When the neighboring city of Albany was incorporated in 1908 , its borders were drawn to exclude the area north of Solano Avenue and east of Curtis Street that would become the Thousand Oaks area , then the site of a refugee camp that had formed after the 1906 earthquake . Its residents were employed in the construction of the surrounding subdivisions and were likely to vote against incorporation as a separate city . The neighborhood was first subdivided in 1909 and 1917 after a failed proposal to move the state capital to Berkeley , in which the area would have become a large public park near the capitol building . Originally an unincorporated area north of Berkeley , it was built as a commuter suburb at the northern terminus of three interurban rail lines . It includes the Thousand Oaks Knoll , a rocky extension of the Berkeley hills in the northeastern part of the neighborhood . Several large rock outcroppings in the eastern edge of the neighborhood were turned into public parks , or incorporated into private yards
1906 earthquake
1906 San Francisco earthquake
Thousand Oaks, Berkeley, California