Gill Tract

The term Gill Tract refers to 104 acres of land in Berkeley and Albany, California that the regents of the University of California purchased from the family of the late Edward Gill in 1928.

In 1939 about 16 acres of the tract was granted to the federal government for a United States Department of Agriculture research campus, and in 1945 another 36 acres were conveyed as an agricultural experiment field station.

During World War II the federal government requisitioned most of the Gill Tract, along with a larger amount of land in the City of Berkeley, for construction of housing for families of civilian defense industry workers and of U.S. Navy personnel. Following World War II this project, known as Codornices Village, was converted to housing for families of U.C. Berkeley students, many of whom were war veterans.

University Village, a housing community for UC Berkeley students who are married or have dependents, occupies 52.5 of the original 104 acres. A nine-acre portion is the current site of Ocean View Elementary School and public baseball fields.

Urban gardening plots are available to University Village residents on 6.6 acres at the western edge of the Gill Tract. Ten acres of arable, undeveloped land are used for urban agriculture and agricultural experimentation and research; bound by Buchanan St. to the north, Village Creek to the south, Jackson St. to the west, and San Pablo Ave. to the east.

Four acres of trees and grasses known as Albany Meadows, formerly University Village residential buildings, serve as part of a wildlife corridor in the East Bay. The remaining six acres held facilities for agricultural experimentation and student residential buildings until their demolition in 2007. These two areas; bound by Village creek to the north, Codornices creek to the south, San Pablo Avenue to the east, and Jackson Street to the west, are included in a plan for commercial development by the University of California, Berkeley.

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