to provide a friendly and comfortable place for members to come together for a friendly game of golf and the ambience of a well-appointed clubhouse to enjoy sociability and good food with family and friends. Little did they know that the seeds they planted would bloom into the enthusiastic, friendly, dedicated membership we are part of today.”

Rebirth of original layout

As anyone who’s driven by the club’s rolling greens along the Arlington and upper Cutting Boulevard has been able to see in recent months, the golf course has been undergoing a major reconstruction.

About five years ago, the club engaged a golf course architect who specializes in historical restorations to restore the original design laid out by Hunter, the socialist Cal professor, Lee said. At the same time, the club decided to replace the undersoil to provide better irrigation and deeper root systems for the grass.

The target date for completion is November 20.

“When construction is completed, this is going to be one of the best golf courses in the Bay Area,” Lee said.