United States Postal Service Postal Historic Structure Report … · 2013. 2. 22. · United States...

United States Postal Service Postal Historic Structure Report

Developmental History

for

Berkeley Main Post Office

Final

January 29, 2013

Prepared for:

United States Postal Service Real Estate and Assets Facilities Headquarters 475 L’Enfant Plaza SW, Room 6670 Washington, DC 20260-1862

Prepared by:

Tetra Tech, Inc. 1999 Harrison Street, Suite 500 Oakland, California 94612

January 2013 Postal Historic Structure Report for Berkeley Main Post Office i

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1 INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................. 1

1.1 STUDY SUMMARY .................................................................................................. 1

1.2 PROJECT DATA...................................................................................................... 2

2 RECORD SEARCH ......................................................................................................... 4

2.1 AREA OF POTENTIAL EFFECT (APE) ....................................................................... 4

2.2 NRHP ELIGIBLE OR LISTED PROPERTIES WITHIN APE ............................................. 4

3 DEVELOPMENTAL HISTORY ........................................................................................ 8

3.1 HISTORICAL BACKGROUND AND CONTEXT ............................................................... 8

3.2 BRIEF CONTEXT THE CITY OF BERKELEY ............................................................... 11

3.3 DESIGNERS AND BUILDERS .................................................................................. 11

4 CHRONOLOGY OF DEVELOPMENT AND USE .......................................................... 12

4.1 USE .................................................................................................................... 12

4.2 ORIGINAL CONSTRUCTION .................................................................................... 12

4.3 ALTERATIONS ...................................................................................................... 23

5 PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION ........................................................................................... 25

5.1 SPATIAL ARRANGEMENT ...................................................................................... 25

5.2 ALTERATIONS ...................................................................................................... 26

5.3 PROMINENT ELEMENTS AND MATERIALS ............................................................... 26

6 EVALUATION OF SIGNIFICANCE ................................................................................ 28

6.1 NRHP LISTING FOR BERKELEY MAIN POST OFFICE ............................................... 29

6.2 PERIOD OF SIGNIFICANCE .................................................................................... 30

6.3 SIGNIFICANT/HISTORIC CHARACTER DEFINING FEATURES ...................................... 30

6.4 INTEGRITY ........................................................................................................... 32

7 CONDITION ASSESSMENT ......................................................................................... 33

7.1 EXTERIOR ........................................................................................................... 33

7.2 INTERIOR ............................................................................................................ 33

8 QUALIFICATIONS......................................................................................................... 34

9 REFERENCES .............................................................................................................. 35

January 2013 Postal Historic Structure Report for Berkeley Main Post Office ii

FIGURES

Figure 1 Project Location .......................................................................................................3

Figure 2 APE Map ..................................................................................................................6

TABLE

Table 1. NRHP and CRHR Eligible Architectural Properties within APE ....................................7

APPENDIX

A NRHP Nomination Forms

B DPR 523 Forms

C Native American Heritage Consultation Request

D List of Interested Parties

January 2013 Postal Historic Structure Report for Berkeley Main Post Office 1

1 INTRODUCTION Tetra Tech Inc. (Tetra Tech) Inc. was tasked by the United States Postal Service (USPS) and Coldwell Banker Richard Ellis (CBRE) to conduct historic research and site documentation of the Berkeley (California) Main Post Office located at 2000 Allston Way (Figure 1). The scope of the study included:

Conducting a cultural resource record search and sacred site search;

Conducting a site visit and documenting historic features;

Completing Part 1 of the Historic Structures Report as outlined in National Register Brief 43: The Preparation and Use of Historic Structure Reports;

Documenting the USPS delineation of the Area of Potential Effect (APE) for future undertakings;

Preparing the Department of Parks and Recreation Form (DPR) Form 523A for the post office property; and

Developing a proposed List of Interested Parties.

Copies of forms and correspondence are provided as Appendices A through D to this report.

1.1 STUDY SUMMARY

This report was prepared to obtain background information on the Berkeley Main Post Office to establish baseline knowledge of the historic character and defining features of the property and the general conditions of the building. The USPS also wished to gain information on the historical significance of the post office and the determination for listing in the NRHP.

Tetra Tech conducted a site visit to the post office, photographed and recorded the building on California DPR Form 523A, and conducted research regarding the origins of the building. The Berkeley Main Post Office was listed on the NRHP in 1981 under Criteria A and C, and assigned the status 1D, “contributor to a district or multiple resource property.” The building is also listed on the California Register of Historic Resources, was designated a City of Berkeley Landmark in 1980, and is a contributor to Berkeley’s Civic Center Historic District. There are nine contributing buildings to this historic district, including the post office.

Tetra Tech determined the property retains a high degree of historic integrity, its materials are well preserved, and that it is in excellent condition on both the interior and the exterior. A mural that surrounds the doorway of the original post master’s office and the relief panel on the exterior east wall of the building has also been well preserved and are in excellent condition.

1. Introduction


1.2 PROJECT DATA

The USPS is the owner of the Berkeley Main Post Office building at 2000 Allston Way and the land where it is located. The post office was listed on the NRHP in 1981. In addition to the observations and field documentation conducted in October 2012, Tetra Tech used the NRHP nomination form as the primary source of information for the developmental history portions of this report. 1 Tetra Tech also identified the building’s historic character defining features, and assessed the condition of the building’s elements and materials. Tetra Tech staff contributing to the project included Julia Mates, Historian/Architectural Historian, and Kara Brunzell, Historian. Both Ms. Mates and Ms. Brunzell meet the History and Architectural History professional qualifications as outlined by the federal government in Title 36, Code of Federal Regulations, Part 61.

1 National Register of Historic Places Inventory—Nomination Form, United States Post Office, Berkeley Main Post Office, Date Entered January 29, 1981.

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Figure 1

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Project LocationUS Postal ServiceBerkeley, California

Source : 2011 National Geographic Society, i-cubed

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¹Quad Oakland West, CA Landgrant - San Antonio (V. and D. Peralta)


2 RECORD SEARCH 2.1 AREA OF POTENTIAL EFFECT (APE)

The USPS has defined the APE for potential undertaking to be the Berkeley Main Post Office. The direct APE is defined as the Berkeley Main Post Office building itself. The indirect APE is defined as portions of the area bounded by Center Street and Bancroft Way and within the area bounded by Martin Luther King Jr. Way and Shattuck Avenue, as shown in Figure 2. The indirect APE was delineated as such because buildings and structures located on parcels where undertakings may include lease, sale, alteration, or demolition of the Berkeley Main Post Office could directly or indirectly effect historic properties located on those parcels, such as neighboring buildings and structures that are contributors to the Civic Center Historic District. There are nine contributing buildings to this historic district, including the post office. The District’s significant historic themes are politics and government, social history, architecture, and community planning. Contributing buildings to Civic Center Historic District provide public service and the creation of a cohesive ensemble, with each building constructed to create a clearly defined civic center.2

2.2 NRHP ELIGIBLE OR LISTED PROPERTIES WITHIN APE

Tetra Tech conducted a records search at the Northwest Information Center (NWIC) at California State University, Sonoma (NWIC No. 12-0405). The search included archaeological as well as architectural historic sites within a quarter-mile radius of the Berkeley Main Post Office so that the USPS could consider effects to any historic properties that are present within this boundary.

The Berkeley Main Post Office was listed on the NRHP in 1981 under Criteria A and C; it is listed for areas of significance in architecture, art, communications, and politics and government. The property was given the status 1D, “contributor to a district or multiple resource property” (the Civic Center Historic District). The building is also listed on the California Register of Historic Resources and was designated a City of Berkeley Landmark in the 1980 list.3 Five other cultural resources are recorded within a quarter-mile radius of the post office. Two are historic architectural resources and two are archaeological resources. One location contains both an archaeological site and an NRHP-listed historic building. There are no known archaeological sites at the location of the post office or within the APE.

The two other NRHP listed historic properties that are within the APE are the Federal Land Bank and the YMCA. The Federal Bank was constructed in 1938 and is located at 2180 Milvia Street. The YMCA was constructed in 1910 and is located at 2001 Allston Way. These properties are individually listed on the NRHP as contributors to the Civic Center Historic District (see Table 1).

2 National Register of Historic Places—Nomination Form, Berkeley Historic Civic Center District, Date Entered, July 29, 1998. 3 National Register of Historic Places Inventory—Nomination Form, United States Post Office, Berkeley Main Post Office, Date

Entered January 29, 1981.

2. Records Search

January 2013 Postical Historic Structure Report for Berkeley Main Post Office 5

The USPS has requested a record search of the sacred lands file conducted by letter to the California Native American Heritage Commission to indicate the presence of Native American cultural resources in the vicinity of the post office.

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Figure 2

2000 Allston WayBerkeley, California

APE MAP

APE BoundaryN

Source: Google Earth Pro 2012Source: Google Earth Pro 2012

Berkeley Civic Center Historic District

Post OfficePost Office

2. Records Search


TABLE 1. NRHP AND CRHR ELIGIBLE ARCHITECTURAL PROPERTIES WITHIN APE

Name / Historic Resources

Inventory Number Address / Date of Construction

National Register/California Register Status Code

Distance from Berkeley Main

Post Office

2180 Milvia Street 1938

ID: Contributor to a district or multiple resource property listed in NR by the Keeper. Listed in the CR.

0.06 mile

2001 Allston Way 1910

1D: Contributor to a district or multiple resource property listed in NR by the Keeper. Listed in the CR.

0.02 mile

2000 Allston Way 1914

1D: Contributor to a district or multiple resource property listed in NR by the Keeper. Listed in the CR.

Subject


3 DEVELOPMENTAL HISTORY 3.1 HISTORICAL BACKGROUND AND CONTEXT

The Berkeley Main Post Office on Allston Way was constructed in 1914; its construction a product of the U.S. Treasury Department Supervising Architect’s Office. Authorization for construction of the post office was given in 1910, and construction was completed in 1914 (Photographs 1 and 2). Before the Berkeley Main Post Office was built, post offices were located in various stores and rented buildings. By the fiscal year of 1913-1914, the post office was generating $150,000 in revenue, the amount needed to qualify for a federally constructed post office. Although the Supervising Architect’s offices was backlogged with projects that were authorized but not yet constructed, Berkeley was given the highest appropriation of funding ($180,000) to purchase the land and construct the post office, largely because the City of Berkeley housed a great state university, was rapidly increasing in population, and yielded high postal receipts.4

Photograph 1: Plaque on Berkeley’s Main Post Office

Photograph 2: “New Post Office,” postcard (1914)

Sarah Wikander collection5

4 NRHP Nomination Form, United States Post Office, Berkeley Main Post Office. 5 Photo taken from United States Post Office, Berkeley Historical Plaque Project, Website:

http://www.berkeleyplaques.org/index.php?page=united-states-post-office, accessed November 23, 2012.

http://www.berkeleyplaques.org/index.php?page=united-states-post-office

3. Developmental History


Plans for the building were completed in 1913, and in April 1914, the building contract was awarded to general contractor Van Sant-Houghton Company of San Francisco and Berkeley. Original plans called for stucco and reinforced concrete; however, the postmaster and city leaders petitioned the federal government to substitute surface brick on the exterior, as the people of Berkeley wanted a “first class building” and, at the time, reinforced concrete and stucco did not signify civic grandeur.6

It was common for government buildings constructed during this period to house multiple government agencies. The Berkeley Main Post Office also housed the Forestry and Game commissioners, Internal Revenue Service personnel, and a civil service examination room. Within the first 15 years after construction, the post office was doing $500,000 worth of business and required more floor space. In 1930, an addition was constructed at the rear of the building that doubled the floor space.

In 1937, a mural was added to the lobby of the Post Office, surrounding the postmaster’s office door. This mural was painted by Suzanne Scheuer for the Treasury Relief Art Project.7 A relief panel by David Slivka representing the New Deal theme of the American worker and democracy was added to the exterior east wall of the building in 1937.

Funds were appropriated for construction of the post office in 1910, when James Knox Taylor was the Supervising Architect under the U.S. Federal Treasury Department. Taylor wanted government buildings to return to the “classic style of architecture” and be constructed of “high quality materials,” as they must be “built to last.”8 In 1912, Taylor resigned and was replaced with Supervising Architect Oscar Wenderoth, who continued Taylor’s use of classical-Renaissance post office designs, which is evident in the Berkeley Main Post Office with its arcaded loggias, ornamentation of dentils, swags, medallions, heraldic shields, diagonal rope and wave patterns, symmetry at the main façade, and use of fine materials such as marble, limestone, terra cotta, woodwork, and metalwork, as seen in Photograph 3.

6 NRHP Nomination Form, United States Post Office, Berkeley Main Post Office. 7 The National Archives describes the Treasury Relief Art Project (TRAP) as the following: [It was] created on July 21, 1935, by a

grant of relief funds to the Treasury Department from the Works Progress Administration. The rules of employment, therefore, were governed by the Emergency Relief Appropriations Act of 1935, a fixed proportion of artists had to be hired from public relief rolls. However those hired were also expected to be qualified artists. Employing over 350 artists at its peak in mid-1936, TRAP completed 89 mural and 65 sculpture projects as well as 10,000 easel paintings for distribution to Federal Offices before it ended on June 30, 1939. TRAP was one of several discrete but closely related programs administered by the Treasury Department of promote artwork. The relationship between TRAP, the Public Works of Art Project (PWAP) and the Section of Painting and Sculpture (PS) is outlined in the finding aid for 121-TR created by NARA's Still Picture Branch. (Until 1939 the construction and maintenance of all federal buildings was a responsibility of the Treasury Department), National Archives Online website: http://research.archives.gov/description/532328, accessed November 24, 2012.

8 United States Postal Service, Office of Real Estate, History of Post Office Construction, 1900-1940, United States Postal Service, Washington, D.C., 1982, p.6

http://research.archives.gov/description/532328



Photograph 3: Berkeley Main Post Office

camera facing south, photo take October 30, 2012

Construction of post offices in the period of 1913 and 1914, the period when the Berkeley Main Post Office was constructed, was overseen by the Public Buildings Commission, Chaired by the Secretary of the Treasury, William McAdoo. McAdoo is known for his support for a “practical standardization of buildings” to diminish the cost of constructing government buildings.9 However, most of the standardization guidelines that McAdoo and the Public Buildings Commission established for post offices were put into place a few years after the Berkeley Main Post Office was constructed. The standardizations that were eventually implemented reflected the design plans for how post offices were already being constructed and, therefore, many aspects of the design and layout of the Berkeley Main Post Office are found in post offices constructed from the 1910s into the 1930s. These designs include the arrangement of the public lobby, service counter, post office boxes in the walls of the lobby, workroom (where postal service workers would sort mail), large vaults, bulletin and civil service information boards in the lobby, and loading bays. The Berkeley Main Post Office also contains a prominent door to the Postmaster’s Office in the lobby, a common feature in post office construction, and large offices for the postmaster, assistant postmaster, and other administrative employees.

9 History of Post Office Construction, p. 8.



3.2 BRIEF CONTEXT THE CITY OF BERKELEY

As described in the NRHP nomination form for the Berkeley Main Post Office, the town of Berkeley was experiencing rapid growth after the San Francisco Earthquake. In 1907, Clarence Merrill became postmaster and began campaigning for a federal post office to be constructed in Berkeley. Once funds were appropriated and construction began, the post office symbolized the “coming of age” for the City of Berkeley, “coinciding with a period of great economic and population growth and increasing political sophistication...”10 While the federal government saw the construction of government buildings as places that “would educate and develop the public taste and eventually elevate it to a higher plane,” the City of Berkeley also supported the notion of ideals, rationalization, and reform within the city.11 The Post Office has been an important and well-used civic building, located among a group of civic buildings in downtown Berkeley.

3.3 DESIGNERS AND BUILDERS

The Berkeley Main Post Office was designed by Supervising Architect Oscar Wenderoth under William McAdoo, U.S. Secretary of the Treasury. Wenderoth became Supervising Architect after James Knox Taylor resigned. Wenderoth was Supervising Architect under the U.S. Treasury for 2 years, 1912 through 1914, and constructed several post offices and court houses in his career, including those in Oklahoma, New York, and Washington. The Van Sant-Houghton Company was awarded the contract to build the Berkeley Main Post Office. A well-known firm of San Francisco and Berkeley, the Van Sant-Houghton Company constructed residences in Berkeley and the 1915 Exposition in San Francisco.12

10 NRHP Nomination Form, United States Post Office, Berkeley Main Post Office. 11 NRHP Nomination Form, United States Post Office, Berkeley Main Post Office. 12 NRHP Nomination Form, United States Post Office, Berkeley Main Post Office.


4 CHRONOLOGY OF DEVELOPMENT AND USE 4.1 USE

The Berkeley Main Post Office was constructed to serve as a post office and continues to be used in that capacity.. The building housed other government agencies in its offices, such as the Forestry and Game commissioners, Internal Revenue Service personnel, and a civil service examination room.13

4.2 ORIGINAL CONSTRUCTION

The Berkeley Main Post Office is located in an urban setting, Berkeley’s main business district, and center of local government. The densely developed area is characterized by multiple story buildings that share side walls and are built out to the sidewalks. The post office, with facades on Allston Way and Kittredge and Milvia Streets, is one of several landmark buildings in the immediate area. Berkeley High School, the Civic Center, and the YMCA buildings occupy the parcels near the post office. The post office site, which is 1.11 acres, is slightly more than half its block.

The architectural style expressed by the Berkeley Main Post Office on Allston Way is Second Renaissance Revival. The style drew inspiration from northern Italian urban palaces and rural villas of the 16th and 17th centuries.14 An academic style of architecture that was compatible with the related Beaux-Arts Classicism, Second Renaissance Revival architecture was popular from 1890 to 1920. “Second” refers not to a second Renaissance, but is intended to distinguish the style from an earlier American revival of Renaissance architecture that ended about 1890.15 Designed by the Federal Treasury Department’s Office of the Supervising Architect, no single architect has been identified for the building. Though Oscar Wenderoth’s name is on the cornerstone, the building was authorized and probably partially designed under previous Supervising Architect James Knox Taylor and opened during the tenure of Wenderoth’s successor, James Wetmore.16

Constructed of reinforced concrete, the rectangular plan building was completed in 1914. The arcade of round arches across its main façade, wide overhanging Spanish clay tile roof, and classical details are typical of the Second Renaissance Revival post offices that were built throughout the United States during the 1910s.17 Primary fenestration consists of double hung windows grouped in three vertical divisions and topped with arched transoms. The large windows provide daylight to the lobby, post office box, and workroom areas.

13 NRHP Nomination Form, United States Post Office, Berkeley Main Post Office. 14 Gerald Foster, American Houses: A Field Guide to the Architecture of the Home, Houghton Mifflin Company, New York: 2004,

p. 298. 15 U.S. Postal Service, Western Regional Office, National Register of Historic Places Inventory—Nomination Form, Significant

U.S. Post Offices in California, 1900-1941, Thematic Resources, November 1984, p. 21. 16 NRHP Nomination Form, United States Post Office, Berkeley Main Post Office. 17 NRHP Nomination Form, United States Post Office, Berkeley Main Post Office.

4. Chronology of Development and Use


The main façade of the Berkeley Main Post Office faces Allston Way and features a concentration of the building’s Second Renaissance Revival stylistic elements. The roof is hipped and covered in red clay tile. Its wide overhang features a double row of curved brackets framing wooden panels. A narrow frieze featuring decorative classical motifs crowns the second story just below the eaves. A row of 11 rectangular windows runs across the second story between the frieze, and there is a beltcourse adorned with classical motifs like those on the cornice frieze. The dominant architectural feature of this elevation is the arcade of round arches, which stretches the length of the ground floor in front of a loggia (Photograph 4, through 7). The arches are supported by plain Tuscan columns and outlined in terra cotta. Wide sections at the building’s corners are anchored by heavily rusticated cast stone simulating ashlar masonry, with the corner itself rounded and set back between rusticated sections.18

Photograph 4: Berkeley Main Post Office façade

(note rounded arches, fenestration, columns, entrance doors)


(note beltcourse, eave overhang, and heraldic shields)

18 NRHP Nomination Form, United States Post Office, Berkeley Main Post Office.



Photograph 6: Loggia

Photograph 7: west corner of main façade

(note heavily rusticated cast stone simulating ashlar masonry)



The inner wall of the loggia echoes the arch pattern of the arcade, with wide arches at both end walls and a cross-vaulted ceiling. Loggia arches are separated by plain Tuscan pilasters. The fourth, sixth, and eighth arches feature paired glazed doors with brass fittings. The doors are separated and flanked by modified Corinthian pilasters (which are also repeated inside the lobby). The arches are glazed above the doors with operable center transoms. The other arches are fully glazed, with transoms that mirror those above the doors. Below each transom, a wide, double hung, wood sash window is grouped between two narrow ones. Heavy concrete windowsills are adorned with a wave motif (Photograph 8). A relief sculpture of postal workers on the east loggia end wall was created by San Francisco artist David Slivka in 1937 (Photograph 9). Granite steps lead from the sidewalk to the five arches at the center of the loggia, and its floor and baseboards are gray marble. The building contains a partially raised basement.19

Photograph 8: Wave motif and rectangular panel

Photograph 9: Relief sculpture by David Slivka, 1937




The Second Renaissance Revival details of the main façade (except for the arcade and loggia) are echoed on the Milvia Street (west) elevation. The wide roof overhang with its double row of curved brackets framing wooden panels, as well as the frieze, beltcourse, arched windows, and rusticated corners, all mirror those of the main façade. A one-story, flat-roofed section of the building is connected to the rear of the Allston Way wing. Materials, window patterns, and decorative details match the lower portion of the building’s front section. The terra cotta beltcourse that runs around the building becomes a cornice frieze on the one-story rear section. Rectangular windows at the basement level of the entire west elevation are covered with metal security bars. The northernmost 35 feet of the one story section is original, while the seamless addition on the Kittredge Street (south) end of the building was added between 1931 and 1932 (Photograph 10).20

Photograph 10: Building Addition, camera facing southeast

With the exception of a few details the east elevation, which faces the parking lot, is a mirror image of the west elevation. A small, rectangular, decorative “window” is set into the rusticated corner at the rear of this elevation’s two story section. The grade is higher on this side of the building, so it has no basement windows. The one-story addition is set back several feet on this side to create space for the loading dock. Though the concrete loading dock and its canopies are installed in front of this section of the building, it has the same arched windows and frieze details found on the other elevations (Photographs 11 and 12).




Photograph 11: East elevation

Photograph 12: East elevation, loading dock

The rear of the building, which faces Kittredge Street, is one story. The pattern of large arched windows and cornice frieze continues here. At the basement level , window-sized rectangular vents are covered with bars on the east side of the elevation. As the grade lowers toward the west, the windows become double metal entrance doors.



The Berkeley Main Post Office reflects the 1901 decision by Supervising Architect James Knox Taylor to adopt a uniform “classic style of architecture” to replace the earlier diversity of styles.21 The mission of the Supervising Architect was to create conspicuously high quality and enduring federal buildings throughout the nation that would “educate and develop the public taste and eventually elevate it to a higher plane.”22

The interior of the post office embodies not only the Second Renaissance Revival style, but also the federal goals discussed above, as strongly as the building’s exterior. The lobby’s ceiling is coffered, and the pattern established by the arcade and loggia is mirrored yet again by arched service windows along its back wall. The tripartite divisions of the windows have been replicated, though their width has been altered slightly to accommodate standard-sized postal service windows to the left and right of a bulletin board centered in each arch.23 Service window arches are separated by pilasters topped with Corinthian capitals. An arched service window at the east end of the long, narrow lobby faces the Postmaster’s door at the west end. The ornate wooden Postmaster’s door with its Classical Revival detailing is set in yet another arch that completes the symmetry of the space. The blind arch that frames the Postmaster’s door features a mural, painted by Suzanne Scheuer in 1936 and 1937, which summarizes Berkeley’s history. Other decorative details include marble baseboards and wainscoting and mosaic tile floors (Photographs 13 to 17).24

Non-public spaces such as the workroom, basement level, and second floor do not reflect the Second Renaissance Revival style and are generally utilitarian spaces (Photographs 18 to 23).

Photograph 13: Mural over postmaster’s office door (now an elevator door)

Painted by Suzanne Scheuer in 1936 and 1937

21 NRHP– Nomination Form, Berkeley Main Post Office. 22 NRHP– Nomination Form, Berkeley Main Post Office. 23 NRHP– Nomination Form, Berkeley Main Post Office. 24 NRHP– Nomination Form, Berkeley Main Post Office.



Photograph 14: Interior lobby

Photograph 15: Individual service windows and original bulletin case



Photograph 16: Wood and glass vestibule

Photograph 17: Detail of original windows;

(note marble wainscot and pilasters topped with Corinthian capitals)



Photograph 18: Workroom and post office boxes

Photograph 19: Workroom and sorting space

Photograph 20: Interior of addition (annex) area



Photograph 21: Second floor hallway

(note original tile mosaic floor)

Photograph 22: Marble staircase to second floor

Photograph 23: Original post office boxes



4.3 ALTERATIONS

The Berkeley Post Office has been very well maintained and remained remarkably unaltered. Including the historic period rear addition in 1932 changes have been executed with great care. The alterations to the main façade — hand rails and disabled accessible ramps — have been added without significantly altering the original entryway. The loading dock and a parking area were added on the east side of the building, its least visible façade. The mural was added to the lobby in 1936 and completed in 1937 and depicts an allegory of the life in Berkeley in the Mission, rancho, and early American eras. A limestone bas-relief sculpture by artist David Slivka was added in 1937 that commemorated the contributions of postal workers.

The interior has seen more changes, but they have also been made with sensitivity to the historic character of the building. Some of the bulletin boards and bank teller-style grilles in the service windows have been removed to provide modern open counter service; however, all the wood trim surrounding these spaces was retained, and some individual service windows were preserved in their complete original form (Photograph 24). The original mosaic flooring in the lobby appears to have been covered with gray vinyl. Dropped acoustic ceilings and fluorescent lighting have been installed in hallways, and mid-century style globe light fixtures have replaced original vestibule hanging lanterns.

Photograph 24: Some counter windows have been altered to open bays

Originally, all three main entrances had wood and glass enclosed vestibules to protect employees at the service windows from draft. Two of these vestibules have been removed; however, the center vestibule remains. The original Postmaster’s office door is now an elevator shaft, and the elevator doors replace the original office door. Some of individual service counter windows have been replaced by large bays with metal roll-up shutters or mail slots. Non-public spaces, such as the workroom, have replacement wood flooring in places, a few offices on the second floor have



replacement interior office doors, and there have been slight changes to the basement offices and storage space, such as installation of fluorescent lighting. The second-floor windows have been replaced with metal sliding sashes, as shown in Photograph 25. When originally constructed, the building was gray, but in 1979 the building was painted to accent the Renaissance detailing.25

Photograph 25: Second story of replacement sliding sashes

25 Berkeley Architectural Heritage Association Newsletter, United States Post Office Building, Proud Cornerstone of Berkeley’s Civic

Center, No. 40, Summer 2012.


5 PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION The design and style of the post office exterior contains classical details of the Second Renaissance Revival, an architectural style used for post office construction in the U.S. during the 1910s in places such as Pasadena and San Bernardino, California, Akron, Ohio, and Pottsville, Pennsylvania.26 The interior space of the Berkeley Main Post Office is typical of what would become the “standardization” of post offices constructed in the years after its construction. The materials, elements, and style used also reflected the Supervising Architect’s belief that government buildings should be made of high-quality materials and construction so that they are built to last. The alterations that have taken place to the interior spaces over time also reflect common alterations that were made to older post offices in the U.S. in later decades.

5.1 SPATIAL ARRANGEMENT

The Berkeley Main Post Office features a public space that consists of a lobby with a service counter, tall tables and counters, and original post office boxes. A marble staircase leads to the second floor, and there is a long corridor with offices on the main floor. The second floor has a number of large offices and the basement is large. The workroom, similar to many post offices, is located behind the public counter. There is a small loading dock at the rear of the building (Photograph 26).

Photograph 26: Loading dock

26 NRHP Nomination Form, United States Post Office, Berkeley Main Post Office

5. Physical Description


5.2 ALTERATIONS

There have been few alterations to the interior space of the post office, including a 1,962 foot long flat-roofed addition along Milvia Street that was added in 1931 through 1932. Other interior alterations include the addition of a sculpture and mural and added to the lobby in 1936 and 1937. An elevator has been added as well as a wood and glass enclosed vestibule at the center entrance of the lobby. A few individual service counter windows have been replaced by bays with metal roll-up shutters. The original flooring of the lobby has been replaced with vinyl tile over the original mosaic. Non-public spaces, such as the workroom, have replacement flooring, some offices on the second floor have replacement interior office doors, and there have been slight changes to the basement offices and storage space, such as installation of fluorescent lighting. Most of the interior alterations have either been made during the historic period, such as the addition of the annex at the rear of the building, or are minor alterations that do not take away from the overall historic integrity and character of the building, such as removal of some individual clerk windows.

The exterior of this post office remains mostly unaltered, with the exception a concrete ramp at the northeast side of the building, the second floor windows have been replaced with metal sliding sashes, and metal grilles have been added over two of the basement windows. The additional construction of additional space in the 1930s has been carefully designed to be sympathetic to the original construction, including the same wall siding, cornice, and window motifs as the original façade.

5.3 PROMINENT ELEMENTS AND MATERIALS

The interior of the post office contains several stylistic and ornamental features. Prominent interior architectural include: the spatial organization of the public lobby area, the arcade (reflecting the arcade at the exterior) in the screen line wall between the lobby and workroom, glazed arches with panes and transoms (again, as reflected on the exterior), service windows, wood frame bulletin boards, original post office boxes, a marble wainscot and baseboard, and walls and coffered ceiling. The capitals in the lobby are all Corinthian cast between the doors and windows and service bays, and carved wood columns on the entrance vestibule and Postmaster’s doorway. The glazed wood vestibule and a dentilled pediment above the original Postmaster’s office where “Postmaster” is carved (Photograph 27), are prominent elements of the lobby. The mural painted in 1936 and 1937 is also a prominent element, as are the service windows, most of which retain the original finely detailed wood framing, windows with brass grills and feather-chip glass, and curved ledges at the counter. The marble staircase that leads to the second floor is also a prominent element, as it contains oak handrails and ornamental metal end pieces and railings.

5. Physical Description


Photograph 27: Dentilled pediment over original postmaster’s office door

Prominent exterior elements and materials include the hipped red tile roof with a wide eave overhang, limestone, terra cotta trim, plan Tuscan columns, 11 vaulted round arches with terra cotta trim, the loggia that runs the full length of the building’s facade, and the wide terra cotta belt course with dentils, swags, medallions, and wave patterns. The scale, massing, and arches are the most prominent elements when viewed from the street, however closer inspection reveals several prominent elements such as a smaller terra cotta frieze with other classical motifs that top the second story just above the eaves, are also prominent elements at the building’s exterior. Cast blocks at the main façade and high walls, topped with terra cotta shields are prominent elements as are the rows of curved wooden brackets that frame the rectangular panels, forming a cornice soffit.27



6 EVALUATION OF SIGNIFICANCE The criteria for identifying historical resources under the National Register of Historic Places are in Section 106 of the National Preservation Act. The NRHP criteria are codified in 36 Code of Federal Regulations (CFR), Part 60. Guidance for evaluating historical significance is provided and explained in guidelines published by the Keeper of the National Register.28 National Register Bulletin13: How to Apply the National Register Criteria to Post Offices provides guidance on how to apply the National Register criteria to evaluate postal office buildings and provides significant themes under which post office buildings may be associated and characteristics that reflect those themes.

Historic significance is judged by applying NRHP Criteria A through D. The NRHP guidelines state that a historic resource’s “quality of significance in American history, architecture, archeology, engineering and culture” is determined by meeting at least one of the following (properties may be significant at the local, state, or national level):

Criterion A: Association with events or trends significant in the broad patterns of our history;

Criterion B: Association with the lives of significant individuals;

Criterion C: A property that embodies the distinctive characteristics of a type, period, or method of construction that represents the work of a master, or that possesses high artistic values;

Criterion D: Has yielded, or is likely to yield, information important to history or prehistory.

Criterion D is usually reserved for archaeological sites if they have yielded, or may likely yield, information important in pre-history or history. The property must have, or have had, information to contribute to our understanding of history and the information must be considered important. In general, Criterion D is used to evaluate historic sites and archaeological resources.

Eligibility for listing on either the NRHP rests on significance and integrity. A property must have both factors to be considered eligible. Loss of integrity, if sufficiently great, would overwhelm the historical significance of a resource and render it ineligible. Likewise, a resource can have complete integrity, but if it lacks significance, it must also be considered ineligible. “Integrity” is determined through applying seven factors to the historical resource: location, design, setting, workmanship, materials, feeling, and association.

28 The most widely accepted guidelines are contained in the US Department of Interior, National Park Service, “Guidelines for

Applying the National Register Criteria for Evaluation,” National Register Bulletin 15 (US Government Printing, Washington, DC, 1991, revised 1995 through 2002).

6. Evaluation of Significance


6.1 NRHP LISTING FOR BERKELEY MAIN POST OFFICE

The Berkeley Main Post Office is currently listed in the NRHP, the California State Historical Resources Inventory, and is a City Landmark and part of the Berkeley Civic Center Historic District. It was determined it to be eligible for listing in the NRHP under Criteria A and C, the nomination was approved by the Keeper of the NRHP in 1981, a copy of which is Appendix A. Tetra Tech has prepared a California Department of Parks and Recreation (DPR) 523A form, as part of the scope of this project, which is Appendix B. Because the property is already listed on the NRHP, the DPR 523A form for this Postal Service Historic Structures Report focuses on the current description of the Post Office and identifies any changes that have occurred since the property was listed.

Criterion A: The NRHP nomination for Berkeley Main Post Office states that “it is a characteristic and well preserved product of the Treasury Department Supervising Architect’s Office in the early part of this century, and embodies for the city of Berkeley the sense of mission which the government then put into its public building—buildings which will educate and develop the public taste and eventually elevate it to a higher plane.” The nomination goes on to state that “… Berkeley has few if any comparable public spaces where citizens from all over the city come frequently and freely and can experience the quality workmanship and civic pride that used to be part of government building.” The property is significant under Criterion A.

Criterion B: This property was not found to be eligible for listing under Criterion B.

Criterion C: The NRHP nomination for the Berkeley Main Post Office states that “outside and in, the building is conspicuous for fine and enduring materials. The lobby, particularly, is a civic treasure with its minimally altered marble, metal, and woodwork.” The Post Office building…”was hailed in its day as a happy medium between beauty and economy, standardization and locality, and in this it is a perfect example of the policy of its day.” This property is significant under Criterion C within the historic context and significant historic theme of Politics/Government. The property embodies distinctive characteristics of a post office designed and constructed in this period when the “Supervising Architect’s Office rhetoric of the era was consistently cost and cost efficiency conscious; the granite and marble and oak that look so rich today were chosen not just for local and national pride but for endurance. Detail after finely crafted detail turns out to have been standard utilitarian post office equipment—utility defined to include not just economy but the credo that “no government office or place so thoroughly belongs to the people without distinction or reservation. The lobby is the principal point at which the postal service touches the people and for that reason is deserving of particular attention.”



Criterion D: In rare instances, buildings themselves can serve as sources of important information about historic construction materials or technologies and can be significant under Criterion D. However, the Berkeley Main Post Office was not listed in the NRHP under Criterion D.

The Berkeley Main Post Office is also a contributor to the Berkeley Historic Civic Center District. The NRHP nomination for the Historic District (1998) summarizes the importance of the contributing buildings as “for almost one hundred years, Berkeley's civic center district has served the needs of its government and small community. Beginning in 1899 when the first City Hall building was strategically relocated to its current site, the district took over a half century to plan and develop. It embodies the political trends of the nation as well as the region and the city during the district's period of significance, 1909-1950. Both World Wars, the Depression, and local politics influenced the district's development. The district also represents the town's importance as an agricultural center for the surrounding region due to the influence of the first state university, the University of California, Berkeley.”

6.2 PERIOD OF SIGNIFICANCE

The significant, historic-character defining features of the Berkeley Main Post Office are of the Second Renaissance Revival style of architecture. The NRHP nomination does not include a period of significance for the Berkeley Main Post Office. A suggested period of significance would be its original construction date of 1914 through 1937, when the mural, sculpture, and additional basement space were added to the property, giving it the appearance it retains until the present day and therefore throughout most of its existence. The property is an example of a period of public building policy that established a national system of uniformity and new building economy instead of the system in which “buildings were constructed to fit whatever appropriation Congress was able to get” and constructing buildings with materials that would endure over time.29 The mural and sculpture on the building demonstrate the connection between the history of the building and the New Deal Art programs and the Treasury Relief Art Project of the 1930s.

6.3 SIGNIFICANT/HISTORIC CHARACTER DEFINING FEATURES

Interior character-defining features of this post office are many. The significant historic character defining features are as listed below:

Glazed arches between workroom and lobby;

Coffered lobby ceiling;

Individual service counter windows with detailed wood framing, brass grilles and feather-chip class grilles and service window doors;

29 NRHP Nomination Form, United States Post Office, Berkeley Main Post Office



Suzanne Scheuer mural over former postmaster’s office door;

Arches around postmaster’s door and service windows;

Marble baseboards and wainscot;

Capitals and columns in lobby and Corinthian cast ceramic and wood;

Band joining all columns and capitals of lobby (currently painted brown);

Carved woodwork on columns between entrance doors, windows, service bays and vestibule;

Entrance door wood frames with modified Corinthian capitals;

Wood and glass vestibule at center entrance;

Carved wood and triangular dentilled pediment over postmaster’s former office door (now elevator door) and lettering;

Post office boxes;

Original bulletin cases;

Marble staircase, oak handrail, and ornamental metal end pieces and railings; and

Landing of marble staircase with mosaic tiles and black, white and red fretwork around the edges.

Exterior character-defining features are listed below:

Mass and scale of building;

Hipped roof sheathed in tile with wide overhang;

Exterior siding, including poured concrete, limestone, terra cotta trim, and rusticated cast blocks at corners;

Arcade of eleven high round arches on plain Tuscan columns;

Loggia;

Marble on floor and wainscot of loggia;

Original wood frame pane arches with functioning transom windows;

Original double-hung windows with panes grouped in 3 vertical divisions;

Low cement windowsills with wave decoration Ornate groove along the top of the exterior walls;



Modernistic pilasters along the primary façade slightly above the roofline;

Pilasters flanking the entrance doors;

Entrance doors—three sets of paired oak and glass doors with brass fittings;

Columns with pilasters capped with extremely stylized Corinthian capitals;

Ornamental features of the exterior: small terra cotta frieze which tops the second story, wide terra cotta beltcourse with dentils, swags, medallions, and wave patterns below the 11 second story windows and around the entire building; cornice soffit; terra cotta shields above rusticated cast blocks; two rows of curved wooden brackets framing rectangular panels; wrought iron railings with heraldic shields and diagonal rope pattern;

Arches with low cement windowsills with wave decoration; and

David Slivka relief sculpture of postal workers, 1937, on east wall.

The property has undergone few alterations. A 130-foot addition was constructed in 1931 through 1932 at the rear of the original building deep building, along Milvia Street. This addition has a flat-roof and is one-story basement and was constructed sympathetic to the architectural style and materials of the original building. It has the same wall siding, cornice and window motif as the main façade and as on the sides facing the driveway and loading dock.

6.4 INTEGRITY

The Berkeley Main Post Office retains a high degree of all seven types of integrity: location, design, setting, materials, workmanship, feeling, and association as it did when it was originally constructed and as it did when it was placed on the NRHP in 1981. There have been no alterations made to the property that has diminished its historical significance.


7 CONDITION ASSESSMENT The USPS requested that Tetra Tech provide a brief assessment of the condition of building materials and elements at the Berkeley Main Post Office. Tetra Tech was not asked to conduct materials testing or analysis or to recommend testing or treatment of materials. The following condition assessment provides a brief summary of the existing conditions of materials and elements that were visible at an “arm’s length” or more at the time Tetra Tech recorded the property and does not include a full treatment recommendation. The USPS did not request conditions assessment of systems such as heating, ventilation, and air conditioning systems or of electrical systems and are not discussed below.

7.1 EXTERIOR

The exterior of the building materials and elements of this property are in excellent condition overall. The roof has been replaced since it original construction with in-kind materials as the original roof. The second story windows have been replaced with modern sliding windows, the original windows within the building are in good condition.

The exterior poured concrete walls, terra cotta, wood, and marble finishes and trim are also in very good condition and have been well-maintained. There appears to be little or no evidence of poor maintenance that is threatening the building’s preservation. The original poured concrete walls and decorative details on the façade of the building and the ornamental shields and wave decorations are also in very good condition with no broken or missing fragments detected as viewed from the sidewalk. The metal and woodwork as well as the relief sculpture are also in very good condition.

7.2 INTERIOR

The interior materials and features of the building are also in very good condition. The interior has been very well preserved. The marble wainscot, metal and woodwork throughout the lobby, counter windows, sashes, and ceilings appear as they did when the building was originally constructed. The post office boxes are in good condition and continue to be used. Some of the globes are missing from the hanging light fixtures.


8 QUALIFICATIONS Tetra Tech Historian/Architectural Historian Kara Brunzell conducted research, reviewed project information, and prepared the text for this report. Ms. Brunzell meets the History and Architectural History professional qualifications, as outlined by the federal government in Title 36, Code of Federal Regulations, Part 61. She has a Master’s Degree in History/Public History from California State University, Sacramento, and more than 3 years of experience.

Julia Mates, Historian/Architectural Historian, meets the History and Architectural History professional qualifications as outlined by the federal government in Title 36, Code of Federal Regulations, Part 61. Ms. Mates conducted the site visit photographed the property identified the historic character defining features of the building , and prepared the text for this report. Ms. Mates has a Master’s Degree in History/Public History and more than 10 years of experience conducting historic resource projects.


9 REFERENCES Berkeley Architectural Heritage Association Newsletter. 2012. United States Post

Office Building, Proud Cornerstone of Berkeley’s Civic Center, No. 40, Summer 2012.

Blumenson, John J.-G. 1981. Identifying American Architecture: A Pictorial Guide to Styles and Terms, 1600 – 1945. W.W. Norton, New York.

Northwest Information Center. 2012. Records Search Results. NWIC File No.: 12-0405 . October 29, 2012.

National Register of Historic Places Inventory 1981—Nomination Form, United States Post Office, Berkeley Main Post Office, Date Entered January 29, 1981.

National Register of Historic Places—Nomination Form, Berkeley Historic Civic Center District, Date Entered, July 29, 1998.

1 National Register of Historic Places Inventory—Nomination Form, United States Post Office, Berkeley Main Post Office, Date Entered January 29, 1981.

United States Postal Service, 1982. Office of Real Estate, History of Post Office Construction, 1900-1940, United States Postal Service, Washington, D.C.

APPENDIX A

NRHP NOMINATION FORMS

FHR-8-300 (11-78)

United States Department off the Interior Heritage Conservation and Recreation Service

National Register off Historic Plaoes Inventory—Nomination FormSee instructions in How to Complete National Register FormsType all entries—complete applicable sections_______________

1. Name_________________historic UiriHwd State3~Post Office OH Q

and/or common 8am9 5 Berkeley Main Post Office'

2. Location

street & number 2000 Milvia not for publication

city, town Berkeley 94?01 __ vicinity of congressional district

state California code county Alameda code

3. ClassificationCategory

districtX building(s)

structure site object

Ownership X public

private

bothPublic Acquisition

in processbeing considered

Status_ x- occupied

unoccupiedwork in progress

Accessibleyes: restricted

x yes: unrestrictedno

Present Useagriculturecommercialeducationalentertainment

x government industrialmilitary

museum

private residencereligiousscientifictransportationnth*r-

4. Owner off Property

name U. S. Postal ServiceWestern Regional Office

street & number 8^0 Cherry Street

city, town San Bruno 94099 vicinity of state California

5. Location off Legal Description

courthouse, registry of deeds, etc. Alameda County Courthouse

street & number 1225 Fallen Street

city, town Oakland 94612 state California

6. Representation in Existing Surveys1'. State Historic Resources Inventory x

n Survey has this property been determined elegible? —— yes no

5* Berkeley City Landmark date 1. Nov. 1Q77 2- .Tun* __federal -Instate __county 2_iJL«local

.1. Office of Historic Preservation, Box 2390/ 1220 K Street, depository for survey records 2. Berkeley Architectural Heritage Aaan., 1Q3Q

. Landmarks Commission, City of Berkeley. 2180 Milvia Street, city,town 1. Sacramento 95811 2. 5. Berkeley 94704_______state

7. DescriptionCondition Chock ono Chock onoJL excellent __deteriorated __unaltered _2L. original site—— good ——ruins JL. altered ——moved date—— fair __ unexpoeed

Doserlbo tho prooont and original (if known) phyKleal appoarancoThe Berkeley Post Office is located one block west of Shattuck Avenue (main business street

on the west half of the block bounded by Allston & Harold Ways & Kittredge & Mil via Streets. The main facade is on Allston Way, where the adjacent corners are occupied by the YMCA, city office building (formerly Farm Credit), & Berkeley High School. The front section of the Post Office (lÔ 1 frontage x 62' deep; 5^ ! nign ) is 2 stories plus basement, with a hipped red tile roof; this houses the customer lobby, offices, & part of the work area. Behind this the work area extends another 162 1 south along Milvia St. in a flat-roofed, 1-story & basement building using the same wall So cornice & window motifs as the facade, even on the sides facing the driveway & loading dock. The northernmost 55' of this section is original; the southward extension, perfectly matched, was added in 1951-2. Construction of the whole is reinforced concrete.

Exterior finish is as described when the building opened: "Bedford, Indiana, limestone has been used up to the watertable line with granite steps; the walls above are of cement stucco with terra cotta trimmings having a sanded-cream finish, used for the first time on the Pacific- coast. Kasota marble columns support the vaulted arches over the main entrance loggia " (Arch. & Sng., Oct.19155 early pictures show the columns dark, apparently red, but they are now the same sand color as the terra cotta). The arches, wide overhanging red tile roof, & classical details are common to 1910s post offices all over the country in the style sometimes called Second Renaissance Revival: the Berkeley post office has been described as "a free adaptation of Brunelleschi's Foundling Hospital." The main feature of the Allston Way facade is an arcade of 11 high round arches on plain Tuscan columns, which runs the whole length of the main floor in front of a loggia about 10 ! deep. The arches are outlined in terra cotta, & a wide terra cotta belt course, with dentils, swags, medallions, & wave patterns, runs immediately below the 11 plain rectangular second-story windows & around the whole building, thus becoming the cornice ornamentation of the 1-story rear section. A smaller terra cotta frieze, with other classical motifs, tops the second story just below the eaves. The end sections of the facade, & also of the side walls, are heavily rusticated with cast blocks simulating stone. Each of these rusti cated sections is topped with a terra cotta shield, & the very corners of the building are rounded & slightly set back between the sections of rustication. The roof is hipped, red tile over wood sheathing, & has a wide overhang with 2 rows of curved wooden brackets framing rectangular panels. This cornice soffitt was painted in 1979 in brown (brackets), blue & orange (panels), & sand (edges), at the same time that the whole exterior was cleaned & repainted in shades of beiê & yellow & sand to highlight its details.

The whole building stands on a partly raised basement, with fiair oiiaod windows on the west side where the grade is lower. Cornerstone is at north end of west side: "William G. McAdoo Secretary of the Treasury, Oscar Wenderoth Supervising Architect, 1914"; flagpole at MS corner. Across the front, granite steps rise from the sidewalk to the middle 5 archways of the loggia— 7 steps at the east end, 10 at the west. Basement has 2 small windows with metal grilles at each end of the steps. The end arches have elaborate wrought iron railings, with heraldic shields & a diagonal rope pattern. The loggia has floor & baseboards of gray marble. Its inner wall—the front wall of the lobby—repeats the 11 arches & plain capitals of the outer arcade, .& the end walls are also arched, resulting in a cross-vaulted ceiling. On the east end wall is a relief sculpture of postal workers, about 5 1 square, with the signature "David Slivka, Dec. 1957" worked into the address of one piece of mail, & the inscription "From U.S.,To All Man kind, Truth Abode, On Freedom Road" on another. The 4th, 6th, & 8th arches have paired oak & glass doors with brass fittings; the door frames have modified Corinthian capitals which are repeated inside the building. The other arches have low cement windowsills with wave decoration, & double-hung windows with their panes grouped in 5 vertical divisions. All the arches,are glazed to the top, with functioning transoms.

Inside the building the arcade is reflected yet aâin in the.screenline wall between the lobby & the workroom: the arches are aâin glazed, 'with the same arrangement of panes & ^ffiff' soms (these inside transoms are now painted or lined in white). It is as if the building w» designed from the inside out, for the 5-part division of the windows, & the width of the arches themselves, -fewpa—=oofe=4« fit around standard post office units of service windows & bulletin

8. SignificancePeriod—— prehistoric

1400-1499__ 1500-1599

1600-16991700-17991800-1899

x 1900-

Areas of Significance— Check and justify below—— archeology-prehistoric —— community planning

archeology-historic conservationagriculture

x architecture_£_art

commercex communications

economicseducationengineeringexploration/settlementIndustryinvention

—— landscape architecture —— religion lew ftcleneeliteraturemilitarymusicphilosophy

X politics/government _

MHllntilM

social/humanitarian theatertransportationnfth«r I aaaelffifl

•pacific dataa 1914___________Builder/Architect QScar Wenderoth, Supervising Architect

Statement of Significance (In on* paragraph)The Berkeley Post Office is a characteristic & well preserved product of the Treasury

Department Supervising Architect's Office in the early part of this century, & embodies for the city of Berkeley the sense of mission which the government then put into its public building— "buildings which will educate & develop the public taste & eventually elevate it to a higher plane" (Arch. & Eng., Oct.1915). Outside & in, the building is conspicuous for fine & enduring materials. The lobby, particularly, is a civic treasure with its minimally altered marble, metal, & woodwork: especially since the 1908 City Hall was demoted to other uses, Berkeley has few if any comparable public spaces where citizens from all over the city come frequently & freely & can experience the quality workmanship & civic pride that used to be part of govern ment building.(There is also a later history lesson, as well as an artistic experience, in the New Deal mural & sculpture added to the building in 195?.) The authorization of a post office building for Berkeley in 1910, & its completion in 1915, symbolized the city's coming of age, coinciding with a period of great economic & population growth & increasing political sophisti cation, Berkeley's Progressive charter &. Socialist mayor reflecting the same quest for ideals & rationalization & reform that are evident in the extensive discussions of public building policy on the national level at that time. Downtown Berkeley is still essentially the Main Street that developed in the 1910s & 20s, & the well-patronized post office is important in keeping it alive. Though never formally part of any of Berkeley's (unrealized) civic center schemes, the post office ia one important member of a de facto civic center to the west of Shattuck Avenue.

The inscription on Suzanne Scheuer's mural summarizes Berkeley's history prior to its incorporation in 1878, from the first white men in 1770 to "First Post Office established in Dr. Merrill's drug store 1877»" IB. typical pioneer small town fashion, Berkeley's postal service for the next few decades occupied a succession of stores & rented premises—first adjacent to the university, then the downtown Shattuck Avenue branch of Merrill'a from 1887 (where the 2nd postmaster was Napoleon Bonaparte Byrne, former Missouri planter whose 1868 Italianate villa in north Berkeley, the city's oldest known house, is on the National Register & about to undergo restoration). As in similar power struggles over train routes & the location of the city hall, the Shattuck Avenue business district won out over both the University & West Berkeley as the economic & governmental center of town, & after 1887 the city's main post office was always within a block or so of Shattuck & Allston Way.

By the fiscal year 1905-6 Berkeley's post office was doing 155,000 worth of business, & the city's rapid growth after the San Francisco earthquake helped it reach $100,000 by 1908-9. In 1915-4 it was $150,000: the amount necessary to qualify for a federally constructed post office building was at that time f10,000. When Clarence Merrill—son of the druggist—became postmaster in 1907 he immediately began campaigning for a building for Berkeley. Postmasters & chambers of commerce all over the country were of course doing the same, & in early 1910 the prognosis from Oongresa waa "There are more than 200 public buildings that have been author ized, plans for which have not yet been touched by the Supervising Architect's office...it would take him until 1912 to prepare the plans...already authorized. Such being the case I doubt if any public buildings will be authorized at this session." However, by the end of the session Representative Knowland was able to report "I made a special plea for the city—citing its great growth, its postal receipts, & the important fact that it was the seat of the great State University....Of all the localities...Berkeley secured the biggest appropriation by $50,000"---a total of ^180,000 for building & site, authorized in the omnibus public buildings bill of June 25, 1910. As a federal office building it would also house forestry & game comm-

9. Major Bibliographical References

see continuation sheet

Acreage of nominated property 0*95 (ipO 1 X 285' ) Quadrangle name Oakland West UMT References

Quadrangle scale 1:24000

Uiiloiihioiol LJ I I I IZone

Cl I 1

• LiJGl . 1

Easting

1 1 , [l l i LI I , L

Northing

. . l i , I . i . . i, , i i ,, i 1 i ,

, 1 , , 1, l , , i

Zone Easting

Dl , 1 | | , | , ,

F| , | I 1 , I , ,

H| , i | | ,.| , ,

Northing

1 . 1 . 1 . . 1

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Verbal boundary description and justificationBook 57, Block 2027, Parcel 5j lot about 150 f wide along east side of Milvia Street, from Milvia Street on the north to Kittredge Street on the south.

List all statos and counties for properties overlapping state or county boundaries

state code county code

state county code

11. Form Prepared Byname/title Betty Marvin

organization Berkeley Architectural Heritage Assn» date June 24, Ip80

street & number Box 7066, Landscape Station telephone 845-6591

city or town Berkeley 9^707 state California

12. State Historic Preservation Officer CertificationThe evaluated significance of this property within the state is:

__ national state ^ localAs the designated State Historic Preservation Officer for the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966 (Public Law 89- 665), I hereby nominate this property for inclusion in the National Register and certify that it has been evaluated according to the criteria and procedures set forth by the Heritage Conservation and Recreation Service.

State Historic Preservation Officer signature

title

FHR-8-300A (11/78)

UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR HERITAGE CONSERVATION AND RECREATION SERVICE

NATIONAL REGISTER OF HISTORIC PLACES INVENTORY - NOMINATION FORM

U.S. Post Office. T CONTINUATION SHEET . ITEM NUMBER 7 PAGE

boards. A service window at the east end & the postmaster's office at the west occupy the epaoe of the 1st & llth outside arches, so the lobby is 9 arches across — about 75 1 . It is about IV ' dsep, with, of course, arches around the service window & postmaster's door at the enda, Floor is flecked gray vinyl tile, apparently over mosaic (early photos show this, & tharcr 10 still some mosaic at the second floor landing ). The baseboard is dark gray marble, with a light gray marble wainscot or dado above. The walls & coffered ceiling are painted white (as they originally were)? the capitals of all the columns & a band joining them have been p&intod dark brown, & the east end wall below capital level is prance. All the capitals inaide the lobby are Corinthian — cast ceramic (?) ones on the columns between the doors & windows & between tho service bays, & carved wood on the entrance vestibule & postmaster's door.

There is a finely craftad wood & glass enclosed vestibule at the center door — all 5 doore originally had them, standard post office equipment to protect eraployeos against drafts through the nervice windows. The postmaster's office door is framed in carved wood similar to th® vastibulo, with a triangular dentilled pediment & "Postmaster" in gold incised letters. In tho arch around the door is a raural of figures from tho Spanish &> pioneer period of Berkeley's history, painted in 1956-7 by Suzanne Scheuer for the Treasury Relief Art Project. The service win ow at the opposite end, like several of the others on the soreenlina wall, retains the o -inal finely detailed wood framing, windows with brass rrillea &• feather-chip glaoa, curved "J d'^ea for the customer to write on. At some bays the middle space is occupied by a bulletin 1 ird with hinged glass front. Piecemeal but reasonably discreet alterations havo Inatal? sd r.otal rolldown shutters at the eastern 5 bays, & stamp machines in 2 others. One bay contains parcel & letter drops, with brass & wood dooro. The bay nearest the weat end ia occupied by lock boxes — brass & glass, with fretwork edging, & petals around the keyhole.

The westernmost arch leads to a corridor at right angles to the lobby, with office doora & atairs along its west side & more lock boxes on the east, the newer corabination-lockod cnen rat into what was originally more bulletin board space (as shovm by curved letters in tho wood frarjo). The second floor is occupied by finance & poroonnol offices, & cloned to tho public by a irotfsrn security door. The stairs are again finely Grafted, with white marble treads, oak handrails, & ornamental metal endpiacoo X- railings. At the landing the floor is of small square mosaic tiles, white with black # red fretwork around tlio edge — apparently matching tho original lobby floor.

FHR-8-300A (11/78)



U.S. £©st Offiee CONTINUATION SHEET Berkeley, CA ITEM NUMBER 8 PAGE 2

issiomers, internal revenue officials and a civil serriae exan room. Searek f«r a lot "ia tke center ©f tke city" began at ©mee; of several offers (in cluding one for George Pape *s planing mill, mow ©11® of tke city's prized kis- toric buildings;, Waskingt®m settled @m tke soutkeast earner ©f Allston and Milria, wkere tke pioneer Wo©lsey fawily kad an apple orchard. xke priee was $30,000.

Plans for tke new building were ready only in July, 1913. In April, 1914 the eontraet was let, witk sixteen months to finiik, and excavation was begun. Tke successful bidder as general contraettr was Van Sant-nougkton, U©. of San Prancise© and Berkley; tke Vam sants, Sr. and Jr. were well establisk- ed in Berkeley ,with expensive residential work in the Claremont district. They also worked on the 1915 Exposition in' San Franeisco. A week after ground breaking the postmaster and civic leaders were petitioning Washington to the effect that "substitution of surfaced brick for...cement in the outer part of the structure would be a decided improvement, and as there is sufficient money availaole...it is believed that the desire of the people of Berkeley for a first-class building will be granted": reinforced concrete and stucco was still somewhat unproven where civic grandeur was at stake. They also in tended that the bricks would be made in California.

On September 29, 1915, the Gazette announced: "New Post Office to be Opened Tomorrow." The clerks would carry their materials over to the new building after closing time, so business would not be interrupted a minute, "and the same efficiency which has characterized it in the past will still be in evidence." The new building was also featured in a six page lead art- in the October, 1915 Architect and Engineer; "The Berkeley Post Office — an Example of the New Public Building Policy", namely, "to establish a national system of uniformity and business economy" and to clean up the pork barrel system in which "buildings were constructed to fit whatever appropriation the Congressmen were able to get".

Within fifteen years the post office was doing $500,000 worth of busin ess a year, and feeling cramped; in January, 1930 an annex was authorized (and completed in time for Christmas, 1932) which doubled the floor space, and, at about $200,000, was "the largest government improvement ever made here." A few years later there followed some smaller, but highly signifi cant government improvements:. a sculpture and a mural commissioned by the Treasury Relief Art Project. Both pieces are representative of the style and subjects of t£e program, and are well-preserved examples of the sadly ephemeral New Deal Art.* The fresco around the Postmaster's door, depicting life in Berkeley in the Mission, Land Grant and early Yankee Eras, was paint ed in 1936-37 by Suzanne Scheuer ^b.1897) who had already painted the News- gathering scene in Cioit Tower's Treasury Public Works of Art project, and did other murals in Texas post offices.4 Complementing the nostalgic, regional/ primitive local history of the Scheuer painting,^the relief panel of David Slivka represents another dominant theme in New Deal art: pride in the Am- qrican Worker and Democracy. Slivka (b.1913), a graduate of the California

FHR-8-300A (11/78)


NATIONAL REGISTER OF HISTORIC PLACES INVENTORY -- NOMINATION FORM

U.S. Post Office CONTINUATION SHEET Berkeley, GA ITEM NUMBER 8 PAGE 5________________

School of Pine Arts, also created sculptures for the 1939 Golden Gate Expo sition and for S.F. public schools, and later worked in New York.

As for the post office building itself, it was hailed in its day as "a happy medium" between beauty and economy, standardization and locality, and in this it is a perfect example of government policy of its day. The post office Supervising Architect f s Office rhetoric of the er~a was consistently cost- and efficiency-conscious; the granite and marble and oak that look so rich today were chosen not just for local and national pride, but for endur ance. 7 Detail after finely crafted detail turns out to have been standard utilitarian post office equipment — utility defined to include not just e- conomy but the credo that "no government office or place S'Q thoroughly be longs to the people without distinction or reservation. The lobby is the principal point at which the postal service touches the people and for that reason is deserving of particular attention." The glassed-in vestibules were prescribed to protect employees from drafts, and the tall windows above the service counters put there on the principle that "It is desirable...that the operations in the workroom of the post office may be seen from the lobby... It is important that sympathetic and friendly relations be maintained be tween the personal representatives of the postal service and the patrons; and such relations will be promoted by giving the patrons the fullest opportunity to understand what is done in the post office."°

Again, in architectural style, the building embodies the policy describee! above. In this case, the arcaded, tile-roofed Renaissance design reflects the Supervising Architect James Knox Taylor's 1901 decision "to adopt the classic style of architecture... in order that the public buildings of the United States may become distinctive in their character" (in contrast to the previous mixture of Second Empire, G-othic, and Richardson Komanesque. )? Al though the Berkeley post office is the product of a bureacracy rathjr than of one architect's vision (in fact, the actual architect is unknown ;, it is clearly a "distinctive" building; it is aloo the "happy medium" between beauty and servicibility extoled in the era of its construction, and it con tinues to examplify those not-outmoded ideals although, over the years, it has several times been declared outmoded or outworn. 11 Most recently, there is concern that streamlined merchandising plans threaten the fine old mater ials, even the design, of the lobby, but it is hoped that, as in the words of Daniel Roper (U.S. Post Office..., 1917), the postal service does have a soul "which is the common cooperative endeavor of the people...and its ideal is the advancement of civilization 11 — which today, we must certainly agree, includes preservation of the past.

Footnotesljust three days before the post office contract was announced, werner Hege- mann *s famous city plan for Berkeley £^d Oakland was submitted to the City Club that had commissioned it. Thus the new post office did not figure di-^e ctlv in iiegemann*s sketches for. City Beautiful, civic center to the east of the 1908 Beaux Arts city hall, but i-ran joined the area Hegemann discussed

FHR-8-300A Cll/78)



CONTINUATION SHEET U: 3!f °f* °£Ti°9 ' .TEM NUMBER 8 PAGE

Berkeley Civic Center District (not to scale) uIA*

of

FHR-8-300A (11/78)



U.S. Post Office CONTINUATION SHEET Berkeley, CA ITEM NUMBER s PAGE 4

and linked it with the "business district-r-as well as being fully in harmony with the motto he took for his chapter on Civic Art and Civic Centers, "They shall "be simple in their homes but splendid in their public ways." In fact Hegemann accurately foresaw the way Berkeley rs civic center really has de veloped: after the large scale Beaux Arts sketches, he acknowledged that "Berkeley is very slow in acquiring land" so it was really a case of "possi bility of gradually grouping all public buildings." Just how gradually and in what a variety of styles might have surprised him, but there is a coher ent district of civic and semi-public buildings extending from the public library at Shattuck and Kittredge to the Health Dept. at Addison and McKinley, with the post office, city hall and city offices building as main links in the chain, (see map)

reform spirit was reflected in local Berkeley politics as well: in 1909 the city adopted a charter including such Progressive measures as the nonpartisan ballot, initiative-referendum-recall, and the possibility of municipal ownership of utilities; in 1911 J.Stitt Wilson was elected mayor as a socialist, and Clarence Merrill rs appointment as postmaster was said to have been at the instigation of University president Wheeler and other "lead ing citizens who desired to check the machine politicians who sought the appointment of one of their number." Civic concerns which shared the pages of the Berkeley Gazette with the progress of the new post office included street lighting and widening, woman's suffrage ^1911), and a sanitation cam paign "Starve the Fly". (As a different measure of the city's coming of age, a generation after incorporation, these years also saw the frequent announcements of the deaths of pioneer Berkeleyans. )^Despite the usual term "WPA mural % art work in post offices and other feder al buildings actually was a separate set of programs under the Treasury Department, which had the construction and stewardship of public buildings from the early 19th century until WW II. The Treasury section of Fine Arts and Treasury Relief Art Project operated parallel to the WPA Federal Art Project from 1935 to 1939, with different funding and procedures and an attempt tT) cultivate the image that the treasury was after "quality",. while the WPA offered "relief". The TRAP produced some 89 murals and _ 65 sculpture, projects throughout the country, mostly in post offices "old and new r without appropriations for decoration but possessing fine spaces... We chose buildings in the vicinity of an available artist 01 group of artists"; the job would be awarded "by competition, or directly to an artist who ; iad attracted notice in a previous Treasury competition. Budgets were usually around 12000 to f5000 per project. (0 'Connor, JMew Peal Art Projects. . .Mem oirs)4ln view of the current interest in women artists, it is worth mentioning that Suzanne Scheuer f s participation in the program was no rarity, at least in California where 1938 statistics showed 234 women out of 669 artists on relief, a higher percentage than in any other state. Five out of the four teen California murals in the Treasury's publication Art in Federal Buildings

FHR-8-300A (11/78)



U.S. Post Office CONTINUATION SHEET Berkeley, GA ITEM NUMBER Q PAGE

...1934-36 were by women (in contrast to only another five women out of 111 more mural?nationwide).

5The Treasury favored subjects/)f "local history, pursuits, or landscape," or "the postal service...as a concrete link between every community of in dividuals and the federal government." Related, was the preference for mural work as "relatively public and subject to scrutiny and criticism...a little less liable to charges of boondoggling than^asel painting"; even so, epithets like "Pork Barrel Kenaissance 11 (Mag, of .-Art, 3/33) flourished throughout the period, and finally helped to close down the New Deal art programs and contributed to the low repute which allowed so many of the works to be lost and destroyed in so short a time. (Treasury works, being generally affixed to buildings, have fared marginally better; tales of WPA prints and easel paintings sold as scrap in government surplus wastebaskets are by now well known.;

The authorization and design of the Berkeley Post Office of course pre dated the recommendations of the Public Buildings Commission of 1913-14 (whose general recommendation was "practical standardization of the plans for buildir^s" and "the adoption of a business policy more...like that of private builders."), which for the most part reflected how post offices were already being constructed. There were outcries like that of t-e Calif ornia State Minerologist against the San Francisco post office in the Aug. 1910 Architect and Engineer, but even there the complaint was less against the lavish use <of marble and onyx than that they had been brought halfway around the world when California quarries produced as good a product. Some what ironically, the reformers' proverbial stone structures in small villages were becoming a dead issue at just about this time anyway, as the spread of reinforced concrete construction lessened the inequality between classes of post office buildings.

^Even under the new regulations marble was allowed in the lowliest post offices "where sanitary conditions demand." Although, in the words of Treas ury secretary McAdoo, the department had a "mission of architectual educa tion to every part of the country", the trouble was, of course, that the boundary was not always clear between this mission and—again McAdoo r s words —"construction of many public buildings in small towns and locations where they are not needed...dictated by local reasons and without regard for the best interests of the government." Increasing nationwide demand for federal buildings—especially post offices—led to the use of omnibus public build ing bills from 1902 authorizing many projects at a time instead of debating ea ch one separately. The inevitable result was that public building in the 1910s wa.£ enmeshed in constant and many-sided controversy between the desirg for dignified, enduring, uplifting federal outposts arid charges of extragance on "girncracks and curly-cues of architecture"; between the wish to bring every citizen "a government building representative of the sov- rei^nty and glory of this great country" and the suspicion that that was nothing but local pork-barreling; between the Supervising Architect's Office'

FHR-8-300A (11/78)



U.S. Post Office CONTINUATION SHEET Berkeley,CA ITEM NUMBER PAGE

claim that it alone had 'the specialized expertise necessary for government building (and needed only additional staff to make up its two-year backlog) and the feeling that competition from private architects might result in better and cheaper work. The result was a series of congressional hearings on the Supervising Architect rs Office and building expenditures in 1908, 1911, 1912, 1913, 1916, and a public Building Commission (1913-14) whose general recommendation was for "practical standardization of the plans for buildings" and "the adoption of a business policy more...like that of private builders."%"his and the previous quote are from Daniel Roper, The United Stores Post Office; Its Past Record, Present Condition, and PotenTTal Relation t£ the New World Era, 1917—a fine Progressive wilsonian title and date,' in add ition to this pre-echo of "open covenants openly arrived at".

^Berkeley f s design has echoes all over the country, some as early as 1898 (Akron, Ohio and Pottsville, Pa., though with arches less numerous and more Romanesque), and into the late 1910s and 20s (Pasadena, St. Petersburg, San Bernardino). Most of its close counterparts date from the early 1910s, and reflecting both the great volume of construction during this period and its real architectural distinction, a large percentage of the post offices now listed in the National Register date from those years.l°The Berkeley building was authorized arid probably partly designed during James Knox Tailor's term as Supervising Architect, cornerstoned under Oscar Wenderoth, an^ opened under James Wetmore. This raises the subject of the structure of the Supervising Architect's Office, and the attribution of any of these federally designed buildings to a,ny individual architect.

In 1913 Oscar Wenderoth reported that his department had a Washington staff of 253—somewhat smaller than the Justice Department and larger than the State Department—and was completing about 75 buildings a year. The office was divided into technical and executive branches, each with an off icer in charge; within the technical department, architectural work went on in the drafting division of some 50 draftsmen, whose superintendent was the usual lialooa to the post office. Wenderoth, like almost every Supervising Architect before and after him, complained that the job was overwhelmed with administrative duties and "the Supervising Architect has no opportunity for original work." Another continuing complaint was that overwork and low pay made for "a constantly shifting personnel, in which a standard of achieve ment is maintained with the greatest difficulty." Nevertheless it is con tinuity and tradition which impress one about the Taylor-Wenderoth-Wetmore period—not only resemblances among two decades of classical-itenaissance post offices, but things like t ie perfectly matched addition to the Berkeley po§t office.

Whatever the turnover of junior draftsmen, the men who became Supervising Architect spent many years in the department. In addition, Taylor, fenderoth, Wetmore, and even Louis Simon, the last Supervising Architect (1935-39) were all of the same Beaux Arts generation, born between 1857 and 1871; in fact Taylor, Wendaroth and Simon all joined the department a3 draftsmen in 1895-97

Form No. 10-300a (Rev. 10-74)

UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR NATIONAL PARK SERVICE


U.S. Post Office CONTINUATION SHEET Berkeley, GA ITEM NUMBER 3 PAGE 7________________^

(Vi'etmore, trained as a lawyer and administrator, not an architect, joined the treasury in 1835 as a court reporter . James Knox Taylor, who decreed the adoption of the classics! style in 1901 and whose name is on ruany of these Renaissance-classical post offices, was born in 1357, trained at ivIT and in offices including Cass'. Gilbert's, practiced privately, and joii ed the Treasury Department as senior draftsman in 1895, "becoming Super vising Architect in 1897, and returning to private practice in 1912. Os car Wenderoth, born in 1871, apprenticed in Philadelphia offices before be coming a draftsman for the Treasury in 1897, worked his way up to head draftsman for the House and Senate office buildings (1904), and later spenl some time in the office of Carrere and Hastings before retunning as Super vising Architect in 1913; his tenure was cut short by failing eyesight af ter two years. For the next 18 years the Acting Supervising Architect was James A. Wetmore—whether so titled because of his non-architectural back ground, or because Wenderoth was on some kind of disability leave, is not clear. Wetmore»s successor was Louis Simon, MIT 1391, who had in fact beer superintendent of the technical section since 1905: thms it is not surpris ing to find the 1931 Oakland Post Office a colonnaded full-dress Beaux Arts edifice, and its lobby uncannily similar to Berkeley's but in aluminun instead of wood and brass; nor to find the same year's addition to the Berkeley Post Office not only faithfully matched to the 1914 building, but given original ornamentation in the same idiom.i:LIn 1933 the solution was a new parcel post station near the West Berke ley railroad tracks. In 1977 there was public outcry over the transfer of mail sorting to new regional facilities in Oakland, and citizensJ' fears that the post office might be abandoned altogether, in spi-fca of its being the only branch in Northern California operating at a profit.

GPO 892 455

FHR-8-300A (11/78)



CONTINUATION SHEETU.S.Post Office,

flA ITEM NUMBER PAGE

Berkeley Post Office:

Wm. A. Newman, "The Berkeley Post Office—An Example of the New Public Building Policy,"Architect & Engineer of California, Oct. 1915-

Carroll Brentano, "Brunelleschi in Berkeley?", paper for Society of Architectural Historiansmeeting, Berkeley, April 16, 1977•

Berkeley Courier, July 26, 1915 (plans), Ap. 4, 1914 (contract), Sep. 25, 1959 (history). Berkeley Gazette, Feb. 11, 1902; June 18 & Aug. 4, 1910; April 1-24, 1914; Sep. 29, 1915;

8/14/29, 1/28/50, 1/5/515 5/21/52, 5/29/55; 5/21, 4/19, 7/20, 11/26/77;5/21,4/2,6/18/80,

Berkeley history, politics, & city planning:

Wm. W. Perrier, Berkeley, California, 1955.Werner Hegemann, Report on a City Plan for the Municipalities of Oakland & Berkeley, 1915.Office of Milton Pflueger, Berkeley Civic Center Development, 1959.WPA Writers 1 Program, Berkeley, the First 75 Years, 1941.

Public building & post office policy, & Supervising Architect:

Lois Craig & Federal Architecture Project, The Federal Presence; Architecture, Politics, &Symbols in U. S. government Building, MIT Press, 1978.

Daniel C. Roper, The United States Post Office: Its Past Record, Present Condition, &Potential Relation to the New World Order, N.Y., 1917.

Gilbert Stanley Underwood (Sup.Arch.), "Post Offices & Customs Houses," in Talbot Hamlin,Forms & Functions of 20th 0. Architecture, v. 5, 1952.

Darrell H. Smith, The Office of the Supervising Architect of the Treasury, Inst. for 3ovt.Research, 1925.

Annual Report of the Supervising; Architect of the Treasury Department, 1898 & 1910-18. A History of Public Buildings Under the Control of the Treasury Department, US1PO, 1901. L.S. Aubury, "California Products Are (rood Enough for Our Federal Buildings," Architect &

Engineer of Calif., August 1910. Who's Who in America, 1914-5 & 1954-5; Withey, Biog. Pic, of Am. Architects; N.Y.Times,

4/16/58 (Wenderoth obit.).National Register of Historic Places, 1972 & supplements. Western Architect, Nov. 1918 (Pasadena P. 0. )| Santa Cruz Historic Bldgs. Survey, 1976.

Treasury art projects:

Who's Who in American Art, 1940-1 (Scheuer, Slivka listings)."Coit's Murals on View Again," San Francisco Chronicle, May 5, 1977-Olin Dows, "The New Deal's Treasury Art Program: A Memoir," & Edward Laning, "The "New Deal

Mural Projects," in Francis V. 0 ! Connor, The New Deal Art Projects..., 1972. Francis 7. 0'Connor, Federal Support for the Visual Arts: The New Deal & Now, 19&9* Edward Bruce & Forbes Watson, Art in Federal Buildings; Mural Designs, 1954-1 S?56,

i-orm 10-SOU (Oct. 1SSO)

United States Department of the Interior National Park Service

National Register of Historic Places Registration Form

This form is for use in nominating or requesting determinations for individual properties and districts. See instructions in How to Complete the National Register of Historic Places Registration Form (National Register Bulletin 16A). Complete each item by marking "x" in the appropriate box cr by entering the information requested. If an item does not apply to the property being documented, enter "N/A" for "not applicable." For functions, architectural classification, materials, and areas of significance, enter only categories and subcategories from the instructions. Place additional entries and narrative items on continuation sheets (NPS Form 10-900a). Use a typewriter, word processor, or computer, to complete all items.

1. Name of Property___________________________________________________________

fNAT

!?r RECEIVED 2280 '

JUL i u P*d

REGISTER Of HiSlUKIl Pl> NATIONAL PARKSERVICE.

'V '.••.

CES•^i i 1 1"^

historic name Berkeley Historic Civic Center District

other names/site number N/A

2. Location

street & number

citv or town __

not for publication

Berkeley N/A Q

state California code CA county A lame da code _201 Zip code

3, State/Federal Agency Certification

As the designated authority under the National Historic Preservation Act, as amended, I hereby certify that this 23 nomination Q request for determination of eligibility meets the documentation standards for registering properties in the National Register of Historic Places and meets the procedural and professional requirements set forth in 36 CFR Part 60. In my opinion, the property CS3 meets G does not meettlie National-Register criteria. I recommend that this property be considered significant D nationaHy-G statewide Of locally. (Q See continuation sheet for additional comments.)

Signature of codifying State Historic'

Date

reservation Officer

L_State of Federal agency and bureau

..__i

!n my opinion, the property D meets G does not meet the National Register criteria. (Q See continuation sheet for additional comments.)

I Signature of commenting official/Title Date

State or Federal agency and bureau

4. National Park Service Certification1 hereby certify that the property is:

Y^6»-«Qtered in the National Register. V Q See continuation sheet.

Q determined eligible for the ' National Register

D See continuation sheet.

D determined not eligible for the National Register.

Q removed from the National Register

L; other, (explain:)

Date of Action

Name of PropertyH J. am eua.County and State

5. ClassificationOwnership of Property(Check as many boxes as apply)

5 private6 public-local D public-State & public-Federal

Category of Property(Check only one box)

D building(s) & district D site D structure D object

Name of related multiple property listing(Enter "N/A" if property is not part of a multiple property listing.)

N/A_______________________

Number of Resources within Property(Do not include previously listed resources in the count.)

Contributing

7

1

1

0

9

Noncontributing

3

0

0

0

3

buildings

sites

structures

objects

Total

Number of contributing resources previously listed in the National Register

6. Function or UseHistoric Functions(Enter categories from instructions)

Current Functions(Enter categories from instructions)

(See attached continuation sheet)

7. DescriptionArchitectural Classification(Enter categories from instructions)

(See attached)

Materials ,(Enter categories from instructions)

foundation __________

walls _____________

roof

other

Narrative Description(Describe the historic and current condition of the property on one or more continuation sheets.)

(See attached)

.berKeiey u.iviuName of Property County and State

8. Statement of SignificanceApplicable National Register Criteria(Mark "x" in one or more boxes for the criteria qualifying the property for National Register listing.)

H A Property is associated with events that have made a significant contribution to the broad patterns of our history.

D B Property is associated with the lives of persons significant in our past.

E C Property embodies the distinctive characteristics of a type, period, or method of construction or represents the work of a master, or possesses high artistic values, or represents a significant and distinguishable entity whose components lack individual distinction.

D D Property has yielded, or is likely to yield,information important in prehistory or history.

Criteria Considerations(Mark "x" in all the boxes that apply.)

Property is:

D A owned by a religious institution or used for religious purposes.

D B removed from Us original location.

D C a birthplace or grave.

D D a cemetery.

D E a reconstructed building, object, or structure.

D F a commemorative property.

n G less than 50 years of age or achieved significance within the past 50 years.

Narrative Statement of Significance(Explain the significance of the property on one or more continuation sheets.)

Areas of Significance(Enter categories from instructions)

Politics/Government

Social HistoryArchitecture

Community

Period of Significance1909 - 1950

Significant Dates

Significant Person(Complete if Criterion B is marked above)

N/A________________

Cultural Affiliation

N/A_______

Architect/Builder

Bakewell, John R.; Brown, Arthur, Jr.; Corlett, William, Sr.; Gutterson, Henry Higby; Maybeck, Bernard Ralph; Morgan, Julia; Meyers, Henry H.; Plachek, James W.; Schnier, Jacques; Howard, Robert Boardman

9. Major Bibliographical ReferencesBibliography (See attached)(Cite the books, articles, and other sources used in preparing this form on one or more continuation sheets.)

Previous documentation on file (NFS):D preliminary determination of individual listing (36

CFR 67) has been requested D previously listed in the National Register D previously determined eligible by the National

RegisterD designated a National Historic Landmark D recorded by Historic American Buildings Survey

Primary location of additional data:S State Historic Preservation Office D Other State agency D Federal agency S Local government S University D Other

Name of repository:

D recorded by Historic American Engineering Record # _____________

Name of PropertyCivic Gpnt.pr District Alameda County, uamornia

County and State

10. Geographical Data

Acreage of Property (Under 10 acres)

UTM References(Place additional UTM references on a continuation sheet.)

Zone Easting

2 I I I I I I I I

Northing

I I I l I I l

Zone Easting

4 ___I I____

Northing

1,1,1,D See continuation sheet

Verbal Boundary Description(Describe the boundaries of the property on a continuation sheet.)

Boundary Justification(Explain why the boundaries were selected on a continuation sheet.)

11. Form Prepared By

name/title Susan Cerny/Arch'l Historian; Jerri Holan/Arch'l Historian; Linda Perry/

organizatiorBerkeley Architectural Heritage Assoc. date March 2, 1998

street & number23l8 Durant Avenue______________ telephone (510)841-22^2

city or town Berkeley__________________ state CA zip code

Historian

Additional DocumentationSubmit the following items with the completed form:

Continuation Sheets

Maps

A USGS map (7.5 or 15 minute series) indicating the property's location.

A Sketch map for historic districts and properties having large acreage or numerous resources.

Photographs

Representative black and white photographs of the property.

Additional items(Check with the SHPO or FPO for any additional items)

Property Owner______________________________ (Complete this item at the request of SHPO or FPO.)

name (Varies - please see attached)_______________________

street & number

city or town __

telephone

state zip code

Paperwork Reduction Act Statement: This information is being collected for applications to the National Register of Historic Places to nominate properties for listing or determine eligibility for listing, to list properties, and to amend existing listings. Response to this request is required to obtain a benefit in accordance with the National Historic Preservation Act. as amended (16 U.S.C. 470 et see/.).

Estimated Burden Statement: Public reporting burden for this form is estimated to average 18.1 hours per response including time for reviewing instructions, gathering and maintaining data, and completing and reviewing the form. Direct comments regarding this burden estimate or any aspect of this form to the Chief, Administrative Services Division. National Park Service. P.O. Box 37127. Washington, DC 20013-7127; and the Office of Management and Budget. Paperwork Reductions Projects (1024-0018). Washington. DC 20503.

US GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE : 1993 O - 350-416 QL 3

NPS Form IO-900-a

United States Department of the Interior National Park Service

National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet

OM8 Appnov* Mo. 10S4-OOia

BERKELEY CIVIC CENTER DISTRICT ALAMEDA, CALIFORNIA

Section number Page

# 6 Function or Use

Historic Functions____ Current Functions

1. 2134 Martin Luther King, Jr. WayGOVERNMENT/city hall EDUCAHON/administrative

2. AIIston-MLK Jr. Ways-Center Street

3. 1931 Center Street .SOCIAL/civic

4. 2180 Milvia StreetGOVERNMENT/banking

5. 193X) Allston WayEDUCATION/CULTURE/theater

6. 2001 Allston WaySOQAL/civic-recreational

7. 2000 Allston WayGO VERNMENT/post office

8. 1947 Center StreetCOMMERCE/business

9. 1835 Allston WayGOVERNMENT/city hall annex

10. 2171 McKlnley StreetGOVERNMENT/poHce-jan

11. 2117 McKinley StreetGO VERNMENT/health services

LANDSCAPE'park

SOCIAL/civic

GOVERNMENT/city hall

EDUCATION/CULTURE/theater

SOdAL/civic-recieadonal

GO VERNMENT/post office

COMMERCE/business

EDUCAHON/administrative

GOVERNMENT/police-jail

GOVERNMENT/fire station- headquarters

12. 21JO Martin Luther King Jr. WayGOVERNMENT/court house

13. 2111 McKinleyHOUSING/private

GOVERNMENT/court house

HOUSING/public

NPS form 10-900-4 O*8 *f»**»*l **x 1074-OOffl (8-86)

United States Department of the Interior BERKELEY.CIVIC CENTER DISTRICT National Park Service ALAMdEA COUNTY, CALIFORNIA


Section number —!— Page * ft—

7 DESCRIPTION___Architectural Classification and Narrative Description (continued)

Architectural Classification

EARLY 20TH CENTURY Beaux Arts Classicism Moderne ArtDeco

Materials

foundations-concretewalls-painted concrete-stuccoroof- hidden behind parapet, slate, clay tile

other:painted sheet metal cupolaART/bas relief sculptureterra cotta decorative elementsmarble columns

NPS Form 10-900-a OMB Approval No. 1024-O01S (8-86)

United States Department of the Interior BERKELEY CIVIC CENTER DISTRICT National Park Service ALAMDEA COUNTY, CALIFORNIA


Section number ——I— Page ———

7. DESCRlFllON___Architectural Classification and Narrative Description (continued)

CIVIC CENTER HISTORIC DISTRICT: GENERAL DESCRIPTION

Berkeley, California's Civic Center Historic District comprises portions of a five block area surrounding Martin Luther King Jr., Civic Center Park, the district's central feature. The area is located approximately a 1/4 mile to the| East and South of the physical center of the city, and one block west from the center of downtown. Thb area is bordered on the west by McKinley Street, on the east by Milvia Street, on the south by Allston Way and on the north by Center Street The district provides predominantly public services. Thirteen buildings, one site and one structure are in the district There are nine contributing buildings, one contributing site and one contributing structure, there are four noncontributing buildings. Civic Center Park is located on the west side of the block boardered by Allston Way, Center Street, Milvia and Martin Luther King, Jr. Way. This block is 315' x 590'. The civic center's four major contributing buildings are located on an axis with one another, forming a cross axis at the center of Civic Center Fountain located in the park. The four buildings which form the cross-axis are: "Old" City Hall, on the west, across Martin Luther King, Jr. Way; the former Federal Land Bank Building, located on the eastern third of the park block; the Veterans Memorial Building, located on the north, across Center Street; and the Berkeley Community Theater located on the south, across Allston Way. The architectural styles of contributing buildings are representative of the period of significance 1909-1950. The buildings range from one to six stories. "Old" City Hall (1909), in the Beaux Arts Classic style, and the Post Office (1914), in the Classic Italian Renaissance Style, are among the earliest buildings and the most decorative. Six contributing buildings date from 1928-1950 and are variations of the simpler Moderne Style. All share a high degree of workmanship, materials, quality of design, decoration, and are painted in a compatible palette of pale golds, greens, rose, blues, grays and cream.

The block on the west, across Martin Luther King Jr. Way, where the "Old" City Hall stands, is owned by the City. There are seven buildings on this block. Three are contributing buildings and four are noncontributing buildings. The three contributing buildings include "Old" City Hall and are on the south end of the block and were built to house civic functions. The County Court House and the Fire Department Headquarters, generally in the center of the block, were built after the period of significance. Most of the north third of the block is a surface parking lot and includes two noncontributing buildings which were originally private dwellings but now owned by the city.

Berkeley's Civic Center area is bordered by the downtown commercial and retail district on the east and north, and residential neighborhoods to the west and south. Characteristics that distinguish the Civic Center are achieved by the presence of the park with its tall green background of mature trees, and the siting of contributing buildings back from the sidewalk with some planted landscape features in front or next to them. Major landscape features are present in Civic Center Park and in front of "Old" City Hall. The elements that make up these major landscape features include concrete paths, lawns, mature evergreen trees and Civic Center Plaza and Fountain.

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7. DESCRIPTION___Architectural Classification and Narrative Description (continued)

The creation of a clearly defined civic center required more than three decades of planning and land acquisition to achieve. Despite the decades of planning, and the separate nature of each individual project, a cohesive ensemble was created. The appearance of the district retains a high degree of integrity because there have been few changes since the district achieved significance when the Berkeley High School Community Theater was completed in 1950, after 11 years of construction. However, since the district evolved over more than three decades, significant changes did occur between 1909-1950. For example, the land for Civic Center Park, the Veterans Building and the Old City Hall block was purchased from private owners; buildings were removed for the park, parking lots, the Community Theater, Veterans Building, and County Court House. The general condition of the buildings is good to excellent and there have been no significant alterations to the park or individual contributing buildings.

No known archeological resources have been recorded. Strawberry Creek, which once flowed through the park has been culverted and there is no evidence of the creek today. However, creekside areas often contain evidence of indigenous people. All features of the district are manmade. There are no natural prominent features. Vegetation, even large trees, were planted. The topography gently slopes to the west,

1. City Hall - Contributing Building2134 Martin Luther King, Jr. WayJohn Bakewell & Arthur Brown. Jr.1908-9Listed on the National Register of Historic Places

City Hall is located on the west side of Martin Luther King, Jr. Way across the street from Civic Center Park, facing east towards the park. City Hall is an example of early 20th Century Revival Beaux-Arts classicism, using decoration derived from Greek and Roman sources in a symmetrically composed three part arrangement. The design of the Berkeley City Hall was inspired by the Town Hall at Tours, France which was designed in 1901 by Arthur Brown's professor at the Ecole des Beaux Arts, Victor Laloux. John Bakewell and Arthur Brown's design was selected as the winner of a 1907 competition. The center of the facade is on axis with the center of Civic Center Park.

City Hall is a rectangular shaped building containing two main floors over a raised concrete basement The surface of the building is blue/gray painted plaster over concrete; the window trim, wrought iron balconies and the cupola is painted a grayed blue/green. The building is set back from the street approximately 30'. Three concrete pathways lead to the entrance staircase; approaching from the south and north the pathways form a semi-circle and there is one in the center. These pathways surround a lawn. Large redwood trees on either side of the building create a green backdrop. A central concrete staircase rises in two sections. The wide three-sided lower staircase rises from the pathways at ground level. The center portion of this staircase is the widest side. The lower staircase rises to a wide landing enclosed by classic balustrades on the north and south. The upper section of the staircase

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terminates at the entrance. The entire composition of the entrance staircases is wide at the bottom and progressively gets narrower towards the top.

The central element on the east side is recessed, contains the entrance and is flanked by two projecting side bays that are smaller, decoratively simpler and shorter than the dominant central element The central element is 86'x 66" and is divided into five equal sized bays with the entrance in the center. Each bay is separated by engaged Ionic styled columns that rise the full two stories and support six projecting cornice elements that serve as bases for ornamental dentels and monumental urns. Behind the urns is a blank frieze terminating in a secondary cornice molding, with a cartouche in the center. The columns stand on large square bases that are approximately 5' on each side. Each base is separated by Classical balustrades below each arched window. The central portion has a raised, hipped gray slate roof, which provides a large attic storage space. There are ornamental flames at either end of the metal capped ridge. At the center of this hipped grey slate roof is a lantern styled 60f cupola and spire constructed of painted sheet metal on wood frame. The cupola was restored and the building painted original pale blue/gray colors in 1991. There are two small bulls-eyed dormers on the lower portion of the roof, above and between the central bay.

The fenestration of the central section consists of one large window (almost a full floor tall) in each bay, on both floors. The windows on the first floor are arched and framed by an arched molding fabricated from the same concrete plaster as the walls. This window molding is bisected in the center of the arch by a decorative volute keystone element The central arched opening contains the entrance. On the second floor the windows are framed by rectangles. Both have keystone elements in the center of the window frames. Under the first floor windows is a Classic balustrade and under the second story windows are individual balconies with decorative iron railings, supported by brackets. The two wings (each 31 f x 77") are identical and are set perpendicular to the central portion. The details and materials of the wings are the same as the central section, but treated more simply. Under their second floor windows, on the south and north sides, are balconies, supported by large curved foliated brackets, which run the entire length of the windows; they have the same decorative iron railings as on the main facade. These wings have hipped roofs, capped with a metal ridge with ornamental flames at either end. The interior is also significant for the decorative techniques exhibited in the painted columns at the base of the main stairway and in the trompe 1'oeil painting of the walls and ceiling of the stairwell These are perfectly preserved examples of decoration that was popular at the turn-of-the- century.

There have been few alterations to the building since it was completed in 1909. The only change on the main facade was the replacement of the operable sections of the original wood sash with aluminum, but the pattern of the window divisions has been retained. The major alteration occurred in 1950 when the rear of the building was extended about 10* on each side of the stair-bay to create additional office space. The windows on either side of the stair bay were enclosed as part of this work so that the main staircase is now much darker than it was originally. The building retains a high degree

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of integrity and was designated a City Landmark in 1975. It is also listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

2. Civic Center Park - Contributing Site Civic Center Fountain - Contributing Structure 2100 Block of Martin Luther King Jr. Way Henry Gutterson, Chair of the Design Committee Bernard Maybeck, Julia Morgan, John Gregg, East side between Allston Way and Center Street 1938-1942

Martin Luther King, Jr., Civic Center Park occupies the western 2/3 of a block. The land slopes gently to the west The park is composed of seven major elements: Fountain Terrace, Christmas Tree Terrace, Civic Center Fountain, large open lawn area, shuffle board court, playground and flag pole. All original elements date from the completion of the park in 1942. At the east side, the park ends at the Fram Credit Building and its driveway/parking lot Between the formal park spaces and the Farm Credit Building, is a green backdrop created by of groves of trees, including redwood, deodar cedar, and magnolia. Sheltered in the groves were two concrete restroom structures; the southern structure remains, but the northern bathroom was removed in the 1970s. Between the groves of trees is a raised terrace with original concrete perimeter walls; in the center stands Berkeley's "Municipal Christmas Tree", a Giant Sequoia (approximately 90' tall) lit with colored lights during the winter holiday season. This terrace forms the narrow eastern end of a hardscape area that widens out in the center of the park into Fountain Terrace. Fountain Terrace is a circular flagstone terrace. Half the terrace is surrounded by tile covered concrete walls with five opennings to paths. The original wall was reconstructed to display the brightly colored hand painted tiles of the Peace Wall in 1987. The location and size of the reconstructed walls replicate the original perimeter walls of the terrace with the exception of a new openning on the west side, but the colors of the tiles are not compatable with the creamy colors of the district The Fountain is in the center of this terrace. It is a 50 foot diameter circular concrete fountain composed of a large outer pool with two tiered levels that step up to a cylindrical core where water jets and colored lights were once mounted. It has not been determined when the fountain water jets and lights were removed. The cross-axis formed by the district's four major buildings (City Hall to the Farm Credit Building running east-west, and north-south from the Veterans' Memorial Building to the Community Theater) is located here. All of the fountain structure is original, as is the flagstone terrace surrounding the fountain. The fountain is Moderne in character, constructed of unadorned concrete with the original board marks still showing. West of the fountain terrace is a large lawn surrounded by wide paths in their original configuration, and most in original concrete. The lawn is the open centerpiece of the park, intended for large gatherings and recreational use. West of the lawn is a narrow, linear hard surfaced area, flanked by trees and shrub plantings, along the Martin Luther King, Jr. Way frontage of the park. The southern end of this area was intended for the elderly, and retains

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shuffleboard courts, although in damaged condition. The northern portion is a children's play area, which is its original use, although the play equipment is modern. Between the play area/shuffleboard courts and the central lawn is a flagpole, the first feature installed in the park during construction. Surrounding the park are a number of original light poles, although their heads have been removed and replaced with modern fixtures.

Most of the plantings in the park, including an array of camphor trees flanking the central lawn and western end, are original. Original elements of the park furniture still remain, including.a number of concrete and wooden benches. Although Civic Center Park was not completed until 1942 it was anticipated as early as 1908 when "Old" City Hall was designed. Bonds were finally approved in 1940 making $125,000 available to buy and develop the land. A committee was appointed to design the park. The chair was architect Henry Gutterson, with architects Bernard Maybeck and Julia Morgan and Landscape Design Professor, John Gregg Henry Gutterson, with William Corlet, Jr., desgined the Community Theater in 1937, and had located the theater on axis with the Veterans Building. As chair of the park design committee it is not surprising that the major significant element in the cross axial plan is the Civic Center Fountain. Civic Center Park is a Berkeley Landmark, designated hi 1997

3. Veterans Memorial Building - Contributing Building 1931 Center Street Henry H. Meyers 1928

The Veterans Building is an example of the Classic Moderne style. The facade is a simplified, horizontal three-part vertical composition, two stories with a raised concrete basement as the base, a two-story shaft, and parapet entablature above a simple cornice molding. The building is constructed of reinforced concrete-plaster, painted cream with pale rose and blue accents, and is T-shaped in plan. Overall the building is 180' wide and 120' deep. The central entrance section is recessed and slightly taller than the wings. Each wing is about 40* feet wide and articulated into 3 bays by 4- two-story fluted pilasters. There is one window between the pilasters on each floor with ornamental spandrel panels. The parapet has panels with a scrolled tendril motif and projecting acanthus leaf cornice at the top. The words "Veterans Memorial" are incised in the frieze between the seals of the United States and the State of California. The building has not been altered. A disabled ramp was added on the east side of the entrance in 1990, which removed some planting, but this is not a significant alteration, and it was retrofitted and repainted by the City in 1996.

Most of the interior is finished in dark wood paneling and smooth plaster. The main lobby has a tile floor and polychrome tile baseboard. Display cases with contain mementos of veterans organizations. Tile faced staircases with wrought iron handrails rise to the second floor at either end of the lobby. In the center of the building is a large two-story auditorium. The building was designed by Alameda County Architect Henry H. Meyers and architects Mildred Meyers, his daughter, and George R. Klinkhardt The building was designated a City of Berkeley Landmark in 1985.

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4. Federal Land Bank - Contributing Building 2180 Milvia Street James W. Plachek 1938

The Federal Land Bank building is a classic WPA Moderne style with a symmetrical three part composition repeated around the building in different ways. The building was designed by James W. Plachek. On the Milvia Street side the main entrance to the building is in the center of a slightly recessed central section. On the west side of the building, overlooking Civic Center Park, the building is a deep U-shape with two towers, one containing stairs and the other containing the elevators, that create an exaggerated Art Deco zigzag design. Above the central section is a penthouse, containing mechanical equipment, with a hipped roof. Windows are grouped in threes and these groups are separated by wide bands of concrete-stucco. On the north and south sides the window groups are again treated in a three-part composition. The five-story building has understated, shallow decoration incised into its concrete-stucco siding. The building is painted gray with pale blue/green and rose beige accents. The blue/green color is also used for the window trim. These are colors are believed to be original. Most of the interior remains intact and the exterior of the building has not been altered. The entrance lobby is notable for its original Moderne details. The building became Berkeley's new City Hall in 1977 and was designated a City of Berkeley Landmark in 1985.

5. Berkeley High School Community Theater 1937, completed 1950 and LittleTheater 1937/40 -Contributing Building1930 & 1920 Allston WayHenry H. Gutterson and William Corlett, Sr., ArchitectsRobert Howard, Sculptor-1937-50

The Florence Schwimley Little Theater and Berkeley High School Community Theater along with associated classrooms, offices, storage and shop rooms, are located on Allston Way in the center of the block bordered by Martin Luther King Jr. Way on the west, and Milvia Street on the East. The entire composition is nearly symmetrical in plan with three major divisions: the large four story theater proper in the center, the 2 1/2 story west wing containing the Little Theater, and the 1 1/2 storey east wing containing the music and drama classrooms and offices. On the north side of the building overlooking Civic Center Park, the stage area of the Community Theater is expressed as the tall central portion of this composition, set above a rectangular one-story base. In the center of this is a deeply carved bas-relief of seven figures, designed by sculptor Robert Howard, depicting from the bottom to top, sculpture, painting, music, dance, poetry and drama. The center of this work of art is directly on axis with Civic Center Fountain and the entrance to the Veterans Building on the north side of the park.

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7. DESCRlFilON___Architectural Classification and Narrative Description (continued)

On the flanking wings are two bas relief heralds, one female and the other male, also by Robert Howard. The Little Theater is the high school's old auditorium, built in 1907, which was extensively remodeled and incorporated into the plan. It has a broad entry staircase to an open entrance balcony on its west side, it is approximately 1/2 a story higher than on the east wing.

The south side of the theater complex faces into the school campus on axis with the entrance to the main classroom building (the "C" building) across an open courtyard. The entrance vestibule and exhibition halls are contained in a one-story section which is set in front of a second story section so that the height and mass of the theater is minimized on the interior of the campus. On either side of the entrance are two panels with bas-reliefs also by Robert Howard; the one on the west is a figure representing drama, dance, music and the figure on the east represents poetry, sculpture and painting.

The seating area of the Community Theater is circular. The rectangular stage, with a slightly curving north wall, is located on the north side. The Little Theater is on the west side of the Community Theater and the classrooms, shops and offices are on the east side. On the south side of the Community Theater, curving around approximately 3/4 of the seating area, is the entrance vestibule flanked by two exhibition halls. The School Board Journal Vol. 122 #1,1951 further describes the interior: "The interior diameter of the main theater is 160 feet, with an orchestra floor of 2406 seats and a balcony of 1091 seats, a total of approximately 3500 seats. The stage is 100 by 55 feet and the proscenium opening is 50 feet wide and 30 feet high. Trie orchestra pit, which is raised and lowered by electrically operated screws, accommodates 84 musicians with their instruments. This orchestra pit may also be raised to stage a height to enlarge the stage apron....The Little Theater seats 628."

Its basic method of construction is steel and reinforced concrete, made up of pre-fabricated rectangular panels hung on a steel frame. The repetitive rectangular shapes created by these panels are decorative as well as functional. The Moderne/Art Deco styled building is sheathed in cream-colored concrete-plaster; window trim and doors are pale pink. The colors are original The building express a hierarchy of space through the use of simple geometric volumes emphasized by the decorative and artistic bas-relief murals and other surface embellishments molded or carved into the concrete-stucco walls. Decoration also includes: lettering and stripes carved into the concrete-stucco exterior surfaces; fluted pilasters and columns; rounded bays and corners; curved overhangs over some entrances; and concrete and brick-faced planter boxes.

Berkeley High School moved to a newly built school building located at the corner of Martin Luther King, Jr. Way and Allston Way in 1901. By 1934 three additional buildings had been constructed along Allston Way. Two of the older building were demolished for the construction of the Science Building and the Community Theater in 1934. As noted above, the auditorium building was remodeled and incorporated into the theater building.

The Berkeley High School Community Theater was dedicated June 5th, 1950 twelve years after the school board entered into an agreement with architect William Corlett Sr. and Henry Gutterson "for the preparation of plans and specifications for the erection and construction of a new auditorium at Be±eley High School and for the remodeling of the old auditorium" (Minutes of the

NPS Form 10-900-a (8-86)

United States Department of the InteriorNational Park Service


BERKELEY CIVIC CENTER DISTRICT ALAMDEA COUNTY, CALIFORNIA

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7. DESCRIPTION ___ Architectural Classification and Narrative Description (continued')

School Board January 31, 1938) Construction of the theater was begun in late 1940, and by . December 1941 the steel frame of the almost circular building was nearly complete when the United States entered World War n and construction came to a standstill. It was not until 1949 that construction resumed. The open steel-frame theater stood for almost a decade and became known as the "bird cage".

The Berkeley High School Community Theater is oriented with its back to the Civic Center and its entrance from the interior of the school campus. However, a sketch of a "General Scheme of Expansion and Development" dated October 1937 shows the auditorium facing a Civic Center Park, which didn't yet exist. School Board minutes of November 1, 1939 report that "Architects Corlett and Gutterson presented sketches of a new idea for the orientation of the auditorium unit for Berkeley High School previously approved June 28,1939. The architects pointed out that on further study, the required high scene house, as originally located opposite the north front of the academic Building, would be, in their judgment over-powering in mass and an obstacle to the openness and unity of the courtyard and that the reversal of the plan...would eliminate that difficulty. Other advantages cited: direct access to the auditorium by the students, lower cost of the vestibule, more space between "C" building and auditorium, less glare, avoidance of traffic hazard on Allston Way and removal of heating plant to separate building. Architects stated that the new front on Allston would be adequate and appropriate for the proposed Civic Center. "

The theater building retains a high degree of integrity. The exterior of the building, its color, windows, brick side walks, retaining walls and planter beds, stairs and pathways, have had little modification or alteration, and are present in photographs for the theater's opening celebrations. Even some plant material has been partially retained. Most of the major interior spaces are also original including upholstery, drapery and rugs. The Florence Schwimley Little Theater and Berkeley High School Community Theater were designed as an ensemble of high school related buildings in 1937 and include the Shop and Science Buildings located to the west, and buildings to the east that were never built For purposes of the Civic Center Historic District Application, only the Community Theater and the Florence Schwimley Little Theater are included in the Civic Center District application because of their community uses. The Florence Schwimley Little Theater, Berkeley High School Community Theater and Shop and Science Buildings are City of Berkeley Landmarks, designated in 1992.

6. Young Men's Christian Association - Contributing Building 2001 Allston Way Benjamin G. McDougall 1910

The Young Men's Christian Association building is a four story rectangular building above a raised basement. The building sits flush with the sidewalks at the north east comer of Allston Way and Milvia Street The main entrance is on Allston Way with a secondary entrance on Milvia Street. The building is a three part composition vertically and horizontally on both sides, with the entrances in the .

NPS Form 10-900-a OMB Apptmtl No. 1O24-OO18 (8-66)


National Register of Historic Places RECEIVED Continuation Sheet

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7. DESCRIPTION___Architectural Classification and Narrative Description (continued^

center of the composition. The walls of the raised basement and first floor are cream colored concrete plaster, formed to look like stone, and serve as the base of the composition. The walls of the third, fourth and fifth floors are faced with dark red brick. The "shaft" of the composition, the third and fourth floors, is separated from the "base" by a horizontal belt course; the fifth floor is also separated by a horizontal belt course and is capped by a heavy cornice supported by dentils. A parapet completes the composition. All decorative elements are cream colored concrete plaster. Quoins, also of concrete plaster define the corners and separate the central sections from the sections on either side. The central element on the Allston Way facade contains a recessed entry, with marble floors and kick-plate, framed by Tuscan columns; and above is a classic Palladian styled window. The entrance on the Milvia street side is framed by an arch of concrete plaster made to look like stone. Above the central element on the Allston Way facade, under the cornice are the words "Young Men's Christian Association" in gold lettering. The style of the YMC A building is Early 20th Century Revival/Colonial/Georgian.

The YMCA building has had two additions of almost equal size to the original building. Both these additions are on the east side of the building, along Allston Way.

The first addition was constructed in 1960 in a style consistent with mid-century utilitarian architecture in cream colored concrete plaster. The second addition was constructed in 1992 and is sheathed in red brick. It was designated a City Landmark in 1990.

7. United States Post Office - Contributing Building2000 Allston WayOscar Wenderoth1914Listed on The National Register of Historic Places

The elegant facade of the Post Office could be described as a ^ree adaptation of Brunelleschi's Foundling Hospital" in Florence with its arcade high round arches on plain Tuscan columns gracing its facade. The style of the Post Office is referred to as Second Renaissance Revival. The two story, raised basement rectangular shaped building is set back from the sidewalk about 15 feet The building faces Allston Way. A series of entrance doorways are recessed behind the entrance loggia of eleven vaulted arches extending almost the full width of the building. Marble Tuscan columns support the arches. Concrete plaster made to look like stone define the corners of the building. The arches are outlined in molded terracotta. A wide terra cotta belt-course, with dentils, swags, medallions, and wave patterns, visually separates the ground floor from the second floor and continues around the whole building. A smaller terra cotta frieze, with other Classical motifs, tops the second-story just below the eaves. The corners of the facade are heavily rusticated with cast blocks simulating stone. The roof is hipped, red tile over wood sheathing, and has a wide overhang with two rows of curved wooden brackets framing rectangular panels. The arches on the exterior are repeated on the inner wall of the loggia and again in the wall between the lobby and the workroom. These arches are identically

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glazed. The Postmaster's office door is framed in carved wood, similar to the vestibule, and in the arch around the door is a mural of figures from the Spanish and pioneer period of Berkeley's history, painted in 1936-7 by Suzanne Scheuer for the Treasury Relief Art Project. A 130 'addition was constructed in 1931/2 at the rear of the original 35' deep building, along Milvia Street. This addition has a flat-roof and is one-story plus basement It has the same wall, cornice and window motif as the facade, even on the sides facing the driveway and loading dock. The Berkeley Main Post Office is well preserved and its fine materials have endured well. The Post Office was designated a City of Berkeley Landmark in 1980 and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

8. State Farm Insurance Companies Building-Contributing Building 1947 Center Street James Plachek 1947/8

The State Farm Insurance Company Building is a six-story, 115,000 square feet, steel- reinforced concrete structure in Classic Moderne style. The building is divided horizontally and vertically into three sections. The recessed entrance opening is two stories high in the center of the facade. The central section, which contains a group of three windows on each flood projects several feet from the side sections. The side sections contain two groups of three windows on each floor. The corner element, set back about 4 feet, has a single window on each floor. The base of the building is rose colored polished stone and the rest of the building is concrete stucco painted pale rose. The building has not been significantly altered. A huge neon sign, which sat on the roof of the building, was removed in 1963 when the company sold the building.

9. City Hal! Annex - Contributing Building 1835 Allston Way James W. Plachek 1925

The building is a one story stucco-sided building with a red tile roof. It is located on the corner of Allston Way and McKinley Street The roof line repeats and continues that of "old" City Hall and the fenestration follows the same simple elongated vertical lines which are evenly spaced around the building. Small hipped ventilation dormers are set into the roof. It is a free standing building set apart from the City Hall. From Civic Center Park the building is not visible behind bushes and trees. The interior was alterationed in 1983, but the the exterior of the building has not been altered and retains its integrity .The building was designated a City of Berkeley landmark in 1988.

10. Hall of Justice - Contributing Building 2171 McKinley Street

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James Plachek 1938/39

Groundbreaking for Berkeley's Hall of Justice, commonly known as the police station, was March 28,1938 and the building opened November 12,1939. The building is a three-story L-shaped building with its horizontal facade facing McKinley Street, and the end of the L facing east to Center Street It is constructed of re-reinforced concrete. The building is larger than "old" City Hall approximately 130' long x approximately 75 feet deep, with an ML" on the north/east side approximately 40' x 25'.

On the McKinley street facade the building is a three part composition with the entrance in the center of a projecting bay, which is approximately 1/2 the width of the flanking bays. This central element has a slightly rounded comer element Verically the building is a two part composition, with the first floor treated like a raised basement with two main floors above. On the ground floor of the entrance bay is a single doorway opening. On each of the two floors above the entrance there are three windows. At the cornice in the center is an incised sign proclaiming: "Hall of Justice". The two bays flanking the entrance have five windows on the ground floor; and on the two main floors there is a single window next to the central bay and then four large windows divided into three sections except for the north second floor where the are only three "slits" for windows (where the jail is located) These slit windows are probably an alteration; early drawings for the building show the fenestration the same on both sides and this would be more consistant with the Classic Moderne style of the building. The windows contain three lights each resulting in an overall horizontal composition.

Stylistically the building is simple Moderne, with subtle overtones of plassic revivalism popular in the early 20th Century. Except for the slit windows and some small additions at the rear, the building has not been altered.

11. Berkeley Public Health Building - Noncontributing Building 2117 McKinley Street Michael Goodman 1955

Berkeley Public Health Building, now the main administrative office building for the Fire Department, is a two story rectangular building with a cut-out, recessed entry on the south side of the building creating a small L. The building is faced with rose colored concrete blocks. Window frames are rusticated concrete block to look like stone one block wide; Window frames are brown steel divided into three parts; upper and lower sections are the same size, fixed, narrow and horizontal; the center section is taller and divided in the center with two operable windows. The windows are evenly space around the building and are the same size on the two floors.: six on the south sides, 2 on the south facing wall of the entry, four across the front, and 8 on the north side. The entrance, on the south-west side of the building, facing McKinley Street, is sheltered by a simple, tar-roofed awning supported by steel poles that are very typical of the building's period. There is a gray concrete sided .

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utility box on the roof. Two dwellings were demolished for this building. The building has not been altered and retains intergrity. The building is a noncontributor because it was built after the period of significance.

12. Alameda County Court House - Noncontributing Building 2120 Martin Luther King Jr. Way John Hudspeth 1958/9

The Alameda County Court House, dedicated June 30,1959, is a two story rectangular building facing Martin Luther King Jr. Way and is located to the north of "Old" City Hall. The two story recessed glazed entrance is on the south side of the building approached under a projecting two story porch. A string course of windows along the first floor are set above blue tile panels and wrap around the south corner of the building. The second floor string course of windows are centered in the center half of the building. The exterior of the building has'had little modification, only a small addition to the north side was added in the 1980s and is very compatible with the original design. The building appears to be in good condition and retains its integrity. It is a noncontributing building because it was constructed after the period of significance.

13. McKinley House - Noncontributing Building2111 McKinleyc!925/moved to site in 1950s ,

Three story multi-unit dwelling, rectangular in shape. The narrower side of the building faces McKinley Street The ground floor is treated like a raised basement. The two main floors are treated identically: a pair of French doors with three lights each, open to a very narrow wrought iron balcony on the north side; on the south side on each floor is a large window with a single pane central section flanked by side panels with three lights each. The entry is on the south side in the center of the building. It is covered by a small entry porch with a clay tile roof. A single row of clay tiles decorate the front parapet The walls are gray textured plaster painted gray, with white painted simulated quoins at the corners. The "raised" basement walls and quoins are painted a darker gray than the main floors. It is a representative example of a 20th Century Revival Italianate Style. It is a noncontributing building because it was moved to the site after the period of significance.

1 2

NPS Form 10-900-. OMB XpfvwW No. 1024-0018 (8-86)

United States Department of the Interior BERKELEY CIVIC CENTER DISTRICT National Park Service ALAMEDA COUNTY, CALIFORNIA


• •Section number — ̂ — Page

8. Statement of Significance ___________________Narrative Statement of Significance

BERKELEY'S CIVIC CENTER HISTORIC DISTRICT

The solemnity and seriousness of democratic community government, the jubilance and pageantry involved with public fest&als and other cultural events taking place in the civic center complex and a bit of the grandeur and pomp inevHably associated with formal aspects of government anywhere,. .are expressed within Berkeley's Civic Center as a whole... From its earliest and most primitive beginning amongst neolithic cultures, the civic square or park was the center of community activity, whether the activity was play, pageantry, religion, government or commerce. As time passed, structures arose around it to house one or more of these functions. So in a very real sense, the central square or park should remain the dominant element of a governmental center. As a key element in Berkeley's civic center complex, the park, then, is an important place and the means by which the expression of local civic character can be achieved.

-Lawrence Halprin, Halprin & Associates, Landscape Architects "Report on Master Plan for Berkeley Civic Center Park" January, 1964, pp. 1-3

I. SUMMARY FOR NATIONAL REGISTER CRITERIA A AND C

For almost one hundred years, Berkeley's civic center district has served the needs of its government and small community. Beginning in 1899 when the first City Hall building was strategically relocated to its current site, the district took over a half century to plan and develop. It embodies the political trends of the nation as well as the region and the city during the district's period of significance, 1909-1950. Both World Wars, the Depression, and local politics influenced the district's development. The district also represents the town's importance as an agricultural center for the surrounding region due to the influence of the first state university, the University of California, Berkeley.

The civic center district includes federal, regional, and local government buildings, along with a community theater, a YMCA, and a Veteran's Memorial Building all surrounding a central park. These diverse community buildings, located in Berkeley's most important public space, reflect significant social aspects of Berkeley's history, important to the citizens' health, safety, and welfare. The park plan and its collection of civic buildings illuminate the variety of architectural and design influences (the City Beautiful Movement, Beaux Arts and Art Deco/Moderne) that prevailed during the first half of this century. The park layout and its buildings were executed by renowned designers and fortunately the district is largely unaltered and retains a high degree of integrity. As a result, Berkeley's Civic Center is locally significant as an ensemble of harmoniously planned buildings and as a collective body of civic architecture.

KPS Form 10-900-a OMB Approval No. 1O24-OO1B (8-86)



Pi ~7 Section number —(-^ Page *—'—

8. Statement of Significance__________________Narrative Statement of Significance (contin.)

II. AREAS OF SIGNIFICANCE

A. Politics/Government/Social History

By its very nature, Berkeley's Civic Center District has been intimately intertwined with the political and social history of the city. The land was acquired, and the buildings designed and constructed, with public approval and funding. Every significant government decision in Berkeley, from 1899 onwards, occurred somewhere in the Civic Center District. The enactment and administration of laws by which the city was governed, and most activities related to political processes, took place within the district's buildings. In addition, the community's most cherished public service, its renowned police department, resides in the district. From its elegantOld City Hall to its streamlined Community Theater, the district has survived almost 100 years of local politics amazingly intact. From festive Christmas celebrations at the fountain to solemn Memorial Day gatherings with the Veterans, Civic Center Park has been the center of a democratic community's pattern of life. Not surprisingly, the district has been ~ and still is — the most important site in Berkeley's history.

Berkeley incorporated as a city hi 1878 in order to prevent annexation by the neighboring City of Oakland. The process also identified a need for better law enforcement: settlers from the Gold Rush had brought commerce as well as shiftless characters. Consequently, law enforcement was an important concern for the City's early residents which has continued to the present day. While uniting its different communities, the incorporation was an uncomfortable union of contrasting interests: the University at one end and commerce at the other, separated by farmers who were reluctant to have their land made part of the town in the first place. Tensions were reflected in civic decision-making and the location of the Town Hall became a chronic source of controversy. Initially, Berkeley did not have any civic buildings and Town Trustees met in rented or borrowed buildings, trying to adjust their meeting place from east to west and back again to satisfy both parts of town. In 1884, a Hall was built at Sacramento and University Avenues which was used for twenty years. It satisfied neither district and was difficult to get to. This Hall, in 1895, witnessed the adoption of the Town's Charter. By 1897 considerable community sentiment for removal of the Hall to the eastern part of town was evident and in 1899, Trustees decided that the Hall would have a new home on Grove Street (now Martin Luther King Jr. Way). The new building site was reasonably centered in town enough to avoid the claim that any one district had been disadvantaged by the relocation.

In 1900, after two unsuccessful tries, Berkeleyans approved a bond issue to build an adequately-sized public high school. A permanent site was purchased on an adjacent block southeast of the Town Hall site. The school was built in 1901 and, in combination with the Town Hall, the two municipal functions formed the beginnings of Berkeley's historic Civic Center district.

In 1904, the Town Hall burnt down and the city's volunteer fire department was transformed into a full- time paid force. In 1905, August Vollmer (1905-45) was elected as Town Marshal and over the next forty

UPS form 10-900-* OMB Appro** No. 1024-0018



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8. Statement of Significance Narrative Statement of Significance (contin.)

years, with much support from the Berkeley community, he developed one of the most highly respected police departments hi the United States. In 1906, with community support, the Berkeley police developed the first electric signal light system in the United States.

At this time, the city entered a new era, politically, socially and economically. A spirit of political reform was abroad in the nation and California. The "Progressive Era" was well underway: industrial trusts were being attacked, government corruption exposed and reform proposed, the power of the individual citizen strengthened through direct primary elections and the initiative process, and far-sighted enterprises in the public interest were created or expanded. The 1906 earthquake and fire in San Francisco brought a flood of new residents to Berkeley and the town was becoming one of the leading cities in California. The University of California was flourishing, with enrollment rising and grand new permanent buildings of the Phoebe Apperson Hearst Architectural Plan completed on the campus nearly every year. New residential subdivisions were being planned on all sides, the business district was prospering and busy, and municipal facilities were growing. In 1903, Berkeley housed its Public Library Building (at Kittredge and Shattuck) hi a substantial Carnegie- sponsored building designed by University Architect John Galen Howard. The newly minted high school campus, adjacent to the proposed new City Hall, was a source of community pride.

As a result of these forces, the City Beautiful Movement was introduced to Berkeley's civic-minded leaders as a fitting way to design Berkeley's most important and public building, the new Town Hall. Built hi 1909, the new Hall marks the formal beginning of Berkeley's progressive political history. It was the first civic building constructed in the district's Period of Significance. In 1909, citizens amended their City Charter to make Berkeley a city, not a town, and the "Town Hall" became "City Hall."

Located in traditional proximity to City Hall, Berkeley's first federal government office, the Post Office, was authorized hi 1910 but not completed until 1915. Across from the Post Office, built with funds raised by civic leaders in 1910, the YMCA was located catty corner from the high school and was one of the community's most beneficial social organizations. Lodges and fraternal orders such as the YMCA and the Elks Lodge were important hi America hi the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. They were centers of community life where 'prestigious' citizens socialized. Not surprisingly, most early civic leaders were associated with one organization or another. In the early 1900s, as there were not a lot of public facilities available, these buildings provided an important service for the community. In Berkeley, a number of large buildings were erected to house such groups, the largest being the Elks Lodge next to the Post Office. Because many of the groups were socially active, they were usually involved with controversial issues and hi Berkeley, they were an integral part of the city's early political history. The YMCA was especially significant because it was not exclusive and open to the general public, including women.

About the time the YMCA was being completed, the Police Department, firmly established hi the basement of new City Hall, was competently overseeing the safety of its community. Berkeley became the first American city to put all of its officers on bicycles. Later, in 1912, the force became the first completely

NPS Rxm 10-900-a fl-86)



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motorized department in the country with motorcycles. In 1914, the entire force was equipped with cars. In 1915, Dr. Albert Schneider of the Berkeley Police Force created the nation's first scientific crime detection laboratory. That same year, the first Junior Traffic Police Force hi the country was organized by Berkeley's police force hi cooperation with its public schools in order to prevent crime among juveniles.

Contemporaneously, efforts to improve cities and apply the lessons of the new planning profession were changing communities throughout the nation. The "White City" of the Chicago's Columbian Exposition of 1892 and the City Beautiful Movement had awakened civic-minded leaders to the concept that America's increasingly crowded, dirty, and disorganized urban centers could be transformed into pleasant, attractive, healthful communities. Public-spirited citizens brought Chicago's Daniel Burnham to San Francisco just before the 1906 earthquake to plan its civic areas. His designs widely influenced government planning throughout the region. In the midst of the many important public buildings being constructed hi Berkeley, city officials in 1911 and 1915 commissioned master plans for the City's growing civic center. Influenced by the City Beautiful Movement, the plans were intended to transform the messy area into a healthy, rationally-organized park district which would improve urban life, uplift the spirit and inspire civic pride and good citizenship. The plans denote a central park surrounded by harmoniously designed civic buildings. At about this tune, to bolster public interest, the city initiated an annual fair in the civic center district and promised to include a children's playground hi developing the park.

The same public spirit, hi 1911, elected Berkeley Mayor J. Stitt Wilson who became the first Socialist Mayor elected in the United States. For purposes of civic betterment hi 1923, after many years of debate, Berkeley also became one of the country's first cities to adopt a "City Manager" type of government. This meant closer collaboration between legislative and administrative branches of city government, budget control, greater efficiency, and integration of municipal departments. It was intended to reduce corruption and waste in the provision of municipal services. Similarly, Berkeley's Police Force was gaining recognition at the time under its progressive Chief August Vollmer and was beginning experiments in "scientific policing." In 1923, lie detectors were invented at the University of California in Berkeley and the first practical model was used by the City's police force. In addition, as a result of extensive training programs, Berkeley's police department recruited the first college-trained woman police officer in the United States.

World War I interrupted further development of city government and the Civic Center. Not surprisingly, the first civic building to be constructed hi Berkeley after the War was the Veterans' Memorial hi 1928, an important part of the civic center's development. An ambitious statewide building program was passed by the state legislation in the 1920s reflecting the political and social influence of World War I veterans. It enabled counties to include in their tax rate a certain portion for construction of memorial buildings dedicated to war veterans. As a result, Alameda County contains an impressive collection of veterans' memorial buildings, including .Berkeley's, still in use today.

The Depression stifled Berkeley's grand plans for a government center and funding for "the civic park"

NPS Foon 10-900-* (B-86J

OMB Approval No. 1O24-OO1B


BERKELEY CIVIC CENTER DISTRICT ALAMEDA COUNTY, CALIFORNIA


Section number Page

8, Statement of Significance Narrative Statement of Significance (contin.)

was slow in materializing. It was not until federal relief programs of the late 1930s that a second phase of civic improvements began. Because the university was a land grant college and the center of agricultural education and research in the state, Berkeley was, by 1917, one of twelve regional locations in the United States for the Federal Land Bank. After the Depression, the Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1933, required the Farm Administration, through the Federal Land Bank, to refinance farm mortgages in order to help farmers reestablish themselves. As part of President Roosevelt's "New Deal" policies, universities were to educate farmers to farm more efficiently in order to better feed the millions of hungry people. Because the School of Agriculture and Extension Services at the University of California in Berkeley were the center of agricultural education in the state, the Federal Land Bank, in 1937, needed to build new regional headquarters in Berkeley to administer the federal relief program and implement its policies. Strategically, the city sold the land it had acquired for the eastern portion of civic park to the Bank for its headquarters and then used income from the sale to purchase private parcels on the rest of the block for the rest of the park.

The further development of the civic center is also related to the Federal Land Bank. From the 1920s through the 1950s, the State Farm Insurance Company sold insurance to county Farm Bureaus throughout the country. Based in Illinois, the company typically positioned itself in medium-sized university towns and located its offices in civic or city centers, very often close to Federal Land Banks. In the 1940s, the company expanded its insurance to include auto and life. As a result, in 1946, it built its new offices across the street from the Federal Land Bank, its largest client, while other similar business located in Berkeley's downtown business district on Shattuck Avenue.

In order to continue serving citizens with a top-notch police force, in 1 939, the city built new headquarters for its most popular branch of city services. The force moved out of the basement of City Hall and into the new Hall of Justice, located directly behind City Hall, in close proximity to other municipal services. The Hall of Justice contained a dual radio/telephone switchboard installed by telephone engineers and police technicians and the department became the first in the country to use radios in its police cars.

Ironically, by this time, all of Berkeley's civic buildings were in place surrounding the central park, but the City had yet to acquire the remaining private parcels for the civic district's central park.

In 1939, the Golden Gate International Exposition opened on Treasure Island in San Francisco Bay. Glowing in the center of the Bay and clearly visible from Berkeley, it provided a fantasy city of designs and attractions. Berkeley residents flocked to the Exposition which held 'Berkeley' and 'University of California' Days. Perhaps it was the threat of impending World War, or perhaps it was the appeal of preserving memories of Treasure Island in the form of a civic fountain centerpiece, whatever the cause, Berkeley citizens finally approved a bond measure in 1940 — after rejecting a few other measures beginning with one in 1914 - that enabled the City to purchase the remaining land for its civic center park. The park was one of the last park projects undertaken by the Works Progress Administration which assisted the City with construction.

Once approved, the development of Civic Center's park moved rapidly forward. Civic leaders, local

NPS Fonn 1<WOO-» OMB Appro** No. T02*-OOT8 (8-86)



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organizations, and the WPA all contributed to the Park's realization by donating funds, flagpoles, benches, memorial trees, and the promised children's playground equipment. In the midst of World War II, in 1942, the park was completed, over 30 years after its original conception by City Beautiful planners. It culminated three decades of public effort to create a formal open space in Berkeley's civic core. It was one of the community's most important events. The new park was dedicated on Memorial Day, 1942, with patriotic pageantry appropriate to a nation at war. Crowds ringed the central lawn. Soldiers in World War I uniforms proceeded a young woman ia flowing white dress and crown, (presumably Lady Victory), borne by Boy Scouts, through the park. An orchestra performed on a temporary stage and speeches were made. Photographs of the event reveal Berkeley's definite small-town character, with young children scurrying around on the lawn to get the best view of the parade, people of all ages, and knots of spectators gossiping on the margins of the crowd. In the 56 years since the Park was dedicated, a broad array of political, cultural, and other events have taken place in the park enriching the physical space with social and historical associations.

At about the same time that the Federal Land Bank was being constructed, Berkeley's school system was also being affected by President Roosevelt's New Deal policies. The school administration, in 1937, planned an expansion of the high school facing the central park. The school was a great source of civic pride and the expansion was to take up the whole block directly south of the park. The expansion not only included the typical science and math laboratories, but the planners also included a performing arts facility because such arts were an integral part of education. Furthermore, the sophisticated Berkeley community ~ where amateur drama had been popular since the turn of the century -- lacked a good facility for performing arts. The idea to merge the community's need for a theater with the philosophy of broad education seemed to suit the nature of Berkeley's growing civic center. When proposed in the late 1930s, the theater building was conceived with the spirit that a school should be a community center, not a blackboard jungle. It was part of the 1930s Model City Program which envisaged, among other things, an exemplary school system and a Civic Center complex for Berkeley.

Because the building trades were badly affected during the Depression, Roosevelt created the Works Progress Administration, commonly known as the WPA. Because of a WPA grant hi 1939, construction for the theater began in 1940 and was rushed to avoid conflict with the national defense program of World War II. But with the attack on Pearl Harbor, construction stopped and was not resumed until 1949. For an entire decade, the auditorium sat an unfinished skeleton on the local skyline and was known familiarly as the Bird Cage. The Community Theater was finally completed in 1950, the last civic building constructed during the Civic Center District's Period of Significance (1908-1950).

In October, 1949, the local school board decreed the name of the facility would be the Berkeley High School Community Theater. Local veteran groups favored a name which would commemorate the 137 student who died in World War II. After a prolonged debate which considered such suggestions as a beacon light atop the auditorium and even an eternal light within, the board decided instead to incorporate a Memorial Court into

NPS Fonn tO-900-« OM8 ApprmtlHo. 1024-O018 (8-86)



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the project. It should be noted that in January, 1965, the adjacent Little Theater became officially the Florence T. Schwimley Little Theater in honor of a long-time drama teacher at the High School.

The Berkeley High School Community Theater was formally dedicated on June 5,1950. With a program devoted to the history of Berkeley, then Governor Earl Warren spoke at the opening ceremonies. On June 10,1950, the local Lions Club sponsored a presentation of Art Linkletter's "People Are Funny" radio show in the theater as a charity. For years, the Berkeley Community Theater was One of the best-equipped theaters in

*the Bay Area and was rivaled only by the War Memorial Opera House in San Francisco. In the early 1950s, it was lauded as Berkeley's "Temple of Beauty" of as the largest indoor auditorium on the Pacific Coast and one of the largest in the country. In an article published in the 1951-52 (23rd Edition) of the American School and University, Superintendent Nelson reported that George Ford, manager of the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo, called this one of me finest theaters in the world. Since then, it has been eclipsed by such facilities as UC- Berkeley's Zellerbach Hall and the Center for the Performing Arts in San Jose —just as it superseded the once popular and heavily used Greek Theater on the UC-Berkeley campus.

As the anchor for the community's performing arts, the Berkeley High School Community Theater has been a mainstay for the cultural life in Berkeley and the East Bay. It was ~ and is ~ supported by Berkeley's adjacent downtown district which contained a variety of entertainment venues, restaurants, and the like. The Park, too, was the site of many community festivities, city-wide gatherings, and cultural events of importance. It was — and is — used for a wide range of civic purposes including celebrations, rallies, fairs, holiday celebrations, and concerts. In combination with the Berkeley Community Theater, the park has been the stage for a broad array of performing events all of which express the diverse lifestyles of Berkeley citizens.

The Civic Center District has continued to serve Berkeley's government and community until the present day. Between 1955-63, the City purchased the northern half of the City Hall block and in 1958, the Alameda County Courthouse was built on this block. Later, Berkeley's Fire Department built its headquarters here and other city services have located in smaller buildings on this block. The City Council outgrew its quarters and moved the City Hall into the Federal Farm Credit Buildings in the 1970s and the School Administration moved into the Old City Hall. Lastly, in the 1980s, a "Peace Wall" was constructed to celebrate peace with the Soviet Union and Hiroshima. The Wall was among the first of its type and has led to similar memorials throughout the world.

By its very nature, Berkeley's Civic Center District has been intimately intertwined with the political/social history and welfare of the city. Every civic and social function within the district promoted the welfare of citizens. The district is significant for efforts during the first four decades of the twentieth century to establish good public parks and buildings — not only as a way to beautify communities, but as a means of fostering public-minded behavior and good citizenship. Currently, many civic projects, large and small, are being considered for the district. A county courthouse, a public safety building, a new high school building, and a replacement fountain have all been proposed for Berkeley's historic Civic Center District.

CMS Appfovnl No. *024-4XJTfl

United States Department of the interior BERKELEY CIVIC CENTER DISTRICT NationalPark Service ALAMEDA COUNTY, CALIFORNIA

National Register ©f Historic Places

Section number —L^L^ Page

._Narrative_..$tatcmenLQf Significance fcmti&j

II /WEAS OF SIGNIFICANCE

B v Ar^hitegUire/CQt^iurut>vPknnmg and Development

Berkeley, California*$ Civic Center Historic District is significant locally for its ensemble of civic, buildings which are characteristic of architecture and city planning during the period of significance 1909-1950. Hie district embodies tl\e distinctive characteristics common to many earlyJIOtHftcentury civic centeis inspired by the City Beautiful movement and Beaux Arts classicism popularized by the 1893 Chicago World's Fair. Such civic centers often liave a central park fl^laza area surrounded by a group of compatible or harmonious buildings whose • fimct||^s®re primarily civic. Individual buildings are symmetrically designed and usually form, an axgjfeDr axes with one another. A Beaux Arts plan for Berkeley's civic center was published in. I9I4|p«Sniiing a central'park with a fountain in the center and surrounded by a harmonious group of buildings. 'These characteristics are present in. today's Chic Center District

Old City Hall (1909) aoc! the Post Office (1914) were built before the First World War and are representative of Beaux Arts classic revival styles with richly decorated, but harmonious, facades. Three major *-contributing buildings and the park were built between 1928-1950, and are representative-of the artistic values and economic restraints of Classic Moderae. Ail .contributing buildings-have the symmetrical facade arrangement typical of classicism., and four-of these buildings create a cross axial composition running east-west (from Old City Kali to the Farm Credit Building) and north-south (from the Veterans' Memorial Building tc the Community Theater) which aieets in the center of Civic Center Fountain. The area conveys its significance through the •spatial relationships between these major features that were created by conscious community 'planning beginning in 1909 and culminating in. 1950. Despite the length of time ii took the city to assemble the property and construct the buildings, the resulting district is a clear expression of aesthetic ideals and preferences at the tarn of the century. The major contributing site (the park) and fountain, and individual contributing buildings reflect historic and current functions which remain essentially the same and have retained a high degree of integrity. All are located on their original sites; few, if any, physical alterations or changes have been made to the individual buildings or the park; the original harmonious colors of the, buildings have been retained; most of the interiors are intact. The relationship between contributing buildings, the downtown and the park has not been changed since the area achieved significance.

When Old City Hall was completed in 1909, its design, scale, and elegant silhouette reflected Berkeley's growth from a town to a city. Its design was a conscious community planning decision because it proclaimed the city's new image as the "Athens of the West" m keeping with the beautiful neo-classic buildings being built on the University campus under

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8. Statement of Significance____________Narrative Statement of Significance (contin.)

University architect, John Gaien Howard. Despite the ambitious plans published in 1914 for a grand colonnaded, tile-roofed ensemble of buildings, the citizens of Berkeley repeatedly rejected bond issues for its construction. While the larger and more fully realized Beaux- Arts University of California Campus was being built between 1902 and the late 1920s, Berkeley's Civic Center remained uncompleted

1. Old City Hall, 1909, was the first building to be constructed in what would become Berkeley's more fully developed civic center. It set the stage and became the keystone for the future civic center. It embodies the distinctive characteristics of Beaux Arts Classicism, a significant style of architecture for primarily institutional and civic buildings during the late 19th and early 20tbcenturies. It was designed by John Bakewell and Arthur Brown, Jr. who studied at the Ecote des Beaux Arts in Paris, after graduating from the University of California in the 1890s. They established a partnership in 1906 and the Berkeley City Hall was one of their earliest commissions. Other works by the firm include the more elaborate San Francisco City Hall (1912-1916), and the San Francisco Opera House (1932). Their design was selected as the winner of a 1907 competition to replace the original Berkeley Town Hall (Samuel and J. C. Newsom, 1884) which had burned in 1904. As the keystone to the future Civic Center and in anticipation of a larger complex, the "new" City Hall was constructed a few feet to the north of the previous building so that it was on axis with the block to the east Thirty-three years later Civic Gaiter Park was built on this block

Old City Hall is an expression of aesthetic ideals and preferences during the period of significance and is a characteristic example of a particular time. The building illustrates the physical features that occur in Beaux Arts Classicism by the form and proportion of the structure, its plan, style and materials. The building is reinforced concrete over a steel frame, a method of construction typical of large buildings during this period. Its decoration is derived from Greek and Roman sources in a symmetrical arrangement

The building retains a high degree of integrity. There have been few alterations to the building since it was completed in 1909. The interior exhibits decorative techniques used at the time for the painted columns at the base of the main stairway and in the trompe 1'oeil painting of the walls and ceiling of the stairwell. These are well preserved examples of decoration and representative example of a period.

The only change in the main facade has been the replacement of the operable sections of the original wood sash windows with aluminum, but the pattern of the window divisions has been retained. The major alteration occurred in 1950, when the rear of the building was extended about 10 feet on each side of the stair-bay to create additional office space, but this can not be seen from any public right-of-way. The windows on either side of the stair bay were enclosed as part of this work, so that the main staircase is now much darker than it was originally.

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2. Martin Luther King, Jr., Civic Center Park and Fountain, 1938-1942, are the physical centerpieces of Berkeley Civic Center District Although the second-to-last part of the Civic Center complex to be completed, the park was anticipated in 1908 when City Hall was designed. Its acquisition and construction culminated more than three decades of planning and attempts to achieve a unified civic center of public buildings arranged harmoniously around a central park/plaza. The park retains a high degree of integrity. Most of its original features, and almost all of the park hardscape and most of its permanent landscape plantings have survived intact.

Tie park is significant because it embodies the distinctive characteristics of a civic center park conceived in the early 20th century as an expression of the City Beautiful movement which emphasized the creation of parks and other public amenities as a way to beautify communities and inspiie public-minded behavior. These characteristics include: a symmetrical plan; an open lawn space for public gatherings and relaxation; two raised performance spaces, one above the lawn and€nother above the fountain plaza; a water element in the form of a fountain; the community Holiday Tree; and paved pathways, benches and trees. It also displays distinctive stylistic characteristics in the form of physical features such as the fountain, steps and walls that use Streamline, Art Deco or Moderne design themes from the 1930s when the park was constructed. The park is associated with regionally and nationally significant designers including Henry Gutterson, Bernard Maybeck, and Julia Morgan (all studied at the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris) and university Professor and landscape architect John Gregg.

The park is associated stylistically with the 1939 Golden Gate International Exposition (on Treasure Island in San Francisco Bay), a major cultural and design milestone in regional history. The inspiration for a large, lighted fountain and the actual plumbing and pumps of the fountain came from the Exposition, which closed in 1940 while the park was being planned. It is likely that the direct model for the fountain was the Exposition's monumental "Fountain of Western Waters" in the "Court of Pacifica" which had a closely similar arrangement of circular basins, water jets, and colored lights. All of the fountain structure remaining is original, as is the flagstone terrace surrounding the fountain and an underground concrete vault where the pumps were located. The fountain is Moderne in character, with symmetrical circular and curved elements and constructed of unadorned concrete with the original board marks still showing.

3. The Veterans Memorial Building, 1928, is an important part of the development of the Civic Center and expresses the community's desire to create a cohesive unity. The building is a characteristic example of the Classic Moderne Style: while it lacks the highly decorative plastic qualities of Beaux Arts classicism, it retains the symmetry and classic references of that style in a simpler and less three-dimensional manner. Its classic colonnaded recessed entry refers to both Old City Hall and the Post Office, and to three High School buildings (now gone) which were in the classic revival style and standing at the time this building was built The building exemplifies a simplified handling of classicism that was popular for civic buildings between 1920-1950. This

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form of classicism has not been highly regarded and is sometimes referred to as "stripped" classicism. It was not a style associated with avante garde design at the time, but the style was appropriate for the area and supported the Beaux Arts concept of a harmonious grouping of buildings and its function as a Veterans Memorial Building. The building is the work of a regionally noted architect who designed other Veterans buildings in Alameda County, and with his daughter, who was also an architect

4. The Federal Land Bank Building is significant for its contribution as a major element in the district's axial plan: it is the east element on the east/west axis through the park to Old City Hall and shows the conscious planning decisions made by the community to organize the civic center space. Used as Berkeley's City Hall since 1977, the building exemplifies its heritage as a Federally sponsored Depression era building project through its restrained classic ornamentation and symmetrical three-part classical composition. Its most notable exterior feature is the exuberant zigzag design of the twin elevator towers, which are both practical and decorative, flanking the west entrance to the building and emphasizing the axial composition with Old City HalL The interior is also intact and distinctive for its Art Deco detailing, especially in the lobby. It was designed by locally prominent architect James W. Plachek in 1938. The building retains a high degree of integrity.

5. The Berkeley High School theater complex building: Florence Schwimley Little Theater, 1937, and Berkeley High School Community Theater, 1937-50, is a significant component of the Civic Center District The center of the 1/2 block long 1 to 21/2 story building is the four story Community Theater. In the center of its north facing exterior wall, overlooking Civic Center Park, is an exuberant three story bas relief sculpture which rises above the stage door. The center of this is the south element of the north/south axis of the Civic Center District The building was designed by Bay Area architects Henry H. Gutterson and William Corlett Sr. Architect Henry Gutterson was a 1907 graduate of the University of California at Be±eley and had studied at the Ecole Des Beaux Arts in Paris. Gutterson was appointed chair of the Civic Center Park project in 1937. He and Corlett created the north/south axis by designing the center of the theater building on axis with the Veterans Building with the fountain in the center. The building is also a characteristic example of the Art Deco/Moderne style popular after the 1925 Paris fair entitled "Arts Decoratifs et Industriels." The bas relief sculptures by Robert Howard are examples of a Depression era federally funded public work project This building, along with the Shop and Science Buildings on the Berkeley High School Campus, are significant as the only planned ensemble of Art Deco styled buildings in the city. The theater building complex, both on the exterior and interior, has had little modification or alteration and retain a high degree of integrity.

6. The Young Men's Christian Association Building, 1910, embodies the distinctive characteristics of the early 20th century revival style in the form of the Georgian Colonial type. It

NPS Form 10-900-a OMB Approval No. 1024-O018 (8-86)

United States Department of the Interior BERKELEY CIVIC CENTER DISTRICT National Park Service ' ALAMEDA COUNTY, CALIFORNIA


Section number £X — Page

8. Statement of Significance_____________Narrative Statement of Significance (contin.^

is the work of noted local architect Benjamin McDougall. It is an expression of the aesthetic ideals of the period as illustrated by its materials and form of decoration. This building is related to the Civic Center by its semi-public function as a social, cultural and recreational center.

7. The United State Post Office, constructed hi 1914, embodies the distinctive characteristics of the Beaux Arts Classic Renaissance Revival style. The bunding is an expression of the aesthetic ideals of the government to "educate and develop the public taste and eventually elevate it to a higher plane" and was designed by the Treasury Department Supervising Architect's Office headed by Oscar Wenderoth. The building conveys its significance through its colonnaded recessed entry, ornamentation and materials. The Post Office is related to the Civic Center by its location, function, date and style. The building retains a high degree of integrity of materials and workmanship; and has not been significantly altered since a 130 foot addition was constructed in 1931/2 at the rear of the original 35 foot deep building, along Milvia Street, which has the same wall, cornice and window motif as the facade.

8. The State Farm Insurance Companies Building, 1947/8, relates to the Civic Center through its architectural design. Built by a private company, but located in the Civic Center District, the building was designed by James Plachek who built the Federal Land Bank Building a decade earlier. Designed to appear as part of the Civic Center, the building, through its method of construction, style of architecture, form, proportion, materials, fenestration, color and details, clearly relates to the Civic Center. The building retains its integrity of materials, workmanship, association, location, and design and has not been altered on the exterior.

9. City Hall Annex, 1925, is related to the Civic Center by its function, location, date and style. It is an expression of an aesthetic ideal and a preference to build a modest, but pleasant addition for city functions. It was also designed by local architect James Plachek. It is residential in scale, showing a preference to be compatible with the residential neighborhood that it faces. The building retains its integrity of materials, workmanship, feeling, association, location, and design. It has not been altered or changed.

10. The Hall of Justice was constructed in 1938 and is characteristic of a utilitarian building (a police department and jail) constructed of reinforced concrete, with sparse decorative detailing found only on its entrance bay. Designed by James Plachek, it is stylistically representative of the period in which it was built and is in a less visually prominent location behind Old City Hall. It is related to the civic center by its function, location and date.

NPS Form 10-90O* OM8 Appro** Ha. »<S*-00»8 (W6»

United States Department of the Interior BERKELEY CIVIC CENTER DISTRICT National Park Service ALAMEDA, CALIFORNIA


q Section number ——!— Page _

9. Maior Bibliographical References

.Berkeley Historical Society, Exactly Opposite the Golden Gate. Berkeley,The Berkeley Historical Society, 1983

Bender, Richard, Director, Campus Historic Resources Inventory. Berkeley, University of California Planning Office, 1978

Bemhapdi. Robert The Buildings of Berkeley. Berkeley, Berkeley Architectural Heritage Association, 1985

Bonn, David, East of these Golden Shores. Oakland, Scrimshaw Press, Oakland Junior League, 1971

Sara Holmes Boutelle, Julia Morgan: Architect New York, Abbeville Press, 1988

Bruce, Anthony, John Galen Howard, Architect, Berkeley Architectural Heritage Association House Tour Pamphlet, 1978

Cardwell, Kenneth H., Bernard Mavbeck Salt Lake City, Peregrine Smith Books, 1983

Cerny, Susan DinkelspieL Berkeley Landmarks. Berkeley Architectural HeritageAssociation, Berkeley 1994

•Cerny, Susan D. Stern, Henry Higby Gutterson, House Tour Brochure, Berkeley

Cerny, Susan D. Stem, Northside: A survey of a North Berkeley Neighborhood before and After the 1923 Berkeley Fire, Berkeley Architectural Heritage Association, 1990

Ferrier, William, The History of Berkeley. Berkeley, 1933

Freudenheim, Leslie, Sussman, Elizabeth.Building with Nature. Roots of the San Francisco Bay Region Tradition. Santa, Barbara and Salt Lake City, Peregrine Smith, Incl974

Hegemann, Wemer, Report on a Citv Plan for the MvTnicJpfllities of Oakland and Berkeley. 1915

Jones, William Carey, Illustrated History of the University of California , 1895, Berkeley, University of California

Civic Center National Register Landmark Application, Berkeley. California March 2, 1998 page 1

NFS Form 10-900-4 OM8 «8-86|



Section number —It— Page.


Keeler, Charles, The Simple Home, 1904, Berkeley, The Hillside Club, republished, 1979, with introduction by Shipounoff, Dimitri, Santa Barbara and Salt Lake City, Peregrine Smith, Inc.

_______.Domestic Architecture of the San Francisco Bav Region. San Francisco 3 F Museum of Art, 1949, S F Museum of Art

Lebovich, William L. America's City Halls.The Preservation Press, Washington, 1984

Longstreath, Richard, On The Edge of the World. Four Architects in San Francisco at the Turn of the Century. Massachusetts, MTT Press, New York, The Architectural History Foundation, 1983

McCoy, Ester. Five California Architects. New York, Reinhold Publishing Corp, 1960

Partridge, Loren W., John Galen Howard and The Berkeley Campus. Berkeley, The Berkeley Architectural Heritage Association, 1978

Pettitt, George, History of Berkeley. Berkeley, Alameda County Historical Society, 1977

Pettitt, George, BERKELEY: The Town and the Gown of It, Howell North Books,Berkeley, 1973 iWoodbridge, Sally, Editor, Bay Area Houses. New York, Oxford University Press, 1976

Woodbridge, John & Sally, Thiel, Phillip, Buildings of the Bav Area. New York, Grove Street Press,1960

UNPUBLISHED RESOUCES

Individual Landmark Applications

Civic Center Park, recorders: Steve Finacom, Linda Perry, Gale Keleman, 1997Berkeley High School, recorder Susan Cerny, 1992YMCA, recorder. Charles Bucher, Jr. 1989Veterans Memorial Building, recorder, Betty Marvin, 1985City Hall Annex, recorder. JoAnn Price, 1983United States Post Office, recorder: Betty Marvin, 1980City Hall, recorder. Trish Hawthorne, 1980Federal Land Bank, recorder Richard Ingersoll, 1977

Civic Center National Register Landmark Application, Berkeley, California March 2,1998 page 2

NPS FOIW 10-900-a OM8 Appravtf Mb. JOJ4-OOT« (S-M)



Section number —IJ— Page ^


Landmark applications can be obtained from the Secretary to the Landmarks Preservation Commission, Zoning Department, City of Berkeley

The archives of the Berkeley Architectural Heritage Association; The Berkeley Historical Society; Berkeley Public Library: Swingle Collection; The Bancroft Library, University of CaUfornia; and the Documents Collection of the Environmental Design Library, University of California, Berkeley.

• Oral Histories Bancroft Library, UC Berkeley: Jacques Schnier

Public Records: Berkeley School Board Minutes 1938-40

___;___ John Galen Howard Papers, Bancroft Library, University of California

Civic Center National Register Landmark Application. Berkeley, California March 2, 1998 page 3

NPS Form 10-900-a (8-B6) OMB Approval No 1024-O018




Section number Page*

Mailing Address Property Location

Mayor Shirley Dean Members of the City Council James Keene, City Manager City of Berkeley 2180 Mflvia Street Berkeley, California 94704

(1) 2134 Martin Luther King Jr. Way Berkeley, California

(2)

(3)

(4)

(5)

(6)

1835 Allston Way (Annex) Berkeley, California

Civic Center Park Berkeley, California

2180 Milvia Street (City Hall) Berkeley, California

1931 Center Street (Veterans Bldg.) Berkeley, California

(7)

<*)

(9)

(left

2111 McKinley Street Berkeley, California

2121 McKinley Street (Fire Department) Berkeley, California

2131 McKinley Street (Police Department) Berkeley, California

CA

NPS Form 10-900-a (8-86)

OMB Approval No. 1O24-0018




Section number Page

Mailing Address Property Location

Larry Bush, President and CEO Board of Directors Berkeley YMCA 2001 Allston Way Berkeley, California 94704__

(1) 2001 Allston Way Berkeley, California

Jack McLaughlin, Superintendent Berkeley Unified School District 2134 Maftin Luther King Jr. Way Berkeley, California 94704

(1) Berkeley Community Theater 1930 Allston Way Berkeley, California

(2) Florence Schwimley Little Theater1920 Allston Way

____Berkeley, California_______

United States Postal Service c/o George Banks, Postmaster 2000 Allston Way Berkeley, California 94704

(1) 2000 Allston Way Berkeley, California

G. Bakar Partnership201 Filbert Street, #700San Francisco, California 94133

(1) 1947 Center Street Berkeley, California

NPS Fomi 10-900-a OMB Approval No. 1024-O018 (8-86)

United States Department of the InteriorNational Park Service BERKELEY CIVIC CENTER DISTRICT

ALAMEDA, CALIFORNIANational Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet

Section number — — Page — 1

Verbal Boundary Description

The boundary of the nominated property includes the entire block bounded by McKinley and Addison Streets and Allston and Martin Luther King Jr. Way. It also includes the adjoining block bounded by Center Street, Milvia Street, Allston Way and Martin Luther King Jr. Way. North across Center Street is included the Veteran's Building at 1931 Center St. and the State Farm Insurance Building at 1947 Center Street, both to the rear property line. To the East, at the NE comer of Milvia St. and Allston Way is included the Berkeley YMCA at 2001 Allston Way and at the SE corner is the Berkeley Post Office at 2000 Allston Way. The property at the SW corner of the intersection of Milvia and Allston and the Berkeley Community Theater/Florence Schwimley Little Theater at 1930/1920 Allston Way are included. The final piece of the boundary of the nominated property contains the structure at the SW corner of Martin Luther King Jr. Way and Allston Way, at 2200 Martin Luther King Jr. Way

Boundary Justification

The proposed district boundaries were determined by the civic function of the individual properties surrounding Civic Center Park.

SKETCH MAF

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BERKELEY CIVIC CENTER HISTORIC DISTRICT

Berkeley Civic Center District, Bekeley, Alameda County, California

BE:RK:sL:5Y civic C:^NT:SRHISTORIC DISTRICT

1 able ©i JP JDLofosPHOTO

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BUILDING NAME/ADDRESS VIEW DESCRIPTION/DIRECTION

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Civic Center Park

Old City Hall, 2134 Martin Luther King Jr. Way



Civic Center Park

Civic Center Park

Central Fountain, Civic Center Park

Central Fountain, Civic Center Park

Civic Center Bldg. (Federal Land Bank), 21 80 Milvia Street




Young Mens Christian Association (YMCA), 2001 Allston Way

Young Mens Christian Association (YMCA), 2001 Allston Way

Milvia Streetscape

Aerial view from Civic Center Bldg. (Federal Land Bank) looking west over park towards Old City Hall

Front elevation looking west

Front elevation looking west

Side elevation looking north

Aerial view looking east over park w/Veterans Bldg., Civic Center Bldg., and Community Theater

Aerial view looking east over park w/Civic Center Bldg. and Fountain

Looking east to Civic Center Bldg. w/fountain and Christmas Tree

Looking east to Civic Center Bldg. w/fountain and Christmas Tree

West elevation overlooking Park

South elevation, looking northeast

Front/east elevation, looking southwest

Front and south elevation, looking norhtwest with YMCA in foreground

West elevation, looking east

Front elevation, looking north

Looking north on Milvia Street with Civic Center Bldg. on left and YMCA on right

Berkeley Civic Center District, Berkeley, Alameda County, California

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United States Post Office, 2000 Allston Way

United States Post Office, 2000 Allston Way

Empty lot w/temporary school buildings on corner of Allston Way

Berkeley Community Theater, 1930 Allston Way

Beikeley Community Theater, 1930 Allston Way

Berkeley Community Theater, 1930 Allston Way

_*Florence Schwimley Little Theater, 1920 Allston Way

Florence Schwimley Little Theater, 1920 Allston Way, and Berkeley High School Science Building

The Science Building of Berkeley High School at the&orner of Allston and Martin Luther King Jr.

Thi Science Building of Berkeley High School at the^corner of Allston and Martin Luther King Jr.

Civic Center Park

Civic Center Park

Civic Center Park

Civic Center Park

Civic Center Park

Front elevation, looking south

Side/west elevation, looking east

Looking south to corner of Berkeley High School

North elevation, looking southwest

North elevation w/ sculptures overlooking Civic Center Park



North elevations of the Little Theater and Berkeley High School [the High School is not hi the proposed civic center district] fronting Civic Center Park

Looking southeast at the corner of Berkeley High School Science Bldg. [the High School is not in the proposed civic center district]

Sculpture on the corner of Berkeley High School Science Bldg. which relates to sculpture at the Community Theaters [the High School is not in the proposed civic center district]

Looking southwest from corner of Civic Center Park towards Credit Union

Civic Center Park sidewalk, looking west through mature foliage, Theater is at left, fountain wall is to right

Aerial view from Old City Hall, looking southeast towards Community Theater with corner of Park in foreground

Aerial view from Old City Hall, looking northeast towards Veterans Bldg. with corner of Park in foreground

Looking northwest across Park towards noncontributory buildings [PG & E and Apt. Bldgs.] at corner of Center and Martin Luther King Jr. , portion of Veterans Bldg. is on right

TH gi-T--? Alameda County, California

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Veterans Memorial Building, 1 93 1 Center Street

Veterans Memorial Building, 1 93 1 Center Street

State Farm Office Building, 1947 Center Street

State Farm Office Building, 1947 Center Street

Center Streetscape

Corner of Milvia and Center Streets

Corner of Milvia and Center Streets

Center Streetscape

Martin Luther King Jr. Way Streetscape

Health Dept., Berkeley/Oakland Support Services (BOSS), 2100 Martin Luther King Jr. Way

Martin Luther King Jr. Way Streetscape

Alameda County Courthouse, 2120 Martin Luther King Jr. Way



Parking Lot for City services

j ' View from Old City Hall to Veterans Bldg., looking northeast.

Front/south elevation of bldg. from Park

Front/south elevation of bldg. from Park with adjacent Veterans Bldg., looking northeast

Front/south elevation of bldg. from Park, looking northeast

View looking east from Center Street towards downtown Berkeley with University of California Campanile in background

Looking northeast from Park to noncontributory office bldgs.

Looking east from Park to noncontributory office bldgs. across Milvia St., Civic Center Bldg. is on right

View looking east on Center Street towards downtown Berkeley from County Courthouse, Park is on right, PG&E Bldg. is on left

View looking southeast from corner of historic district, noncontributory historic bldg. [Landmark Framat Lodge] is on left

BOSS Bldg. at corner of Addison and Martin Luther King Jr.

View looking south down Martin Luther King Jr. Way, Old City Hall on right, Park on left, High School in background

Front/east elevation, looking southwest with Old City Hall behind

Front/east elevation, looking northwest

Side/north elevation, looking south across parking lot with Old City Hall behind and Fire Dept. And Emergency Housing to right

View looking north across parking lot showing residential neighborhood surrounding this portion of civic center district

Berkeley Civic Center District. Berkeley, Alameda County, California

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Emergency Public Housing, 2111 McKinley Avenue

Fire Dept., 2121 McKinley Street, and Police Dept., 2131 McKinley Street

Fire Dept., 2121 McKinley Street,

Polic&Dept, 2131 McKinley Street

Police Dept., 2131 McKinley Street

City Hall Annex, 1835 Allston Way

City Hall Annex, 1835 Allston Way

Municipal Employees Federal Credit Union, 2200 MartM Luther King Jr. Way

Front/west elevation of historic, noncontributory building, looking east

View of McKinley Ave. streetscape looking southeast, with Fire Dept. Bidg. in foreground and Police Dept. Bldg. behind

View of entry to Fire Dept., looking northeast, a noncontributory bldg.

Front/west elevation of Police Dept. Bldg., looking east

Front view of Police Dept. with Old City Hall behind, looking east

View of McKinley Ave. streetscape, looking north, with west elevation of City Hall Annex in right foreground

Front/south elevation of City Hall Annex, looking north

Front/east and Side/north elevations of Credit Union Building, looking southv/est

*Notes:

1) * All buildings are located in the City of Berkeley, Alameda County, California.2) All photographs were taken by Jerri Holan, Director, BAHA,3) All photographs were taken February 27,1998.4) The original negatives are located at the Berkeley Architectural Heritage Association (BAHA) Office,

2318 Durant Avenue, Berkeley, CA 94704 (Phone: 510/841-2242).

APPENDIX B

DPR 523A FORM

State of California ─ The Resources Agency Primary # 01-005926 DEPARTMENT OF PARKS AND RECREATION HRI # PRIMARY RECORD Trinomial NRHP Status Code 3S Other Listings Review Code Reviewer Date

Page 1 of 18 *Resource Name or # (Assigned by recorder) Berkeley Main Post Office

P1. Other Identifier: US Post Office *P2. Location: Not for Publication Unrestricted *a. County Alameda and (P2b and P2c or P2d. Attach a Location Map as necessary.)

*b. USGS 7.5’ Quad Oakland West Date 1993 T____; R ___; ___ ¼ of Sec ___; _____ B.M.

c. Address 2000 Allston Way City Berkeley Zip 94704-9998

d. UTM: (give more than one for large and/or linear resources) Zone 10; 564199.4mE/ 4191292.8mN

e. Other Locational Data: (e.g., parcel #, directions to resource, elevation, etc., as appropriate)

Assessor Parcel Number: 57-2027-5 *P3a. Description: (Describe resource and its major elements. Include design, materials, condition, alterations, size, setting, and boundaries) The Berkeley Main Post Office is located in an urban setting, Berkeley’s main business district, and center of local government. The densely developed area is characterized by multiple story buildings that share side walls and are built out to the sidewalks. (See Continuation Sheet) *P3b. Resource Attributes: (List attributes and codes) HP14. Government Building

*P4. Resources Present: Building Structure

Object Site District Element of District Other

(Isolates, etc.)P5b. Description of Photo: (View, date,

accession #) Main façade, camera facing southwest, October 30, 2012

*P6. Date Constructed/Age and Sources:

Historic Prehistoric Both

1914/ National Register of Historic Places Inventory-Nomination Form *P7. Owner and Address:

United States Post Office Real Estate and Assets Facilities Headquarters 475 L’Enfant Plaza SW, Room 6670 Washington, DC 20260-1862 *P8. Recorded by: (Name, affiliation, address)

Kara Brunzell & Julia Mates Tetra Tech, Inc. 1999 Harrison Street, Suite 500 Oakland, CA 94612 *P9. Date Recorded: October 30, 2012

*P10. Survey Type: (Describe) Intensive

*P11. Report Citation: (Cite survey report and other sources, or enter “none.”) USPS. Postal Historic Structure Report, Berkeley Main Post Office, Prepared by Tetra Tech, Inc. 2012 *Attachments: NONE Location Map Sketch Map Continuation Sheet Building, Structure, and Object Record Archaeological Record District Record Linear Feature Record Milling Station Record Rock Art Record Artifact Record Photograph Record

Other (list) __________________

of 18 *Resource Name or # (Assigned by recorder) Berkeley Main Post Office *Recorded by J. Mates & K. Brunzell, Tetra Tech, Inc. *Date October 30, 2012 Continuation Update

State of California – The Resources Agency Primary # 01-005926 DEPARTMENT OF PARKS AND RECREATION HRI # ________________________________________ CONTINUATION SHEET Trinomial ____________________________________________

P3a. Description (continued from page 1) The post office, with facades on Allston Way and Kittredge and Milvia Streets, is one of several landmark buildings in the immediate area. Berkeley High School, the City of Berkeley office, and the YMCA buildings occupy the corners facing the post office. The post office site, which is 1.11 acres, is slightly more than half its block. The architectural style expressed by the Berkeley Main Post Office on Allston Way is Second Renaissance Revival. Designed by the Federal Treasury Department’s Office of the Supervising Architect, no single architect has been identified for the building. Though Oscar Wenderoth’s name is on the cornerstone, the building was authorized and probably partially designed under previous Supervising Architect James Knox Taylor and opened during the tenure of Wenderoth’s successor, James Wetmore.1 Constructed of reinforced concrete, the rectangular plan building was completed in 1914. The arcade of round arches across its main façade, wide overhanging red clay tile roof, and classical details are typical of the Second Renaissance Revival post offices that were built throughout the United States during the 1910s.2 Primary fenestration consists of double hung windows grouped in three vertical divisions and topped with arched transoms. The large windows provide daylight to the lobby, post office box, and workroom areas. The main façade of the Berkeley Main Post Office faces Allston Way and features a concentration of the building’s Second Renaissance Revival stylistic elements. The roof is hipped and covered in red clay tile. Its wide overhang features a double row of curved brackets framing wooden panels. A narrow frieze featuring decorative classical motifs crowns the second story just below the eaves. A row of 11 rectangular windows runs across the second story between the frieze, and there is a beltcourse adorned with classical motifs like those on the cornice frieze. The dominant architectural feature of this elevation is the arcade of round arches, which stretches the length of the ground floor in front of a loggia (Photograph 2 through 5). The arches are supported by plain Tuscan columns and outlined in terra cotta. Wide sections at the building’s corners are anchored by heavily rusticated cast stone simulating ashlar masonry, with the corner itself rounded and set back between rusticated sections.3


Note rounded arches, fenestration, columns, entrance doors

1 NRHP Nomination Form, United States Post Office, Berkeley Main Post Office. 2 NRHP Nomination Form, United States Post Office, Berkeley Main Post Office. 3 NRHP Nomination Form, United States Post Office, Berkeley Main Post Office.




Note beltcourse, eave overhang, and heraldic shields



Photograph 4: Loggia



Photograph 5: west corner of main façade

Note heavily rusticated cast stone simulating ashlar masonry The inner wall of the loggia echoes the arch pattern of the arcade, with wide arches at either end wall and a cross-vaulted ceiling. Loggia arches are separated by plain Tuscan pilasters. The fourth, sixth, and eighth arches feature paired glazed doors with brass fittings. The doors are separated and flanked by modified Corinthian pilasters (which are also repeated inside the lobby). The arches are glazed above the doors with operable center transoms. The other arches are fully glazed, with transoms that mirror those above the doors. Below each transom, a wide, double hung, wood sash window is grouped between two narrow ones. Heavy concrete windowsills are adorned with a wave motif (Photograph 6). A relief sculpture of postal workers on the east loggia end wall was created by San Francisco artist David Slivka in 1937 (Photograph 7). Granite steps lead from the sidewalk to the five arches at the center of the loggia, and its floor and baseboards are gray marble. The building stands on a partially raised basement.4




Photograph 6: Wave motif and rectangular panel

Photograph 7: Relief sculpture by David Slivka, 1937

The Second Renaissance Revival details of the main façade (except for the arcade and loggia) are echoed on the Milvia Street (west) elevation. The wide roof overhang with its double row of curved brackets framing wooden panels, as well as the frieze, beltcourse, arched windows, and rusticated corners, all mirror those of the main façade. A one-story, flat-roofed section of the building is connected to the rear of the Allston Way wing. Materials, window patterns, and decorative details match the lower portion of the building’s front section. The terra cotta beltcourse that runs around the building becomes a cornice frieze on the one-story rear section. Rectangular windows at the basement level of the entire west elevation are



covered with metal security bars. The northernmost 35 feet of the one story section is original, while the seamless addition on the Kittredge Street (south) end of the building was added between 1931 and 1932 (Photograph 8).5

Photograph 8: Addition, camera facing southeast

With the exception of a few details the east elevation, which faces the parking lot, is a mirror image of the west elevation. A small, rectangular, decorative “window” is set into the rusticated corner at the rear of this elevation’s two story section. The grade is higher on this side of the building, so it has no basement windows. The one-story addition is set back several feet on this side to create space for the loading dock. Though the concrete loading dock and its canopies are installed in front of this section of the building, it has the same arched windows and frieze details found on the other elevations (Photographs 9 and 10).

Photograph 9: East elevation




Photograph 10: East elevation, loading dock

The rear of the building, which faces Kittredge Street, is one story. The pattern of large arched windows and cornice frieze continues here. At the basement level, window-sized rectangular vents are covered with bars on the east side of the elevation. As the grade lowers toward the west, the windows become double metal entrance doors. The Berkeley Main Post Office reflects the 1901 decision by Supervising Architect James Knox Taylor to adopt a uniform “classic style of architecture” to replace the earlier diversity of styles.6 The mission of the Supervising Architect was to create conspicuously high quality and enduring federal buildings throughout the nation that would “educate and develop the public taste and eventually elevate it to a higher plane.”7 The interior of the post office embodies not only the Second Renaissance Revival style, but also the federal goals discussed above, as strongly as the building’s exterior. The lobby’s ceiling is coffered, and the pattern established by the arcade and loggia is mirrored yet again by arched service windows along its back wall. The tripartite divisions of the windows have been replicated, though their width has been altered slightly to accommodate standard-sized postal service windows to the left and right of a bulletin board centered in each arch.8 Service window arches are separated by pilasters topped with Corinthian capitals. An arched service window at the east end of the long, narrow lobby faces the Postmaster’s door at the west end. The ornate wooden Postmaster’s door with its Classical Revival detailing is set in yet another arch that completes the symmetry of the space. The blind arch that frames the Postmaster’s door features a mural, painted by Suzanne Scheuer in 1936 and 1937, which summarizes Berkeley’s history. Other decorative details include marble baseboards and wainscoting and mosaic tile floors (Photographs 11 to 15).9

6 NRHP– Nomination Form, Berkeley Main Post Office. 7 NRHP– Nomination Form, Berkeley Main Post Office. 8 NRHP– Nomination Form, Berkeley Main Post Office. 9 NRHP– Nomination Form, Berkeley Main Post Office.



Photograph 11: Mural over postmaster’s office door (now an elevator door)

Painted by Suzanne Scheuer in 1936 and 1937



Photograph 12: Interior lobby



Photograph 13: Individual service windows and original bulletin case



Photograph 14: Wood and glass vestibule



Photograph 15: Detail of original windows;

note marble wainscot and pilasters topped with Corinthian capitals Non-public spaces such as the workroom, basement level, and second floor do not reflect the Second Renaissance Revival style and are generally utilitarian spaces (Photographs 16 to 21).

Photograph 16: Workroom and post office boxes



Photograph 17: Workroom and sorting space

Photograph 18: Interior of addition (annex) area



Photograph 19: Second floor hallway

(note original tile mosaic floor)

Photograph 20: Marble staircase to second floor



Photograph 21: Original post office boxes

Alterations The Berkeley Post Office has been very well maintained and remained remarkably unaltered. Aside from the historic period rear addition in 1932, exterior changes have been executed with great care. The changes to the main façade — hand rails and disabled accessible ramps — have been added without significantly altering the original entryway. The loading dock and a parking area were added on the east side of the building, its least visible façade. The mural was added to the lobby in 1936 and completed in 1937 and depicts an allegory of the life in Berkeley in the Mission, rancho, and early American eras. A limestone bas-relief sculpture by artist David Slivka was added in 1937 that commemorated the contributions of postal workers. The interior has seen more changes, but they have also been made with sensitivity to the historic character of the building. Some of the bulletin boards and bank teller-style grilles in the service windows have been removed to provide modern open counter service; however, all the wood trim surrounding these spaces was retained, and some individual service windows have been preserved in their complete original form (Photograph 22). Many of the original mosaic floors appear to have been covered with gray vinyl. Dropped acoustic ceilings and fluorescent lighting have been installed in hallways, and mid-century style globe light fixtures have replaced original vestibule hanging lanterns.



Photograph 22: Some counter windows have been altered to open bays

Originally, all three main entrances had wood and glass enclosed vestibules to protect employees at the service windows from draft. Two of these vestibules have been removed; however, the center vestibule remains. The original Postmaster’s office door is now an elevator shaft, and the elevator doors replace the original office door. Some of individual service counter windows have been replaced by large bays with metal roll-up shutters or mail slots. Non-public spaces, such as the workroom, have replacement wood flooring in places, a few offices on the second floor have replacement interior office doors, and there have been slight changes to the basement offices and storage space, such as installation of fluorescent lighting. The second-floor windows have been replaced with metal sliding sashes, as shown in Photograph 23. When originally constructed, the building was gray, but in 1979 the building was painted to accent the Renaissance detailing.10

10 Berkeley Architectural Heritage Association Newsletter, United States Post Office Building, Proud Cornerstone of Berkeley’s Civic Center, No. 40, Summer 2012.



Photograph 23: Second story of replacement sliding sashes

APPENDIX C

NATIVE AMERICAN HERITAGE CONSULTATION REQUEST

APPENDIX D

LIST OF INTERESTED PARTIES

List of Interested Parties: City of Berkeley Central Administrative Offices 2180 Milvia Street Berkeley, CA 94704 City of Berkeley Landmarks Preservation Commission Land Use Planning Division 2120 Milvia Street Berkeley, CA 94704 Berkeley Architectural Heritage Association 2318 Durant Avenue Berkeley, CA 94704 Berkeley Historical Society 1931 Center Street Berkeley, CA 94704 California Preservation Foundation 5 Third Street Suite 424 San Francisco, CA 94103 National Trust for Historic Preservation 1785 Massachusetts Avenue Northwest

Washington, DC 20036

United States Postal Service Postal Historic Structure Report … · 2013. 2. 22. · United States...

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