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While Berkeley is noted nationally, even internationally, for its turn-of the twentieth-century architects such as Bernard Maybeck, and their creative and innovative residential designs, Berkeley also has a large number of housing types that could simply be referred to as common.  

The house pictured here is such a house and it was common style across the country from around 1895 through the 1920s. The style is referred to by several different names: Classic Revival, Edwardian, Neo-colonial Revival, Classic Box and in the mid-west the American foursquare.  

These two-story houses are noteworthy for their rectangular shape, often a square, a hipped or pyramidal roof that often had a single dormer in the center, closed eaves and a covered entry porch. In Berkeley rows of Classic Boxes line the streets along or near early electric streetcar lines and across the country they are associated with early streetcar suburbs.  

Inspired by the Classic styled architecture of the Chicago World's Fair of 1893, early examples of these houses had Classical detailing such as engaged Ionic or Corinthian columns at the corners or free standing columns supporting the entrance porches. Sometimes there were dentils under the eaves or a three-part Palladian styled window. There are numerous variations on the theme and some are large and designed by architects, while others were copied from design books. In Berkeley and Oakland there are many fine examples of the more elaborately decorated variations because the style was popular here between 1895-1910.  

As a housing type, the Classic Box is substantial and has a very flexible floor plan easily adaptable to contemporary life styles. Many have been converted to duplexes, and some to commercial uses such as restaurants like Chez Panisse.  

However, just because a house is ordinary does not mean that the building may not have interesting associations. For example, this house was built in 1903 for retired army officer John T. Morrison, his wife Henrietta and their daughter May. Capt. Morrison fought Geranimo in the late 1800s and served on the Berkeley Town Council. Before moving here the family had lived on Addison Street and May graduated from Berkeley High School in 1895 and the university in 1914. May T. Morrison was an accomplished painter and teacher who is listed in several anthologies of California painters. The Morrison House is located on Benvenue Avenue and was designated a Berkeley Landmark, Structure of Merit in 1990.  

Susan Cerny is author of “Berkeley Landmarks” and writes this in conjunction with the Berkeley Architectural Heritage Association.