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NOTES TOWARD A HISTORY OF OUR DISTRICT

by the McGee-Spaulding-Hardy Historic Interest Group

Walk down University Avenue, turn left at Jefferson, and pause before the noble facade of St. Joseph the Worker. You are now entering one of Berkeley’s oldest and best-preserved districts. It was created, in classic mid-19th century fashion, by the union of a land company’s ill-timed investment with an Irish immigrant’s strategically placed farm.

 

   The district has gained both unity and character from its boundaries: on the north, University Avenue; on the west, Sacramento Street; on the south, Dwight Way; and on the east, what is now Martin Luther King, Jr., Way but was originally Sherman Street. All quite early became major thoroughfares, handy for transporting produce, supplies, and people. But no such thoroughfare divided the area they enclosed. With its relatively flat terrain, rich alluvial soil, and reliable water supply (from Strawberry Creek), the district soon attracted the notice of James McGee, an Irish immigrant who had come to Alameda County in 1854. He bought enough land for a farm and by 1866 owned and worked the 115 acres south of Addison and east of California streets.

 

   Just who owned the 45 acres between McGee’s farm and Sacramento Street remains unclear. We do know that in 1876, two years before Berkeley was incorporated, this area was subdivided into quarter-acre lots by the Oakland Land Association and named the Spaulding Tract, possibly after N.W. Spaulding, a former mayor of Oakland who owned several of the lots.

 

   The Association may have hoped to profit from the annexation of Berkeley to Oakland, a move strongly favored by some elements in the business community. In any case, Berkeley’s incorporation in 1878, which placed both the Spaulding Tract and McGee’s farm within the new town’s limits, did not hasten the development of either. The tract remained sparsely populated, attracting chiefly absentee speculators and businessmen in search of suburban estates. One of the latter was Joseph Hume, a successful investor who also ran a Victorian-style minifarm on eight acres between Dwight and Bancroft ways. William Clark, a manufacturer who commuted to work at the Pacific Spring and Mattress Company in San Francisco, and his wife Lillie bought four acres of Hume’s land and lived for many years in the large Stick Style Victorian (built by A.H. Broad in 1894) that still stands at 1545 Dwight Way. John Hunter, a West Berkeley businessman, built an impressive Queen Anne “cottage” on the one acre he bought from the Clarks in 1895. Now officially the Hunter House, it was declared a Structure of Merit in 2000 (Berkeley Landmark #231).

 

   Meanwhile James McGee had become well known for having donated the land for both St. Joseph’s Presentation Convent and Academy and the original St. Joseph’s church built in 1886 . The new St. Joseph’s church, a gem of Classical Revival architecture (and, since 1991, a Berkeley Landmark), was built in 1907 on land adjacent to the original church site. McGee was elected to Berkeley’s first Board of Trustees (as the five city council members were then called), and offered to donate land for a permanent city hall -- in the hope, some say, that the area around St. Joseph’s would become the city center. The offer was quickly buried in controversy. As for the city center, its future location had already been determined by the Central Pacific Railway’s new line down Shattuck Avenue.

 

   McGee died a rich man, but nobody -- though his two daughters lived on in Berkeley -- has found where his money went. By the late 1890’s the rest of his property had been subdivided and was up for sale as the McGee Tract. However, despite its nearness to downtown and the Berkeley Town Hall located at University Avenue and Sacramento Street, the entire district remained a kind of suburb. Unpaved streets, difficulty of access, and the Dwight Way sewer’s habit of overflowing every winter continued to deter most buyers. Above all, the lack of transportation connecting East and West Berkeley caused the district to retain its character as a rural enclave between the two. There was no street railway connection between the eastern and western parts of University Avenue until 1891; people had to walk the mile and a half between the two sections if they had no conveyance of their own. An 1891 view of Berkeley shows the McGee Tract as mainly open land and the Spaulding Tract covered with trees. As late as 1895, barley was being harvested and threshed between Addison and Bancroft, and cows were often tethered along California Street between Addison and University. According to a local newspaper, visiting the town hall, then at University and Sacramento, was like an expedition to “the rural districts of the frontier.” Finally, in 1899, in a move that forever altered Berkeley’s center of gravity, the Town Hall was moved to Grove and Center Streets. The job was accomplished by one horse at a cost of $999. The move took 30 days and the Town Trustees continued to use the building en route.

 

   All this was to change as new health and zoning regulations discouraged backyard farming and placed limits on the number of cows that could be kept in a backyard. Milk testing was instituted in the 1920’s and the City Hall Annex (James W. Plachek architect, Landmark #122) was built to house the offices of the Department of Milk Inspection. Completion of a streetcar line down University also improved access to the district. But the greatest transformation came with the earthquake of 1906, when people fled across the bay in search of new homes and home sites. Vacant lots in the district, now more convenient for commuting to West Berkeley, Oakland, or San Francisco, were snapped up, and the former suburb underwent its first wave of development. It finally became part of the urban pattern in 1912, when the Southern Pacific ran a line of its electric street railway down California Street.

 

   There was still plenty of room for growth. During the 1920’s and 1930’s many fine old houses, which can still be seen throughout the district’s neighborhoods, were moved here to make way for the new Berkeley High School and U.C. Berkeley’s Edwards Field. At that time, due to the expense of building materials, demolition was seen as a last resort. In the 1960’s, this also changed. Demand for housing was used as an excuse to demolish innumerable distinguished old buildings and replace them with large, cheaply built blocks of apartments that altered, and sometimes destroyed, the character of established residential neighborhoods. Finally, a grassroots effort to forestall further destruction led to the passage, in 1973, of the Neighborhood Preservation Ordinance, which placed strict restrictions on neighborhood demolitions. Also at this time, large portions of the flatlands were downzoned. The same movement impelled the City Council to pass the Landmarks Preservation Ordinance, which, through its “structure of merit” designation, was also designed to protect the unique character of central Berkeley districts such as ours.

 

 

WALKING TOUR INTRODUCTION

 

We have designed the following walking tour to show what we consider are good examples of the various architectural styles in the district. Our stylistic categories are based on the illustrations in Rehab Right: How to Rehabilitate Your Oakland House without Sacrificing Architectural Assets, issued in 1978 by the City of Oakland‘s Planning Department. Also listed are a number of buildings of historical interest. (We would welcome any reminiscences or other historical information from residents or former residents.)

 

The district includes the following Berkeley landmarks and non-residential buildings:

 

Landmarks

 

2143 MLK Way   City Hall (Landmark #1; National Register of Historic Places);           1908-9; Bakewell and Brown, architects

1835 Allston      City Hall Annex ( Landmark #122); 1925, J.W. Placek, architect

1670-1676 University    Fox Commons (Landmark #211); three rustic brick-sided cottages           (Mother Goose style); 1931, Fox Bros, builders

1600-1640 Addison    St. Joseph the Worker Catholic Church (Landmark #164); 1907,           Shea & Lofquist, architects

2418 California St   Hunter House (Structure of Merit, Landmark #231); 1895

 

Institutions (in addition to those listed under Landmarks, above)

 

2304 McKinley    Berkeley Buddhist Monastery; formerly the Church of the            Nazarene, 1940’s (the original was built in 1898); the church was          the base for the entire denomination west of the Mississippi

2301 McKinley   Washington School

2446 McKinley   Walden School

1809 Bancroft    Berkwood Hedge School; founded 1947; the site was originally          occupied by the house and barn of a carriage painter

2125 Jefferson    St. Joseph’s Elementary School; 1912 (altered later)

1630 Bancroft    Congregation Beth Israel Synagogue--first synagogue in Berkeley          and one of four Yehud Synagogues in Berkeley; completely            remodeled in 2005
2235 Sacramento    Berkshire Retirement Center; lot was originally occupied by a large           Victorian. The four very tall palm trees flanking the back driveway          and two others on the Spaulding corner remain (the lot was vacant          in the late 1950’s per A. Davis)

1744 University    LutheranChurch of the Cross

 

 

Neighborhood Storefronts

 

2022 Grant      SandwichCity, owned for many years by several generations of the           Ambrose family. Early on the family home was in the 1700 block          of Addison Street. The store closed in the late 1990’s.

1600 Bancroft    Corner store, owned for many years by the Syufy family who           owned a chain of Berkeley movie houses in the 1920s; family lived          above store. Mr. Lee was the proprietor in the 1970’s. The store          closed about 1980.

1649 Dwight Way    Storefront

2301 Grant      Storefront; once the home of a now-vanished collective called The           Circus.

2300 Roosevelt    Storefront; originally a store with living quarters above. Before           WWI it was a stables with a saloon above, which was illegal because        of the 1876 ban on alcohol sales within one mile of campus.

 

 

Suggested Walking Tour

 

Start at City Hall (Landmark #1), 2134 Martin Luther King, Jr. Way

 

   The Strawberry Creek culvert begins under Old City Hall. A 1903 Sanborn    insurance map shows the creek running freely through from McGee to California    with no development on either side for half a block. The Creek is now culverted    underneath the 2100 blocks all the way down to Presentation Park, next to the    University housing on California Street. When the University built the    Presentation Minipark, part of the road collapsed into the creek. They had    forgotten it was there.

 

Turn right (west) at Allston Way, then left (south) onto McKinley Avenue

 

2203 McKinley   Brown Shingle Cottage

2208 McKinley   Ranch house, moved to site from 4 th Street in 1979. The original           building on the site was the S.J. Sill house, a two-story building built        in 1905 for S.J. Sill Co. as a dwelling and stable. The stable was          used by Hink’s Department Store for its delivery van and horses.          The building was demolished in 1979.        

2212 McKinley   Italianate; A.E. Jacobson House; built in 1890, for the Jacobsons,            a family of teamsters at an estimated cost $3000; John Spencer,          contractor. Moved from Haste and Ellsworth in 1900. According to        BAHA, the large redwood barn at the back was built in 1901.  

2220 McKinley   Craftsman Bungalow

2228 McKinley   Queen Anne

2231 McKinley   Colonial Revival; known as the Green Dragon House; architect-          designed; built circa 1900. Bought by Yum Lee in 1923 for his          sons to live in while attending UC.

 

At Bancroft Way turn right (west) and walk toward Roosevelt Avenue

 

1816 Bancroft      Mediterranean

1812 Bancroft   Mediterranean; former home of the Naked People

1732 Bancroft   Farmhouse; moved from West Berkeley in 1904

 

At Roosevelt Avenue turn left (south) and walk toward Dwight Way

2307 Roosevelt   Cottage (typical of early houses in the neighborhood)

2322 Roosevelt   Craftsman Bungalow

2325, 2329, 2331Roosevelt    Classic Boxes

2330 Roosevelt   Brown Shingle (with gambrel roof)

2336 Roosevelt   Classic Box

2400, 2402, 2406 Roosevelt   Craftsman Bungalows

2421 Roosevelt   Brown Shingle

 

If you would like a break at this point, stop at the Becky Temko Tot Park at 2424 Roosevelt before continuing on to Dwight Way

 

2432 Roosevelt   Neoclassic Rowhouse

2442-46 Roosevelt   Designed by architect, Walter Ratcliff

 

At Dwight Way turn right (west) and walk toward Jefferson Avenue

 

1733 Dwight     Eastern Shingle Cottage

1729 Dwight     Queen Anne Cottage

1715 Dwight     Eastern Shingle Cottage

1649 Dwight     Storefront

1633 Dwight     Eastern Shingle; built 1907. Home of F.A. Postnikov (1872-1952)         and family 1911- 1935. He was the first president of the Esperanto          Society in Russia (1897) and introduced Esperanto to Japan in          1903; he was a Russian army expert in aerial navigation and balloon        construction and warned against the launching of a dirigible in 1908        near Berkeley High that crashed after takeoff. He moved to the US         in 1906. In the late 1920’s the house was used as a meeting place          of the Russian Women’s Club of Berkeley. Mrs. Mary Postnikov          was the president.

1621 Dwight     Transitional vernacular (Victorian and Craftsman)

 

At Jefferson Avenue turn right (north) and walk toward Channing Way

 

2438 Jefferson   Craftsman Bungalow

2428 Jefferson   Cottage; the mid-section was originally a 12 X 20 shed that was           brought by barge from SF and used as a temporary shelter after the          1906 earthquake. The front and back were added later. The          cottage has a wood sill but no foundation. The large fir and cedar          trees were left in containers by the Japanese gardener when he was          sent to a WWII concentration camp.

2413 Jefferson     Colonial Revival

 

At this point you might want to take a quick detour to the 2300 block of Jefferson to check out the Sears prefabricated mail order bungalows, then return to Channing. The bungalows, numbers 2316 - 2330, were built between 1917 and 1923. The kits provided everything but tools, concrete, brick or plaster and labor.

 

At Channing Way turn left (west) and walk toward California Street

 

1615, 1611, 1609, 1605 Channing   Craftsman Cottages (Apparently featured in a book               about bungalows)

 

At California Street turn left (south) and walk toward Dwight Way

 

2417-19 California   Classic Box; moved here when Berkeley High School was built

2418 California   Queen Anne; Hunter House; Structure of Merit (Landmark # 231);           BAHA Preservation Award, 2006, James Novosel, architect          and owner. Built in 1895 for John Hunter, who bought one acre          from the Clark family, who lived at 1545 Dwight Way. Hunter was        the vice president of the Parker Match Company, located in West          Berkeley.

2436 California    Former coach house/barn for the Clark house at 1545 Dwight Way.         Much later, it was converted to residence and moved to the back of          the lot.

 

At Dwight Way turn right (west) and walk toward Spaulding Avenue

 

1545 Dwight    Stick-style Victorian (Clark House); built in 1884 by A.H. Broad.           Owned by Lillie Clark (and William) from 1885 to1897. This is          one of the earliest buildings still standing   in Berkeley and          represents the transitional stage between the city’s rural beginnings          and its urban development. The building was used as a commune in        the 1970’s and is now occupied by S.T.E.P.S..

 

Turn right (north) onto Spaulding Avenue and walk toward Bancroft Way

 

2444 Spaulding   Brick Cottage (probably built by Fox Bros)

2410 Spaulding    Mediterranean; used as bunk house while railroad line was being           built on Sacramento.

2405-07 Spaulding   Cottage

2350 Spaulding   Brick Bungalow (maybe Fox bros); built by Tom Roberts, Sr. who           built many Berkeley brick buildings in the 1920’s

2348 Spaulding    Brick Bungalow (same as 2348)

2315 Spaulding   Eastern Shingle Cottage

2312 through 2346 Spaulding    Bungalows

2311 Spaulding   Transitional Queen Anne

 

At Bancroft Way turn right (east) and walk toward California Street

 

1547 Bancroft      Neoclassic Rowhouse

 

At the corner of California Street and Channing Way look to your right (east)

 

1601-11 Channing   Wartime Tract Houses

 

Continue along California Street to Allston Way

 

2221 California   Stick

 

If you would like to take another break, stop at Presentation Park across Allston Way on California Street and/or at Allston Way turn left (west) and walk toward Spaulding Avenue; at Spaulding walk toward Addison Street

 

2104-06 Spaulding   Mediterranean Moderne

2107 Spaulding   Moderne Duplex

2140. 2136. 2120 Spaulding   Bungalows

Turn right (east) at Addison Street and walk toward McGee Street

 

1600-1640 Addison   St. Joseph the Worker Catholic Church (Landmark #164); built           1907; Shea &    Lofquist, architects

1646 Addison     Stick-Eastlake; early 1880s

 

At McGee Street turn right (south) and walk toward Allston Way; at Allston turn left ((east) and walk toward Grant Street

 

1701 Allston      Queen Anne; built in the early 1890s. During WWII troops were           quartered in the house. The first owner was Michael Powell, a          produce peddler on Shattuck Ave.

1711 Allston     Farmhouse; built in 1910. When cult science fiction writer Philip           K. Dick was a teenager in the 1950’s, he lived here with a group of          friends.

1719-23 Allston   Architect-designed; Ludgrew House; built in 1905

1745 Allston     Brown Shingle (moved here)

1749 Allston     Craftsman; built in 1910, moved from Bancroft Way in 1920

 

At Grant Street turn left (north) and walk toward Addison Street

 

2139 Grant     Apartment building, Stone & Smith 1908

2111, 2115, 2117, 2119 Grant    Classic Boxes

2107 Grant     Victorian (cute, small)

 

 

At Addison Street turn right (east) and walk toward MLK Way

 

1806, 1808, 1812 Addison   Bungalows

1823-25 Addison   Queen Anne

1827 Addison     Queen Anne

1837-39 Addison   Queen Anne

1841 Addison     Queen Anne

 

The tour ends here -- Robin’s Sandwich Shop is just around the corner at Addison Street and MLK Way.