How did Rockridge get its name? History tells us that many of us who lived here in the 1960s remember being surprised when BART authorities decided to name the newly built station on College Avenue “Rockridge” because the area was then known as the Chimes district.
Why Chimes? Perhaps the name originated from UC Berkeley’s carillon bells, because at the time, the neighborhood could hear the sound of bells coming from UC Berkeley’s Sather Tower (until traffic noise from the newly-built Grove-Shafter Freeway drowned it out).
Or, perhaps the name was due to its Chimes Theater, an elaborate movie house that opened in 1917 near the present-day site of Market Hall. The theater featured an open projecting bay, 40 feet above the street, that housed a full set of chimes. Either way, the name was an immediate hit, and other businesses soon adopted the name. By the 1920s, College Avenue was known as the Chimes District.
Chimes Theater opened December 1917 at 5631 College Avenue, and premiered its first sound picture in 1929 Photo collection of J. Katz
The College Avenue neighborhood became increasingly identified as Rockridge, which was derived from Rock Ridge Park, an early-20th-century real estate development above College Avenue named for a large rock outcropping that has since been largely been removed for use as road construction materials.
After the BART station opened in May 1973, the name “Rockridge” gradually replaced “Chimes” in common, everyday use.
