Plans for “Berkeley’s first skyscraper, a 12-story office building of brick and steel on the northwest corner of Shattuck Avenue and Center Street” were announced in the Berkeley Daily Gazette a century ago on March 19, 1925.
The building was to be financed by the Central Berkeley Building and Mercantile Trust Cos., and ground was to be broken “within the next 90 days,” the paper reported. “(A) decision to erect a 12-story building instead of a six-story structure with a foundation to carry 12 stories was reached yesterday afternoon at a meeting of the directors of the Central Berkeley Building Company,” who included William E. Woolsey and John W. Havens.
“Local capitalists attending the meeting expressed confidence that the rapid growth of Berkeley warrants going ahead on larger scale than first contemplated.”
Project architect Walter Ratcliff Jr., “was instructed to go ahead immediately upon plans for the larger structure.” The building would have 140 office spaces, and “several of the offices are spoken for.”
Today, the structure still stands and is the handsome Wells Fargo Building. In earlier years the ground floor housed a branch of the Mercantile Trust, and the Chamber of Commerce had top-floor offices.
Berkeley’s city manager was planning to budget funds “for the purchase and planting of 1,000 street trees” in the next fiscal year, the Gazette reported. They would include “cypress, elm, Arizona ash and eucalyptus. The trees will be from six to eight feet in height when planted and will cost about 75 cents apiece.
“The trees will be planted at intervals of about 30 feet, which means the one side of a street for six miles can be planted next year, or both sides of a street can be planted for a distance of three miles.
“It is the plan of the city manager and the park superintendent to carry out the policy of tree planting each year so that in a few years the entire residential section of the city will be beautified with shade trees.”
Church expansion: The Gazette reported that 200 members of Trinity Methodist Church gathered on March 20, 1925, in their existing church to plan a fundraising campaign to build a $150,000 complex for their congregation.
At the same time a separate gathering was held of 60 UC Berkeley students associated with the church to discuss fundraising among the student population, with a slogan of “a nickel a day, a thought a day, for Trinity and my alma mater.”
“Architect Rollin Tuttle, one of the leading church designers in the country, has prepared plans for the new church and Wesley Foundation, which will occupy the entire west side of Dana Street between Bancroft Way and Durant Avenue.
“The suggested construction of the exterior is tapestry brick in light mottled tones with the trimmings and tracery done in stone. The theme of worship will be the dominating mass and will be a room of cathedral proportions.”
The sanctuary was designed to seat 1,000 people, “with an overflow space in three galleries for 500 more.” The church complex still stands, but portions of it are empty.
UC facilities: On the northwest corner of UC Berkeley’s campus, 10 new 40-by-80-feet greenhouses were under construction.
Built at a cost of $35,000, they were “almost ready for use,” the Gazette reported March 20. They would be used by the division of plant nutrition, landscape gardening, subtropical horticulture and forestry along with pomology.
“All the departments will use the greenhouses for carrying on work similar to the practical work accomplished on the University Farm at Davis,” according to the story.
Bay Area native and Berkeley community historian Steven Finacom holds this column’s copyright.