CITY OF BERKELEY LANDMARK designated in 1986. ALLANOKE Coxhead and Coxhead, Architects, 1903. Allanoke* is the only large estate remaining near the northern edge of the University of California campus. It was designed by Ernest Coxhead for Allen Freeman, President of the Bank of Oakland.† Coxhead, a major figure in the development of Bay Area architecture, produced a residence that was immediately recognized and widely publicized for its pioneering design. The large clinker-brick house features five massive gambrel dormers and is surrounded by formal gardens enclosed by clinker brick walls. In 1938, the property passed to the ownership of Robert Sibley, Executive Manager of the California Alumni Association and one of the founders of the East Bay Regional Park system. Sibley and his wife Carol made their home a meeting place for “town and gown” for many years. *correction: The house was named after the Freemans’ fruit orchard in Visalia, not after its owner. †correction: Freeman was a merchant and importer. The owner of nearby “Weltevreden,” Volney D. Moody, was the Bank of Oakland’s President. Berkeley Historical Plaque Project 1998

1777 Le Roy Avenue, Berkeley, CA, United States

CITY OF BERKELEY LANDMARK designated in 1986. “ANNIE’S OAK” Here a venerable oak tree was saved by Annie Maybeck (1867–1956), wife of architect Bernard Maybeck. She is said to have “marched off to City Hall” to protest the cutting of native trees during street paving early in the 20th century. She and other influential women founded the Hillside Club to promote “building with nature.” The Club proclaimed that “the few native trees that have survived centuries should be jealously preserved…. Bend the road, divide the lots, place the houses to accommodate them!” The original tree—a coast live oak, Quercus agrifolia—died in 1985. It was replaced with a young tree of the same species. Berkeley Historical Plaque Project 1998

1776 Le Roy Avenue, Berkeley, CA, United States

CITY OF BERKELEY LANDMARK designated in 1995. BERKELEY MUNICIPAL ROSE GARDEN Vernon M. Dean, Landscape Architect, 1933–1937. The Rose Garden was a joint creation of the City of Berkeley and the Federal Works Progress Administration (WPA), whose public works projects provided employment during the Depression. Vernon M. Dean, the City’s landscape architect, designed the garden in a rustic style, with a redwood pergola and semicircular stone-walled terraces facing San Francisco Bay. Hundreds of tons of native rock were quarried in the Berkeley hills to construct the terraces. The garden was sculpted into the hillsides west of the Euclid Avenue streetcar line that crossed the canyon of Codornices Creek on a trestle. More than 2,500 rose bushes were selected by the East Bay Counties Rose Society led by Charles V. Cowell. The planting arrangement emphasized one color per terrace, starting with red at the top and descending through bronze, pink, and yellow to white at the bottom. The entry overlooking the garden was redesigned by architect Helene Vilett in 1996 and rebuilt with community donations and funds from the City. Berkeley Historical Plaque Project 1998

1300 block Euclid Avenue, Berkeley, CA, United States

CITY OF BERKELEY LANDMARK designated in 2001. NORTH BRANCH BERKELEY PUBLIC LIBRARY James W. Plachek, Architect, 1936. North Branch Library is one of Berkeley’s many civic buildings by James Plachek, including the Central Library (1930), the Claremont Branch Library (1924), and John Muir School (1919). Well sited in a triangular park, the building offers a harmonious gateway to the surrounding Northbrae neighborhood. It was designed in the Spanish Revival style with a low-pitched red tile roof, central tower, and deeply inset arched windows. The project was funded by the Federal Works Progress Administration and the city. When it opened, civic leaders proclaimed this “one of the most beautiful public buildings in the City of Berkeley.” Berkeley Historical Plaque Project 2004

1170 The Alameda, Berkeley, CA, United States

Moe's Books. In 1959, Morris (Moe) Moskowitz and his wife, Barbara, opened a small paperback bookshop on Shattuck Avenue. They soon moved to Telegraph Avenue where Moe’s Books evolved into a renowned emporium featuring hundreds of thousands of books. Moe’s Books was a pioneer in giving honest, fair prices by establishing a fair trade policy of offering cash or a higher value in “Moe Dollars” (“In God and Moe We Trust”) for used books. These innovative trade slips—membership cards to a literary world— give previously read books respect and value. Defying Berkeley’s no-smoking ordinance, the iconoclastic, politically leftist Moskowitz enjoyed his cigars at work, typifying Telegraph Avenue’s anti-authoritarian identity. Since his death in 1997 the bookstore has remained a family-run business, continuing its legendary founder’s traditions.

2476 Telegraph Ave, Berkeley, CA, United States

CITY OF BERKELEY LANDMARK designated in 1986 ALLENOKE MANOR Coxhead and Coxhead, Architects, 1903 Allenoke is the only large estate remaining near the northern edge of the University of California campus. It was designed by Ernest Coxhead for Allen Freeman, President of the Bank of Oakland.* Coxhead, a major figure in the development of Bay Area architecture, produced a residence that was immediately recognized and widely publicized for its pioneering design. The large clinker brick house features five massive gambrel dormers and is surrounded by formal gardens enclosed by clinker brick walls. In 1938 the property passed to the ownership of Robert Sibley, Executive Manager of the California Alumni Association and one of the founders of the East Bay Regional Park system. Sibley and his wife Carol made their home a meeting place for “town and gown” for many years.

1777 Le Roy Avenue, Berkeley, CA, United States

CITY OF BERKELEY LANDMARK designated in 1999 American Baptist Seminary of the West Hobart Hall Julia Morgan, Architect, 1919 This compact complex of buildings linked by a series of arcades and academic quads in the English tradition was created to house one of Berkeley’s earliest seminaries. Hobart Hall, designed by Julia Morgan, is notable for its elaborate brickwork, elegant arched north entry, and molded terra cotta decorative detail. In 1953, architect Walter H. Ratcliff, Jr. continued the Tudor Revival style with Johnson Hall to the east and the small chapel with a double-gabled roof entry to the south. Additional campus buildings after 1964 reflect more modern architectural styles. Hobart Hall was substantially remodeled in 2000.

2606 Dwight Way, Berkeley, CA, United States

THE 1923 BERKELEY FIRE On the morning of September 17, 1923, a grass fire spread from Wildcat Canyon over the hills into Berkeley. Driven by hot, dry winds, the fire spread rapidly across the northeast residential districts of the city, burning as far south and west as this downtown block. In just a few hours, nearly 600 homes and dozens of entire blocks burned north of the University of California campus and east of Shattuck Avenue. Downwind, a rain of blowing embers started small fires and endangered buildings throughout the business district and in central, west, and south Berkeley. The Berkeley Fire Department and fire engine companies from other cities—including some rushed over from San Francisco on a ferry boat—fought to save the city. Finally, in late afternoon when the wind died down, they were able to contain the fire. East of the developed parts of the city and the University campus, the fire continued to burn through the dry hills and canyons well into the night. Professional firefighters were assisted by many volunteers, including hundreds of University of California students. Additional hundreds helped to evacuate people, save belongings, and guard the burned areas after the fire. Although no lives were lost, thousands of Berkeley residents were left homeless, including more than 1,000—about 10%—of all University students and nearly one in four faculty families. Across Oxford Street from this site, the northwest corner of the University of California campus was at the time a large field used for athletics and military drill practice. The field became a gathering place for refugees and salvaged belongings. Sites including Stephens Union (later Stephens Hall) on the campus, Berkeley’s City Hall, Washington School, and the National Guard Armory on Addison Street were turned into relief centers and temporary shelters.

1916 Oxford Street , Berkeley, CA, United States

CITY OF BERKELEY LANDMARK designated in 2005 Berkeley Piano Club William L. Woollett, Architect, 1912 The Berkeley Piano Club, dedicated to the performance and study of music, was founded in 1893 by a group of local women. Early meetings were held in members’ homes and later in a barn at the southwest corner of Piedmont Avenue and Bancroft Way. This clubhouse was built in 1912 to serve as the organization’s permanent home. Architect William L. Woollett, who later designed the Hollywood Bowl, created a building that is domestic in scale and detailing. Its redwood-clad concert hall remains the Club’s home as well as a site for performances by musicians of all ages, enriching the cultural life of the community. The clubhouse was restored in 2005.

2724 Haste Street, Berkeley, CA, United States

CITY OF BERKELEY LANDMARK designated in 1998 George Edwards House A.H. Broad, Designer and Builder, 1886 In the late 19th century, the Hillegass family farmed much of the land in this area. As a residential community spread south of the University of California, their property was subdivided for development. George Edwards, a University graduate, lawyer, and member of Berkeley’s first board of trustees, hired well-known designer and builder A.H. Broad, another town trustee, to build this family home. The structure is an example of the wood-frame Queen Ann-Eastlake style. The original design included decorative shingles, a turret, windows grouped in threes, and an asymmetrical facade. In 2001 builders Coreris, Hunt and Akin moved the house one lot west, placed it above parking, enlarged it, and added a complementary building to the east.

2530 Dwight Way, Berkeley, CA, United States

CITY OF BERKELEY LANDMARK designated in 1975 NATIONAL HISTORIC LANDMARK First Church of Christ, Scientist Bernard R. Maybeck, Architect, 1910 Roof replacement, accessibility, and seismic improvements: Architectural Resources Group and Degenkolb Engineers, 2007 Maybeck’s masterpiece is an Arts & Crafts fusion of Romanesque, early Christian, Gothic, and Japanese architectural influences. Constructed with common industrial materials—metal, concrete, and glass—the design expresses permanence and integrity in design and structure. Massive diagonally crossed wood trusses supported by four fluted concrete columns allow unobstructed views from the congregation to the Reader stands. Skylights, translucent hammered glass window walls, and indirect lighting create a connection between the interior space and the adjacent landscape. The Sunday School along the eastern side of the main church was added in 1929 by Maybeck in association with Henry Gutterson.

Dwight Way at Hillegass Avenue, Berkeley, CA, United States

CITY OF BERKELEY LANDMARK designated in 1976. SITE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE BYRNE HOUSE 1868. In 1858, prosperous farmer Napoleon Byrne sold his Missouri land and journeyed west with his wife Mary Tanner Byrne, four children, and other relatives. Two freed slaves, Pete and Hannah Byrne, came with the family and became Berkeley’s first known African-American residents. Byrne bought 827 acres of hillside land here beside Codornices Creek for $25 to $35 an acre and built a formal Italianate-style house. The land proved unproductive for farming, so the Byrnes moved to the Sacramento River Delta. Pete and Hannah chose to remain in the East Bay. Pete Byrne later started a whitewashing business in Oakland, and Hannah became a domestic worker. Napoleon Byrne sold his land in Berkeley to developers Henry Berryman and Felix Chappellet. Other owners followed, and from 1951 to 1997 the property belonged to the Chinese Christian Missionary Alliance Church. The Byrne house was destroyed by fire in 1985; only the concrete wall along Oxford Street remains from the past. In 2005, Berkeley’s Jewish Congregation Beth El moved from its first synagogue at Arch and Vine streets to this building designed by architects Moore, Ruble, Yudell. Berkeley Historical Plaque Project 2005

1301 Oxford Street, Berkeley, CA, United States

BERKELEY HISTORY. INA DONNA COOLBRITH: POET. Ina Donna Coolbrith, California’s first poet laureate and the nation’s first state laureate, was considered “the pearl of all her tribe” by her 19th century colleagues during the Bay Area’s first literary heyday. Born Josephine Donna Smith, a niece of Mormon founder Joseph Smith, she came west with her family during California’s Gold Rush. Coolbrith was fifteen and living in Los Angeles when her poetry was first published. After she divorced her husband at age twenty-one, she changed her name to Ina Donna Coolbrith, concealed her Mormon ancestry, and moved to San Francisco, where her celebrity as a poet grew. Coolbrith became Oakland’s first public librarian and a mentor to Jack London, guiding him in his reading. She died in Berkeley and is buried in Oakland’s Mountain View Cemetery. When byways in the Berkeley hills were named after Bret Harte, Charles Warren Stoddard, Mark Twain, and other literati in her circle, women were not included. This path was renamed for Coolbrith in 2016. www.berkeleyplaques.org 2017 Plaque sponsored by the Berkeley Historical Society. Berkeley Historical Plaque Project

1101 Miller Ave, Berkeley, CA, United States

CITY OF BERKELEY LANDMARK designated in 1983. DALEY’S SCENIC PARK STREET IMPROVEMENTS bounded by Le Roy, Hearst, La Loma avenues, La Vereda Road, Hilgard Avenue. The Hillside Club and Town Engineers, 1909. In the late 1890s a group of concerned women formed the Hillside Club to “encourage artistic homes built of materials complementing the natural beauty of the Berkeley Hills.” The Club soon became a major influence in Berkeley and the Bay Area, spreading the concept of “building with nature” and the philosophy of the Arts and Crafts movement. One of the Hillside Club’s tenets was that streets in steep hillside locations should be made “convenient and beautiful by winding at an easy grade like narrow country roads” that conform to the natural topography. The streets of Daley’s Scenic Park Tract had been planned in a conventional grid pattern in 1889. In 1903 the Club began a street improvement project for the Tract following its own principles. The Improvement Committee included architects Bernard Maybeck and Almeric Coxhead, as well as Arthur Bolton, who was University Superintendent of Grounds and Buildings. The project became a collaboration of property owners, the City, and the Hillside Club, with Bolton funding the preliminary survey and designs. Some property owners donated land to allow for breaking the planned rigid grid pattern with winding streets and rounded corners. Completed in 1909, the street improvements include divided streets, retaining walls, and staircases built of thickly textured grey concrete with simple metal handrails. An open creek, a redwood grove, and scattered native oak trees are legacies of the Hillside Club’s vision. The network of steps and divided roads at La Loma Avenue, Virginia Street, and La Vereda Road is the largest and most complex of the improvements they envisioned. Berkeley Historical Plaque Project 1998

bounded by Le Roy, Hearst, La Loma avenues, La Vereda Road, Hilgard Avenue, Berkeley, CA, United States

BERKELEY HISTORY First Congregational Church of Berkeley, United Church of Christ. First Congregational Church of Berkeley, United Church of Christ. Japanese Americans Bound for WWII American Concentration Camps April 1942. A legacy of anti-Asian racism, and fear and anger after Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor, prompted President Franklin Roosevelt’s Executive Order 9066 on February 19, 1942. It led to the imprisonment, without charges against them, of approximately 120,000 residents of Japanese ancestry. Most were American-born citizens. All were held under armed guard behind barbed wire in remote locations. In Berkeley, some 1,300 local “persons of Japanese ancestry, alien or non-alien” including students, staff, and faculty at the University of California and the Pacific School of Religion, were forced to leave homes, jobs, and school and were taken into U.S. Army custody. Some local church, campus, and community leaders advocated for just treatment of Japanese Americans. Unable to prevent the mass imprisonment, First Congregational Church offered its space as a humane alternative to the Army’s outdoor “assembly point.” Local churchwomen came here to provide food, hospitality, child-care, and other support to the Japanese Americans as they were registered by the Army and then taken to an initial detention center at the Tanforan Racetrack in San Bruno. Berkeley Historical Plaque Project 2017

2345 Channing Way, Berkeley, CA, United States

CITY OF BERKELEY LANDMARK designated in 1978 BARKER BUILDING A.W. Smith, Architect, 1905. James Loring Barker was an early Berkeley landowner, developer, and civic leader. He was one of the signers of the incorporation papers for the Town of Berkeley and it was he who delivered them to Sacramento in 1878. Barker helped to finance public school buildings and electric lighting for the city, promoted city tree planting, and established the First National Bank of Berkeley. His family home stood nearby on Dwight Way until it was demolished in 1976. Development began around the intersection of Shattuck Avenue and Dwight Way in 1876 when “Dwight Way Station” was established here. It was one of four original train stops on the rail line from Oakland into downtown Berkeley along Shattuck Avenue. A horse-car line that ran up Dwight Way to the California Schools for the Deaf and Blind (now the University of California’s Clark Kerr Campus) intersected with the rail line, and Barker hoped that this area would become the center of downtown Berkeley. Constructed in 1905, the Mission Revival-style Barker Building was damaged the following year by the San Francisco earthquake but was repaired. During the early 1990s it was rehabilitated. In 1996 the owner renamed the building “The Raj Kumar” in memory of his son, a medical student in India, who was killed in a 1986 accident. Berkeley Historical Plaque Project 1998

2484 Shattuck, Berkeley, CA, United States

CITY OF BERKELEY STRUCTURE OF MERIT designated in 2000. F. D. Chase Building. William Wharff, Architect, 1909. Renovated by Jim Novosel, The Bay Architects, 2001. During Berkeley’s early 20th-century development boom, the F.D. Chase Real Estate Company built this office building across from the Southern Pacific Railway station. Constructed of wood timber framing and brick exterior bearing walls, the building’s exposed rectangular cast iron columns still frame the center storefront openings. The building replaced the S. Taylor Saddlery and Harness Shop on this site and was one of Berkeley’s tallest buildings. The ground floor originally housed a pool hall and the Opal “moving picture” theatre. In 1915 upstairs offices became the 64-room Newland Hotel. Bay windows were added in the 1920s. The building continued as a hotel under various names until 1977, when the upper floors were remodeled into apartments. Berkeley Historical Plaque Project 2006

2107–2111 Shattuck Ave, Berkeley, CA, United States

BERKELEY HISTORY. SITE OF THE KELLOGG SCHOOL. 1884. An apple orchard, two houses, and a tailor shop once occupied this block. In 1879, six local businessmen and a university professor financed the purchase of part of the block near Oxford Street as the site for one of the city’s first public schools. The building was named for the Board of Education president Martin Kellogg, the University of California’s seventh president. The wood frame Victorian-style Kellogg School had three classrooms and separate entrances for girls and boys. Students ate their lunches along the banks of nearby Strawberry Creek behind the schoolyard. At the time, high school attendance in California was not compulsory, and many working-class parents objected to paying taxes for a school their children might not attend and which was far from West Berkeley. With four graduates in 1884, the school became the first high school in the state to be accredited by the University of California. In 1918 the building served as a place of worship for Berkeley’s First Hebrew Congregation. Later, commercial buildings were constructed on the site. Berkeley Historical Plaque Project 2000

2136 Oxford Street, Berkeley, CA, United States

CITY OF BERKELEY LANDMARK. designated in 1981. S. H. KRESS CO. STORE. Edward F. Sibbert, Architect, 1933. Samuel H. Kress began his chain of retail stores around 1900 and soon these “five-and-dime” variety stores dotted downtowns across America. Kress’s own company architects designed stores of high quality and adapted them to fit into the context and scale of each city’s main street. The Moderne-style building designed for Berkeley was built to withstand earthquakes. It features light-brown bricks, terra-cotta ornamentation, and decorative metalwork on the fire escapes. The marquee is original. The Kress name is high above the building entrance and in gold letters above the door. The interior once featured a lunch counter on the main sales floor and a bargain basement. Berkeley Historical Plaque Project. 2003

2036 Shattuck Avenue, Berkeley, CA, United States

CITY OF BERKELEY LANDMARK designated in 1984. ROOS BROS. BUILDING Miller and Pflueger, Architects, 1926. In 1876 the Central Pacific (later Southern Pacific) Railroad expanded into downtown Berkeley. What is now Shattuck Square was the site of freight yards; Berkeley Station was located on the smaller block to the south. By 1903, as the business district grew, the existence of freight yards in the downtown was no longer considered appropriate. A small park with palm trees, lawns, and benches replaced the eastern side of the yards. The block was subsequently sold for development. This building, the central element of a three-building retail and office complex, was designed in 1926 by James Miller and Timothy Pflueger, prominent San Francisco architects, to house Roos Brothers, a San Francisco-based department store. The building was advertised as a “modern clothing emporium” designed to surpass all others, with skylights and an electric lighting scheme featuring “Celestial and X-Ray Silver Mirror fixtures” (now removed). Berkeley’s downtown Roos Brothers attracted customers with “public telephones, restrooms, beauty & hair cutting parlors & even a golf fairway and putting green.” All three Roos brothers were University of California graduates. The building was painted blue and gold, the University’s colors, and golden bears still decorate the upper facade. The building was restored in 1978. Berkeley Historical Plaque Project 1998

64 Shattuck Square, Berkeley, CA, United States

CITY OF BERKELEY LANDMARK designated in 1995. FRANCIS KITTREDGE SHATTUCK BUILDING Stone and Smith, Architects, 1901. Jim Novosel: The Bay Architects, 1998. Berkeley’s transit pattern was established in 1876 when Francis Kittredge Shattuck and James L. Barker brought a spur line of the Central Pacific (later Southern Pacific) Railroad from Oakland into downtown Berkeley. By the time Berkeley was incorporated in 1878, Shattuck Avenue was its main street and Berkeley Station, across the street from this site, was the hub of the downtown. This building, on the northeast corner of the Shattuck family’s property, was the first masonry structure on Shattuck Avenue. It ushered in the transformation from pioneer-era wood-frame buildings to today’s more substantial masonry buildings. Its interior included professional offices and a meeting hall for the Native Sons of the Golden West. The corner turret and ground floor storefronts were restored in 1998 when developer Avi Nevo also added a mansard-style fourth floor. Berkeley Historical Plaque Project 1998

2108 Shattuck Avenue, Berkeley, CA, United States

CITY OF BERKELEY LANDMARK designated in 1987. SHATTUCK HOTEL, J.F.HINK & SON DEPARTMENT STORE Benjamin G. McDougall, Architect, 1909 and 1913. Walter H. Ratcliff, Jr., Architect, 1926. Berkeley’s first grand hotel, promoted as “The Finest Family Hotel in the City,” was built in 1910 by wealthy philanthropist Rosa Shattuck in memory of her husband, Francis Kittredge Shattuck, a prominent developer and civic leader. This reinforced concrete and steel building was designed by the architect of the nearby YMCA building, Benjamin McDougall. The Mediterranean Style of the building is apparent in its square corner turrets and arched windows. A second phase of construction more than tripled the size of the original six-story building, with 300 “Splendidly Furnished” rooms. For more than seven decades Hink’s department store, with its covered arcade built in 1926, occupied the largest ground floor space in the addition. Berkeley Historical Plaque Project 2012

2086 Allston Way, Berkeley, CA, United States

CITY OF BERKELEY LANDMARK designated in 1984. SHATTUCK SQUARE James Miller and Timothy Pfleuger, Architects, 1926. Shattuck Square is a group of three buildings constructed on the site of a former railroad freight yard, as a northern anchor to Berkeley’s historic downtown commercial district. It is the city’s only work by the San Francisco architectural firm that also designed the Paramount Theater in Oakland and 450 Sutter Street in San Francisco and the Paramount Theater in Oakland. This striking complex displays varied and elaborate cast-concrete ornamentation and window detail in a Spanish Colonial style. Over the years, this building has housed a business school, a market, a dance studio, a drug-variety-camera store, cafes, bookstores, restaurants, and copy shops. Despite many ground-floor renovations, the original character of the building is intact. Berkeley Historical Plaque Project 2005

Shattuck Square on University Avenue, Berkeley, CA, United States

BERKELEY HISTORY. THE SHUMAN BLOCK. McDougall Bros., Architects, 1906. Horse-drawn wagons once carried goods to the Berkeley Free Market housed here. In 1952 the structure was modernized to accommodate automobile showrooms, with artists’ studios above. Richard Diebenkorn, Elmer Bischoff, William Theophilus Brown, and Paul Wonner are among the prominent Bay Area painters who rented studios here. Together with David Park, who had a studio in downtown Berkeley, Bischoff and Diebenkorn founded the Bay Area Figurative style. While here, in 1955–1956, Diebenkorn combined abstraction with nature in his “Berkeley Series” landscapes. A 1999 rehabilitation by owner John Gordon and The Bay Architects restored much of the building’s original appearance. Artists continue to use the upstairs studios. Berkeley Historical Plaque Project 2005

2571 Shattuck Avenue, Berkeley, CA, United States

CITY OF BERKELEY LANDMARK designated in 1984. TUPPER & REED BUILDING William Raymond Yelland, Architect, 1925. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places. John Tupper and Lawrence Reed constructed this building for their music store, which they had established in Berkeley in 1906. University of California Art Professor Eugen Neuhaus complimented them as businessmen whose commissioned design rose above “the dreadful boredom of the commonplace that so often makes of architecture a stupid business and not a stimulating art!” Architect W.R. Yelland (1891-1966), a UC graduate, designed many “storybook” structures. This building features clinker bricks, wood beam ceilings, slate roofs, balconies, fanciful decorations, and a monumental fireplace. The iron cutout on the chimney top announced the Sign of the Piper Restaurant, once located upstairs. Following a 1959 fire Tupper and Reed moved next door. Berkeley Historical Plaque Project 2003

2271-2275 Shattuck Avenue, Berkeley, CA, United States

BERKELEY HISTORY CITY OF BERKELEY LANDMARK designated in 1980. UNITED STATES POST OFFICE Oscar Wenderoth, Architect, 1914. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Berkeley’s elegant Main Post Office is representative of the Second Renaissance Revival style, also called Neo-Classical Renaissance Revival. Government buildings constructed in this era were designed to “educate and develop the public taste and eventually elevate it to a higher plane.” Classical motifs decorate the building’s exterior and interior. The exterior terra cotta arches that are supported by plain tuscan columns are repeated on the inner wall of the loggia and again in the wall between the lobby and the main workroom. The mural over the door of the original Postmaster’s office, which depicts figures from California’s Spanish and pioneer periods, was painted in 1936–1937 by Suzanne Scheuer for the Treasury Relief Art Project during the Depression. Berkeley Historical Plaque Project 1998

2000 Allston Way, Berkeley, CA, United States

CITY OF BERKELEY LANDMARK designated in 1981. Fred Turner Building. Julia Morgan, Architect. Christian M. Teigland, Builder, 1940. This elegant commercial building, featuring two projecting storefront bays, copper bay hoods, pressed-copper storefront friezes, and steel-sash multi-pane windows, was the famed architect’s last Berkeley project. It was built for Frederick Chester Turner (1865–1955), a former Oakland City Engineer and Councilmember whose wife, Elsie Bloomfield Lee (1867–1937), was Julia Morgan’s sorority sister. Over several decades, Morgan designed various projects for the Turners, including a medical office building and a laboratory on this block (demolished). Two legendary long-term tenants in this building were the George J. Good men’s haberdashery, in the western storefront, and the Black Sheep Restaurant, located behind an interior courtyard accessed through a central archway between the storefronts. Berkeley Historical Plaque Project. 2021

2546 Bancroft Way, Berkeley, CA, United States

CITY OF BERKELEY LANDMARK designated in 1986. g. Paul Bishop Studio. Carl Fox, Designer. Fox Bros., Builders, 1938–39. Notwithstanding its steel-sash showcase window, this diminutive Storybook-style, reinforced-brick building was designed as a four-room rental dwelling with a two-story-high living room in the front. Not until photographer George “g.” Paul Bishop (1915–1998) acquired it in 1946 did it become a live-work space. Dropping out of pre-dental school in 1938, Bishop established his photographic career by shooting glamorous portraits. During WWII, he served as a photo officer in the Navy, an experience that transformed his outlook and style. Upon return, he eschewed flattering portraits and never retouched his prints. In this unvarnished mode, he captured numerous world-renowned figures, his favorites being Aldous Huxley, Robert Frost, and Frank Lloyd Wright. Berkeley Historical Plaque Project 2021

2125 Durant Avenue, Berkeley, CA, United States

CITY OF BERKELEY LANDMARK designated in 1982. J. Gorman & Son Building. Constructed circa 1880. Additions and Renovations 1890, 1906, 1940, 2005. John and Margaret Gorman moved their furniture and upholstery shop to this location in 1880. It is one of Berkeley’s oldest commercial buildings and a surviving example of the Victorian-era “corner store.” The original two-story structure fronts Telegraph Avenue. The Parker Street wing, diagonal corner entrance, and turret were added in 1906. The entire structure was rennovated in 2005. Gorman’s inventory became known for the unfinished yet functional beds, bookcases, and desks that served the burgeoning university community. In the early days they also made coffins. Four generations of the family operated the business until it was sold in 1997 and later moved to Oakland. Berkeley Historical Plaque Project 2007

2599 Telegraph Avenue, Berkeley, CA, United States

CITY OF BERKELEY LANDMARK designated in 2004. MRS. E. P. (STELLA) KING BUILDING. Albert Dodge Coplin, Architect, 1901. This corner store was built for Stella King’s dry goods business and upstairs residence. Until the shop closed in 1923, it was a gathering place where neighbors could find everything from sewing supplies to baled hay.Self-taught designer A. D. Coplin used narrow shiplap siding and scroll-sawn eave details, adapting Colonial Revival and Craftsman styles into his eclectic design. Although modified for different uses over the years, the E. P. King building retains its original appearance and corner-store character. This wood frame building and the adjacent Soda Works building are survivors of the early commercial district along this section of Telegraph Avenue. Berkeley Historical Plaque Project 2005

2501 Telegraph Avenue, Berkeley, CA, United States

CITY OF BERKELEY LANDMARK designated in 1986. McCreary-Greer House 1901. The McCreary-Greer House and neighboring turn-of-the-century houses on this block are survivors of one of the first residential districts developed around the University campus. This house, with its original garden area and carriage house, represents a highly decorative version of Colonial Revival architecture. Ruth Alice Greer, who was long associated with the University of California Education Department, grew up in the neighborhood and purchased this property in 1961. In 1986 she donated it to the Berkeley Architectural Heritage Association to maintain and preserve for future generations. Berkeley Historical Plaque Project 1998

2318 Durant Avenue, Berkeley, CA, United States

BERKELEY HISTORY Panoramic Hill. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places. A National Historic District. The Panoramic Hill Historic District typifies Berkeley’s early hillside neighborhoods. Steep and narrow Panoramic Way, carved out in 1888, opened the hill to residential development. University professors and early Sierra Club members were among the first residents. They engaged such influential architects as Ernest Coxhead, Bernard Maybeck, Julia Morgan, Walter H. Ratcliff, Jr., Walter Steilberg, and William Wurster, whose works collectively span several eras of Bay Region Style architecture. Flanked by Strawberry Creek and Derby Creek canyons, the hill is one of the most extensive surviving Arts and Crafts neighborhoods in Berkeley. Pedestrian byways, from formal Orchard Lane with its 1910 Beaux-Arts staircase to rustic footpaths like Mosswood Lane, thread between houses and roadway. Although part of Strawberry Creek was culverted in 1923, bucolic wooded canyons and panoramic views remain. Berkeley Historical Plaque Project 2007

Canyon Road, Panoramic Way, Mosswood Road, Arden Road, Berkeley, CA, United States

CITY OF BERKELEY LANDMARK designated in 2004. Soda Works Building. E.A. Spalding, Contractor, 1888. Robert Agers constructed this building to manufacture “the very best soda water” for customers throughout California. The recessed storefronts, second-floor oriel windows, and high false front are largely unchanged from a 1904 expansion. The building evokes Berkeley’s early small-town character when Telegraph Avenue was lined with wood frame houses and small shops. In 1969, during the People’s Park protests, Alameda County sheriff’s deputies fired at spectators, mortally wounding James Rector on the roof of this building. Berkeley Historical Plaque Project 2005

2511 Telegraph Avenue, Berkeley, CA, United States

CITY OF BERKELEY LANDMARK designated in 1994 ARMSTRONG COLLEGE BUILDING Walter H. Ratcliff, Jr., Architect, 1923. “TO INCULCATE THE HIGHEST STANDARDS AND IDEALS IN BUSINESS.” That lofty aim, incised high on the façade of this graceful Spanish Colonial building, guided Armstrong College for more than 70 years. Known in its early days as the California School for Private Secretaries, the private school met with limited success until classes in penmanship and shorthand gave way to a more academic curriculum. Renamed Armstrong University, its reputation grew, drawing students from around the world. After a decade of use as a training facility for the University of California, the building was acquired by the Tibetan Nyingma Meditation Center in 2009 and renamed Dharma College. Berkeley Historical Plaque Project 2011

2222 Harold Way, Berkeley, CA, United States

CITY OF BERKELEY LANDMARK designated in 1992. FLORENCE SCHWIMLEY LITTLE THEATER, 1948. BERKELEY HIGH SCHOOL COMMUNITY THEATER, 1939-1950. Henry H. Gutterson and William Corlett, Sr., Architects. Jacques Schnier and Robert Howard, Sculptors. This theater complex, together with the Industrial Arts Building and the Science Building, is a part of Berkeley High School’s outstanding Art Deco ensemble of structures that was designed in the late 1930s. World War II halted the Community Theater. Its exposed steel frame, nicknamed “the bird cage,” stood unfinished for over a decade. The 3500-seat Community Theater was the largest and most modern performing arts facility west of the Rockies. Huge bas-reliefs accentuate the spare geometric architecture. Six allegorical figures representing the arts flank the theater’s main entrance in the courtyard. Two heralds and a deeply carved relief several stories high adorn the Allston Way facade. Over the years, many notable speakers and performing artists have appeared in these theaters. Berkeley Historical Plaque Project 2000

1930 Allston Way, Berkeley, CA, United States

CITY OF BERKELEY LANDMARK designated in 1988. CITY HALL ANNEX James W. Plachek, Architect, 1925. Constructed in 1925 when Berkeley’s population was growing rapidly, this building accommodated a variety of civic services next to City Hall. The Department of Milk Inspection, which assured the purity of milk produced by dairies that were still located in less developed parts of the City, was located here. A large fire-proof safe inside the building, perhaps a legacy of Berkeley’s 1923 fire, once stored City records. Berkeley Historical Plaque Project 1998

1835 Allston Way, Berkeley, CA, United States

CITY OF BERKELEY LANDMARK designated in 1991. ELKS CLUB BUILDING Walter H. Ratcliff, Jr., Architect, 1913. Berkeley’s Elks Club, the 1002nd Chapter of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, was founded in 1905, just in time for members to assist those displaced by the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake. Later they helped wartime survivors and needy children. This is one of many Ratcliff buildings in Berkeley. Classical Revival-style pilasters at corner bays, the projecting cornice, and oversized oak doors are in the tradition of men’s clubs of the era. This building’s three-part composition, formal second-floor detailing, and Greek frieze are elements of Beaux-Arts design. Sold by the Elks to a church group in the 1990s, the building was acquired in 2008 by the Tibetan Nyingma Meditation Center. Berkeley Historical Plaque Project 2011

2018 Allston Way, Berkeley, CA, United States

CITY OF BERKELEY LANDMARK designated in 2006. Ennor’s Restaurant Building. James W. Plachek, Architect. John P. Brennan, Builder, 1923. This reinforced concrete building with its articulated brick facçade and simple classical detailing was built for Harvey and Marie Ennor at a time of energetic downtown development. They expanded a small sandwich shop into an elegant restaurant, banquet room, grocery and butcher shop, bakery, and confectionery. From 1933 onward, the building successively housed the True Blue Cafeteria, World War II government agencies, a furniture store, and the Act One & Two Cinema. Builder John Brennan later established his own popular West Berkeley restaurant, Brennan’s. The sidewalk-level storefront was replaced and the building renovated in 2008, but the second-story front remains intact. Berkeley Historical Plaque Project 2009

2128 Center Street, Berkeley, CA, United States

Library Gardens Memorial. In Memoriam. They lived and laughed and loved and left – James Joyce. Berkeley, named after the Irish philosopher George Berkeley, will forever remember the six young adults from America and Ireland, guests in this city, who tragically died near this spot in a balcony collapse at 2020 Kittredge Street early on the morning of June 16, 2015. Cousins Ashley Donohoe of Rohnert Park CA, and Olivia Burke of Dublin, Ireland. Eoghan Culligan, Lorcán Miller, Niccolai “Nick” Schuster, Eimear Walsh, all of Dublin, Ireland. Here, the families of those who passed and the community of Berkeley have joined hands to establish a permanent memorial. These strawberry trees were planted October 28, 2015 as a living remembrance in the presence of Michael Higgins, President of Ireland. This plaque was placed in June 2018. Ar scáth a chéile a mhaireann na daoine. www.berkeleyplaques.org. Berkeley Historical Plaque Project 2018

Civic Center Park, Berkeley, CA, United States

BERKELEY HISTORY “IN TRIBUTE TO CHIURA OBATA” 1885 – 1975 (小圃 千浦) Always go with nature, anywhere, in any circumstance, with gratitude. The renowned and highly respected Japanese American artist Chiura Obata was a popular member of the faculty at the University of California, Berkeley from 1932 to 1942. He maintained his studio and gallery at 2525 Telegraph Avenue (a City of Berkeley landmark), where his wife, Haruko, taught ikebana, the traditional Japanese art of flower arranging. Following Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor, bullets were fired at the studio. It then closed in 1942 during the forced internment of Berkeley’s entire Japanese American community, including 450 U.C. students. Provost Deutsch and University President Sproul criticized the internment, and Berkeley residents supplied art materials to Obata’s art schools at the internment camps at Tanforan, California and Topaz, Utah. By providing art education to fellow internees the Obatas helped to instill a sense of calm in the face of hardship and injustice. After the war ended in 1945, the Obatas returned to Berkeley where Chiura resumed teaching until 1954. His paintings and drawings, predominantly focusing on California landscapes, have been exhibited and collected by museums worldwide. Berkeley Historical Plaque Project 2016

2518 Telegraph Ave, Berkeley, CA, United States

CITY OF BERKELEY LANDMARK designated in 1991. Orchard Lane. Henry Atkins, Designer, 1909. One of Berkeley’s romantic treasures, Orchard Lane is the formal pedestrian entrance to the Panoramic Hill residential neighborhood. The walk and grand Classical staircase, complete with pillars, balustrades, concrete benches, and an overhanging bower of trees, was built by Warren Cheney, who developed Panoramic Hill. In 1904 Cheney, the former editor of the literary magazine The Californian, purchased the land. In 1909 he commissioned Henry Atkins to design the stairway that still links residences with the University and town and other walkways that climb the hill. Berkeley Historical Plaque Project 1998

Orchard Lane at Panoramic Way, Berkeley, CA, United States

CITY OF BERKELEY LANDMARK designated in 1990. "A PEOPLE’S HISTORY OF TELEGRAPH AVENUE". Mural design by Osha Neumann, painted with O'Brien Thiele, Janet Kranzberg, Daniel Galvez and many others. Painted in 1976. Restored and enlarged in 1999. The mural on this wall was painted the year of the Bicentennial of the American Revolution to commemorate a more recent revolutionary period. It depicts the social and political movements that defined Berkeley in the Sixties beginning in 1964 with the Free Speech Movement and concluding five years later with the struggle accompanying the creation of People’s Park on the eastern portion of this block. Images, from left to right, include: Mario Savio speaking at the October 1, 1964 sit-in on Sproul Plaza that sparked the Free Speech Movement; Vietnam War protesters; Black Panthers; the street scene on Telegraph Avenue in the Sixties; the creation of People’s Park; the corner of Telegraph Avenue and Haste Street on “Bloody Thursday,” May 15, 1969, when the streets in this neighborhood exploded into violent confrontation between police and demonstrators protesting the University of California’s seizure of People’s Park; the shooting, by Alameda County Sheriff’s deputies, of James Rector who was watching the demonstration from a rooftop on Telegraph Avenue. He died four days later. The mural concludes with a vision of liberation. Within inches of a homeless young woman sitting on the sidewalk, a tree breaks through the gray cement. Entwined in its branches a triumphal procession, shedding the clothes of the past as it proceeds, dances its way down Telegraph Avenue into the future. This plaque was a gift of friends of People’s Park to commemorate the Park’s 30th anniversary, April, 1999. Berkeley Historical Plaque Project 1999

Haste Street at Telegraph Avenue, Berkeley, United Kingdom

CITY OF BERKELEY LANDMARK designated in 1975 BERKELEY CITY HALL Bakewell and Brown, Architects, 1908. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places. This was Berkeley’s City Hall from 1909 to 1977. It sits on the site of the Town Hall that burned in 1904. It remains a source of civic pride and a symbol of Berkeley. Now commonly known as “Old City Hall,” it is the keystone of Berkeley’s Civic Center where public buildings are grouped around a central park. John Bakewell and Arthur Brown, Jr., the building’s architects—both of whom were graduates from the University of California—designed other city halls as well, including San Francisco’s. In 1972 the American painter, Romare Bearden, was commissioned to do a large mural for the City Council Chamber. One image from it was the inspiration for a City logo. At the June 27, 1908 cornerstone-laying ceremony, University President Benjamin Ide Wheeler proclaimed, “The Capitol at Washington cannot stand unless our town-houses have good cornerstones—firm-set and true.” Declaring that the new City Hall would be “our town-house,” Wheeler spoke of his hope “that we will respect the rights of others; that we will all be citizens and stay amateurs; that we will live together in mutual helpfulness; that we will try to make Berkeley the best town there is.” The building was officially renamed the Maudelle Shirek Building in 2007. Berkeley Historical Plaque Project 1998

2134 Martin Luther King, Jr. Way, Berkeley, CA, United States

CITY OF BERKELEY LANDMARK designated in 1992. BERKELEY HIGH SCHOOL INDUSTRIAL ARTS AND SCIENCE (G AND H BUILDINGS) Henry H. Gutterson and William Corlett, Sr., Architects. Jacques Schnier and Robert Howard, Sculptors, 1939-1940. These buildings are fine examples of the Art Deco style in the Bay Area. They were designed as an ensemble with the adjacent Berkeley High School Community Theater. Bas-reliefs and other surface decoration accentuate an architecture of simple geometric volumes. The block-long, west facade is enlivened by alternating two- and three-story sections, repetitively patterned window groupings, and a subtle asymmetry. The facades are graced by a large bas-relief of the goddess Cybele and Jacques Schnier’s vibrant depiction of St. George and the Dragon. In a 1995 renovation designed by VBN Architects in association with WLC Architects, the buildings were structurally retrofitted and their interiors were entirely remodeled. Berkeley Historical Plaque Project 2000

Allston Way and Martin Luther King, Jr. Way, Berkeley, CA, United States

BERKELEY HISTORY SITE OF DAVID PARK’S STUDIO. In the 1940s, painter David Park (1911–1960) had a studio in a brick building that once occupied this site. Despite a well-received exhibition of his abstract expressionist works at the San Francisco Museum of Art in 1948, Park rejected abstraction and took many of his paintings of the previous three years to the city dump. Discovering a new freedom in “the natural development of the painting,” Park began creating richly colored and textured works depicting the human figure and scenes from everyday life. In his shift from abstraction lay the origin of what subsequently came to be known as the Bay Area Figurative style. Soon adapted by fellow Berkeley painters Richard Diebenkorn, Elmer Bischoff and others, this style became an important West Coast postwar indigenous school of art. Berkeley Historical Plaque Project 2003

2025 Addison Street, Berkeley, CA, United States

CITY OF BERKELEY LANDMARK designated in 1985. FEDERAL LAND BANK. James W. Plachek, Architect, 1938. ELS Architects, 1999. The Farm Credit Administration built this structure to house federal agricultural banking and financial agencies, including one of the 12 Federal Land Banks that assisted Depression-era farmers. Features of the Moderne-style building include a gateway and an entrance court at the west elevation and distinctive zigzag stair towers. Inside and out, the structure reflects the era’s focus on creating public buildings that were useful, attractive, and affordable. The modest lobby is notable for its Art Deco detailing. The building’s major entrance faced west in anticipation of the creation of a civic center park. In 1940 Berkeley voters passed a bond issue for development of the present park. In 1976 the building was purchased by the City of Berkeley to house municipal offices. Renamed the Martin Luther King, Jr. Civic Center Building in 1983, it was seismically retrofitted in 1999. In keeping with architect Plachek’s original plans, a partial sixth floor was added. Berkeley Historical Plaque Project 2000

2180 Milvia Street, Berkeley, CA, United States

CITY OF BERKELEY LANDMARK designated in 1993. HEYWOOD BUILDING. James W. Plachek, Architect, 1917. Renovated by Jim Novosel, The Bay Architects, 1994. This small commercial building was built for William Heywood, son of Berkeley pioneer Zimri Brewer Heywood. The upstairs was used as the architectural offices of James W. Plachek, designer of many buildings in downtown Berkeley, including the Berkeley Public Library. The elaborate glazed terra-cotta façade with double rope molding and Gothic wall tracery was produced by Gladding, McBean & Co., of Lincoln, California, whose terra-cotta also decorated Oakland’s Paramount theater and other spectacular Beaux Arts and Art Deco buildings. Glazed terra-cotta on commercial buildings was considered fire resistant and conveyed a sense of elegance and high style. The building’s ground floor was renovated and partially restored in 1994. Berkeley Historical Plaque Project 2000

2014-2016 Shattuck, Berkeley, CA, United States

CITY OF BERKELEY LANDMARK designated in 1979. MORSE BLOCK Dickey and Reed, Architects, 1906. Charles Dickey, whose firm designed the Claremont Hotel and who practiced architecture extensively in California and Hawaii, designed this building with two residential floors above commercial storefronts. From 1921 to 1935 the ground floor was occupied by Donogh Drygoods, one of Berkeley’s leading downtown retailers and a competitor of Hink’s department store one block to the north. The store was a “daylight store,” lighted by windows, skylights, and french doors that opened onto a rear garden. Mrs. Donogh, one of the first woman graduates of M.I.T., introduced a popular “Basement Grocerteria” — the first of its kind in the state. The appearance of the ground floor has been changed many times, but the buff brick and classically detailed facade of the upper floors are original. Berkeley Historical Plaque Project 1998

2276 Shattuck Avenue, Berkeley, CA, United States

CITY OF BERKELEY LANDMARK designated in 1982 BERKELEY PUBLIC LIBRARY James W. Plachek, Architect, 1930. Addition, Ripley/BOORA Architects, 1999. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Berkeley’s free public library system was established in 1895, with branches in west and south Berkeley. The Shattuck family gave land for the construction of the first library on this site, which was made possible by a donation from philanthropist Andrew Carnegie. It was demolished in 1930 to build a new and larger library designed by Berkeley architect James Plachek. This building is an impressive example of Art Deco or zig zag Moderne style with cement plaster chevrons above the window bays and stylized ram’s head pilaster caps. The sgraffito frieze by Simeon Pelenc depicts Egyptian-styled figures engaged in book production. Citizen support of a 1996 bond issue allowed the building to be renovated, seismically retrofitted, and expanded. Berkeley Historical Plaque Project 2001

2090 Kittredge Street, Berkeley, CA, United States

CITY OF BERKELEY LANDMARK designated in 1991. DAVIS-BYRNE BUILDING 1895. This building was originally part of a small commercial district that grew up around Dwight Way Station where Shattuck Avenue commuter trains intersected with the horse-car line that ran up Dwight Way to the California Schools for the Deaf and Blind (now the University of California’s Clark Kerr Campus). Owner Glennie Davis constructed the original building, which had residential rooms above storefronts. After nearly a century of commercial and residential use, this building was bought with City assistance, remodeled in 1992, and enlarged in 1998. The rear section of the building was demolished and rebuilt, but the original facade has been preserved and restored. Berkeley Historical Plaque Project 1998

2108-2140 Dwight Way, Berkeley, CA, United States

CITY OF BERKELEY LANDMARK designated in 1997. FRAMÅT LODGE #405 Sanford G. Jackson, Architect, 1927. Berkeley’s large immigrant population in the late 19th and early 20th centuries included many natives of Sweden. The local chapter of the Swedish-American Vasa Order constructed this building as a lodge hall and cultural center. On November 8, 1927, Prince William of Sweden laid the cornerstone, proclaiming, “Through the magic of the melting pot you are becoming Americans and I can only admonish you to be good Swedes but even better Americans.” Framåt, the name of both the Berkeley chapter and lodge building, means “forward looking” in Swedish. The Depression devastated the construction industry in which many local Swedish-Americans worked and by 1932 the Vasa Order had lost the building. The building’s facade has polychrome pressed brick detailing and terra cotta trim. It is a good example of the Classical Revival style commonly used for commercial and institutional architecture during the early decades of the 20th century. Berkeley Historical Plaque Project 1998

1906 Addison Street, Berkeley, CA, United States

CITY OF BERKELEY LANDMARK designated in 1978. GOLDEN SHEAF BAKERY ANNEX. Clinton Day, Architect, 1905. Jim Novosel, Architect, 2000. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places. In 1877, English immigrant John G. Wright founded the Golden Sheaf, Berkeley’s first wholesale/retail bakery. The original bakery, with a public dining room, stood around the corner on Shattuck Avenue. Bakers lived in an on-site dormitory and university students boarded in rooms upstairs. The business grew into the region’s largest bakery, and this annex was constructed to house its fleet of horse-drawn delivery wagons. Wright helped form a bakers’ union in 1904, and provided a meeting place here for groups advocating temperance and women’s suffrage. In 1906 the bakery produced thousands of loaves of bread to feed refuges from the San Francisco Earthquake. The bakery business was sold to Wonderbread in 1909 and was moved from this site. In 2000, developer Avi Nevo renovated and restored the building. He then donated it to the adjacent Berkeley Repertory Theater to house its children’s education center. The brick facade still features the Golden Sheaf name and symbol in terra-cotta relief. Berkeley Historical Plaque Project 2001

2081 Addison, Berkeley, CA, United States

CITY OF BERKELEY LANDMARK designated in 1985. VETERANS MEMORIAL BUILDING Henry H. Meyers, Architect, 1928. In the early 1920s Alameda County voters approved a special tax to construct buildings that would honor war veterans and provide a meeting place for their organizations. The City of Berkeley contributed the land for this building. Designed in the Classic Moderne style by county architect Henry Meyers, it is an important part of the large and harmonious array of civic facilities around the park in Berkeley’s Civic Center. Display cases in the lobby contain mementos of veterans’ organizations. The building has been the site of many historic events, including one of the first indoor Grateful Dead concerts in 1966. Berkeley Historical Plaque Project 1998

1931 Center Street, Berkeley, CA, United States

CITY OF BERKELEY LANDMARK designated in 1984. Chamber of Commerce/Wells Fargo Bank. Walter H. Ratcliff, Jr., Architect, 1925–1927. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places. For nearly a half century, this steel frame and concrete structure, clad in brick and terra cotta, was Berkeley’s only “skyscraper.” Walter Ratcliff, highly respected for his fine residences and public buildings throughout Berkeley, designed this Classical Revival commercial tower at the peak of his career. Six ground floor arches were added soon after construction to replace original storefronts. The west wing was designed to accommodate additional stories at a later time, a plan derailed by the Depression. In 1930, the contested Stanford Axe, on its return to the bank’s vault for safekeeping, was stolen outside the Center Street doors by Stanford students disguised as news reporters and Cal students. Berkeley Historical Plaque Project 2010

2144 Shattuck Avenue, Berkeley, CA, United States

CITY OF BERKELEY LANDMARK designated in 1990. BERKELEY Y.M.C.A. Benjamin G. McDougall, Architect, 1910. Originating among working class Englishmen in 1844, the Young Men’s Christian Association was brought to North America in 1851 to promote a “full and balanced life” through religious devotion and athletic activities. Berkeley’s charter organization was established in 1903. Business and service organizations raised the substantial sum of $118,003 to construct this Georgian Revival-style building, designed by the architect of the nearby Shattuck Hotel, on land donated by Rosa M. Shattuck and her estate. The original exterior remains largely intact. An adjacent 1945 building for post-war USO servicemen’s activities was demolished for construction of new residential and gymnasium spaces in 1960, and expanded further in 1994. Berkeley Historical Plaque Project 2011

2001 Allston Way, Berkeley, CA, United States

CITY OF BERKELEY LANDMARK designated in 1998. SITE OF JOHN HINKEL LIVERY STABLE. BERKELEY FARM CREAMERY COMPLEX. 1900. F.E. Armstrong, Contractor, 1910. By 1900, downtown Berkeley had developed around Shattuck Avenue, its main street. On this site, owned by John Hinkel, stood a brick livery stable run by John Fitzpatrick, the early operator of the Ocean View Trolley. In an era of horse-drawn transportation, the centrally located livery stable was advertised to “Furnish at all the hours Hacks, Carriages and Coupes.” The stable had 16-foot-high brick walls and an arched entry. A complex of shops and a warehouse were later built around the stable. In 1910, the Berkeley Farm Creamery (not to be confused with Berkeley Farms of south Berkeley) occupied the site. The creamery sold dairy products from nearby farms, including the Such Ranch in Strawberry Canyon. Berkeley’s Red Cross, the first on the West Coast (organized in 1898 to aid in the Spanish-American War), purchased the site in 1936 for its headquarters. Although most of the complex was demolished in 1998, segments of the 1910 brick warehouse remained on the adjacent site. Berkeley Historical Plaque Project 1998

2116 Allston Way, Berkeley, CA, United States

BERKELEY HISTORY. HOW BERKELEY GOT ITS NAME. In the mid-1860s, the private College of California purchased land for a new campus (now the University of California). Visiting the site, College Trustee Frederick Billings admired the view towards the Golden Gate and was inspired to quote from George Berkeley’s poem “On the Prospects of Planting Arts and Learning in the Americas.” The Trustees decided Berkeley’s name would be appropriate for their new town and campus, and adopted it on May 24, 1866. Irish-born George Berkeley (1685–1753) was a scholar, traveler, mathematician, reformer, writer, and cleric, best known for his philosophy of “immaterialism,” questioning whether the physical world exists outside human perception. Discouraged by a Europe he saw as declining and corrupt, Berkeley hoped a more enlightened civilization would arise in the New World, and wrote the poem Billings would later quote. In 1728, hoping to establish a college in the Americas, he sailed to Rhode Island, but promised funds never arrived and he returned to Britain. In 1734 he became Bishop of Cloyne, County Cork, Ireland. Berkeley Historical Plaque Project 2003

, Berkeley, CA, United States

CITY OF BERKELEY LANDMARK designated in 1983. Howard Automobile Company. Frederick Reimers, Architect, 1930. Renovations and addition for the Buddhist Churches of America, Jodo Shinshu Center. Hayashida Architects, 2006. This Zig-Zag Moderne building, designed for the sale and servicing of Buick automobiles, captures the glamour, rising affluence, and sophistication of the post-World War I era. Charles Howard, who rose to prosperity through his successful Bay Area auto dealerships, also owned the famous racehorse Seabiscuit. Architect Frederick Reimers designed many period revival houses, as well as schools and other commercial buildings in the Moderne Style. Five unequal show-window bays are framed by fluted pilasters of reinforced concrete rising to scrolled, fountain-like capitals. Metal grilles, scrollwork, and doors in art deco-relief patterns further embellish the building. Berkeley Historical Plaque Project 2007

2140 Durant Street, Berkeley, CA, United States