Features

Book appreciates Berkeley landmarks

By Sari Friedman Special to the Daily Planet
Monday October 15, 2001

Shell Mound, UC Berkeley buildings among subjects 

 

Berkeley Landmarks is a surprisingly intriguing book. Not bad for 300 pages documenting almost every building and site of historic, cultural, architectural or aesthetic significance in a 16 square-mile perimeter. 

These landmarks were selected by a Landmark Preservation Commission, created in 1974, which has by now identified 237 buildings or sites as city of Berkeley Landmarks or Structures of Merit. These landmarks include City Hall, subdivisions, pathways between streets, buildings on university grounds named for wealthy donors, glades and large rock outcroppings.  

Few areas representative of Berkeley’s unique political identity are described, but the book’s text still contains fascinating history. 

The area we call Berkeley was originally home to the Ohlone People, c. 3700 BC to 800 AD, who settled at the foot of the freshwater creek now known as Strawberry Creek. The riverbanks were lined with willows and outlying areas were rich in deer, seals, otters, fish, birds and shellfish. 

The remains of the Berkeley Shell Mound, which contained large quantities of artifacts such as bone tools and the remains of a sweat house, are today located approximately between University and Hearst avenues, and Fourth and Second streets. 

The town of Berkeley was incorporated in 1878. The town was named in honor of George Berkeley, Bishop of Cloyne, Ireland, who came to America early in the eighteenth century with the goal of establishing colleges. 

Berkeley Landmarks contains numerous maps and 19th century photos which document the above-mentioned history and more. University Avenue once had horse-drawn streetcar service, which led to a ferry to San Francisco. In the early 1900s there was an electric trolley line on San Pablo Avenue. West Berkeley was once a major industrial area and home to the Standard Soap Company, now known as the Colgate/Palmolive /Peet Company. Berkeley beach was located at the foot of Cedar Street. 

Remarkable architects such as Bernard Maybeck, Julia Morgan, Charles Keeler and many dozens of others helped transform Berkeley’s early Bay Region architecture, making it an icon of the building-with-nature philosophy epitomized by the Hillside Club. 

Many of these architects and designers were originally attracted to Berkeley by the University of California at Berkeley, which offered the first classes in architecture west of the Mississippi. Berkeley Landmarks contains a section listing biographical info on local builders, designers, and architects. 

But Berkeley Landmarks primarily describes the design and ownership histories of many distinctive Berkeley Colonial Revival style houses, Redwood frame cottages, stucco bungalows, Italianate Victorians, Pioneer Victorians, Craftsman Bungalows and more. 

You can also learn the design and ownership history of gathering places such as Ashkenaz (modeled after old Polish synagogues), Toverii Tuppa (which means “Friends Meeting Hall” in Finnish), Bowen’s Inn (which is said to be the oldest surviving structure in Berkeley), the Claremont Hotel (built to provide a destination for riders of the new electric rail lines), and the West Berkeley Macaroni Factory. 

The design history of less glamorous structures are included as well. Many one-story bungalows were originally tract houses built for the sudden influx of World War II workers.  

Today, few Berkeley residents design their own homes. At least we can read about those who could design and put together their own homes, such as Joseph Alphonso, a Portuguese cabinetmaker who constructed his own home on Delaware Street, and James L. Swink who put up the elegant Colonial Revival Swink House on Shattuck Avenue, which is still proudly standing two doors down from Chez Panisse.