The majority of lands in the city limits (the Berkeley Lake Properties) were developed by Frank Coggins in the late 1940s. The dam, constructed in 1948, is one of the largest earthen dams in the state. The city's namesake, Lake Berkeley (), was named after Mr. Coggins' Berkeley Blue Granite Quarries in Elberton. In 1950 the Berkeley Lake "subdivision," which included five reserved Free Pass and Repass tracts (FPR) and the residential and fishing lots around the lake, was laid out. In 1952, Calvin and Kate Parsons, along with John and Dorothy Bagwell, purchased the Berkeley Realty & Investment Company and its property.