PKD's Berkeley Houses: 1212 Walnut St.

For my week of visiting PKD's childhood homes in Berkeley, yesterday I visited 1212 Walnut St. According to the very useful chronology in Paul Williams' Only Apparently Real, Phil and mother Dorothy moved into this house sometime around the summer of 1940. Sutin describes the residence as a cottage in the backyard of a larger house on the lot. 

Redfin doesn't mention the second house. According to the website the residence hasn't sold since the 1980s (when it sold for $67k!). This is a nice house in an absolutely amazing neighborhood. This suggests that unlike prior to the move to Washington DC, Dorothy and Phil were enjoying a little bit of financial security. This house is a substantial step up from 560 Colusa where the pair lived previously.  It may have been the job in Washington D.C. with the Bureau of Children within the Department of Labor was a significant step up for Dorothy and allowed her to then get her job with the US Forestry Service and enjoy a thoroughly middle class lifestyle through the 1940s. 

Today, what greets visitors is a wooden gate at street level and then a long, winding staircase down to a house. I can't tell if this is the larger house or the cottage behind it. Regardless, this is the house where young Phil followed the details of World War II as it raged across Europe. 

The house is also in an absolutely idyllic setting, just next to Berkeley's Live Oak Park. The five and half acre park is absolutely gorgeous, even today, and features playgrounds and the famous cement slides which magically transports lots of kids to emergency rooms, while teenagers sit on the grass and explore the outer reaches of inner space, if you know what I mean. 

Dorothy and Phil were living in this house when they took the 1940 census, which provides a lot of additional information. Dorothy apparently owned the house (I assumed they were renting) which was valued at $4000 at the time (a little over $87k in 2023 dollars) and Dorothy listed her income as $2000 for 1939 ($43.5k).